Web 3.0 will move towards tokenising transactions: Gowthaman Ragothaman

Aqilliz helps brands, platforms and consumers can exchange value. That's the role of Aqilliz, says Gowthaman Ragothaman, Chief Executive Officer, Aqilliz. He was speaking to Adgully during the Goafest 2022 about digital adoption, Web 3.0, and NFTs. Excerpts:

How do you view the overall digital scenario and the growth during the pandemic and the postpartum period for digital?

In general, the pandemic has only accelerated digital adoption, the behaviours have changed. Consumers are spending more time on different kinds of online platforms, which has only accelerated the share of spending and the time spent on digital. There are different reports; I was just speaking to a couple of them here for both Madison and Rupam on the share of digital spending, but I would have safely assumed to say that it is 50%; the money is on digital platforms right now.

How is a company like Aqilliz playing a role in growing the digital business of the company?

We believe that distributed ledger has a significant role to play, in the digital transformation of the entire ecosystem right now. If you look at it, there are three different trends. One is the rising awareness of consumer privacy; consumer data is very important. Brands all across the world or anywhere else will now want to be responsible and use consumer data. Whether it is GDPR or the personal data prediction builder act here, mandates and customer data are handled very well. Which means it is consent-based. That is one side of the story. If you look at brands' point of view, they are spending money across multiple platforms, such as Google, Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat and other publishers, but they still don't have a universal view of the ROI of the spends coming. Everybody claims their own benefits. But is a planner able to optimise monies across the platforms? The answer is no. So how do we help brands have a cross-media measurement? That's a brand's challenge. If you look at it from the publisher's point of view, they want quality content and better yield. As you can see yesterday also, we're talking about ShareChat, yet another short-form content platform. This triangle of consumer privacy, brand accountability, and publishers is a different kind of relationship, which is not there in the linear television business. This is a digital challenge. We believe a platform like Aqilliz helps brands, platforms and consumers meaningfully exchange value. That's the role of Aqilliz.

What does Web3.0 look like? What does it have for consumers on one hand, and the brands and companies on the other?

The internet itself is moving from the management of information to the management of ownership. To me, web 3.0 is all about content or information that can be owned. So how do we own content? For example, if, in the physical world, if I'm giving you some money, I will not have that money, and you have it because that is the proof that I have given your money, right? But in the digital world, if I send you a file to you by email, I still have the file with me. So there's no proof. What's the proof that I've given to you, both of us have the same file? I've just given it to you, right? So what essentially it means is that between the giver and the taker, the buyer and the seller, we need to have a different kind of a contract to say that no, yes, I have received it. That's this business of tokenization. The token helps you to say that I have sent and you have received. That's what the web 3.0 world is about because everything is digital. We're not living with physical assets, we're living with virtual assets, and sharing of information. So web 3.0 will logically move toward tokenizing transactions between two people. That is where you see these NFT's and other stuff coming as a big area of focus. So to me, web 3.0 is all about tokenizing transactions between two parties and that's where the world is hitting next year.

How can companies tap NFTs and blockchains to manage real-world assets that are emerging in the platform for brands and how can a company like yours help these companies navigate in the new world?

From the brand's point of view or publisher's point of view, NFTs are the best way to build a loyal community. I give something exclusive for your loyalty, for the affection or for the loyalty your show towards me, whether it is fans with a sports league, or a loyalty programme or content as well. So, in my view, non-fungible tokens are the best way to build a good loyal community, building communities and loyalty programmes and we are helping in the same cause. We are now building sustainable communities for sports franchises and for a few publishers and celebrities. We use NFTs as a means to build a community and continuously engage with them because NFTs give you exclusive authentic content.