Upvoted because, yes, steemit is a form of media and as such has two revenue streams which you listed (advertising, consumer $). I think we may be missing something a little more obscure though. Steemit is a marketing tool for steem. It gives the platform a 'viability', some substance in very competitive and new field (cryptocurrency). Where bitcoin was a pioneer and relied on it's initial 'catch all' versatility, we are now seeing product launches for this currency which specializes in niches like NLC2 targeting the fantasy sports market. Steem has made a very good play here with steemit, steepshot, zappl and chainBB (probably getting some of these wrong) in digging their heels into the booming social media market. Their 'branding' cost is covered by volunteers who choose to use their product and promote it for both their gain and the gain of Steem (content creators like you and me). It really is some nicely done business. It sets the chess board for social giants like Twitter and Facebook to answer in kind for content, not play a shell game with their users, adjust the rules and then demand a portion of income these user make....
Are they going to overtake Instagram or Twitter? Probably not, but they put themselves in a strong position to be the currency of choice when these giants finally concede to rewarding their content providers in the future. Hold onto your Steem. even if steemit doesn't become the next big platform, the currency model is forcing acknowledgement for the powers that be, and this marketing plan has put this crypto in the forefront to be the currency of choice for the next generation of social media trends.
Just a thought... where do most entrepreneurs live? In the social media hemisphere. How many of them are looking at low cost, high impact, high involvement for their next project? How do you bring on a million highly involved employees who will promote your product and not pay dime in healthcare or social security or whatever? Very attractive for new product and service launches...
With the rollout of steemit (and dapps), looks like Steem has made a very good move.
Peace