Abstract
The Web3 social platform Friend.Tech, launched in August 2023, enables users to tokenize and trade their social influence. While attracting 139K users, Friend.Tech's economic model and business strategy face significant challenges. After collecting and analyzing relevant on-chain data, we find that the platform's economic model generates early substantial returns for key opinion leaders but also restricts community size and stable profit potential, with 99.4 percent of accounts having fewer than 100 followers. Numerous speculative users are attracted to the platform, but only 22.1 percent of speculative returns are positive, and the trading frequency rapidly declines, with the average token holding period exceeding 4 days. The reliance on new users, combined with an inevitable decline in platform activity, indicates a less optimistic outlook for the sustainability of this economic model. The platform demonstrates a high level of transitivity and tighter social connections compared to existing social platforms. In conclusion, while Friend.Tech appears economically unsustainable, its social model shows promising prospects and serves as a valuable exploration and demonstration for the development of Web3.