YouTube has Major Plans for NFTs

Social platforms are trying to hack the NFT trend

I personally don’t know if this marks a bigger Web 3.0 story or a bigger advancement for the Creator Economy.

Susan Wojcicki says the company is looking to ‘help creators capitalize on emerging technologies’.

YouTube along with Facebook and Instagram have significant plans in the works to help digital artists gain exposure through NFTs, even as Coinbase and Binance both plan to have NFT platforms in the wake of the rise in fame of OpenSea and a range of other platforms dealing in NFTs.

NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold over the internet. They're designed to show that someone has ownership of a unique virtual item, such as online pictures, memes, digital art, cartoons and videos or even sports trading cards.

Whatever is happening with NFTs in 2022, everyone wants a piece of the trend including Coinbase and centralized social platforms who pretend they are part of the Creator Economy. Wouldn’t that make more sense for TikTok? Apparently it does as well.

YouTube NFTs may be in the works. In a letter published on January 25th, 2022, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki suggested the company is looking to branch into NFTs in the future as another source of revenue for creators.

If this comes to pass, NFTs might make the Creators of digital art the richest of the Creator Economy. There’s been some vague sign of this already in 2022.

“The past year in the world of crypto, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and even decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) has highlighted a previously unimaginable opportunity to grow the connection between creators and their fans,” she wrote. “We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube.”

Let’s be honest, while I find YouTube shorts almost laughable, YouTube, however, already has a number of ways it could allow creators to showcase their NFTs, if it desired.

Susan talks as if she knows what NFTs are all about:

“We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube,” the letter reads.

While YouTube is mostly an advertising platform, it almost sounds as if YouTube sees itself as a Creator Economy pioneer.

Is YouTube a Creator Economy Pioneer

She hinted, too, that YouTube would be expanding the “remix” feature on its TikTok rival called YouTube Shorts, which today supports remixing only audio content from other public videos. I’m not exactly understanding the appeal for YouTube and Instagram of cloning Snap and TikTok, that have their own identity and viral demographic audience.

It would seem feasible that YouTube could partner with NFT platforms and integrate crypto wallet technologies, in order to allow digital creators to feature their NFT art here as well. But platforms of scale like YouTube or Instagram are slow to roll-out anything new.

The detail was part of Wojcicki’s latest letter to the YouTube community, which outlines areas the company plans to invest in, like gaming and shopping, and how it plans to support creators. We can surmise YouTube is trying to cater to its younger audience in a way that might appeal to the Metaverse hype currently in fashion.

YouTube’s Foray into Cloning TikTok with YouTube Shorts has been Mixed

The CEO noted that YouTube Shorts has hit 5 trillion all-time views, which is a less interesting metric than how many creators it’s managed to onboard — a number it did not share. It’s hard realistically for Instagram or YouTube to pretend they are reaching TikTok’s scale among the GenZ and Alpha creators.

YouTube’s hints at possible NFTs are in line with other platforms that have recently rolled out their own versions or are rumored to be considering an NFT feature. When even legacy platforms like Twitter or YouTube think they can keep up with the NFT trend, it shows a weird disparity between Silicon Valley and companies that are really leading the Web 3.0 in the future.