If you look at the growth of existing large & successful social networks (yes, even reddit), there is an inflection point that happens when "brands" discover the platform and begin investing in it with thier time, content, and money.
The future of a content-driven social platform is often determined by how much these brands invest, and how much (or little) control the platform cedes to the brands.
Clearly there is an economy being built here, but it appears to me that there is a need to scale, and I would argue that much of a social network's scale is energized by large brand participation.
It is awesome that people are being paid for content and curation, but at the end of the day, real commerce needs to take place at scale to create greater momentum that can help create a resiliant pattern of behavior among enough of the population here to reach that inflection point.
How do you see Steem getting to that point, or does it even need to?
This is genius, you are right. I can definitely see this bringing us to the next level.
I created the @foxycart account and plan to use it well, but I'm still figuring out what this space is and what it will be. I do think brand involvement will be important, but I also think the audience here is still pretty small. I think the promotion tab will play a big role as well. We're at the very beginning part of the early adopter phase.