You’ve probably heard about internet 3.0 and a little about web 3.0 benefits for businesses. However, we can agree that it’s difficult to understand the buzzword, web 3.0, if you are not a tech enthusiast or curious about technological advancements. Think of it as an upgrade to the long-time-used internet technology, web 2.0, which was also a step up from the static web 1.0.
Web 2.0 introduced social connectivity, interactivity, and user-generated content that has significantly revolutionized the business world. Companies can better understand prospects by exploiting consumer data using the dominance of apps to achieve more accuracy in their advertising campaigns.
However, there have been concerns, particularly over the privacy of consumer data and the centralization associated with web 2.0 internet technologies. The world isn’t getting enough out of web 2.0, and for now, it’s all about internet 3.0.
Web 3.0 is the next level of internet technology and the future of internet marketing for businesses. Companies can achieve unprecedented value from their web 3.0 websites with disruptive blockchain technology and transformative internet infrastructure.
This article will dive deeper into web 3.0, focusing on the web 3.0 benefits for businesses.
What is Web 3.0?
It’s rather difficult to define web 3.0 solidly, but it’s better understood as the third or ongoing iteration of internet technology. It represents the paradigm shift from web 2.0 to a more semantic web that leverages the power of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology to provide a trustless, permissionless, and open-source web.
The idea is to restore the data privacy and control that has been taken away by the Silicon Valley behemoths, including Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, to name a few. However, with the web 3.0 features like decentralized applications and smart contracts, businesses and other consumer categories will be in for a couple of amazing benefits. Here is a coverage of the web 3.0 benefits for businesses.
High-Level Security and Data Privacy
The web 3.0 design promises a higher security level than the preceding technologies. It employs decentralization and the distributed ledger network system, making it difficult for hackers to penetrate the network. It is the security associated with blockchain technology, whereby data is stored across a network of users known as nodes. Each node verifies actions on the blockchain, so a cybercriminal would have to hack all the computer nodes to compromise the system.
As a result, businesses can have a transparent information system that protects their data and customer data, thereby minimizing the likelihood of data breach accusations. The healthcare sector, for instance, can have instant access to patient records while maintaining the privacy that patient data deserves. They can also track and trace prescription drugs to curb drugs theft and the supply of fake medicine.
Additionally, the secure ledger system helps health professionals and institutions ensure the safety of their financial transactions and protect their customer reviews and feedback from manipulation.
Eliminating Third-Parties
In the conventional business models, companies need third-party intermediaries to act as the bridge between the two stranger parties. Business 3.0 eliminates the need for these trust substitutes and allows parties to interact directly. Each party has absolute control over its data. They can securely control their in-house operations and communicate with partners without any external influences or compromising o their data privacy.
As McKinsey projected in 2017, blockchain technology could save businesses up to $50 billion in business transactions by 2021. Notably, blockchain is the core of web 3.0 technologies, and McKinsey’s projections are already manifesting among the significant web 3.0 benefits for businesses.
Instead of relying on intermediaries, businesses deploy smart contracts, which are set programs that execute automatically once some predetermined conditions are met. The smart contracts run on the blockchain and thus equally command hard-to-crack code, making it difficult to infiltrate, manipulate, or gain unauthorized access. They help businesses save hours used to execute business processes manually and, at the same time, save the cost of paying intermediaries like financial institutions, legal, and escrow services.
Streamline Business Operations for Efficiency
With the possible automation of business processes using smart contracts and other capabilities of blockchain technology, web small businesses can streamline their operations and achieve efficiency. For example, web 3.0 companies and e-commerce websites can adopt cryptocurrencies for payments and bypass cross-border payments’ cost and time drawbacks. Smart contracts will especially help them in long-term and repeat b2b transactions.
Even non-tech companies can use smart contracts to automate the fulfillment of orders, track the delivery of goods, and facilitate the overall security of supply chains. For instance, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, uses blockchain technology to fight the fake goods problem in its supply chain. Alibaba assigns QR codes to all their physical goods, and the codes serve as electronic passports which help trace their movement along the supply chain to prevent possible counterfeiting.
Web 3.0 Marketing
Over the last few decades, successful marketing campaigns and PR have been all about using digital and online solutions over the last few decades. Improving how businesses in sectors like real estate carry out their marketing campaigns and close deals is among the noteworthy web 3.0 benefits for businesses.
Realtors will no longer need to hold hands with potential clients whenever they express an interest. They can use machine learning tools like chatbots embedded on web 3.0 websites and access all the necessary information. The bots can explore the vast data banks on internet 3.0 and provide answers to questions in real-time. They are also programmable to automatically direct potential clients to relevant products or services.
Additionally, web 3.0 technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will also change how clients view properties before making buying decisions. Realtors can organize interactive virtual reality walkthroughs to allow prospective buyers to explore homes and other properties. They can choose what to see by clicking the features on the field of view, see how they work, and have an immersive experience with the property.
On the other hand, augmented reality allows real estate businesses to create 3D pictures of properties to allow realtors to represent virtual tours for potential clients better. Individuals can access all the necessary information about the properties before contacting the realtor. These technologies not only make advertisements more real but also fun. Customers can have virtual bike tours around different neighborhoods with properties for sale and envision how it feels to live in such neighborhoods.
Financial Services
For web 3.0 companies and tech giants running web 3.0 example websites and who understand blockchain technology and how web 3.0 works, it’s possible to create decentralized applications and native cryptocurrency tokens that give them access to more financial services like payments and credit. They can also use decentralized currencies like BTC and Ethereum, which mean more inclusion of their product and services.
Global Finance reports indicate that hundreds of millions of people remain unbanked worldwide, undermining their quality of life and economies. Cryptocurrencies open these populations to a new banking era, and businesses adopting these decentralized payment solutions can benefit from the newly banked populations.
Also, startups can explore new funding options like the much-hyped ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) in the cryptocurrency space that have been helping tech startups raise funds for their ventures.
Summing Up
Web 3.0 has been around for a while now, and it’s yet to get fully into the mainstream. However, the iteration is nothing close to its predecessors, web 1.0 and web 2.0, and is already making revolutionary changes in every sector it is used. The encompassing technologies have billions of use cases, and the web 3.0 benefits for businesses are not limited to the list above. Sectors like the gambling industry are most impacted by web 3.0 technologies, with concepts like Metaverse taking the gaming and gambling experiences to a whole new level.
For now, businesses are all about solving the most acute problems using web 3.0 technologies that significantly change their operation. There is much to gain from them, but they still require careful planning and implementation strategies.
