2018 has brought some very volatile market action, particularly in the crypto space. The majority of the currencies are relatively new and so this sort of thing may be expected. In the case of Steem we have the Steemit platform that associates Steem with its content and as it’s incentive (when the SBD is converted into Steem). In this article I would like to discuss the tokenized incentive plan of Steemit when compared to the advertiser based income platform of YouTube for a perspective on the future.
I like the idea of a tokenized platform like Steemit because it allows the users to immediately start to create an income. On YouTube there are some new rules that have come out that you have to now have a certain amount of subscribers in order to have your content monetized, Steemit makes things much easier. There is also the problem with YouTube with the growing amount of censorship that we’re now hearing about. More and more people are losing their source of income as a result of this and a real crisis as to where to go to get your information out and get paid for it is happening.
The problem I see with the current situation relative to Steemit is sustainability in revenue. When we look at the YouTube business model its very simple, you produce videos that outside companies might feel would be a good audience to market their products to and they pay to advertise to your views. So, the money is coming from an outside demand that sustains the platform. We could also say that this outside money is necessary to keep the platform going. This is why the guidelines for monetization are always changing as they want to keep the content within the parameters of what the advertisers are looking for.
When we look at Steemit the idea seems to be the opposite of YouTube. The platform doesn’t use advertisers money but creates its own in the form of SBD. Instead of outside money coming in the money is created internally and distributed by the users rather than the site owner. And, this currency is convertible into other currencies and eventually into the currency of our native country.
In terms of sustainability which one do you think can continue with all things being equal? Do you think that a platform that receives its income from the demand created by its content creators or a platform that creates its own income and its value largely depends on its associated crypto currency to maintain its value? What I am trying to convey here is that there is a lot of euphoria within the Steemit community on price action gaining many multiples but without an exterior catalyst. The value in Steem must be acknowledged from outside of Steemit to make it valid, not from within.
Currently there is some investment in the Steemit platform but I believe that much more is needed to keep things going. As another Steemian put it, “Steemit is a blogger’s paradise”, and it is. I think that it’s a great concept but I think that it’s important that people don’t get too ahead of themselves. Steem, the crypto currency is not stable. Therefore the Steemit platform’s monetization is not stable. There are a lot of new ideas and programs being introduced that make Steemit even better but we need to stabilize the support beams of the house before we can build it higher.
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