Is "Attention" the new currency?!

I strongly suggest to see this great video in which Kyla Scanlon and Ezra Klein discussing about the Attention Economy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZO1B4fZlOw

The Scientific Reality: Attention Isn't Just Declining, It’s Fragmenting Beyond Recognition

The human attention span hasn't just dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8.25 seconds today,a collapse worse than a goldfish's nine second focus. More devastating is how attention now operates. Modern consumers check their phones 96 times daily (once every 10 minutes), and it takes 23 minutes to fully refocus after a single digital interruption. Your potential customer in Yerevan or Tbilisi isn't just distracted; they're living in a state of perpetual cognitive fragmentation.

This isn't about millennials having short attention spans. This is about a fundamental rewiring of human consciousness, confirmed by EEG studies and continuous performance tests showing that even young adults , your target demographic, experience a 27% decline in sustained attention during tasks. The Caucasus region isn't immune to this neural revolution. With 77% internet penetration in Armenia (2.14 million users) and 68% of Georgians online daily, your market is already operating under these new psychological rules.

What Is the Attention Economy, and Is It the "Economy of the Future"?

Attention economy means that human attention has become a scarce and valuable resource, and businesses, platforms, and individuals compete to attract, retain, and convert this attention into money, power, or influence. Yes, the attention economy is one of the main pillars of the future economy, though not the only pillar. Alongside it, the data economy, AI economy, green economy, and others are simultaneously emerging. The attention economy functions more like a common language of competition in digital and media spaces.

In simple terms: We humans have limited time and focus. Meanwhile, information, content, notifications, ads, messages, courses, videos, and social media posts have become virtually unlimited. Therefore, the scarce resource is no longer information, it's our attention. Anything that can capture, retain, and direct attention has economic value in today's economy.

The attention economy is about designing systems that:

• Capture attention (Hook)
• Retain it (Retention)
• Convert it into an outcome (money, votes, influence, behavior change, loyalty, purchases, subscriptions, etc.)

Main Players in the Attention Economy

1. Platforms: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter (X), Telegram, Netflix, Spotify
2. Businesses and Brands: From startups to Coca-Cola and Apple
3. Personalities and Influencers: From celebrities to the current "Creator Economy"
4. Media and Politicians: News, narratives, propaganda, election campaigns
5. Algorithms and AI: Deciding what content appears before which user at what time

How Does Attention Convert to Money?

• Advertising: Attention = inventory. Platforms sell this inventory to brands
• Subscriptions: If someone pays monthly to watch/listen/read you, you've retained quality attention sustainably
• Product/Service Sales: Initial attention (Reels/video/post) → Trust → Purchase → Repeat purchase
• Political/Social Influence: Whoever can focus millions on a topic in minutes creates independent political/cultural power
• Data & Insights: User attention, behavior, clicks, and gaze tracking convert into behavioral data that feeds algorithms and strategic decisions

Why Is It Called the "Economy of the Future"?

• Information saturation: Content production costs approach zero; scarcity shifts from content to attention
• Digitalization of human time: Almost all waking moments are screen-accessible, making the "attention playing field" larger and continuous
• Algorithm-driven distribution: Success depends on placement in algorithmic feeds designed to maximize platform retention
• Budget shifts: Advertising/media budgets move from TV/billboards to digital platforms, injecting more money into the attention war

From this perspective, the attention economy is less a "trend" and more a permanent infrastructure in the digital economy.

The Regional Abyss: Why Armenia and Georgia Are Losing the Attention War

Here’s where the data becomes brutal for Caucasus businesses. While global giants like Meta generated $160.6 billion in ad revenue in 2024 through sophisticated attention capture, Armenian and Georgian SMEs are fighting with digital infrastructure from 2010.

