Will ONO make Steemit Say Oh No!

Next week ONO will debut the international version of what promises to be a wildly popular app built on the EOS blockchain. I won’t get into the arguments of which is better - EOS or Steem, instead I’d like to look at what it takes for a social app to rise above the internet noise and become successful.

At first glance, it appears that ONO and Steemit are not competitors at all. Simply put, Steemit is a blogging platform while ONO is a community platform. But after watching the development of the ONO community on Telegram the past few weeks, I can easily see where the two may collide and could become rivals for the same pool of netizens.

For any app to be successful on any blockchain it must be able to attract two groups of users - the consumer and those who offer goods and services to those consumers. Or, those who provide content and those who consume that content.

This user base is built from people who are already online, social media users of YouTube, Facebook, Instagram as well as online shoppers and those who sell the goods and services and provide answers to those who are using the net for the purpose of learning or having questions answered. Steemit, Dtube, Dlive and other Dapps do a great job bringing the content providers and content users together.

There is also the financial aspect of the blockchain. The idea that content providers are paid for their content by the users of that content is a strong pull for anyone publishing high quality blog articles, videos, live music and more.

But Steemit is a blogging platform, Dtube is a video sharing platform and like most Dapps they are missing the one thing that has turned social media into a trillion dollar business. The one thing that ONO is set to bring to the blockchain in a big way. The community experience.

With Steemit or Dtube, the community experience must rely on outside platforms like Discord or Telegram. Yes there are comments and replies for posts and videos and live events, but those can’t take the place of the instant messaging, and the timely give and take of conversation that FaceBook and Twitter and Instagram and others have monetized and used so well.

ONO is poised to provide that easy to use social platform to millions. At the same time it pays for posts. If your post is liked - you get paid. ONO hits two of the most common reasons people are online - to make money and to interact with a community. Sharing thoughts, knowledge, events with others is an enormous pull for the majority of people who inhabit this planet. We are social animals after all and are drawn to that social interaction.

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The timing for ONO couldn’t be better. The social media world has discovered that the old saying is true - if you aren’t paying for content you ARE the content, being bought and sold to faceless companies and even governments. The backlash against the headlines that are swirling around Facebook and other net properties has people looking for a different solution to staying in touch with friends old and new in an online community environment. ONO is poised to be able to fill that need.

To compete with Steemit, which is probably not a goal of ONO but would rather be a side effect of user requested features, all ONO has to do is offer a blog platform which could be an expanded “story” feature. It is far easier for a community based app to add blogging than it is for a blogging app to add community. But becoming a blogging platform is not a prime focus for ONO, at least not at this time.

Users tend to like having their needs and wants fulfilled in one place. Learning the ropes of a new app can be daunting for many users. Learning the ins and outs of the payment system, the article system and the community system all using a different interface can do as much to keep new users inactive as the falling price of crypto.

If given a choice between using one interface, one place that answers the need of earning money while interacting with groups of like minded people, with all the advantages of the decentralized blockchain, current social media users will naturally choose the path that is easiest for them.

Steemit offers users the ability to be educated and entertained, but doesn’t do a particularly good job of offering a sense of community without users having to go outside the Steemit environment. If ONO offers that all important sense of inclusion, a community experience and combines it with the education and entertainment ability of both blockchain based platforms like Steemit and Dtube it will not only successfully compete with current social media giants but could also give Steemit a strong competitor for users.

Does this mean ONO will be the demise of Steemit? If the “other side” of the internet is any indication, then the answer is no. WordPress, Quora, Medium are all very much alive and well even as Facebook and Twitter and Instagram continue to add to their user base and evolve with new features. There is room for both. They can both play to the strengths of their individual vision and not only co-exist but thrive.

Most WordPress bloggers are also active on social media. Even though InstaGram has “stories” that hasn’t impacted the use of WordPress. Social Media users interact with other community members and use their social media posts to draw attention to their blogs. At the same time, they point their blog readers to their social media accounts.

ONO can provide a very necessary part of that path for Steemit bloggers. Steemit can provide a very necessary path for users to interact on ONO. Rather than being rivals, Steemit and ONO can help make each other stronger.

No matter how things go long term, I can hardly wait for the international launch of ONO this week. What an exciting time we have coming up on the blockchain!