Why the payouts just got MASSIVE!!

Some of us might be wondering, why have the payout just got massive? A few days ago, people were hitting $1,000-$2,000 at the top of the trending list, however we seen yesterday 'The First Makeup Tutorial' hit over $26,000 (https://steemit.com/beauty/@guerrint/the-first-steemit-makeup-turtorial-bringing-youtubers-to-steemit).

First of all, congratulations @guerrint, original content and being the first should be rewarded. This will only encourage others to follow and help Steemit increase it's user base and succeed moving forward, so we are all winners.

How does the payout system work?

The payouts are based around (a weighted average of) 10% of Steem's market cap per annum, so if Steem Market Cap increases, the payouts increase too. Over the last few weeks we have seen Steem's market cap go from $20m to $300m (currently, which represents a 1500% increase in Market cap, and thus the same increase in gross payouts.

Over the same period, user number have increased over 120% from 7,000 to 15,000. In relative terms, payout per user has increased 10x over the past few weeks, which explains why we see the numbers bloating over the past few days.

This is shown here;
Average Payout per user 2-3 weeks ago: (($20m/10)/7000) $285
Average Payout per user today: (($300m/10)/15000) $2,000

What could affect the payout numbers

1. If the market cap of Steem falls, this will affect gross payouts per user on a pro rata basis.
2. Increase in quality of up voted content will spread the rewards amongst more users.
3. Increase in users numbers will increase competition and spread the rewards wider and further.
4. Market cap keeps outstripping user number growth, the payouts will continue to rise.

This is a great time to be a content provider and help sign up as many friends and family as possible. Maybe you are (or someone you know) the next @guerrint, who knows. Create some original content and contribute some time to the platform and we will find out...