The chasm is devastating:

• Only 50% of Georgian SMEs have broadband speeds above 30 Mbps, compared to 89% in the EU
• Just 7% of Armenian businesses have websites with advanced features, versus 78% of EU firms
• 3% of Georgian SMEs engage in e-commerce, compared to 20% across the European Union
• 2% of SMEs in Georgia use AI systems, while 13% of EU counterparts have already integrated them

Meanwhile, your competitors aren’t just local. They’re algorithmic predators. Programmatic advertising, where AI buys and places ads in milliseconds based on behavioral data, already accounts for 76% of digital ad revenue in Armenia and will reach 80% in Georgia by 2028. If you’re still manually boosting Facebook posts, you’re not just inefficient; you’re extinct.

The most damning statistic? Digital advertising spending in Georgia will reach just $79.7 million in 2024. That might sound substantial until you realize it’s less than 0.05% of Meta’s quarterly revenue. The entire digital ad market of a nation of 3.72 million people is a rounding error for Silicon Valley, yet it’s the battlefield where your business will live or die.

The Attention Economy Isn't About Ads! It's About Architecture

The attention economy isn't merely "digital marketing with better metrics." It's a fundamental economic shift where attention itself becomes the primary currency, and those who architect systems to capture, hold, and monetize it win everything.

Consider the mechanics:

• Twitch viewers watch 7-8 billion hours of content quarterly
• Americans are exposed to 10,000 ads daily, forcing instinctive filtering that makes traditional advertising invisible
• A 10% increase in consumer focus correlates with a 17% increase in spending

This is why Intel stopped selling processors and started creating content about "artistic possibilities". It's why NeN Energia, an Italian energy provider, used emotion analytics to test commercials, achieving 50% faster customer growth and doubled brand awareness by optimizing for attention capture in the first three seconds.

Your Georgian wine brand isn't competing with other wineries. You're competing with Netflix's autoplay, Instagram Reels, and the dopamine drip of infinite scroll. And right now, you're losing.

The Global Attention War: How Saudi Arabia and the UAE Are Obliterating the Caucasus

While Armenian and Georgian businesses debate whether to start Instagram accounts, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have weaponized attention into a national competitive advantage.

Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 has committed $5 trillion to over 5,000 projects, with digital transformation as the cornerstone. The Kingdom doesn't just use social media, it dominates it. With 35.33 million active social media users (94.3% of the population) spending 3 hours and 6 minutes daily on platforms, Saudi brands operate in an environment where attention capture is engineered at the national level. TikTok users alone spend 34 hours and 48 minutes monthly on the platform, and the government actively cultivates creator economies to ensure Saudi content dominates Arabic-language feeds.

The UAE's strategy is even more surgical. Google commands 95% of the search market, but UAE queries show 37% higher purchase intent than global averages. Premium video content achieves 4.2x higher engagement than global benchmarks, and the average citizen spends 8 hours and 11 minutes online daily. Dubai doesn't just advertise, it architects attention through luxury branded digital experiences, influencer ecosystems, and programmatic systems that micro-target based on behavioral data. A single UAE campaign can leverage multilingual SEO (Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu) and Emirates-level geotargeting to achieve what Caucasus businesses can't imagine.

The Devastating Comparison:

The gap isn't incremental, it's existential!!! While Saudi Arabia builds NEOM, a $500 billion smart city designed as an attention capture ecosystem, Georgian SMEs struggle with broadband speeds that 50% can't exceed 30 Mbps. The entire digital ad economy of Armenia ($90.45M by 2025) is 3% of Saudi Arabia's annual digital investment.

Armenia vs. Georgia: A Regional Battle Where Both Are Losing

Within the Caucasus, Armenia and Georgia are competing for attention scraps while the global feast happens elsewhere.

Armenia shows 80% internet penetration and 20% ICT sector growth, with digital ad spend projected at $90.45 million in 2025. However, 60% of businesses still lack basic digital adoption, and only 7% have advanced websites. The country ranks 70th in AI adoption globally, and while 63% of ad budgets will be digital by 2030, most firms lack the strategic architecture to compete programmatically.

Georgia, despite slightly better infrastructure, is equally paralyzed. 68% of Georgians use the internet daily, but only 50% of SMEs have adequate broadband. Digital ad spend is just $79.7 million, and 3% e-commerce adoption among SMEs reveals a fundamental failure to convert attention into transactions. Georgia ranks 57th in AI adoption, better than Armenia, but still decades behind the UAE's 35% enterprise adoption.

