Panel: Web3 for the Media & Entertainment Industry

Let's just dive into the discussion, starting with our first question

So, Neeraj, if you'd like to tell us what the new trends are in media and entertainment, to get started

Thanks, thanks, Arvin. So media entertainment is a very large 2.4 trillion industry, growing at twice the place of the global GDP

So it's clearly something that Web3 enthusiasts are obviously paying a lot of attention to

And it's also one of the, since a lot of the consumption happens digitally, it's also very

applicable for trying new things from a Web 3 standpoint. Within media entertainment, as you might, we all consume a lot of that, so we probably know

that you have movies, you have TV, streaming, you have music, you're gaming, you're gaming

you know, now Metaverse and books and, you know, there are several different forms of consumption

stock form content, branded content. So we are forever consuming this. And one of the big trends that has evolved in the last few years

is that creators or people who are creating, that whole motion of them being a part of large companies

or corporate type setup has got unshackled. and you have now people creating in their homes, in their dorms, in their garage or wherever

And as a consequence, there is a new term that has got coined called the creator economy

because these creators are in some ways institutions themselves. They've got massive millions and millions of followers and connectivity with the audience

And that becomes the basis to launch their whole business. Which leads me to the second trend is that the venture capitalist, Rahul and is

company included, have noticed that there is something called the creator economy, which is a massive

business opportunity. And that needs to be backed, that needs to get funded, and that needs to be

nurtured to create big businesses. Now when you come down to that, there are some challenges

which is why something like Web 3 comes in, is that, first of all, when you create an IP

you've got to protect the IP. So there's nothing like blockchain to protect digital rights

So that's point number one. Point number two is that you also are forever transacting with other people in your community or your business and you need the right kinds of contracts

And again, smart contracts on blockchain offer the opportunity to do that

And finally, which is a new possibility, which is the possibility of valuing and making your IP liquid in the market through NFTs and tokens and other ways

of trading, that is the third big opportunity. And you can back this up in other forms of financial services like, you know

or fintech operations like DFI and others. So overall, big industry, creators are coming in the forefront of it

Creators need to create an entire business around them and blockchain has a big role to play in that

Great. Thanks, here. So, you know, as we think of it, as we think of it

about media and entertainment adopting technology, being disrupted by technology, we've seen what Netflix has done in Web 2

What principles and solutions and use cases are you seeing emerge in Web 3 specifically

So when the technology changes, there are two things that typically happen

One is you try to do what is being already done better

And secondly, new technology paradigm usually also ends up giving you opportunities

to create new things that could not be done before. So following that sort of logic

if you look at it purely from the perspective of a creator

you have the option of making something going on the Netflix platform

If you're not able to finance it yourself or make it yourself, you can't own the IP or license it

They pretty much take the IP. You end up losing the bulk of your margins as well

as a consequence of that. The alternative is take the risk, possibly

to raise capital in a decentralized manner and make it yourself own the IP, make it popular

create a community around it, and then go to the streamer or somebody else

to license it at a much higher value and create a much more value for yourself

So I think that's something comes under the realm doing the same thing but doing it better

for protecting your interest. I think the second thing is doing things

that have not been done before. I think you're seeing some glimmonic some glimpses of that came in web 2 as well but these can be accelerated massively through smart

contract from web 3 which is a notion of distributed content creation or for that matter distributed

business creation so if you've seen platforms like web like what pad which allows allow fans to create

fiction along with basic creator i think there'll be a lot of such co-creation opportunities

that will exist with fans and it's also wonderful that they come up because you have the luxury

of getting audience feedback and audience being investors, consumers, co-creator, everything in one

bucket. And that's a new kind of possibility which didn't exist before. And once again

blockchain is the right at the forefront of it. And we are the company, we kind of took an early

initiative to develop a platform to manage an entire community. It's a platform called rainblocks

So we see there as a massive opportunity for the entire industry and the ecosystem to focus on

Great, thanks. Rahul, in your view, how do venture capitalists and investors view Web3-led startups

So, Arvin, you know, for the venture capital industry at large Web3 is happening and happening now

So, you know, as a tech we see, we are always on the lookout for how technology is going to shape up in the future

So if you only look at present, it's going to be a myopic view

So we've been tracking Web 3 developments very, very, you know, in a very focused manner

