Synereo coins (amp) are up today the announcement of the alpha release in September.

I think this could be a threat to steemit as the first of a new type usually does not succeed.(see aol, yahoo, Mac, Friendster for more examples.)

Here is the launch announcement

this is an interesting paragraph on amp their currency from this site

AMPs can be used to amplify the Current of a piece of content so that it will be seen in more people’s Streams than it otherwise would have appeared in, organically. When a user sees amplified content, they’ll receive a portion of the attached AMPs, according to their Reo score, in exchange for their attention. The creator of the content will also be compensated with a portion of AMPs, as well. This model presents win/win alternative to the one-sided ‘sponsored posts’ of current social networks.

The key here is that steemit pays for voting, amp pays for reading.

What's easier than voting to get paid? Reading to get paid. Authors will be paid on reads rather than votes. The votes sound as if they will be more like channels( turn up the crypto currency channel please)

This should easily get advertiser adoption but will that turn off readers?

It may also get audience adoption to earn by reading. The authors will likely go where the audience is.

ahead on some features?

Their messaging tools sounds better developed ( though steemit has one month to improve.)

Steem is likely positioned to have better discussions which is nice for certain type of content.

That should win for people who like to write and discuss but will it win the masses?
I am sure strengths and weaknesses will emerge over time but synereo is one to watch.

The competition might lead to some interesting developments. More curation rewards for minnows to attract adoption? Look at the losses Uber and lfyt incur as they go head to head to build he network.

This will be an interesting battle of the platforms.