THE FUTURE 100 13

In the coming digital era of Web3, users will not only coauthor but co-own their
digital experience.

In the past, if a user created something and posted it on Instagram, Instagram

would own that asset. But platforms like Niche are putting control into people’s
hands. On Niche, the “members are owners,” Niche cofounder and CEO Chris
Gulczynski tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence.

“If you think about traditional social media, there is one company that controls
everything and has all of the data locked away in their own servers,” Zaven
Nahapetyan, cofounder and CTO of Niche, tells Wunderman Thompson
Intelligence. “What a decentralized social media platform does is distribute that
data to other people. It democratizes it, meaning people have ownership and
portability over their own data and content.”

This adds another layer of value to the Niche user’s experience, making people
“owners in the same way that someone who has stock in a company is an

NEXT-GEN owner,” Nahapetyan says. “As their group becomes more desirable, more
exclusive, or gets more media coverage, the value of their ownership stake

OWNERSHIP
could go up.”

Flyfish Club is experimenting with NFT-based ownership. The members-only

An emerging digital framework is restaurant, set to open in 2023, will let members lease their NFTs—which
introducing a new formula for ownership. function as membership cards—for temporary membership.

NFTs have “changed the value proposition to our members,” David Rodolitz,
founder and CEO of Flyfish Club, tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence.
“They own the membership rather than essentially renting a social experience.
They own their access.”