We've seen the meteoric rise of crypto. You know, the exuberance has died down

You know, the crypto funding has gone from a 32 billion last year to a mere 14 billion first half of this year

which is actually good for Web3 development. As Needed pointed out, we need a

far more use cases in Web 3 than just a crypto opportunity

So what we see these days is, you know, large format engagement platforms

Like Needad mentioned, you know, gaming and content economy is becoming one of the largest use cases

for Web 3 development. We are seeing a whole lot of work happening there

Defi, of course, you know, has been. already kind of has seen a lot of development in the Web 3 space fintech have been a darling of VC investment in the past Although we see a very strong emergence of the gaming media and

entertainment segment in the whole web three development space. So yes, there's a lot happening

The transition from web one to web two, you know, you can't put a date on it, but you know once the wheels

were set in motion, it happened seamlessly and I think that is what is happening in the Web3

space. Every day there is something new and, you know, large format engagement platforms are

the way for VCs to look at this space. Right. Now, just to follow on that point, Ravel

we've seen in the past that as new technologies emerge, there's always a cycle where there's

exuberance things crashed so if you look at you know the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s

exactly the same thing happened what is your view on what is coming now in terms of new companies

is that you know what is changing in the web three landscape so um irvin while i would say

you know i wouldn't like to really focus on companies because you know this is such a fast

developing space web 3 that if you tend to focus on companies you lose sight of the bigger aspect so

we are more focused on developing the entire web 3 as an industry as a community we feel there is

good work to be done in certain areas which will develop probably much earlier than others you know

gaming and content takes front center uh for that development so you know i'm very happy to see

you know what rain shine and rain blocks have done in that space one of their partners

Polygon has done a lot of work in developing that space as well so that is something which is

commendable we also see a whole lot of scope in two other aspects so you know real estate is

emerging as a very very you know deserving sector for Web 3 development of course it gets

hit with some regulatory, you know, issues. But, you know, there is a lot of work happening

around overcoming those hurdles. And we see quite a few, you know, players in global markets

focusing on real estate, you know, the entire tokenization of how, you know, real estate can

be looked at. And, you know, the new emergence of tokenomics as the backbone of dealing with

you know real estate and defy as a sector i think that is very keenly uh being watched by us

so that's those are the areas where i think vCs will uh probably uh see a lot of opportunity

come up in the near future great thank you um nirich do you really think that web free will

create new opportunities new employment lines uh new types of work uh

for the industry? Yeah, I think, I think firstly, you know, it's really important to look at the evolution of a new technology in terms of things happen at different levels before a technology gets ready

So, I mean, we've had a lot of work done on initially, as you mentioned, it was very crypto biased

So all the focus on blockchain moved around crypto exchanges and infrastructure and everything

make that happen, then defy happens, so then again backing that. But I think one of the things that Raul mentioned, it's completely residenates that when

a new market develops, there is an initial excitement and then people realize that okay

well, this is not the complete picture, we have missing pieces and we need to make sure that

those gets get plugged in so that the real opportunity comes. So from that standpoint, I think what is really important now

is that we see actual use cases, actual web two businesses, moving to the Web 3 model

And that requires a whole range of developmental opportunities there, which would be, I mean, I think from our standpoint

where we are, since we are more coming at it in a slightly different way in the sense

that we were traditionally a media entertainment company. And we decided that look, there is a

model based on new technology that is interesting for us. So the developmental efforts are largely around adapting the systems of these industries

to Web 3, which is largely ensuring that commercial contracts, the rights protection and

distribution contracts, all those things are captured on Web 3. And therefore, if I want to single out one area which over and above every, you know

infrastructure development, software development that is there, that would be able to single out that would be a massive opportunity for people to focus on from a career standpoint

It will be around smart contracts, it will be around developing smart contracts

ensuring that, you know, those are appropriately linked to, you know, different chains and follow-up

And there'll be coding opportunities, there'll be opportunity to create no code

SDKs for different industries. There'll also be opportunities to create a whole range of services

business around that so i think that to me is the opportunity which is the time has come and you'll

see a lot of action on that in the next door three years great and raoul just curious

many startups in the web free space that stand out for you so uh at the moment like i said you know

we are watching the space broadly uh you know we're very happy to see uh how

rainblocks has developed. There are a few companies which are attempting to build around

you know, capital markets, Vectry protocols for capital markets. There are a couple of

companies which are focusing on real estate tokenization as well. So while again, you know

we don't focus on particular companies, but we're watching the space very closely and it

looks very interesting to see, you know, how it is developing. Okay, so I have a question for you

