Expectations For Users vs. Investors
In the real world most people are users. Some people are investors, only a small fraction of those who are users. Sometimes a user can become an investor as well, and vice versa, but there's always a predominant role, one lens that better suits them.
Most users of Microsoft Word don't have shares at Microsoft and don't are about them. They just want to use the product.
On the other hand, investors in Microsoft stock, while they might use Microsoft Word, they remain primarily stock holders and adjust their expectations accordingly.
Steem's Case
On Steem, there's a complication, hard to process by a person with a user's mentality in the real world, without a lot of proper guidance.
They are also stakeholders on the Steem blockchain. But all I want is to use this app and that app, they might think.
And they can do that, in a limited way. If they want more, they need to become bigger stakeholders or be lent some "shares" (Steem Power) by a bigger stakeholder.
That sounds complicated from a user's perspective.
From my point of view, things either need to be explained so well, the process be so interactive and fun and rewarding step by step, or they need to be seamless, and the user should not even be aware of them, unless s(he) wishes to.
There's nothing stopping us to have both approaches. And in my opinion the ball is in DApps' court right now.
But let's see what are the expectations of users vs. investors, so we can better fine tune our own thoughts:
Users Expectations
- a product they can use, at minimum
- a viable product
- a service with as few and short interruptions as possible
- a product where regular updates are applied
- users voices being heard and their input taken into consideration
- user experience continuously improving
- easy-to-use product
- a better product than others they have used, or with a distinct touch and with promising perspectives (the promising perspectives part only works for a while...)
Investors Expectations
- return on investment
- growth perspectives for the indicators they follow, which may include future development plans, expected profit, expected userbase growth, expected activity growth etc.
- comparison with competition
- free available asset on the market; major stakeholders participations
- investors voices being part of the decision process
- price of asset
- crisis management
- volatility (different type of investors have different expectations); a change from volatile to non-volatile and vice versa will make some enter or exit
If you have some more points on either the users expectations or the investors expectations, please add them in the comments below. Thank you!
This is one of the most underrated posts on Steem at the moment.
We can add some points in here and compare them to Microsoft. I will approach them from both sides as Microsoft, next to NVidia and McDonald's make up 75% percent of my share portfolio.
From investors point of view Microsoft is a good share, constantly and steady growth, it has mass adoption and is always evolving. It is one of the dividends champions on the markets, it has still a low entry point and can be easily purchased. It tackles most if not all your points.
From a user point of view, it is easy to use and is mass adopted. It is also intuitive and more stable than the free versions or the ones of the competition.
I highlighted free versions, as for the Microsoft Products you need to pay. They are not free. After some years even if you paid for the software it will become obsolete and not more supported. Steem is a freemium, where most don't understand that there is an investment needed to use it fully. Most users are not aware that somebody pays for their accounts and all expect to win big tome in here. One problem is trending with or without the bots, as it promotes some user that live out of Steem which on the long term is not healthy for the platform.
Steem has a long way ahead to become the Microsoft of this market.
Thank you for your appreciation Alex!
Oh for sure Steem has a long way to go to reach the real peaks!
But Microsoft wasn't always what it is today, and there were many times in the past when they were mocked, for good reason. Now, their products tend to be better, and the sharp raise in price clearly shows markets wanted that, along with the innovation.
There will be a time when markets will want exactly that from Steem. Maybe there's some room for growing pains, but I think we're approaching the end of this window, because things evolve much more rapidly now than in the past.
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