Here is a more direct mainstream explanation of what Steem is:
Steem is a user-owned and user-managed content and adverting network with its own currency, also called Steem, that also acts as ownership shares.
This explanation is supported by the PROMOTE buttons on Steemit and maybe on other Steem UIs that many of us choose to ignore.
From there you can now explain the details:
- Initial demand for Steem came from people who wanted to become content managers with the (Steem) power to significantly:
- earn from their curation efforts
- reward content from the community-owned rewards pool of new regularly minted/mined network currency
- This managerial (Steem) power is directly proportional to the financial commitment/saving made in the network currency: it also involves some time commitment as exiting is gradual and not immediate
- Content creators get rewarded from the rewards pools when other users upvote their content
- Rewards earned by content creators depend on the number of users who upvote their content and the managerial (Steem) power of those users
- Advertisers promote their content by paying with the network currency: what they pay gets destroyed and permanently removed from circulation
- As the network attracts more users, advertisers are also expected to increase and demand more of the network currency in order to pay to promote their content