4 takeaways from the web2 brand partnerships on Polygon

Web2 on Polygon

Starbucks, Nike, Reddit, EA, Google Cloud, and several other noteworthy brands have recently launched digital products or services in web3 via partnerships with Polygon.

Now that several months to a year or more has elapsed in each case, enough data has been created to draw conclusions about the efficacy and other results of these collaborations.

In this Flipside dashboard, I gathered contract deployments, transactions, and various other forms of user activity and compared them between launches, using pre-partnership Polygon trends as control/reference values.

The driving question? How effective are Polygon’s legendary web2 partnerships, and who, if anyone, really benefited from them?
In my analysis, I came to four primary conclusions:

1. Polygon made resistant to bear conditions
2. Partnerships drove contract deployments
3. User growth increased and stayed consistent
4. NFTs are a gateway to dapps

In this article, I’ll describe each conclusion and share a few compelling pieces of evidence in support of them. But remember — none of this is financial advice; I simply did my own research, and am sharing my findings to inspire others to do the same!

Now, without further ado, let’s get informed about web2 partnerships on Polygon.

Polygon made resistant to bear conditions

Despite facing bear market conditions that caused a decline in monthly transactions on Polygon and nearly every other blockchain, Polygon's ecosystem exhibited remarkable resilience.

In the chart below, we see transaction volume decline rather mildly despite one of the worst years in crypto history.

What's more, monthly active users grew steadily enough to subsume any signs of slowing, showcasing the ecosystem's heightened ability to thrive in adverse market conditions. Even as transactions declined, new users grew:

It’s also important to note that even some of the activity generated by the partnerships occurred off-chain, like in the case of the Starbucks Odyssey Loyalty program (which was facilitated via Nifty Gateway).  

Partnerships drove contract deployments

The number of contracts deployed on the Polygon blockchain is significantly influenced by the announcement of new partnerships.

Each partnership catalyzed dramatic spikes in deployments and total active contracts:

This correlation emphasizes the mutually beneficial relationship between Polygon's Web3 collaborations and the expansion of its ecosystem, reinforcing its pivotal role in the Web3 revolution.

User growth increased and stayed consistent

Polygon consistently experiences monthly growth in new users. Notably, this growth surges dramatically when a new partnership is unveiled, often reaching up to 45% relative to the active user base like we saw in a previous chart.

What's more, the new users were consistently active and the growth and activity have been sustained throughout the bear market to this day. New users, many of which were attracted by the partnerships, make up a considerable bulk of total transactions.

This consistent influx underscores Polygon's appeal in attracting a diverse and expanding user community, particularly through Web3 collaborations.

NFTs are a gateway to dapps

While the NFT sector witnessed significant growth in 2022, the data indicates a notable shift in focus within the Polygon ecosystem in 2023. DeFi and the broader dApps sector are gaining prominence as interest in NFTs slows.

This shift suggests that attention is increasingly gravitating towards Web3 dApps, highlighting the adaptability and versatility of Web3 technologies as they reshape the digital landscape.

It also may suggest that while new users were attracted to NFT launches by familiar brands, as they remained active on the network, they discovered/were onboarded to other web3 activities.

Why are brands embracing web3?

Transparency, decentralization, community participation, ownership, and more are attractive features of blockchain-based apps. As more products get built and more people discover what web3 has to offer, attention on the industry grows.

These brands saw an opportunity to capture attention, and join a quickly-developing space early enough to get acclimated. It's unclear to what degree Starbucks and the others benefitted from these launches, (aside from a cool few billion in transaction volume and likely hundreds of millions in generated fees) - but two things are clear:

1. Polygon and its users benefitted immensely from the stability and growth created by these partnerships
2. This is still the beginning for these brands, and the many that will follow

As web3 continues to develop its strengths and expand its infrastructure to support companies as large as the ones we discuss above, we may continue to see adoption of top ecosystems supercharged by web2 titans making their way in. It will be important to continue monitoring the data to stay informed and ahead of further developments.

If you're part of a company looking for intelligence and analytics to inform a market strategy, head to data.flipsidecrypto.com.

If you're looking for a quick and easy dashboarding tool as a solo analyst, try flipsidecrypto.xyz.

Happy queries!