I mean, look, you're involved in building the tech part of, you know, platform today

What technical skill sets do you think are becoming more and more relevant and in demand and

where there are gaps in the market? From a technology perspective, I think what's happening is the base programming languages

for creating the support. scaffolding, websites, workflows, those remain relevant. But the focus on the languages around programming So in our case we using polygons so solidity which is their smart contract the coding language for the protocol has become important

As these protocols evolve, the ability to write on the Ethereum chain, on Polygon, and Solana

and code to those specific standards becomes important. And for us, I think we're trying to find ways to simplify that

So our approach and our roadmap will take us towards building some of those no-code opportunities where our consumers and our community will actually be able to get onto that form and interact with multiple chains at the same time

So that's really part of what we want to focus on. But I think it's an interesting problem because not all of these changes will survive

so we're going to have to pick things that we feel are important and I would encourage

everyone to do their research and pick the ones that don't necessarily hype but

actually have usage because that will be an important statistic. Great. Okay. Should we open it up to the audience for questions? Absolutely. Okay

Simon, we're happy to take audience questions. So while you wait out with the, I just want to follow up on what you said

I mean, you've chosen Oligon as your initial platform and how are you thinking about, how

you make that choice and, you know, how are you thinking about building on it, scalability

and those sort of issues? So the reason we looked at a lot, I think we looked at a total of about 20, 25, that

when we were going for this cycle about 18 months ago. And it boiled down to our ability to interface with Ethereum

without running at the full cost of being on an Ethereum chain

which we wanted to be on the largest platform of the most popular one

but we didn't want to pay those costs. And Polygon gave us an easy way to do that

And we wanted a platform that had adoption established. So those are the two key criteria for us

It was a big bonus that Polygon was close enough to us geographically so that we could get in there and meet them and build that relationship

But I think the key criteria were really down to economics and scalability

And so far we've been really happy with the relevance. Yeah, we've got a question, Irving, this

I think you can take this. How can we find more career opportunities in Web 3

as developers are facing a lot of difficulties? You want to go first

Well, yes, sir, nice question. I think the issue that you're facing today is a result of what the market is doing

which is in terms of, you know, there is a little bit of a downturn

The opportunities will still exist over time. So my advice to you is look at some of the key chains

make sure you have the right skill sets and keep plugging away

Opportunities will come. This industry will, is here to stay, in my opinion

and will evolve. what you'll find is, as we are doing, we're building platforms and we're building use cases

for real industries now. You'll find a lot more of that happening

Maybe Raul can also chime in there. Let me add one thing in the new book, Raul

is that I think the traditional opportunities in blockchain were largely around startups focusing on crypto infrastructure defy

But I think if you're looking at the fact that several industries are beginning to take this a little bit more seriously

So clearly the larger IT services companies have got groups that are focusing on this and

helping their clients build systems there. So you will begin to see that as a trend

I think will my mind accelerate in a year or two from now, but we're beginning to see that

And secondly, I think you will see some development, developer opportunities in actual consumer

slash media entertainment companies where they would start developing. their own blockchain expertise internally in-house as well

So the employment opportunities will be more diversified, but I think anyone who's been a bit older

like some of us on the panel, and who had a long career, you go through cycles

The cycles are to do with the state of the economy, that's also the state of the evolution of the technology

So there is a sort of a down cycle at one level about one aspect of Web 3

which is largely related to crypto. But we don't see that as a major

long-term issue maybe the next 12 months or so could be a bit tougher but the opportunity will be

very significant and clearly ral you can add to it in terms of long opportunity to get created by

bc back companies and how are you thinking about backing companies in the space so um need a job

completely agree with you nirvin there is huge opportunity as far as tokenization is concerned it becomes

the core strategy front center of value creation and value monetization which brings to light

the tokenomics in a big way. You know, people who can write rationale, can, you know, create use

cases and write, you know, write the logic to kind of operate those tokens are really needed

We're seeing that in the VC industry. We're seeing a lot of youngsters come up and write, you know

codes for token logic. And that's what. what is prevalent these days to create multiple use cases

Like you said, you know, crypto is kind of beyond crypto when it comes to Web3 now

And as we kind of incorporate more and more industries into the Web3 protocol, more of this will be needed

So I personally feel from the perspective of our audience, this is an area which would create a lot of jobs in the future

