It is very likely that we'd hit 2 million before the end of the year. I don't expect Fakebook like numbers because Mainstream social media is designed to waste time and promote vanity which was necessary to gain ad revenue. STEEM is like Apple which has (I think) 7 times less marketshare than Android and still makes 1.5 times revenue. https://www.statista.com/statistics/259510/revenue-distribution-between-the-apple-app-store-and-google-play/
I think SMTs can do a lot for STEEM and we might even end up seeing STEEM itself become sort of an Oracle Corporation for social media.
I think steemit promoting itself as a social media that pays its users worked against it. People join to earn big bucks ad end up failing and leave the platform. It's just pure mismarketing. Something similar happened with the movie The Village (2004) which was marketed as a creature feature instead of psychological romance thriller. People should be given the right kind of expectations.
STEEM doesn't collect your private data and it is absolutely censorship free. You account is extremely secure and you see zero ads. You might even get paid few bucks while using it. Earnings should be at the bottom of the selling points as a bonus.
Unfortunately I see ads all the time. Look at the trending page. Look at promoting page. Full of ads for shitcoins. I donβt understand why this is not getting fixed. We have the advantage of being the first ever blockchain social media platform out there. I hope we donβt lose it when competitors come along.
Well said folks like yourself who care enough to take the time to write up this are the reasons I spend the time that I do on STEEMIT UPVOTED 100% POWER
I am not sure how SMTs are going to solve any of the current problems for steemit.
Its going to be a great money spinner for the developers and steemitinc as they sell all these shiny new SMTs
I think you are right about the mismarketing - although I am not sure what can be done now. Most sites try to reach out to a certain type of person. I'm not sure who that target audience would be on Steemit. The way @tjkirk aka the Amazing Atheist (of YouTube fame) convinced me to join is that he essentially said that this was an anonymous, free-speech site where you could get paid. For me, anonymous and freedom of speech was enough, fortunately. If there is a potential for this site going forward, I think it would be as a good free speech site that is not full of fucking racists and Nazis like so many sites that claim to support freedom of speech end up being. Based on my own name on my page you can see that I am "anti-SJW Left", aka I'm on the political left but I support freedom of speech and oppose SJWs. Obviously recent changes on YouTube and Twitter drive me away from those platforms, but I'm not about to go join "gab" or "hatreon" or some Nazi bullshit either. This site seems like it could potentially fill in that gap where there is no free speech site for those who are to the left of the far-right.
"anti-SJW Left" and "left of the far-right" would be able to integrate well into the platform because most blockchain projects are developed by Libertarian/Anarcho-Capitalist Austrian economist types. Their values show on their projects. People who read https://mises.org/wire would be naturally attracted to platforms like steemit if we can deliver them a constant stream of quality articles. Steemit itself can be sold to bloggers who don't earn much and tell them they can post their stuff on STEEM and get some bonus income.
We can also sell that steemit has a very high Alexa rank and tell them that it helps SEO. We can tell YouTubers that they can simply double post to the blockchain. @tjkirk case was an excellent one. I've seen several YouTubers come to STEEM.
So I'd say that the focus should be on selling censorship free website with ultra secure crypto wallet for existing small scale celebrities, bloggers, Medium writers and Libertarians. i'm personally very impressed with the average intelligence of the person on steemit. Think how people would react to some of the jokes here: https://steemit.com/comedy/@vimukthi/revisiting-trudeaueulogy-some-of-the-best-political-satire-ever
well said!