Ads on Steemit - The Pros and Cons

Steemit Inc introduced a new wallet page and ads with the latest update. The wallet page was announced before. The ads not as much. They arrived quietly.

I try to stay neutral towards things as much as I can, and not jumping into conclusions. Especially on the things you think you know the most.

Fighting my own cognitive bias!

This is not an easy thing to do. We all want the easy way, not put too much thinking into it. For most of the times, the easy way is the right thing to do. Mother nature also says do it the easy way. But there are moments where a bit more thinking and effort is very much welcomed.

So, let’s put a bit of thinking and effort about the ads on Steemit. Pros and Cons analysis is one way to approach this.

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I have wrote a post some time ago, praising that Steemit is ads free. We should respect that. Well not anymore.

Ads are a huge thing!

Just to emphasize this. Ads are huge. Almost all the online businesses depend on them. Billions of dollars per year. Ads are game changer for Steemit. We can say the era before and after the ads.

But isn’t this the old paradigm? The system we want to change, and create a new system where everyone gets a share of the pie? Just a reminder. Steemit is a privately owned company that runs the frontend of the Steem blockchain called Steemit. They are also developing the Steem blockchain. Steemit Inc is not decentralized. Steem the blockchain is! Steemit Inc is developing both, the blockchain and the frontend Steemit.

There are other frontends like eSteem, Busy, Partiko, Steempeak. There are options for the frontend. But, at the moment probably around 80% of users are on Steemit. One thing that would be nice, is more development on the blockchain coming from different parties, except for Steemit Inc. Until now, it the three years of the existence of the Steem BC, there is not a single update on the Steem BC, coming from someone else but Steemit Inc. @blocktrades are developing a workers system at the moment, and this would be the first upgrade to the blockchain coming from someone else but Steemit. It would be nice to see some of the top witnesses, or a group of them making some BC development.

Steemit Inc decided to incorporate ads on their platform. Steemit Inc also owns around 80 mil of STEEM. They use their stake to support the company. This is putting pressure on the STEEM price.

The Pros of implementing Ads:

• Steemit Inc gets more income and stop selling STEEM, releasing pressure on the price,
• Steemit Inc get out of survival mode and start developing faster,
• increasing the overall image for this blockchain,
• continuous improvement on the BC and the Steemit frontend.

I may have missed some, but this is what I can state at the moment. The overall thing here is that ads will basically improve the state of the company that is the main developer of the BC, the main frontend and the largest stake holder. Therefore, hoping that they will sell less STEEM and deliver more on the developing of the BC and the frontend.

This is showing the weakness in the ecosystem. Especially on the BC development side. We seem to have options about frontends, but no options of BC developers.

The Cons of implementing Ads:

• continuation of the old paradigm of ads,
• all the ads revenue goes to the central entity, not shared with content creators,
• no incentive for the advertisers to buy STEEM,
• less pleasant user experience.

So yes, we are continuing the old ads paradigm in this new environment of ours. All the ads revenue will go to the central entity, in this case Steemit Inc. Even YouTube share the ads income with their users. It is understandable that at the moment Steemit need the income badly. But going forward, when financial stability is there, is this the right thing to do?

We would have a tokenized platform mixed with adds. What is the difference between this and the old way? Partiko for instance is rewarding its users with points for watching an add. It is voluntarily and connected with their points. Why Steemit Inc to not incorporate some similar system on that. Or at least have the advertisers buy some STEEM in order to advertise. In this way a pressure will be put on the STEEM price and everyone gets something out of it.

We now have an advertising model on Steemit that is doing this actually. Bid bots! Whoever want to be on trending needs to buy votes from the bots. Meaning that STEEM is needed for advertising. With the new ads, no STEEM is needed and only one is getting the benefit.

At the end but not the least less pleasant user experience. Ads are adding on the bad look. The Steemit web needs badly a new design even without the ads. With the ads it looks worst. But yea we know. Aint time for that now. Or resources.

More or less this are the things about the ads. What is done now, in state of crisis will define the future of this platform. Hope to have some more elegant solution for advertising.

I don’t now the right one, or have the expertise, but would like to see some of these elements incorporated:

• advertising model that create pressure on the price of STEEM,
• a model where advertising revenue is shared with the content creators,
• a nice design for advertising.

Or maybe no ads at all :)

Share an opinion in the comment.

All the best
@dalz