There’s a better way to describe decentralized social media apps – Memeland’s CEO

In episode 46 of Cointelegraph's Hashing It Out podcast, Ryan Chan, CEO of Memland — a Web3 venture studio created by 9Gag — explains why the Web2 company is building for Web3, the importance of decentralized social media, and how social finance (SocialFi) works. Become a leader in Web 3 development. Chan shares his experience of buying big nameless tokens (NFTs) at the peak of a bull run and joining the most exclusive crypto communities.

Before starting Memeland, the founder of 9Gag, who had a huge following, became a big name on X by buying blue chip NFTs. According to Chan, the main purpose of those acquisitions was to learn from the best people in the space in the exclusive communities created by the massive NFT clusters. Although buying a lot of NFTs during a bull run left him “bad,” he says the lessons were valuable enough to shape his approach to his own Web3 project, Memeland.

Motherland's CEO argues that, unlike decentralized finance, SocialFi may not be the best way to describe what's being built in the Web3 space. According to Chan, SocialFi makes many think about social media and finance, although the platforms are not only monetizing people's social connections, but also disrupting the creative economy. He points out that most projects in the social fi ecosystem will benefit from marketing themselves as the “creative economy on the blockchain.”

Chan also believes that the decentralized aspect of social media is in its early stages and has yet to take off, as most users are looking for opportunities to “farm” income. Chan hopes this will change as more people come to Web3 through social apps, which he says are easy onboarding products because almost everyone uses some social apps, while fewer people use business apps.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashing It Out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or TuneIn. You can also browse Cointelegraph's full line of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

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