LKS Foundation with producers in the digital content market

source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/blog/lkscoin/lks-foundation-digital-content-market/

In view of the explosion of the digital content market in all its different forms, social media is also following the evolutionary trend, drawing the most from it in terms of benefits to the detriment of other market players.

It is precisely in this context that the LKS Foundation has chosen to side with producers or user-authors of digital content by contributing with its blockchain project to the next evolutionary step of decentralised social media.

The categories of digital content and the related growing data

eBooks, ePublishing but also photos, videos and online courses are just some of the products of the thriving digital content market.

Thanks to the continuous development and diffusion of smart devices connected to the internet, replacing traditional platforms, today’s users have the possibility to access their favourite digital content.

In general, the most sought-after are ePublishing, the largest segment of which is eBooks with a market volume of $13,926 million in 2019.

eBooks, in fact, are dominating the digital e-commerce space. The reason is that they are easy to produce and even easier to distribute, thanks to devices like Kindle, Kobo and others.

Among the publishing costs that a manufacturer must consider, sales platforms like Amazon, Kobo and iBooks hold 30% of sales; Google Books holds 48% and if you rely on an intermediary to publish, this costs 40% or more.

The ePublishing category also includes all paid-for digital editorial content written on the Internet, digital editions of consumer and trade/business magazines (eMagazines) and digital editions of daily or weekly newspapers (ePapers).

Revenues in the ePublishing segment are reported to be $25,345 million in 2020, while revenues are expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2024) of 5.1%, resulting in a market volume of $30,887 million by 2024.

Following this, the digital content market will also find expression in the world of photography and art. The industry in this sector is super-centralized with agencies controlling a large part of the market.

Shutterstock, the famous stock photography platform, has built up over time a position on the network that is as powerful as it is critical for customers. But Getty Images and other online photo stores such as Dreamstime, iStock and Shutterfly also follow suit.

It’s estimated that these stock sites account for between 20% and 60% of the content creator’s profit.

Even in the eLearning or online courses, the market is divided into two main categories:

1. Specialized platforms that help users create and sell their online courses such as Kajabi, Teachable, Talentlms, LearnPress;
2. MOOC or Massive Open Online Courses, which are free markets that connect online teachers to students to educate them on any number of different topics for free or at low cost.

In the second case, the business model is based on revenue sharing with teachers ranging from 30 to 50%.

Internet and social media: the explosive trend 

The Internet has completely changed the way we communicate with an ever-expanding global connection and an ever-accelerated speed.

According to the data reported, to date 4.38 billion people are online (57% of the world’s population) and 92% of these people are also connected from their smartphones.

Social media in recent years also followed the impressive growth trend. Starting from 2004, when we can probably talk about the beginning of social networks as we know them today, MySpace had already reached one million active monthly users.

Obviously in the following 15 years there’s no lack of giants like Facebook, Youtube and Reddit, but also other more recent sites with not indifferent dimensions. It’s the case of TikTok which, launched in September 2016 and with half a billion active users already in mid 2018, today has an average of about 20 million new users per month.

With the increase in the amount of time that users spend online and the variety of services that social platforms offer, the digital content market is increasingly centralizing in the hands of social media without any protection for digital content creators.

The social-blockchain: the new decentralized social networks

It is precisely in this scenario that the disruptive and revolutionary Blockchain technology with its decentralized dApp apps is the ideal tool to redistribute power to all market players. 

Social networks such as Decent and Steemit are just the first examples of the new decentralized social networks, of which Steemit already has 1 million users and today capitalizes more than $60,000,000 dollars.

In the last year, LKS Foundation closed a partnership with Cam.TV as the first platform on which to launch LKSCOIN.

The shared mission is to make Cam.TV the decentralized community platform able to track digital content, protect the copyright of the user-author and redistribute income based on open-source blockchain.

Download the Eidoo app to participate in the IEO for the ERC20 LKS token which will start on March 31st. You can obtain a 5% bonus if you complete the KYC and you subscribe on Cam.TV.

-- Federico Olivo - President & founder LKS Foundation

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