It’s normal for someone to ask on social networks things like “What’s for dinner today, pizza or hamburger?” Those kinds of posts seem normal, but now some ‘influencers’ are turning those mini-polls into a source of income.
A new platform called NewNew allows them to ask those kinds of questions on Instagram, Snap, or Twitter. Their followers pay to vote for one alternative or another, and whoever throws the question must do what the majority dictates.
First influencers, then anyone else
The creators thus become a bit like puppets of their audience, something that is generating some controversy. The New York Times analyzed the impact of a platform that is particularly striking for how it takes the phenomenon of creators in social networks even further.
The creator of NewNew is Courtne Smith, and for her, this platform works in a way “similar to the stock market”, and any user could “share shares, which are votes, to be able to control a person’s life in certain aspects”.
Those aspects are controlled by the creator, who uses NewNew as a way to make money by doing something his followers want. The way it works is simple and always the same: the creator gives their followers a choice between two options, and they vote for the creator to do one or the other.
The creator must theoretically follow the opinion of the followers, who have paid to be able to vote through a mobile application that for now is only available on iOS in Apple’s App Store.
For Smith, “we’re building an attention economy where you can buy moments in a person’s life, and we take that further by enabling and empowering people to control those moments.”
My idol listened to me (but I had to pay him for it)
Some influencers have been invited to test NewNew on networks such as TikTok or YouTube, and Smith explains that the platform reserves the right to expel those who post offensive or inappropriate polls.
Moreover, she explains, anyone will be able to use this platform in both directions: not only will we be able to “control” what more famous creators do, but also anyone who simply wants to offer that ability to decide what they do between two options presented to their audience.
For Smith, “no matter how boring you are, there’s always someone out there who will find your life interesting enough to pay.” The app, which appeared in the late 2020s, posed personalized surveys to build communities around certain interests and topics, but gradually the focus has shifted to that monetization that can be gained from those types of audiences.
The NewNew platform is the latest example of how creators and artists are trying to monetize their participation in social networks. A year ago we saw how Cameo allowed a celebrity to make a video call or send a message -it was not the first app to exploit this option-, and now more and more alternatives are appearing to try to monetize all kinds of interactions on social networks.
NewNew and Cameo have recently been joined by other applications and services such as PearPop. The latter allows a celebrity like SnoopDog to comment on a video for 250 dollars. If you want Shaquille O’Neal to do it, it will be 500 dollars, and here each ‘influencer’ sets the price they think is appropriate for these interactions.
There are, of course, many more, and in recent days we have talked a lot about NFTs and how these digital assets pose a small revolution for artists, although they are also beginning to have their disturbing side because of the speculation that is being experienced in certain areas.
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