Those daily active user numbers are the most important, and they are truly sad for platform as old as Steemit truth be told... plus we don't know how many of them are bots.
Hopefully Steemit could one day be something, but at this rate... it ain't looking so good. ☹️
Damnit, so when I spent years building up a following of 50,000 on Google+ which everyone tells me is dead, then I come here you're going to tell me the same thing will happen? Is Dan going to build a new and competing Steemit with EOS and kill Steemit dead?
Actually, I'm pretty sure Steemit is going to transition over to the EOS platform.
As far as I'm aware there are currently no plans to move Steemit to the EOS blockchain. The developers already have a blockchain that they've been working on diligently and have invested a ton of time into improving, there's no benefit to moving to EOS, just a lot of work to try to fit what they're doing into a different box.
Why would they do that when they can just improve what they have and bring others into their world? Think SMTs.
As far as active users go, the flood gates still haven't been opened by HF20 yet. So really, I'd recommend with holding judgement until around 6 months after that has been the case. Then you'll be able to get a good feel on the growth rate for the platform.
Personally, I think the team is waiting to make sure everything is scalable and ready to handle a large influx of users before they release HF20, which is smart. We all went through the growing pains last month and we don't want new users experiencing that. That's why the platform is still in beta. There's a lot being worked on to make sure that everything is ready to accomodate growth. Once it's all in place and the gates are open then we'll be able to get a true picture of things.
Sadly, someone is going to build a Steemit competitor atop the EOS platform, and due to its superiority, it could very well destroy Steemit in a wink if they don't.
Someone certainly could give it a go but it'd be an up hill battle. I'm curious about why you think the EOS blockchain would be superior to the Steem blockchain for a future company looking to build a social media site.
What features do you see that are superior?
Newer, and more thought out technology, much faster transaction speeds, the ability to handle mass amounts of usage continuously, and last, but certainly not least, the daddy of Steemit created, runs, and maintains the EOS infrastructure.
It's actually using the same graphene technology that Dan pioneered with the Steem and Bitshares platforms. It's just being built for a different use case that's more in line with what Ethereum is delivering, mainly dapps.
Again, it's the same technology being used as Steem, transaction speeds and capacity are going to be the same. Steem transactions are near instant as EOS transactions will be. And the Steem blockchain is already the most transacted on blockchain in the world and has handled it flawlessly and continously.
This is, I think, your only real valid point. EOS will indeed by maintained by Dan, at least we assume it will after it's built. But, we assumed that for Steem too and he jumped ship, so whose to say he won't do the same over there?
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of EOS, but it's not delivering anything that makes it superior to the Steem blockchain, it's simply not as specialized as the Steem blockchain and will allow for those looking to build dapps another option to Ethereum and it's cluckiness. The Steem blockchain has now had years of real world use and active development that gives it a technological and first mover advantage against any competitors looking to enter the market.
This doesn't mean it can't be over taken, but it'll take a lot to do so. We'll see what happens, but this is going to play out over the course of years before it's all settled down and some clear winners emerge.