Steemit is an amazing economy. Steem is an incredibly innovative ecosystem. Tokenizing the internet is one of the most genius ideas and we are going to see it become a trend in 2018 when SMTs are launched. Steemit has indeed tested the tokenization idea with Steem (the first actual SMT?) and it works.
But is Steemit able to retain its users? That's a question that needs urgent answers.
Note:- This is my first Utopian.io contribution. I will try to deliver value as always with my Steemit blogs.
And what I strongly feel is that Steemit needs to improve its user retention mechanism because the current system seems to be not working well.
Steemit's User Retention Problem
First of all, let's find out the problem itself. I am very thankful to @arcange who regularly provides Steemit Statistics and accurately outlines the numbers. The graphs are always accurate and a deeper look at them reveals many things about Steemit. One of the things I have consistently observed is low user retention.
The images used below are made and shared by @arcange in his latest Steemit Statistics report. I am using these images with full credit to him, without any editing.
Consider the facts I am highlighting below for a conclusive argument.
Number of Users on Steemit is Increasing
Let me start by showing you the latest number of Steemit users as of 4 December, 2017.
With just under 500,000 users right now, Steemit is gaining some momentum in the internet world now. Millions are expected to join as the platform becomes more and more known. Note that the green line shows the users (just below 300,000) who have at least posted, commented or voted once on Steemit. They are not really active users in the context of this post.
PS: Steem.io website needs to update its records.
We have thousands of new users on Steemit, opposed to what Steem.io shows on the site.
On Average, 1500+ New Users on Joining Steemit But Majority Remains Inactive
Alarm bells should start ringing now because things are not looking good when we look at the data of daily new users. Here's the last 30 days data. I took rough average from this graph.
If you look at the highest bar, you can see that more than 6000 people joined Steemit in a single day but more than 40 % never became active. On a daily basis, nearly half of users are lost.
There's a Steady Increase in Active Users but Overall Active Users are Less Than 7 % of the Total. Active Authors? Even Less!
Another alarming statistic this! Less than 7 % of all users (nearly 500,000 total) are active and rest are inactive. Nearly 30,000 users have stayed active daily in the past 30 days. Number of active authors is even less. Just 10,000!
A platform which rewards content has only 10,000 authors who are active out of about 500,000 accounts which signed up. We have a problem!
Majority of Steemians are at Low Reputation Scores
Obviously! We have a large army of people who are not creating any content. On average, only 10,000 people create content (posts/comments) daily. These are the people who receive rewards too and since receiving rewards is the only criteria of increasing reputation score, only a handful (considering huge user base) move on to higher reputation scores.
For example, I have been fairly active in my 6 months of Steemit experience. As a result, I am now on 58 Reputation Score and with more activity and engagement, I have a goal to reach at least 60 by end of this year. May be this post will be enough to make that happen with your geenrous votes.
Dead Fish, Dead Fish Everywhere!
If you know about @steemitboard, you may be familiar with user levels as per their stake in the platform; which is the amount of Steem vested in Steem Power which corresponds to the voting power. Standard of measuring user levels is MVESTS a user has (it's basically calculated from the amount of STEEM POWER).
Do you see the user retention problem? Steemit has less than 500,000 users and almost 400,000 of them are DEAD! That is more than 80 % DEAD USERS with almost no stake or interest in the platform!
I hope I have been able to explain the problem in detail by now. As a concerned user, I will suggest some ways to retain users as well.
Solving The Retention Problem
From the above explained facts, we are at liberty to think that Steemit is not as attractive to new users when they join as it may have been when they first heard about it. Secondly, Steemit has a learning curve and people who have come far away know exactly what I am talking about. I do not wish to appear as blaming Steemit for lack of user retention. I know that people (most of them) want quick buck but do not wish to work hard or learn.
Nevertheless, the problem exists and it cannot be allowed to go on if Steemit is to make a name for itself in the billion-user internet companies. It is still to reach its first million and to retain most of what it already has.
Balancing The Voting Power
I think new users of Steemit are at an unfair disadvantage when it comes to voting power. By voting power, I mean the value of a user's vote. Steemit is a benevolant economy and to be a part of economy, everyone should be able to give as well as take. New users do not have much to give so they do not get anything.
That's why we see a staggering number of users dead or inactive, because they do not have much to offer because of their zero $ vote. Look at the graph by @arcange.
From this graph and the earlier graph containing user level data, here's what can be concluded.
More than 80 % of users are dead fish (inactive) because their combined voting power is less than 1.67 % of the total.
With such a low stake, and such an unfair distribution of influecne, it is but natural that people do not stay active on Steemit once they have signed up.
Incentivize Being a New User
I suggest that the algorithm that determines voting influence (value of a user's vote) may be changed such that new users have some value attached with their vote immediately when they join. They should be able to give something to authors and commenters when they upvote.
This slight change may improve user retention on Steemit by a significant percentage. It will give meaning to a new Steemian that he or she can give something of value to another Steemian. 20 minnow votes won't mean $0.01 anymore but something more valuable.
Conclusion
I am glad to have almost finshed my first Utopian.io contribution and I am hoepful that this post will generate a discussion and fuirther improve the quality of the suggestion or present an even better solution.
I request you to particiapte in the comments. I have a habit of upvoting good comments to encourage healthy engagemnet on Steemit. Together we can improve ideas and work out solutions.
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors