"Skate to where the puck is going."
Centralized social media and data storage was cute. It had a good run and served a valuable purpose, and for that, I give credit where credit is due. It just didn't work out; this was a stepping stone, not a foundation.
Our data, is well, ours. Facebook/YouTube etc. are just illusions of content ownership. These giant companies pimp our data out to the highest bidder leaving the content producers like milked cows. The biggest threats these business impose is censorship via shadow bans or outright banning.
Parasites, big centralized corporations feed off of users and prey on their privacy. Even though this is going on, I knew deep down the average user does not care and wanted only wanted a good user experience, decentralized or not.
Insert upvotes that pay the content creators. Steem has the magic sauce; the ability to pay your favorite content creator without actually having to pay out of your own pocket is a paradigm shift.
Big businesses become too top heavy and implode. Let's look at Blockbuster, a former fortune 500 company which was one the safest, highest returning stocks in history, once upon a time. A little thing came along called the internet, and well a neat idea at the time, "probably wasn't worth Blockbuster selling all of their stores and firing all their employees, because this would be a disaster for their stock price," - thought their advisers.
Blockbuster chose to ignore Netflix and double down on marketing and smear campaigns vs. internet businesses, which worked well because most people called internet businesses Ponzi schemes back then.
It wasn't that blockbuster didn't see the internet train coming; it just couldn't move off the tracks fast enough. The thing about this big centralized business is they have so much overhead; they merely implode once a better technology that undercuts their business model. The internet made it faster, cheaper and more convenient to rent and buy movies, blockbuster couldn't compete, good game.
The blockchain is just a better version of the internet, fast cheaper and more reliable. Utility Tokens are looked at as mostly Ponzi schemes in this day and age, "and it probably isn't worth Facebook to fire most of its employees and cannibalize itself into a decentralized business model." ;)
The biggest competitor for Steemit I see would be Reddit, but with Reddit Gold pulling in over one million in revenue last year, they have yet to show signs of wanting to decentralize. At this point even if they did want to decentralize, the Steem blockchain & SMT's coming up would be a far better option to buidl on.
Steem already has a huge hardcore incentivized community. The Steem Witnesses I talk to all believe in this movement so much. When a villain got control over my account, @GuiltyParties went the extra mile to get my account back. (Vote for GuiltyParties as Witness) Several others were eager to help me as well. This place turns into something much more than just a content creation platform; people have each other's backs here.
In case you didn't notice, pretty much every centralized social media platform is ramping censorship up. The slope is slippery, and the divide is great. The ability to channel information that supports specific agendas is dangerous to our world and thrives in the current environment. Information should be open source, and everyone should have an equal opportunity at the truth. The tipping point is near, and content creators have been pushed into a corner, and they are starting to jump on the Steem Train.
Right now some have issues with this or that on this platform, but as far as I am concerned it's the Steem Train, or your ass is walking. Putting trust, all one's eggs into the centralized vulture nest is not ideal; anytime they can take your voice away.
I am just skating to where the puck is going. Steemit provides a safe haven for all content creators who fear of being banned. I never had to do anything fancy to get where I am, sometimes in life, the answers we're looking for are in plain sight.
Steem is a clear "Yes!" as an answer for me, and it's not hard to see where this amazing platform will be heading.