I reckon there are a few who got aboard the Hive train and genuinely sought to share their content to an active, vibrant audience but were frustrated with the reach. Even for the more popular accounts, the Hive platform only extends to a few thousands of people, compared to the millions of views and engagements that some of the bigger platforms receive. This can be frustrating if you crave a larger audience, and some may seek fulfillment elsewhere.
I considered this earlier as our friend Zuck keeps announcing the 'spectacular' numbers coming aboard his Twitter copycat. 100 million users in just 5 days is nothing to sneeze at. If we had even half that number aboard the Hive train we'd be pretty much set, and could consider the platform a massive success. Numbers do matter, but what perhaps matters more is letting everyone know that you have those numbers.
Those announcements weren't just to gloat, even though am sure Zuck will be grinning with the response (though expected) he's received. They instead were like a warning shot to Twitter as well as an open invitation to advertisers letting them know that there's a new sheriff in town. Ultimately it is the numbers and potential reach that brings those sweet ad revenues to these online giants, so it is in their best interest to let us know.
Numbers also have a way of affecting the 'herd' psychologically. If you're used to engaging and reaching Hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter and suddenly it drops to a few thousands, you'd wonder naturally where they all went and may be prompted to do the same. Even visitors who just come online to be entertained might notice the drop in user engagement and seek to follow the migration pattern of these users.
You may wonder if anything attracts more than numbers in the business World. Unfortunately it doesn't really matter to the crude capitalists and the advertisers. It is left to the founders/creators to put some value in what they do, which really isn't even compulsory these days if you just want to sell. The same logic applies to why a crypto Ponzi scheme will gain a lot more traction than a project trying to build something of value especially in the initial stage.
Eventually the excitement does come to an end. If there's nothing substantial attracting us to a platform we'd eventually move on when the next big thing come along. Hopefully more people see beyond just numbers early enough and start associating with the right platforms that could actually benefit them.
