- Google and YouTube see Web3 as a new opportunity for certain parts of their business.
- Both are looking to fill new jobs requiring experience working with and building out Web3 tools.
- Web3 enthusiasts want decentralization, but most of the space relies on Web 2.0 giants like Google.
Google and YouTube appear to be the latest Big Tech players making moves into Web3 fields such as NFTs and cryptocurrency.
Both companies have new job postings for Web3 work, which neither have publicly delved into in big ways before.
A blockchain, or distributed ledger, is a digital record of ownership, often of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. While the goal of Web3 enthusiasts is to create a decentralized internet that is in no way controlled by the major tech players, like Google, the technology needed for that to happen is some ways off. Most Web3 platforms or protocols are hosted by the behemoths of Web 2.0, including Google Cloud and Amazon’s AWS, leading some to dub the current movement Web2.5.
YouTube, Google’s video subsidiary, is looking for a product designer and a director of product management for Web3 projects, according to two job postings. CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote in her annual public letter that the platform would be looking at things like NFTs for creators.
For the director of product management role, YouTube wants someone with 15 years of work experience along with experience in crypto. That may include simply “buying, owning, and trading cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and tokens,” the posting said. This candidate will also apparently be the de facto leader of YouTube’s nascent Web3 efforts, tasked with creating the roadmap for “YouTube Web3,” while building out an entire team to expand the platform’s efforts in the space.
For the product designer role, YouTube wants someone with a tech design background and experience “crafting digital interfaces” who can “lead and ideate products from scratch and improve features.” The company said this will be part of an expanding team driving the use by YouTube creators of digital goods like NFTs, which are most often purchased via cryptocurrency.
“The past year in the world of crypto, non-fungible tokens, and even decentralized autonomous organizations, has highlighted a previously unimaginable opportunity to grow the connection between creators and their fans,” the company said in the posting.
Google is hiring for a sales engineer in its cloud department for financial services and digital assets, according to a job posting. It’s looking for someone with five years of experience with blockchain, digital assets and crypto, and experience in the FinTech space. The engineer would be working with the Google Cloud sales team, focused on the needs of existing clients operating a blockchain or distributed ledger and pulling in new clients that may be “looking to embrace blockchain technologies.” The person will also oversee the technical aspects of Google Cloud’s capabilities and infrastructure around blockchain, crypto and digital assets.
