Social Commerce And STEEM

The power of social networks is common knowledge. A strong ecosystem is a pool of people who are able to exert enormous influence. When an ecosystem is strong, the community will be able to create an assortment of applications that fit the needs of the users.

Thus far, the monetization of social media is in the form of selling of data and pushing ads on the users. This is the path that both Facebook and Google took. However, Facebook started down another path with the introduction of Facebook Marketplace which allows shopping directly from that platform. It is a great way to add commerce to the ecosystem.

This could be a blow to Amazon which is going the other way. That entity is taking steps to add a social media element to their site. They already have the upvote and review system in place which is a start. However, few spend time on there like social media.

Social commerce might well be the next phase of social media development. Ecosystems that have people already in the fold are able to add products and services that these individuals need. Certainly, it one is dedicated to a particular platform, buying necessary items would be a welcomed addition.

This all takes on an entirely new meaning when talking about blockchain. Not only is there the potential for an ecosystem, there is also a currency tied to it. Hence, you have people with tokens that they are seeking a place to use them. This is precisely where social commerce can step in.

@skitbay recognized this opportunity. This was an application that I mentioned in my write up about busy.org a week or so ago. @skitbay partnered with Busy to provide a marketplace for that expanding platform.

This application serves two purposes. One is that it will serve as a payment system similar to Alipay. This will enable vendors to accept cryptocurrency just like they accept fiat. The second purpose is that this is an online market with "hundreds of stores and thousands of products".

In addition to being able to use the existing forms of cryptocurrency, @skitbay will also introduce a token. This is going to reward users for promoting and reviewing products. Here again, we see people given incentive to do what they are doing on sites such as Amazon.

https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@skitbay/skitbay-your-social-market-place-and-crypto-wallet-payment-method

And by the way, take a wild guess what protocol @skitbay will use to create the token: SMT protocol.

@skitbay is going to use STEEM's content creation/reward system that so many of us are accustomed to. At the same time, the transactions will be conducted on the STEEM blockchain. I am sure the no direct transaction costs and 3 second transaction time caught their attention.

Through their partnering with Busy.org, @skitbay has the potential to reach a much larger audience. Busy is intent on expanding outside the STEEM ecosystem to create a platform that has applications from many different blockchains. Having @skitbay as a payment processor only helps the STEEM ecosystem since it will provide more traffic.

The way people are going to purchase items is changing. Logging out of a social media application to visit a website is passe. In the near future. we will see many instances where all is available from the present applications. On STEEM, we have our wallets immediately available to us, tied in simply via a username. This will make it very easy to conduct business.

Soon, people will not be asking "what can I use the currency for". The answer will be clear as day to them.

To check out @skitbay's website:

http://www.skitbay.com/

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