This is a follow-up to my article that garnered a lot of attention. In it, I posted that we need to drop the idea of quality content since most of the use of the Internet is not done by bloggers. People prefer to do things that they enjoy. I cited a few numbers of applications that are valued greatly yet contain mostly pictures of cats and what not.
https://busy.org/@taskmaster4450/time-to-make-steem-a-huge-success-by-dropping-the-focus-on-quality
Sites like Twitter and Instagram are not into deep content. Neither is a lot of the stuff posted on Facebook and YouTube. These are all applications that make up the multi-billion dollar market caps (actually hundreds of billions for Facebook and Google). If STEEM ever wants to garner any mainstream adoption, it is going to have to accept that "quality" is going to be found on the specific applications.
Before going any further, I admit that I am a blogger. I write this coming from the perspective of one who tries to put up quality posts each day. That said, I also understand where the masses reside. While blogging is makes up a decent amount of the internet content, it is nowhere near the majority. In fact, it is only a very small amount of all that is posted.
For this reason, I see STEEM evolving into something completely different. It is going to be a place for a ton of posts, many of them being what many consider to be "low quality". We already see some applications that use Steemit as a verification step for actions taken. The payout of SMTs is based upon a Steemit post to prove the activity was done. We can expect to see a lot more of that going forward as the idea of "content" takes on different meaning. This will be especially true of applications that are created on phones.
Just yesterday, I came across a middleware type of applications that is doing exactly what I describe. I guess the application was out for a while but it is undergoing some changes to expand the reach. This is one, if it takes off, will completely upend the type of posting that gets driven to the STEEM blockhcain.
This was brought to my attention by a post by . In doing some research, he reviewed the application a couple days ago. It was originally called Steemgram. The idea is to have Instagram users to be able to cross post their content to the STEEM blockchain.
https://steemit.com/steempress/@simplymike/steemigram-monetizeyourinstagramaccount-q3n7ykpuvf
In my mind, this is a really great idea and a way to expand the reach of STEEM. Nevertheless, time to cross that idea off the list.
The post yesterday tells of the expansion of this idea. Now, instead of cross posting out of an Instagram account, one can also use Twitter and YouTube.
Wow. This is pretty amazing. The expansion of the target markets is enormous. Look at these numbers pulled together.
To read the full article:
https://busy.org/@simplymike/steemigramisnomoremeetshare2steemapotentialgoldmine-3d3a4if45l
I won't delve too much into the details of Share2Steem since did a great job going through that. What I will say is this is a very new project and it is still in beta. The website is very clean with the needed information readily available.
To me, this is the future direction of the STEEM blockchain. I am all for a kick-ass blogging application being developed. At this point, I believe it is needed, especially if interfaces like Busy and decide to evolve into more than just blogging platforms.
That said, content is going to take on different meaning. Tweets, YouTube videos, and an assortment of other shorter content that is not quality, but of interest to people, will find its way here. Certainly, this can only bode well for those of us who are holding STEEM since it will only grow the ecosystem.
Isn't it also interesting that a couple days after dlive decides to bail, people now have a way to crosspost their YouTube content onto the STEEM blockchain?
My view is that within a year, people are going to be making 25-50 "posts" per day. This will be all different kinds of information being placed upon this blockchain. Some of it will be tweets while other will be links to information that interests people. There is going to be verification for many different activities as applications start to reward people for what they do.
Ultimately, the "blog" part of one's profile is going to be meaningless. That is why I do agree a true blogging platform is required for those who are interested in not only producing that but also reading that type of content.
Of course, one would think that this could lead to a big mess. Well, true be told, STEEM is already nothing more than a giant stream of posts. That is why I believe Communities will be a major upgrade on this blockchain. It will allows for the coming together of people based upon similar interests. Thus, content can be posted in those areas where people have an interest.
We are seeing applications that can replace the centralized social media platforms. However, since they are not going away any time soon, we are simultaneously seeing the creation of applications that allow the integration of them to the STEEM blockchain. This should expand the reach and draw in more people.
With the upcoming Hard Fork in a couple days, we are going to see a change in the sign up process which should enable account creation at a much quicker pace. This bodes well for all these applications that are targeting some large user bases. The present system stifles growth completely since it takes over a week, in most instances, to get approval on an account.
Ultimately, we could see STEEM having hundreds of millions, if not billions, of posts a day. At that rate, it is a certainty that few are going to drawn out blog posts. There is room for that on the platform just like there is quality content on Facebook or YouTube. Yet, on those platforms, just like most other social media, there is a variety of interests. STEEM will be no different.
It is a great time to be involved in STEEM. We are going to see so much growth over the next couple of years. The tentacles of this blockchain are reaching into different parts of the internet. To be frank, it is amazing where some of the development is leading. Truly mind-boggling.
Technologies and communities evolve over time. Often they move in directions we did not anticipate. That does not make it good or bad, necessarily, just different.
And it appears the future of STEEM is going to be lots and lots of posts coming in from many different areas.
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Pics from articles linked.