A New Hope
First let me say that I'm am brand new to Steemit, and this is my first post! In fact I have probably less than 5 posts on any social media up to this point in my life (please forgive my judicious use of memes - I'm new at this!). I am a lifelong lurker that finally decided to contribute after discovering Steemit and getting my mind blown when I thought about the possibilities.
I have been following crypto-currencies for quite some time, but this is the first time that I really have seen something in the space that I believe has the potential to reach vast numbers of people in a short amount of time. Don't get me wrong: I hold Bitcoin and Ethereum and think they are great, but I have always had a hard time getting non-nerds to see the potential. Not so with Steemit! The conversation I had with my wife about it basically went like this:
ME: Have you heard of this thing called Steemit?
WIFE: The video game thing?
ME: Nope, that's different. It is like Reddit, but you get paid to post and vote.
WIFE: Interesting...
No further explanation needed. Steemit is something that most people can easily relate to, which got me thinking...
Survival of the Fittest
I was thinking along the lines of how Steemit has the potential to replace the behemoths that are Reddit and Facebook, and I began to wonder about other areas for potential disruption.
Think about it, there is a lot in common between an app store and social media site like Steemit:
Both live and die on their curation of quality content.
If users can't find quality content, there is no reason for them to use your platform. This is where Reddit and Steemit shine, and I think Facebook fails.
I see this as an increasingly large problem with app stores. It can be difficult to find the hidden gems in a vast sea of cloned or crappy apps.
Payment for content producers is unbalanced/nonexistent.
Up until Steemit, a very select few individuals actually made any money of the content that they post. On many social media sites there is not even any mechanism for posters to get paid. I'm not saying it never happens, but that it is exceedingly rare to make serious money posting content to social media. Most of the success stories that you hear about are the Youtube stars or very lucky bloggers. It can happen, but I guess I view it as being akin to winning the lottery.
The same is true for app creators. Assuming you can even make it past the gatekeepers to get your app onto an app store, getting your app noticed is a long shot. There are a huge number of apps being released each month, with current estimates for Apple's app store at 50,000 new apps listed each month. I believe that this is an area where curation could be vastly improved. I have heard many stories of individuals working for many months to develop an app and get it listed, only for it to be lost in a sea of other new apps. Many apps end up never getting downloaded at all. Not even once. Now, I'm not saying all apps deserve to be downloaded (there are a LOT of wasted bits in the app stores!), just that it is very easy for legitimately good apps never to see the light of day. The result of this is that most app creators don't make much of any money at all for their efforts.
Come With Me If You Want to Live
Yes, I mixed my Wonka with my Schwarzenegger. Like I said, I'm new at this - I couldn't decide. Anyways, how would a Steemit app store be better? Apps could be free or purchased with steem dollars. Instead of getting paid from ad revenue at the expense of a good user experience, developers could also get paid in a manner similar to how posters are rewarded on Steemit. Revenue could probably also come from in app purchases as is common now, but they could be bought with steem dollars.
Steemit votes and comments on apps would help solve the curation issues present in current app stores while incentivizing users to write a review in the first place. Bad apps would sink to the bottom while the users who reviewed/downvoted them would be rewarded for their efforts.
Apps are a multi-billion dollar industry. I think bringing them to Steemit would be beneficial to all involved. It increase the value of the Steemit platform and opens it up to a new class of users. Steem holders benefit by the increased value of their holdings from the ability to purchase apps with steem and the money brought into the ecosystem. App developers get a better (fairer?) chance at being rewarded for their efforts and earning a living.
What do you think? Has this already been proposed elsewhere or are there some fatal flaws that I missed?