It's a good point, but I think the counter argument is that they already do this by owning CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc. where the viewer gets nothing out of it. If they did what you said the rest of the community would benefit financially even if they controlled the top stories.
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Very good point!
In fact SteemIt kind of relies on advertiser investment to release value into the platform. If no one puts real money in then none of the tokens have any real value.
So far there hasn't been any advertisement revenue. Not sure if that is in the plans at some point or not. I think they are trying to build this as big as they can and then worry about monetizing later on, which is what a lot of the largest social media sites did as well.
If you check the "promoted" tab you'll find that the advertising scheme is actually built in. It's a bit insidious, but anyone that buys Steem or promotes content on the site is essentially buying attention of people on the site. It's harder to tell what is an add between what is a blog post, but this true for the rest of the net, I suppose.
I forgot about that, good point. I guess since not many businesses are here currently I hadn't really counted that, but yes that is a form of paid advertising. Good catch!