The Format #036
Lots of soap, the leaderboard of hype, 'Discord spaces' in Youtube and 'tax ladies'.
Happy Friday!! 👋
This week we’ll be covering:
Youtube’s latest creator tool → a direct attack on Discord and Reddit?
Why ‘ownership’ now means ownership in Britain
The battle between money and trust → trust won
And why low production soap operas could change an industry
Anyway, let’s dive deeper…
Microdramas: China’s New Craze Goes Global
The proven free to play mobile game model is finding new industries, one of which is… bite-sized soap operas to watch on your phone?
In China the microdrama market is already over 70% as large as their film industry, and uses monetisation techniques from the free to play virtual economy playbook. Each microdrama series consists of 70-150 episodes, each 1-3 minutes long, the first 10-20 episodes are free and the rest can be unlocked through virtual coins/credits that can be bought or earned in a variety of ways.
Digital economies revolutionising an age-old industry… interesting. 👀
YouTube launches Communities, a Discord-like space for creators and fans to interact with each other
YouTube have announced quite a few creator tools including…
‘Communities’ - a ‘dedicated space for creators to interact with their fans’
‘Hype’ - a button next to the ‘like’ button that allows fans to boost their favourite creators and help the videos climb a hype leaderboard
Our take? Giving creators more tools to connect with their community (and for their community to connect with each other) is super important, but to create significant new layers of economic value you need to give creators ownership of those direct creator-to-fan connections.
New bill introduced in Parliament to clarify crypto’s legal status
“Previously, digital belongings were not definitively included in the scope of English and Welsh property law – leaving owners in a legal grey area if their assets were interfered with.”
Now digital assets: Bitcoin, tokens, NFT’s and the likes, are legally considered as personal property. This is good news for ownership in the UK, and hopefully a sign that more legal clarity and protection around digital assets is on the way.
Apple Lost $14.4 Billion Tax Fight To Margrethe Vestager
In 2016 Vestager, the Executive VP of the European Commission started an 8 year battle with Apple, claiming that Ireland had granted them illegal benefits.
Cut to September 10, 2024 and against all odds she has won. A big part of this victory is that she is someone who fundamentally believes in fairness, having respect for others and that no one is above the law. She couldn’t be bought, and as a result people trust her.
Maybe this is the first win in the battle between trust and big tech?
Bridging Crypto and Traditional Finance: Introducing Crypto to Fiat Payments
The user experience within the blockchain space is rapidly improving, but still isn’t ready for mass adoption.
Allowing people from multiple continents to be paid directly to their bank account in the currency that they want… this is the sort of step change in user interaction that will make blockchain transactions ubiquitous.
ChatGPT o1
I tried really, really hard to not mention OpenAI’s new AI model (like every other tech newsletter), all I’m going to say is it’s AWESOME. If you get the chance go and experiment with it, and if you want to learn a bit more about the implications and how it works check out this video.
That’s all for this week.
Have a great weekend, Dan and the OPENFORMAT team 👋🏽
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Image generated by Dall-E 2 using the prompt: “A poster for a Chinese microdrama titled 'City of Shadows,' this time showing a hand holding a smartphone with the drama playing on the phone screen. On the phone, the young woman is standing in a dark alley with neon lights, while two men—one mysterious and one wealthy—stand behind her. The background environment outside the phone is completely different, featuring a bright park or natural outdoor setting during the day with trees and sunlight, contrasting with the dark, neon-lit city on the phone screen. The title 'City of Shadows' is displayed boldly on the phone screen, emphasizing the mobile viewing experience.”