In my view, the product at that time was viral. It was fulfilling its premise and it sold itself. This was the most likely cause of the explosive growth. Similarly in recent weeks we saw the same thing, with the whale experiment renewing the core idea of the platform by reducing the disproportionate effects of the largest votes.

In the last few days our product is very not viral. The wind has been taken out of its sails. I would not show Steemit to people now, not for a couple of weeks at least. Voting influence is again minimal and so are payouts. They are distinctly underwhelming, and you don't want the first impression to be a bad impression.