The Next Big Thing in Web 3.0 And Digital Marketing

Introduction

Web 3.0: You must have heard of it, but what does it mean, and how does it affect digital marketing?

A brief history of the web

Web 1.0

Web 1.0 was the first stage of the internet, a period between 1991 and 2004. At this stage of the internet, there were not many content creators and a large percentage of the internet users were consumers.

It was characterized by few people creating content and more people on the internet consuming content.

Dominated by static pages, Web 1.0 content came from a file system rather than a database system.

Websites in Web 1.0 have limited functionality and was much simpler because content on the internet was created by just a few sets of people.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is generally believed to have begun around 2004 and still continues to the current day.

With Web 2.0, internet users are encouraged to become content creators rather than benign sole consumers.

Web 2.0 allowed internet users to publish their own articles, drop comments, and users could create accounts on different websites, which encouraged active participation, thereby increasing the number of people using the internet.

The rapid growth of Web 2.0 has driven so many key innovations, such as mobile internet access and social networks, as well as the manufacturing of powerful devices like iPhones and computers.

Web 2.0 has been dominated with the development of apps that helped increase online interactivity and internet usage — for example, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and YouTube, just to name a few.

These platforms focused on user-generated content, active participation, and user-friendly layouts, which are all important characteristics of the Web 2.0 era.

In simple a term, Web 2.0 changed the idea of the internet to “platforms”

What is Web3.0

It’s a term pointing in the direction of eliminating the big middlemen(decentralization) on the internet.

In the year of Web 3.0, navigating the web will no longer mean logging onto the likes of Facebook, Google, or Twitter.

Let’s break it down a bit, just like we explained earlier, For Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 platforms like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other online platforms emerged and brought some order to the Internet by making it easy to connect and do online transactions.

Most people believe these companies have amassed too much control over internet users’ data, and this gives them so much power.

Well, Web3.0 is about grabbing some power back to the users.

Web 3.0 will be an updated and enhanced version of the internet that we currently use today, but with some additional benefits due to the elimination of the middlemen.

Web 3.0 will be:

• Verifiable

• Trustless

• Self-governing

• Permissionless

Decentralizing the web will take control of the internet from the centralized corporations and platforms that currently dominate it.

Over the years, these few large corporations and platforms have dominated the internet, meaning You and I have had less control over our data.

These organizations have asked us to provide our personal data in exchange for access to their platforms and services, which they have then monetized and made some profit.

With Web 3.0, websites and other applications will have access to more information that will be presented in a way that is more beneficial for users.

How does this impact marketing

The world of digital advertising as of 2018 was worth over USD 192 billion.

Social media and search engines were combined with the tons of personal data these platforms collected to target internet users who had little or no control over what is being shown to them.

But with the way Web 3.0 will work, advertisers will find their ability to engage with consumers far more out of their control and in the hands of the users of the Web themselves.

With Web3.0 users will own and authorize any third-party use of their data, and if blockchain becomes ubiquitous it will deny any third-party from being able to grab personal data or advertise to you without your permission.

With users in control of their data and privacy, businesses would need to be highly user-centric, transparent and also adopt blockchain technologies to ensure data transparency and open access.

Conclusion

There is going to be a serious marketing revolution, and we are already seeing some signs with Facebook(Meta) investing so much in Metaverse

Blockchain Technology, Virtual Reality are some of the first products of Web 3.0.

Are you ready for what is to come?

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