Introduction

The digital economy has transformed how value is created, shared, and captured. However, the dominant approach to digital value has raised important questions about who truly creates value and who benefits from it.

As digital platforms continue to grow, there is a need to rethink the traditional understanding of value creation and recognise the role of users as active contributors to the digital economy.

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The Old Theory of Digital Value

The dominant approach to digital value has rested on a particular and questionable assumption: that the value generated by digital platforms belongs essentially to the platforms themselves, with users compensated, if at all, only through the free access they receive. Under this theory, the content users create, the communities they build, the data they generate, and the engagement they provide are all treated as inputs that the platform is entitled to monetise for its own benefit. Users are positioned as consumers of a service rather than as creators of value.

This theory has shaped digital policy in ways that have disadvantaged ordinary users, including millions of Nigerians. By failing to recognise users as genuine value creators, it has legitimised the extraction of value from users without fair compensation.

Digital policy built on this theory tends to focus on enabling platform growth and protecting platform interests, while neglecting the question of whether users receive a fair share of the value they create.

As the digital economy has grown, the inadequacy of this theory of value has become increasingly apparent, calling for a fundamental rethinking.

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Recognising Users as Value Creators

The emerging alternative theory of digital value begins from a more accurate recognition: that users are genuine creators of value, not merely consumers of a service.

The content that fills digital platforms, the communities that make them valuable, the engagement that drives their revenue, all of this is created by users.

Without user participation, digital platforms would have nothing to monetise. Recognising this reality, that users are the source of the value digital platforms capture, is the foundation of a more just and more accurate theory of digital value.

This recognition has profound implications.

If users are genuine value creators, then justice requires that they share in the value they create. Platforms that return value to users, rather than extracting it, are not engaging in charity but in fair dealing, compensating value creators for the value they produce.

SINNTS embodies this recognition in its design, treating users as value creators who deserve to share in the value their participation generates.

This represents not just a different business model but a different and more accurate theory of digital value, one with significant implications for digital policy.

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Implications for Digital Policy

A digital policy built on the recognition of users as value creators looks very different from one built on the old extractive theory.

Rather than focusing solely on enabling platform growth, it concerns itself with how value is distributed and whether users receive a fair share.

Rather than treating value extraction as legitimate, it asks whether platforms are dealing fairly with the users who create their value.

And rather than viewing users as mere consumers, it recognises and protects their interests as value creators in the digital economy.

For Nigeria, embracing this rethinking of value creation could reshape digital policy in important ways.

It could inform approaches to data rights, recognising users’ interests in the value their data generates.

It could shape attitudes toward platform regulation, prioritising fair value distribution.

And it could guide support for participation platforms that embody fair value principles.

The platforms that are pioneering the recognition of users as value creators, like SINNTS, offer practical models that can inform this evolution of digital policy toward a more just and accurate understanding of value in the digital economy.

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Value That Stays in Nigeria

A particularly important implication of rethinking value creation concerns the geography of value.

Under the old theory, the value created by Nigerian users flows to the foreign platforms that capture it, leaving Nigeria.

Under the emerging theory, which recognises Nigerian users as the creators of this value, the question naturally arises: should not this value benefit Nigeria and Nigerians rather than flowing abroad?

This question has significant implications for digital policy and for Nigeria’s economic interests in the digital age.

Platforms that return value to Nigerian users and keep it circulating within Nigerian communities directly address this concern.

By recognising Nigerian users as value creators and returning value to them, SINNTS keeps the value of Nigerian digital participation within Nigeria.

A digital policy informed by the recognition of users as value creators would naturally favour such platforms and seek to ensure that the value created by Nigerian digital activity benefits Nigeria.

This alignment of value recognition with national economic interest is one of the most compelling reasons for Nigeria to embrace the rethinking of digital value that participation platforms embody.

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Toward a Fairer Digital Future

The rethinking of value creation is more than an academic exercise; it points toward a fairer digital future.

A digital economy that recognises users as value creators and ensures they share in the value they create is fundamentally fairer than one that extracts value from users for the benefit of platform owners.

Building this fairer digital future requires both the platforms that embody fair value principles and the policies that support and encourage them.

The two reinforce each other: platforms demonstrate what is possible, and policy creates the environment in which fairer platforms can flourish.

SINNTS, as a platform built on the recognition of users as value creators, represents a practical step toward this fairer digital future.

It demonstrates that the emerging theory of digital value can be embodied in a working platform, that users can be treated as value creators and compensated accordingly.

For Nigeria’s digital policy, the lesson is clear: the future lies in recognising and rewarding the value that users create, in supporting platforms that embody this recognition, and in building a digital economy that is fair to the Nigerians whose participation creates its value.

This is the future toward which the rethinking of value creation points.