The multi-billion dollar online video market may soon be the latest industry to experience the disruptive innovation of blockchain technology, with blockchain startup Viuly developing a decentralized online video platform to create a fairer market with equitable distribution of revenue.
In its current state, video already accounts for over 66% of all internet traffic, with Cisco predicting it to reach 82% percent of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. With some analysts estimating that 1 minute of good video being worth almost $2 million in marketing pull, there is good reason to regard video as the new preferred medium of content.
However, the current model of advertising revenue fueling the industry’s growth is a centralized one that sees video sharing platforms take the lion’s share. On average, content creators or authors receive less than half of the income generated from advertising on their video, while users typically do not earn for viewing videos.
Switzerland-based Viuly proposes to challenge the status quo with its blockchain-based, decentralized online video platform that promises to place control and ownership of the industry within the hands of all the network participants, while rewarding them.
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Through decentralization, Viuly’s model eliminates the high commissions associated with centralized platforms. The new platform envisages higher revenue for authors, earnings for viewers, and lower costs for advertisers.
All rewards and payments on the network will use the VIU tokens as currency, through smart contracts executed on the Ethereum network. This opens up multiple streams of revenue: purchase and trading of products and services such as paid subscriptions to premium content, as well as remuneration for users offering up disk space to store videos in a distributed content architecture. VIU tokens will also be freely tradeable on external exchanges, creating necessary liquidity and market determination of value.
Advertisers can also leverage on the transparent nature of the network for more effective marketing, with auditable blockchain transactions and real-time viewer analytics. As advertisers have direct access to viewers and statistics, they can also actively monitor campaigns, minimizing fraudulent viewing and adjusting preferences.
Viuly’s decentralized approach also puts the rights to content firmly in the hands of the network: its creators and users. The platform’s only involvement will be in pre-moderation of new content, as ultimately only moderators selected from users with good ratings will determine if content is fit for the network.
The alpha platform went live on September 25 and will be available to test out until October 30. New users can explore the platform and start earning tokens as rewards.
To further develop and launch the platform, Viuly will put VIU tokens up for sale during a public ICO from November 1 to November 15. Limited tokens will be available at an earlier pre-ICO from October 10 to October 13.
Viuly expects to launch a full version of the platform in early 2018. Thereafter, it will focus on promotional and marketing campaigns aimed at userbase growth, with a long-term goal of 25 million users by 2019.
Learn more on Viuly’s website and by reading the Viuly Whitepaper
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