Lessons From Building An Engage-to-Earn Social Network — And What Web3 Means for the Future of Social Media
Applying Web3 Thinking to Building Taki: The Engage-to-Earn Social Network Backed by Superlayer
Taki: The Engage-to-Earn Social Network
Taki is the engage-to-earn social network where people can truly own their social media presence, and earn from the value they create for their social relationships on-chain. The interactions that take place on web2 platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have economic value, as evidenced by how much people care about fake internet points, and by promoters’ willingness to buy likes and sponsored content. This parallel economy fulfills a high-demand economic layer, but has detrimental effects on creators by forcing them to go into unofficial markets to monetize their social media presence. Users also suffer from getting bombarded with advertisements, inauthentic content, and having their data harvested and resold. Taki believes that social interactions have real economic value, and that it is logical to integrate the economic layer into the experience of a web3 product rather than relegate it to questionable gray markets.
User Coins: Empowering the Ownership Economy
User coins are the key feature allowing users to own and participate in the social economy. User coins represent a stake in a creator’s social media presence, and creators can distribute coins and reward coin holders at their discretion. Moreover, fans can buy or sell a particular user’s coin, creating a dynamic marketplace where a creator’s contributions are directly reflected in their coin price. Astute users might buy into a promising new creator, or sell off a creator that they believe is overvalued.
While this setup may remind some of BitClout, Taki’s vision differs in a few important ways. First and foremost, Taki aims to build a robust social economy, where real value is created and exchanged. Tipping via Gold Taki and other transactions are first-class citizens in Taki, rather than a scarcely-used afterthought. Also, ordinary users have the potential to earn from their engagement. The value of Taki user coins is grounded by functionality in the social economy, not merely price appreciation. Moreover, Taki aims to be broadly accessible, allowing creators to organically grow their presence rather than artificially importing top influencers from Twitter. In this way, Taki is building a social economy based on a strong foundation rather than trying to import a few big figureheads.
Since the alpha launch, Taki amassed over 145,000 unique users, 4M+ in $TAKI locked in user coins, 650k+ users on the waitlist, and 3.1M “Gold Takis” (tips) given to creators. The number of daily active users has rapidly grown to thirty thousand users, each of whom holds 7 unique coins on average. This high degree of user coin ownership underscores the interconnectedness of Taki’s social web.
Taki’s User Growth
Taki has seen massive growth in India, which is a global hub of web3 energy that is fertile ground for engage-to-earn opportunities. One example of an enthusiastic creator is @missharshala, an Indian beauty influencer and lifestyle blogger who is building a presence on Taki.
“From a creators and consumers point of view, Taki’s model is a game changer and I only hope more people join Taki in the coming years to make it a success. Taki’s engage-to-earn model genuinely understands the importance of my time and hard work.”
— @missharshala
As a web3 app, many of Taki’s top creators are also web3 adopters and crypto natives. @bineyaml is a self-described “analyst by day, crypto enthusiast by night” who posts crypto, finance, and investment news. While his posts don’t have the dazzling photography of a lifestyle influencer, bineyaml is one of the highest-volume user coin traders, showcasing that engagement with Taki can be both social and economic.
Growing Pains of Building a web3 Platform
Taki’s rapid growth is not without some challenges. The high transaction volume has occasionally created friction and delays, which is something the team is working on as app users expect instant feedback that blockchains cannot always deliver. Taki runs on Solana, and like many L1 blockchains, it has had its share of network issues. Taki’s rapid user growth and multiple user languages has created a torrent of content that is too much for readers to process on their own. Without the advanced machine learning and personalization techniques of more established social media sites, Taki will have to find a way to scale its feed so that content feels both relevant and high quality. The app is still invite-only, a decision rooted in how Taki prioritizes the community experience while the team continues to develop the product.
What the Future Holds for Taki
Taki is still quite young with an ambitious roadmap ahead. Taki has established liquidity, both on-chain thru Orca DEX and in centralized exchanges like OKX and Gate.io. User coin profiles and trading tools are on the roadmap for enhancing and simplifying the user coin experience. Improved creator tools and content types are planned so that creators can engage directly with their audiences in new ways, such as hosting contests or airdrops (note: Taki operates outside the USA). While Taki does not yet have the breadth of Twitter or the intensity of TikTok, the web3 social network is showing that the greatest innovations in social media may not be in the social or the media aspects, but rather the economic structure built into a product from genesis.
To engage with Taki, get on the waitlist, join the Discord to get an invite, and follow our Twitter for updates!
