ICST is a startup ecosystem that will create a content platform for every kind of content creator, providing solutions for real life and online applications.
The Individual Content and Skill Token is a platform with a crypto token that creates a decentralized ecosystem for content and skill sharing between different people from all over the world.
The C2B2C Business Model
As technology has progressed, it has given cheaper, alternative channels for people to sell, share, and earn from the content they can produce or the skills they possess. These technologies have also made it easier for the content to be produced by less affluent creators with lower skills, as the hardware involved in production has become more mainstream and affordable.
For example, with musicians, it is now not a strict requirement to raise funds for expensive studios and equipment to create music. Cheap music software and personal computers have made it possible for anyone to create music that they, and their intended audience, love. Distribution and earning is also easier with many content hosting websites now available with low barriers to entry.
This has fundamentally changed the entire business model. At one time, it was either B2B or B2C. Now, any consumer can become a businessperson and sell content or rent out skills. The era of C2B2C is now. And the B stands for “Blockchain”.
Issues Currently Plaguing The Industry
Even though technology has helped lower costs of manufacturing or distribution of content and skills, the world currently works on the concept of middlemen. Websites and other platforms that host content and allow buyers and sellers to meet and trade often eat into the creator’s hard earned money by taking a hefty amount of commission as payment for their services.
The slow speed of capital transfer to the seller is also a cause of concern – traditional banking channels can take days or even weeks to clear funds.
On top of this, there is another issue of having multiple platforms, each specializing in one type of content or skill, pushing creators and sellers to register on multiple websites to reach their potential clients, creating significant diseconomies of scale and limiting the availability to monitor and act upon trends.
Solutions Through ICST
ICST, as a decentralized platform for content and skill sharing, provides a long lasting solution to the issues discussed above, via the following:
- P2P Sharing: With blockchain technology content creators and sellers can connect directly, eliminating the intermediary and getting rid of heavy commissions that take a significant portion of creator’s monies.
- Swift Monetary Transfer: All transactions carried out are instantly credited to users and are available for withdrawal immediately.
- Connected Platforms: Rather than have multiple platforms across many sites, ICST allows different platforms to migrate to it, centralising data, and allowing users access to blockchain technology for lowering costs, and giving users a chance to earn what they really deserve.
Strategic Investments In ICST
The platform’s robust development and accurate planning to cater for a wide market gap has not been unnoticed. Recently, the Chinese equity firm, Chain Private Equity Partners, has invested within the ICST platform.
The investment firm has members from different blockchain industry related entrepreneurs and serial investors. With the partnership, ICST gains a solid backing in terms of finance, technology and industry expertise.
With the collaboration, ICST comes a step closer in providing content distribution in a transparent manner, enabling hand-over control of contents to the original artists with the added benefit of anti piracy and copyright protection.
Starmaker, the First of Many
Founded in 2010, Starmaker is a video platform for music related contents, such as music videos, talent discovery and promotion. The platform allows users to cover songs without the worry of being hit by lawsuits.
Starmaker is the first platform that is migrating to the ICST ecosystem. This means that users of the music platform will be able to make, sell and earn from their own songs and original material. With more than 50 million users on Starmaker, this means that content creators will automatically be exposed to millions of possible listeners and clients.
ICST Idol
With Starmaker being an affiliate of the famous American Idol TV show, ICST has launched a competition for music and video makers alike. Aspiring idols can record their own videos and music, upload it to the ICST platform and hope to win a 100,000 ICSTs.
The competition closes on the 30th of June. Contestants can record a video of upto 30 seconds and upload it on Instagram with the hashtag #ICSTidol. Users who submit videos will be automatically be eligible for 30 tokens, making the monetization of content a reality immediately.
Winners will be selected through a democratic process where users will vote for the best video and the one with the most votes will win the competition.
ICST is poised perfectly to enter the content and skills market as it offers a cheaper, safer and a quicker alternative to current industry standards. It believes that people who spend time and effort to create something or offer a service should be rewarded fairly and that their earnings should not be reduced in the form of commissions by platforms who do nothing more than just provide a marketplace.