Future of creators should not be in the hands of social networks, says Instagram boss

The future of digital creators should not be left in the hands of social networks, said the head of one of the largest social networks on the planet.

Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, believes that blockchain technology, which removes the need for intermediaries in payment methods, will help establish a direct financial relationship between artist and audience, independent of social platforms, but that works on all.

“Fundamentally, the breeder ecosystem is unstable, the economy is inconsistent. The biggest breeders tend to be overpaid, and the smallest tend to be underpaid,” Mosseri told Sheetafter his presentation on Tuesday (13) at TED, which takes place in Vancouver until Thursday (14).

“Removing these market distortions and ensuring that more creators, particularly the little ones, can do what they do and be creative, that will be good for platforms like Instagram,” continued Mosseri, an executive at Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook.

“So we can focus on discovery, we can be a great marketing channel, a place for you to find your subscribers or build an audience, sell merchandise. We can focus on that. But it only works if the slice of the pie gets bigger for everyone.”

In his TED presentation, Mosseri said he believes that the concentration of power in the hands of a few platforms, such as Instagram, is not a long-term trend. For him, in the next ten years, there will be a “dramatic power shift” for the benefit of creators.

“History has taught us that technology will take power away from the establishment and give it to individuals. This has been true since before the advent of printing. But it is not a straight line, there are always bumps and detours along the way. exception, and its original promise was to put power in the hands of the people.”

Mossari hopes that blockchain technology, in tools like cryptocurrencies, social tokens and NFTs, will help create a kind of card for a universal signature so that a musician, for example, can have his audience with him and not disperse across different social networks. .

“Meta cannot build this. No company can,” the executive said in his presentation. “Ideas like these, to happen, need unity across the industry. We need pioneers, establish creators to prove the model first. But the idea isn’t interesting until it’s available to everyone.”

When asked by TED presenter Chris Anderson if he wasn’t just trying to improve his reputation with influencers and what he was actually doing to create this new model, Mosseri replied that Instagram was “trying to build some of the fundamental building blocks”.

“Some of the blocks are technological and others are broader,” he replied. “For example, getting people to understand that they can own something digital and that creators and audiences can establish a direct relationship without relying on social media.”

THE SheetMosseri said that Instagram is focused on creators, but believes the new model could be valuable to other industries, such as media companies.

“Increasingly, we see that power is shifting from institutions to individuals, in all sectors, and we want to support this shift as much as possible,” he told the report. “Especially young people, they’re really interested in seeing the world through someone else’s eyes, and that’s more (the role of) creators than publications.”

The reporter traveled at the invitation of TED.