The core difference: Armenia's 20% ICT growth suggests emerging technical capacity, but it's concentrated in Yerevan's tech sector, not diffused among traditional SMEs. Georgia's higher AI ranking reflects better institutional frameworks, yet SME digitalization lags EU standards by 15-20 years. Both countries suffer from fragmented attention architectures: Armenia's desktop-dominant traffic (66.97%) ignores mobile-first global trends, while Georgia's low e-commerce adoption means even captured attention doesn't convert to sales.

Neither country is winning. They're both losing to platforms that extract their citizens' attention and sell it back to them at a 1000% markup.

The Three Second Rule: A Survival Framework for Caucasus Businesses

The solution isn't more digital. It's intentional attention architecture. Based on successful transformations in emerging markets, here's your operational framework:

1. The Hook Hypothesis: Front Load All Value

Your content must achieve 71% attention capture within the first three seconds to be effective. This isn't creative preference,it's neural science. The human brain decides whether to engage or discard in milliseconds.

For Armenian and Georgian businesses specifically:

• Stop opening videos with your logo animation (loses 40% of viewers)
• Start with the most visceral customer problem: Your morning coffee costs 5,000 dram because of inefficient supply chains
• Use localized emotional triggers: national pride, regional frictions, shared cultural moments

2. The Fragmentation Feed: Design for Interrupted Consumption

Since your audience will be interrupted every 47 seconds, structure content in modular, self-contained chunks. A 3-minute video should be three 60-second segments, each with its own hook, value, and call to action.

Implementation for regional constraints:

• Bandwidth-aware design: 53% of Georgian traffic is mobile, but speeds are inconsistent. Create progressive loading content that delivers value even on 3G connections
• Offline first strategies: Telegram channels (widely used in Armenia) allow content downloads for later consumption, architect attention capture for non-real-time engagement
• Micro moment mapping: Identify when Georgians commute (average 36.7 years old) and Armenians browse (peak evening hours), schedule content for maximum uninterrupted windows

3. The Trust Transfer Protocol: Leverage Programmatic Without Budget

You can’t outspend global brands, but you can out architect them. Since 76-80% of digital ad revenue in the Caucasus is already programmatic, use the system instead of fighting it.

Zero-budget tactics:

• Hyper local SEO: Only 12% of small Georgian firms have basic websites. Owning best khinkali Tbilisi search terms costs nothing but strategic content
• Influencer micro-targeting: Partner with 5,000-follower regional influencers whose engagement rates crush celebrity accounts, costs 90% less but delivers targeted attention
• Community-driven content: Armenian businesses see 20% IT sector growth but 60% plan digital transformation investments. Document your journey, transparency captures attention in trust-deficit markets

4. The Attention Monopoly: Own Your Channels

Stop renting attention from Facebook. With only $79.7 million in total digital ad spend, Georgian businesses can't compete for auction-based attention. Instead:

• Build WhatsApp Business subscriber lists (90% open rates vs. 5% email)
• Create private Telegram communities for B2B (Armenia's tech community thrives here)
• Develop loyalty apps that become daily utilities, not ads, but tools that demand attention by providing value

The Unconscious Close: Why This Matters Right Now

Here’s the truth that should keep you awake: Armenian SMEs are investing in digital transformation, but 60% lack the strategic architecture to capture attention. Georgian SMEs are adopting tools, but only 3% can effectively transact online. You’re building digital storefronts on a highway where no one stops because they’re already distracted by the billboards.

The businesses that survive the next 24 months won’t be those with the biggest budgets. They’ll be the ones who understand that attention isn’t a marketing metric, it’s the entire game. Every second of focus you fail to capture is a second your competitor, whether in Yerevan, Tbilisi, or Silicon Valley, is stealing forever.

The attention economy doesn't care about your heritage, your product quality, or your good intentions. It rewards only one thing: the ruthless, scientific, creative architecture of human focus.

The question isn't whether you can afford to invest in attention architecture. It's whether you can afford not to.