How to Run a Successful Business in a WEB 3.0 World

Houman Asefi
7 min readMar 13, 2022

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Updated: Feb 22

The world is changing and if you are stuck in the old world, your business will die. Brands are now innovating with the speed of light and entering Metaverse because they know that the world will be a DeFi WORLD 3.0.

Many people and entrepreneurs are in the dark when it comes to WEB 3.0 and how the business will look in the next 5 years.

Before we start, let’s see what is WEB 1.0 and WEB 2.0 so we can better understand WEB 3.0.

What is WEB 1.0?

Examples of Web 1.0 are static websites and personal sites. It was a read-only static content world where you can only view the information and there were absolutely no interactions between content creators and consumers.

They contain information that might be useful, but there’s no reason for a visitor to return to the site later. An example might be a personal webpage that gives information about the site’s owner but never changes.

Web 1.0 was the first generation of the world wide web, also referred to as the read-only web. Web 1.0 began as an information place for businesses to broadcast their information and only allowed users to search for information and read it.

Web 1.0 is the term used to refer to the first stage of development on the World Wide Web that was characterized by simple static websites. … Most websites in the 1990s had originally been built with static HTML pages, and a few simple styles embedded in the HTML markup.

What is WEB 2.0?

Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture, and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and devices) for end-users.

Web 2.0 also gave rise to web apps, self-publishing platforms like WordPress, as well as social media sites. 1. Examples of Web 2.0 sites include Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and various blogs, which all have transformed the way the same information is shared and delivered.

Web 2.0 has been a term that’s been used often and all over the place in the early to mid-2000s.

Web 2.0, a term devised to differentiate the post-dotcom bubble World Wide Web with its emphasis on social networking, the content generated by users, and cloud computing from that which came before. The 2.0 appellation is used in analogy with common computer software naming conventions to indicate a new, improved version.

What is WEB 3.0?

The term Web 3.0 was created in 2014 by Gavin Wood, Ethereum’s co-founder, though John Markoff of the New York Times is also credited for coining the term in 2006 at times. Web 1.0 covers a time that is roughly between 1991 and 2004 when internet users were mostly just consumers and not content creators.

The evolution of the Web

Also known as the decentralized web, Web 3.0 is the third version of the Internet, which is an improvement over the current Web 2.0 Internet. … Additionally, Web 3.0 is believed to be more user-specific, which will ensure data security and privacy while avoiding the risk of Internet hacking.

Web 3.0 is the third generation of internet services for websites and applications that will focus on using a machine-based understanding of data to provide a data-driven and Semantic Web. The ultimate goal of Web 3.0 is to create more intelligent, connected, and open websites.

Now that we level set our definitions, we can have a look at how the world is changing as we are moving into a more mature WEB 3.0 era.

How businesses are changing in the WEB 3.0 era

The main question to ask yourself is to know if you are ready to be successful in this era. Also,m if your business is WEB 3.0-ready, and if not, how soon you can prepare.

One of the key properties of the WEB 3.0 is that businesses should be ready to deal with different avatars as the concept of identity is changing. Now you can see this in NFT space as well in which people are changing their profile picture into their favorite NFT on Twitter.

This can be expanded into the workplace environment as well in which people may choose different avatars (robots, flowers, samurais, etc.) as they are interacting with each other.

In this stage, I reckon inclusion will play a very important role as women may have a male avatar or vice versa.

This is inclusion 3.0 as people are no longer be recognized by their name or profile picture, but by their new self-defined identity which is very similar to NFT culture as we see it now.

I predict that businesses will offer a variety of services for this purpose to attract the young generation and make their companies more crypto-friendly.

Government in the WEB 3.0 world

Government will left behind in the WEB 3.0 world temporarily.

There will be no coming back in virtual education, business, retail, government, hospitality, and finance.

Speaking about government, while the internet started by the military in the US, I predict that government will be a bit left behind when it comes to Metaverse unless they invest a huge amount of taxpayers’ money to prepare themselves for a WEB 3.0 world.

This will put a lot of pressure on politicians since they are already wasting a lot of money and resources from taxpayers and injecting funds into these lucrative projects may not pay off anytime soon.

Miami has now invested in Miamicoin as it is the first municipality to do this. They have invested $7.5M into this to ease the taxpaying and other Metaverse services.

I think this is a good example now that makes the whole city crypto-capital and blockchain-friendly.

Interestingly enough, Barbados is launching their digital version in Metaverse for people to check-in virtually into the country so that they can attract digital nomads.

The gaming industry is already there

It has been for years that games are part of this trend as you can buy different cloth, armor, guns, gems, etc. inside games and even trade them on eBay. This is not new at all.

However, Metaverse will take this trend to a whole new level with NFTs and blockchain-based games.

Players can play inside Metaverse and trade like they are in the real world in battles, interactions and engagement through crypto and even build their home page with rare collectibles and NFTs to flex their capabilities and money-making skills in gaming.

Retail will come next

In my personal opinion, retail will be the next natural industry that enters the realm of Metaverse.

Business opportunities in metaverse

Retailers can start targeting Metaverse users with their content and ads natively within the platform and start selling t-shirts, clothes, shoes, home furniture, electronics etc. both in the virtual and real world.

People can buy these items for their virtual home page and decorate their home and also they can make purchases as we are doing now through social media with one-day delivery options.

How good is that?

Fintech is coming

Fintech will be one of those early adopted industries as people and businesses must be able to transact within Metaverse.

There will be whole new payment options and payment service providers that specialize in the Metaverse and provide even more flexible payment options for the users.

This is not just money transfer within the multiverse, but also payments from and to Metaverse and real-world too while customer experience is not sacrificed.

Also, all these transactions must happen securely. So, cybersecurity will be another topic of interest for the industry.

Education is always there

The next natural next step for education is to become part of the Metaverse.

Either traditional education institutes like schools and universities will become part of the multiverse to educate people while they are logged in Metaverse.

Also, there will be institutions that only provide native educational content in the multiverse.

In addition, coaches and mentors will start leveraging the platform to educate their target market with the latest and greatest marketing plan and demand gen activities for the businesses.

It is OK to be uncertain

Lastly, I wanted to stress that it is ok to be unclear and uncertain. There is a lot to understand and there are a lot of decisions to make. Many of these decisions may be wrong as well.

The key is to be open to learning new things and to join new groups and communities as we move forward.

Pepsi jumped into the NFT space way sooner than Coca-Cola.

Your business will die if you do not make a move eventually.

I do not want that to happen.

That is why I am happy to help you build your NFT strategy as a starting point for your WEB 3.0 vision.

Contact me here to explore this in more detail.

www.houmanasefi.com

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Houman Asefi
Houman Asefi

Written by Houman Asefi

Strategist | Operations Leader | Problem Solver | Transformation | People, Process, and Growth Nerd | SEO | Ex-Cisco

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