Last year ARK Ecosystem SCIC launched MarketSquare, the new homepage for the decentralized web. During our initial beta period, we amassed over 80+ different partners ranging from large L1s all the way to individual artists launching their first NFT project. It also allowed us to learn a lot about the state of the industry and we saw the best parts of MarketSquare flourish while isolating the parts that needed to be reimagined in order to make the platform as successful as possible.
Enter MSQ
MarketSquare has officially been rebranded to MSQ and placed under the care of Ardent. Along with the shorter name is a more refined focus on the initial areas where we saw early success with the original MarketSquare platform. Those areas included things like the articles and videos being created which covered different sectors of our industry and researched different projects and applications. What we learned from our partners during that time was simple: They loved the content within the website but it was incredibly taxing on them to have another social profile that they need to maintain.
Not only was the partner feedback valuable but we were seeing similar trends happening in our analytics. Articles and videos were getting consistently pushed out to larger audiences. Certain topics were ranking higher on Google News searches and the number of daily visitors and impressions were increasing at a rapid rate. Even during this downtime as we were restructuring the ARK line of products, MSQ articles were bringing in strong numbers month over month. That being said, we started to take a look at which articles had the most reach and collective interest.
NFTs, Gaming, and The Metaverse
It was no surprise that some of the topics which stuck out the most were focused on NFTs, Gaming, and The Metaverse. These are innovative uses for blockchain technology and who doesn’t love art, games, and the idea of living a virtual reality life?
We also noticed a lot of problems in those sectors. Readers were bombarded with fly-by-night projects rugging their supporters and blockchain-based games conducting land and item sales for games that currently don’t exist, or worse yet, may never exist. With all of the noise, it’s hard for regular users to weed out the scams and find projects that will stand the test of time. These are areas where MSQ’s content can provide immense value and garner the most attention. We will be covering stories that feature all the innovations, unique problems, and major discussions focused on the areas our readers care about: NFTs, Gaming, and The Metaverse.
You can see the new focus up close on MSQ.io and in the way we designed the site.
We now have a section for featured news, the most popular articles, and our newest videos which link back to our YouTube channel , as well as more stories from all 3 major topic areas. We know saying goodbye to Hubs and having a directory of projects is difficult. It was a feature that we spent a lot of time on and had put a lot of effort into making it a favorable experience for our partners and users. However, we feel we can do more by focusing on the areas of MSQ that really shine and provide value for both our partners and our readers.
Advertising and Sponsored Content
One of the major benefits that MSQ will provide to the industry will be the production of sponsored content. We have gained a good reputation among partners and people in the industry for creating high-quality and well-researched content that is a good entry point to learning about a variety of projects in the space. We will look to continue this approach with MSQ and create unique pieces of sponsored content that will fit the goals and needs of any project.
For us, integrity and honesty matters. We are making a line in the sand and promising that we will never take pre-written content from partners or serve as a paid hype machine for bad actors. Every project or story we cover will get the same level of research and critical eye, whether sponsored or not. With input from our partners, we hope to create stories that people from all backgrounds will be able to enjoy.
Coming Up Next
Our primary goal right now is to focus on what matters–the content. We will be posting new stories daily, so check back often to see what’s going on in the world of NFT, Gaming, and The Metaverse.
As we grow and learn, we will continue to add new features where it makes sense and we will always listen to the feedback from our audience. Everyone at Ardent is looking forward to going on this journey with you together and we can’t wait to show you what else we have in store.
If you are a project looking to gain some exposure through our content strategy, be sure to check out our Advertise With Us page. If you are a writer and you think you can contribute to MSQ in a bigger way, be sure to reach out and include some of your writing samples by emailing us at [email protected].
Make sure to follow MSQ by checking us out on Twitter | YouTube | TikTok | Discord
