Have been delving into TikTok live streaming lately and came across a fascinating niche known as interactive live widget games. In these games, users engage through actions such as giving likes, leaving comments, and sending gifts.
What's astonishing is how these games can significantly amplify and monetize user engagement within live streams. It even doesn’t require the constant physical presence of the streamers and all that's needed is to initiate the game while streaming, and passive income is flooding in.
This emerges as one of the most ingenious methods for capitalizing on user engagement on TikTok. A number of SaaS platforms have suddenly sprung up, offering these widget games to TikTokers. Among these, Strusive stands out as a prominent player, providing a range of game options with a monthly subscription fee up to 97 euros.
Such gamification of user interaction represents a clever strategy that effectively elevates engagement levels and indicates the potential stemming from the monetization of user engagement. Derivative projects that revolve around the concept of user interaction mirror the success seen with interactive live widget games.
Interaction Modules
User interaction can be distilled into five fundamental categories: viewing, commenting, liking, retweeting, and saving, which can also be respectively abstracted into impression, communication, donation, distribution, and collection. Remarkably, each of these five major categories give rise to various distinct business models highlighting the diverse opportunities available for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Impression
Most content platforms have adopted the impression (viewing) model, which is the fundamental method of earning in the attention economy. However, platforms like OnlyFans have taken a unique approach by flipping the model. They restrict content accessibility, prompting users to make payments to unlock the desired content. This approach capitalizes on the willingness of users to pay for exclusive content.
Communication
The communication (commenting) module serves as a way for the exchange of thoughts relating to the content. Notably, comments also play a crucial role in capturing the attention of other users. A great example of this concept is illustrated by sound.xyz, a Web3 music platform that employs a clever strategy: only the owner of a specific music NFT is granted the privilege to publicly comment on the music. This approach works as an excellent avenue for advertising, particularly when a song gains viral traction. By granting exclusive commenting rights, sound.xyz effectively combines communication and promotion in an innovative manner.
Donation
Moving on to the donation (liking) module, which functions as a form of compensation and support for creators, Along with liking, tipping and gifting can also be classified under this category. A great example is TikTok's live-streaming gifts which plays a pivotal role in providing financial support and recognition for content producers. The idea of live widget games, as mentioned earlier, effectively leverages this rewarding mechanism, amplifying its impact on user engagement and financial gain.
Distribution
Distribution (retweeting) is a powerful method for expanding content reach and increasing impressions. A classic play of this concept is the massive raffle giveaway campaigns on platforms like Twitter. These campaigns utilize a straightforward marketing strategy: encouraging users to retweet the content in exchange for the chance to receive free gifts.
Another business model derived from the distribution mechanism is dropshipping. In this model, users essentially act as traffic distributors, spreading product links. As these promoted products are sold, distributors earn commissions from the manufacturers. It eliminates the need for users to possess their own products or shipping resources, enabling them to serve as sellers solely through the distribution of product links. The dropshipping model has been well-executed within the realm of social media.
Collection
The final collection (saving) module involves the act of saving or spotlighting content that holds value for future reference. This functionality has given rise to a range of related products, such as Instapaper and Readwise. And Mirror.xyz stands out as a notable example in this domain which enables users to mint content as NFTs, facilitating the permanent storage of content on the blockchain. It not only ensures long-term preservation but also aligns with the emerging trends of blockchain technology and digital ownership.
By deconstructing user interactivity into distinct modules, we unveil a spectrum of monetization opportunities born from these interaction elements. Each module has the potential to serve as the foundation for innovative business models.
An ultimate example of this concept is Lens Protocol, a composable decentralized social platform. Lens Protocol revolutionizes the conventional social platform by breaking down fundamental user interactions like following, retweeting, and commenting into individual building blocks. Developers can then use the modules to create their own applications. Lens Protocol, in this sense, is the social LEGO playground that paves the way for a dynamic ecosystem of composable and customizable social interactions.
Swipe and Scroll
Beyond the user interaction modular system, let’s then take a closer look at our interactions with smartphones, where we find two pivotal gestures: the swipe and the scroll. These seemingly simple actions are harnessed by social platforms in a way that often goes unnoticed but is incredibly influential.
The swipe
The swipe gesture has been innovatively integrated into platforms like Tinder. The simple action have significant implications: swiping right means acceptance while swiping left implies rejection. This intuitive interaction adds a gamified layer to the partner-matching experience, resembling the act of shopping. Users can choose to "pick up" potential matches by swiping right, similar to placing items in a shopping basket, or they can "put it back on the shelf" by swiping left. The approach simplifies the often intricate process of finding a compatible partner. It aligns well with the contemporary culture of fast-paced relationships, or say, even gives rise to the trend that reshapes the dating landscape.
The scroll
Then vertically, we have the addictive scrolling down, the gesture that creates immense power in impacting user behavior, as evidenced by platforms like TikTok. Unlike the conventional grid-style layout that offers users an array of content choices, TikTok takes a different approach,it presents users with a single piece of content at a time based on its algorithm, and users can only navigate through the content by scrolling down. The intentional design generates an immersive content consumption environment that fosters user engagement and addiction. By offering a continuous stream of videos, TikTok profits from the endless scrolling behavior, tempting users to stay on the platform longer and longer.
Careful enough, we will notice a crucial fact: the gradual disappearance of the "next page" button, which is replaced by endless scrolling down. The intentional shift significantly influences users’ perceptions of time. With continuous scrolling, users can become less aware of the passage of time as they seamlessly navigate through content to prolong their engagement.
The casino
To a certain extent, content platforms exhibit parallels with the casino environment. Much like the guiding principle of casino design—to remove temporal awareness —these platforms employ similar tactics. A key element, often overlooked, is users’ subconscious pursuit of unexpected rewards on platforms, which resembles their quest for winning opportunities in casinos.
Consider swiping on Tinder: each swipe anticipates the discovery of an ideal date candidate. Similarly, while scrolling through TikTok's video feed, the expectation of encountering the next entertaining video fuels engagement. The allure of the unknown consistently pushes users to stay longer. Such addictive phenomenon is hard to replicate using the conventional grid layout, where all content is immediately visible but is fulfilled by the magic swipe and scroll gesture in platforms that embrace these psychological triggers.
Wrap-up
The essence of the attention economy illustrates how user interactivity is dissected and squeezed by businesses to generate profits. Indeed, user engagement spans from the interactions with content creator to the minor gestures and actions, all of which are strategically utilized by companies. The user interaction is meticulously crafted to encourage extended time spent on platforms, ultimately leading to increased consumption of both time and financial resources.
Navigating the content sea or drowning in the overwhelming flood of information mirrors the blurry line between cultivating authentic user value and constructing an addictive hook model, which echoes the saying, We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools reshape us.