The Corporate Centralized Internet

The Internet was supposed to be a free, open, and equalizing force — where access led to personal and social betterment, equal to effort meets capacity. In many cases, individuals and communities have used the Internet for the better; often, despite the odds being stacked against them by powerful business interests. It is not breaking new territory to mention the Internet has been co-opted by massive centralized corporations. These corporate juggernauts offer freedom while demanding everything, from time to data to resources. Even when everything has been granted for access, the bargain for information is shrouded in double-dealing. We want unvarnished information and access, but we are provided data that serves centralized, corporate interests.

Centralized, corporate interests don’t always align with specialty content; in particular, niche content’s very existence can undercut the corporate hierarchy. In other words, weird stuff is okay as long as that content does not challenge corporate influence. This has made it extremely difficult for creators of that sort of challenging content to find an audience and make a living.

The Long Tail

The long tail concept was articulated by Chris Anderson in an article in Wired in 2004. He also stated the theory succinctly in the about page in his old blog as below.

“The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.”

Centralized corporations such as Netflix and Amazon have capitalized on the long tail by allowing a greater variety of content. Unquestionably, their efforts have created opportunities for some specialty creators. But who benefits the most in a centralized system? Those at the top gain the most, of course. What about the creators? Where is their position in the centralized, corporate structure? It is certain they are nowhere near the apex. Furthermore, a centralized subscription service may open the gates to more types of content, but only slightly. Centralized subscription services are still beholden to greenlight content that serves a very wide audience to benefit those at the top the most. So subscription services suggest they create a lot of space for niche content, which sounds really good, while also not allowing that much niche content in reality.

Decentralized Long Tail: The POP Network

The POP Network is a decentralized video ecosystem governed by its community. Members are rewarded equal to their contributions with POP Tokens for their work. The POP Network avoids the snags of centralization, advertising, and subscription. Where centralized corporate systems may nominally call their platforms a “community,” The POP Network harnesses decentralizing technologies so our partners truly have the ability to govern the community with influence equal to their contributions. As a decentralized system, the community, rather than gatekeepers at the top, decides the value of each contribution.

At first glance, centralized advertiser-based platforms appear to allow niche content. In actuality, this specialized content serves the advertisers and not the audience. These competing interests don’t often sustainably align with the visions of content creators. Centralized subscription services claim to offer a solution to the advertising-based model but still tend to accept content with the widest possible audience. By using an Ethereum Payment Channel, The POP Network allows the audience to directly compensate content creators via micropayments. This ability strengthens the connection between content creators and their audience. Certainly, content creators still must find and sustain a paying audience to continue their work; the key is that they have the ability to truly do so — to test their creativity and see if there is an audience for it.

Creators must create content to grow their visions. Through The POP Network, content creators will now have the opportunity to evolve in partnership with an activated audience.