It’s been awhile since social networks have tried to motivate users by paying them some “money” (either real or not). Take a look, for example, at the Reddit’s try:
We are thinking about creating a cryptocurrency and making it exchangeable (backed) by those shares of Reddit, and then distributing the currency to the community. The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms.
And there were some others:
Paid-for-post platforms are not new. A few forerunner platforms are Tsū and Bubblews which are now defunct. Both business models rely on posters to contribute content and their revenue is from advertisement. Patreon is similar but works slightly differently. Patreon is a network with content creators and fans directly supporting their content via monthly payments or per creation. So this is a direct tipping model from fans to content creators.
Also take a look at the Empire.Kred social network: Empire.Kred is designed to drive social media activity and interaction between the registered members. A player’s value increases, in part, as a result activity on social media sites and their own verified blogs and rss feeds. In addition, a player’s value increases through dividends paid-out by other members he or she has invested in. Thus, the social media activity of a player’s investments also contributes to his or her game wealth. It is in the player’s self-interest to follow, favorite, or otherwise contribute to the social media activity of those they invest in.
But let’s continue with Steemit!