Okay, great. Any more questions from the audience I mean I going to turn it back to you today as

you're developing your product and from what I understand which which I

fortunately do which is that you're working with a lot third-party developers as

well what sort of talent is today employed on those products So that's where developing our platform, you know, we're actually building out a fairly complex business proposition in terms of the workflows we're dealing with

We're dealing with media and entertainment contracting and how those contracts interact with each other

We've built a workflow and we've then a custom set of workflows and then we've then

plug that into Web 3. So we use a lot of Java for the web development

And then we use a lot of, we use a lot of, you know, blockchain development just for transaction

processing and tracking and the smart contracts. So we actually have to develop the platform into layers and therefore the skills are a combination

web 2 and web 3 I think we have another question um man she is what is the what is your opinion about the future

application of web 3 and semantic web I can try and take a crack at the future application of web 3 I think

and I can since the session about me and in jimmy and largely talk about that

Semantic web, I need some help from you guys to come onto it

But basically on Web 3, very simply, we need a lot of work around, I would say, three activities

One is the integration of digital rights that will reside on blockchain with the various aspects of the legal system

because it's one thing to have immutable rights on blockchain, but I've heard of enough situations where this has to be recognized by the court of law

just as one, there was a long time they took to get used to what is online versus offline

From a legal system standpoint, there is an issue about getting used to contracts that are on blockchain

So I think from that perspective, there is a whole issue around contracts

in terms of rights and all that. I think, as I mentioned earlier

development of smart contracts and coding around that, creating systems that make things easier for that

and that is a universe of activity that will apply to every industry

I mean, we're focused on media entertainment. You can do smart contracts for real estate

or any area where there's an asset or an IP, you could need smart contracts there

So I think that's another aspect that is going to be quite huge in terms of the future applications there

And I would just say urge everyone who's in the sphere to while you will be developing

your technical skills, try and develop the ability to translate that skills to apply to one

or two industries that will meet you a lot more employer. Whether it's real estate plus Web3 knowledge or Web 3 plus gaming knowledge or Web 3 plus

something else, I think that combination will be very valuable for you in your career

Yeah, just to add to that, yeah, just to add to that, Nehage, in terms of Web3, Web3 is going to generate a lot of data, especially when businesses like ours start moving on to Web 3 adopting it

We're going to generate a lot of data in the blockchain. And the semantic web is really poised to take advantage of that because the semantic web is all about making that, taking data

and making machine readable. So I think it's fairly complementary to what we're doing

How it actually involves, we will see over time. But I think we are a key input to the evolution

of that semantic web in terms of the blockchain, contracting frameworks and universe that will get created

will actually allow semantic web to flourish. Yeah, we have time for one more question because we are two minutes away

So, Mayesh has a question about gaming. So, maesh, one thing, I do not know if you're a father and if you have children, but I do

They've grown up. And I pretty much realized as they were growing up that the types of entertainment they consume

is very different from the types of entertainment I consumed when I was growing up or when I

grow older. today don't watch as many movies. They really don't like TV. They don't like to watch TV

They don't like news. They are essentially onto short-form content on platforms like YouTube or

Josh or TikTok or whatever they can get access to Twitch is very big. And they love to play games

And that is their thing. Too much of everything is bad. But at the same time, being left

out of not being able to do what other kids are doing

is also not great from the perspective of them being included in conversations and socializing

So at some level, I don't think gaming is going away. My kids and I had a deal, which is that, look, you can play

but you cannot fall short on your homework or other things you need to do

And they gave that part of the deal. They were gamers, and I think a lot of their career, what they're doing is influenced by their gaming speeds

So I don't think it's such a bad thing. as long as they're in control, as long as they understand that there's some balance to be maintained

And in some ways, this is the thing they do. People, just to give you a perspective, the gaming industry is six times the size of the moving industry

It's not even close anymore. It's growing faster. So this is the thing

This is what they do when they grow up. This is what they will do. So I think it's good that we embrace it and we also ensure that it is done with some sort of balance

And that's probably the right thing. Nehage completely agree. I think it's more about knowing how much time to spend on it than trying to restrict the access to gaming. I think I completely agree with you

Okay, great. Thank you very much. Neeraj, Rahul. I think we're almost out of time. I can see we have about 20 seconds left. So just to very quickly summarize, we think media and entertainment is a great opportunity to provide free

We see great growth potential and applicability in this industry. We thank you for your time and thank you for listening to us

Thank you