Imagine: You’re scrolling on Instagram and see a post from your favorite influencer wearing a hoodie from an up-and-coming brand. You love the design and tap the photo to see the price. Another click and you’re reading the product description page. A few seconds later, you decide to buy the hoodie, so you approve the transaction with FaceID…
You’ve just made a socially driven purchase in under a minute, all without leaving Instagram.
Welcome to the era of “publisher-exchanges,” where consumers exchange value directly via content platforms. The emerging trend removes all friction from the buying process, creating a more immersive UX, tightly coupling money and attention. This is the future of ecommerce.
What’s a “publisher-exchange” you ask?
Publisher = Platform that thrives by commanding user attention
Examples of prominent publishers include the likes of Instagram, X, Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, etc. All of whom ruthlessly compete to drive “unregretted user minutes.”
Exchange = Platform that commands the flow of money
Examples of prominent exchanges include the likes of PayPal, eBay, Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase, etc. Each of whom compete to control the monetary system.
Hence, the fusion of a publisher and an exchange is called a publisher-exchange, i.e, a platform that operates on the interconnected dynamics of attention and money. Let’s take a look at a few examples of major publishers moving towards a publisher-exchange model:
- Spotify Merch Bar: Allows artists to sell merchandise and tickets directly through their Spotify profiles, blending music streaming with ecommerce
- Instagram Live Shopping: Influencers can live stream on Instagram with the objective of selling products to fans in real-time. This builds on the ability of influencers to add shopping tags to their posts that consumers can use to natively purchase products
- TikTok Shop: The digital storefront enables creators to natively sell products alongside their videos, often times offering discounts, subscriptions, exclusives etc. In fact, Tik Tok lost $500M+ in US ecommerce last year alone by subsidizing products (often offering completely free) so users could familiarize themselves with the platform
- YouTube Shopping: In a deal between YouTube and Shopify, companies can sell products on YouTube through live streaming, videos, or via a digital storefront
- Snapchat AR filters: Or “catalog-powered shopping lenses,” enables users to virtually try on eyewear, beauty products, clothes etc. and subsequently purchase in app
Basically, every publisher is becoming a publisher-exchange by allowing value to be exchanged directly via the frontend. And the stats don’t lie:
Source: source 1, source 2, source 3
Source: Statista “Digital Shopping Behavior”
Yes you read that right, leading publisher-exchanges Douyin (Chinese Tik Tok) and WeChat combined for over $350B in annual revenue!
Moreover every exchange is also becoming a publisher-exchange:
- Amazon Live: Combines ecommerce with live streaming, allowing influencers to showcase products that viewers can buy in real-time
- Alibaba: Alibaba has expanded into media through Alibaba Pictures, Youku Tudou (a video streaming service), and AliMusic, blending ecommerce with content streaming
- Every Fintech Company Ever: It’s table stakes for every fintech to move into content creation