We are pleased to inform you that our partner has forged a new working alliance with UserGeek to bring author analytics for long-form content to the Internet Computer in a way that respects the cryptocurrency community's dedication to decentralization, data ownership, and anonymity.
Previously, the Dfinity Community announced that Nuance formed a partnership with MODCLUB to tackle the tricky task of content moderation. Now, we are pleased to inform you that our partner has forged a new working alliance with UserGeek to bring author analytics for long-form content to the Internet Computer in a way that respects the cryptocurrency community's dedication to decentralization, data ownership, and anonymity.
Interview
Geoffrey: Please tell us about how Usergeek and Nuance discovered each other.
Nick (Nuance): I was shopping around for analytics. I was already familiar with Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics. I had met with Parse.ly (great product), but I knew that Nuance users would not want traditional analytics tracking their every move.
One analytics provider I spoke with even bragged to me that despite tight security settings on a user's browser, they can still track things! I knew then and there that traditional analytics was not going to work for us. Web3 needs a new approach to analytics. Shortly after this, a tweet from UserGeek came across my feed. Boom. Perfect timing.
We are building a Web3 blogging platform that will expand into other forms of long-form content, such as books, magazines, and local newspapers. Our authors will depend on Nuance for income and need some insight to help steer their business.
We are a team of six, myself in product management, four software engineers, and a designer. We all believe deeply in the significance of Web3 and are proud to help give back to the people what Web2 took away. Empowerment.
Dmitry (UserGeek): We are also a team of six. We've worked together for the last 15 years. We've been building social products ourselves and helping others build and accelerate the growth as a part of the investment team. We were fortunate to have millions of users on these platforms and learned about scalability and a data-driven approach to product development.
Now, we want to use our experience and help the IC ecosystem by providing them with different product development tools. We've already launched two of them, which are product analytics and canister monitoring. A few more are coming in Q1-Q2 2022.
Stay tuned!
Geoffrey: Why are analytics important for professional writers and publishers?
Nick (Nuance): Professional writers and publishers need to know some information about what content is working and what content is not working. Otherwise, they are flying blind.
But in Web3, users don't want creepy “personalization” - and, let's face it, all the stuff we track in Web2 to help “personalize” the user's experience is not for the user's benefit. It's important to understand, though, that, unlike Web2, Web3 is all about community. We must put the interests of the community above all else. UserGeek, just like Nuance, is built on, and for, the new Web.
Geoffrey: How are analytics currently used on Web2? What are the most popular providers?
Nick (Nuance): Analytics on Web2 are creepy. I think digital fingerprinting, for example, should be illegal. I have used Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics extensively over the past ten years, and I know first-hand how powerful they can be. But that power comes at too great a cost to privacy and community.
Dmitry (UserGeek): One of the most popular packages is Google Analytics. But I personally prefer Mixpanel and Amplitude, as they provide more tools to analyze the product, and they don't monetize your data. The major drawback, though - they are expensive, and the pricing is not transparent. I can't imagine long-term product development without analytics.
It is needed to answer all the important questions. Is the number of users who use my product growing or declining? Do people return, or do they try my product once and leave forever? And, if they return, how often? Are people actually using the feature I’ve just released? And so on.
Geoffrey: How does UserGeek build on Web2 approaches for Web3? What are the advantages, and challenges, of analytics on the blockchain?
Dmitry (UserGeek): When they say analytics on, or for, the blockchain, what is usually meant is the amount of transactions, volume, TVL, and stuff like that. Those metrics are typically public and presented by apps like DappRadar. Internet Computer allows you to run the whole app on the blockchain, and therefore the traditional approaches for product analytics can be applied.
Think about projects like DSCVR, OpenChat, or Entrepot. They have registered users, launch certain features, and have certain flows on how people use the product. In order to validate your hypotheses, experiment with new features, and have a big picture, you should have integrated analytics.
You can use Google Analytics, but from what we hear, that's the number one concern users are having. They don't want their data to be sent to Google. This is one of the advantages UserGeek has - with us, data is available only for projects themselves. All the metrics we calculate are designed solely for the purpose of evaluating the product, not the user.
Geoffrey: Would the kind of on-blockchain analytics that UserGeek is implementing be possible on other blockchains? What makes the Internet Computer uniquely suited to your work?
Dmitry (UserGeek): No, what we do is only possible on the Internet Computer.
Of course, we could easily build analytics hosted on AWS for the project, which utilizes some ETH smart contracts but has a product also hosted on AWS. But that doesn't sound like Web3. Our goal was to run analytics on blockchain. What happens on the Internet Computer should stay on the Internet Computer.
Imagine a new product that runs completely on-blockchain, has all the logic and assets on-blockchain, has governance on-blockchain, and even its product analytics is securely hosted on-blockchain so that no user data is monetized or compromised. That's what Web3 should look like, and that's what we're building right now! I don't know of a single Internet Computer competitor out there who could make it possible.
- Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the original author and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Dfinity Community staff and/or any/all contributors to this site.
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