Learning from Friend Tech and Stars Arena

in #hive-167922last year

Hive's losing the social media battle.

We, as an ecosystem, have never understood the importance of social media real estate and what it means to have a voice in platforms where our target market resides. @acidyo understands how important it is to make noise on X and that's why he created the @poshtoken, but problems with their API makes it virtually impossible to tap into their database to make things automated.

Even so, as an ecosystem we continue to fail to realize that promoting a project within Hive is never going to get it adopted by the actual masses.

We know how to build, don't get me wrong, I love Hive. But we don't know how to market whatever we build. @liketu is doing a good job in Venezuela and @elmerlin is pushing adoption in that country and it's working.

But in the bigger scale, we are losing the battle.

Friend Tech

If you don't know what FT or SA are, do your own research.

Around a month and a half ago, Friend Tech was launched. I can't recall the actual numbers but if memory serves me right, they amassed more than 300k users in less than a week, and the platform made millions of dollars in fees. Built on Base, it has a future even if the fees are killing the small users.

They launched a barebones user interface full of bugs that lagged constantly. But they were the first ones to punch in web2, so the whole cryptospace flocked towards this shiny new platform where users could monetize their influence.

Does that sound familiar?

Hive's had this for years, but we never really took it upon ourselves to create a social media presence that would get us adopted.

Anyway, Friend Tech's revenue model both for the platform and the users is not sustainable and it will ride the hype wave as long as the users keep pumping money in, then, it will die.

Stars Arena

Again, do your own research if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Stars Arena is basically a copy of Friend Tech done better. They had a user interface much more friendly, less fees, more content discovery tools and it basically stole all of FT's clout for the past week.

It was still a barebones platform though. They had a feed, a chat, a user profile and a wallet. But they got adopted a TON, it made FT look like a desert and up until a few hours ago, it was meant to skyrocket and render FT useless even though it was just an iteration of the first project to punch.

Since the users started to ride the hype wave on the arena, FT's maxies started attacking and FUD it, and they were somewhat successful. Watching this mediocre battle happen in front of my eyes on X was pretty entertaining.

Of course I never jumped into this bandwagon, I was just watching carefully from the sidelines, benchmarking on their wins and learning from their failures, taking notes of what works and iterate our own emulation for LeoFinance's rebrand launch in a couple of days.

Stars kills the Friends, then Seppukus

Stars Arena was on track to be the biggest player in the space - until Leo rebrands and relaunches - and it rendered Frien Tech useless and outdated. It killed FT, the space knew it, and except for the maxis, everyone was flocking towards the arena.

But then, the Arena got exploited and the main smart contract was drained. Three million dollars drained from the ecosystem in a couple of hours, just 4 hours ago.

The Arena was killed, and it left a big space for Leo to come in and battle for a spot in the narrative of SocialFi/DeSo.

This exploit was pure serendipity for Hive, because now we don't have to compete with two giants, but with one big dog licking their wounds after being exposed as a mediocre platform on their way to rugging.

But what can we learn from this whole thing?

  • Punching first doesn't guarantee success if you have a UI full of bugs and with just a few features.
  • Build a long term marketing plan, riding the hype wave is short term semi-success.
  • Security is king, especially in a space where if you become a real competitor, every tech oriented investor in the other projects will try to poke holes in your protocols.
  • We're in a bear market. People will flock to any new shiny thing that comes out, but having a robust ecosystem to welcome them is king.
  • Twitter (X) Sign Up is the biggest advantage a project can have against other similar projects.


We are doing a lot of marketing on X, and for the October Campaign we have a 5,000 HBD prize pool to share with those who help us.

Join the Campaign here! and help us make Hive get mass adopted!

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X or Twitter is doing pretty good marketing and if it continues like this, hopefully it will go well in the next few years.

I do not think the growth of Star Arena was organic. It revived Avalanche ecosystem with some push from the Avalanche team.

Twitter sign up becomes a must for Web3 projects. The biggest lesson learnt from the recent hype!

Its sad to see them get wrecked ! I was not on the platform but I hate to see any crypto platform be exploited.

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We should work on more bridges, anything like easy exchanges, pegged tokens, etc, towards any networks with the promise of staying alive and thriving in the near future, such as base.

I just asked Chainge Finance for Hive integration, but we don't have EVM compatibility yet. Getting SCs could be a big gane changer

In SA I don't think it have to be with marketing and elaborated strategies.
And I also think there are good lessons to take from SA (don't want to talk about exploits, even biggest SO have bugs).
2 simple magic keys

  • Smooth, friendly and easy to use App
  • Twitter sign up

Why shouldn't you give it a try?

!BBH

Erm. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but even those that are tweeting about Hive rarely get support from others on Hive who are on Twitter.

For example me, when I tweet about Hive, most engagement I get are rarely from people on Hive who are on Twitter.

But it is what it is, I’ll keep doing everything I can to put Hive in peoples faces regardless.

To me it's clear how things move now. Only new and shiny projects seem to be able to pull off this kinds of growth. It's essentially a big pump and dump and hurts the space overall. To have a chance as an "old" platform we need to have a really simple sign up process. But you guys o leofinance are doing the exact right things. First we need a rebrand to actually be able to attract everyone and not appear as a niche. Then a sign up option with X, which I think we already have. The UI also seems essentially ready after the many updates we got. One of the things that could be a problem are the account creation tokens that would be necessary but in limited supply (or can leofinance make light accounts without them?)

Lets see what leofinance new rebranding will change hive social narrative, nothing beats good marketing strategy in any platform and thanks hive is doing thats it a big step taken we love to see hive thrive in the social space.

The legacy chain was once within the Top 3 by market cap. Shiny new things attract the masses... for a while. It rarely lasts.

Hive's strength lies in its diverse and passionate user base. Engaging the community not only fosters a sense of belonging but also brings fresh ideas and perspectives to the table.

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Absolutely,

You've made some excellent points here, and I totally agree with your insights. Hive has incredible potential, and it's essential that we learn from the successes and challenges of platforms like Friend Tech and Stars Arena.

You're spot on about the importance of user-friendly interfaces and ease of sign-up. These factors can make a significant difference in attracting and retaining users.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Let's collaborate to help Hive thrive!

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