# Businesses are coming to Steemit, and it will be breath-taking.
![steemit phoenix rising from ashes of google and facebook](http://i.imgur.com/rxYCo6d.png)
There is a huge untapped market waiting to come to Steemit. 

Ad-blockers are on the rise and have online advertisers panicking.  [According to Ido Yablonka](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-percentage-of-Internet-users-that-employ-AdBlock-Plus-or-similar-ad-blocking-plugins), CEO of ClarityRay, they recently compiled a comprehensive investigation into the effects of ad-blocking software and found that there is a growing number of people using them and in some cases up to 50% of ads are being blocked.  They found that,
> Ad-blocking is higher in the US and EU
> Top countries are Austria (22.50%), Hungary (21.52%) and Germany (19.44%)
>  Average in the US is 8.72%
> Linux users have a staggering 29.04% blocking rate, 12.95% for Mac users, and 9.25% for Windows users.
On average, 9.26% of impressions were found to be ad-blocked
Findings point to the estimation that ad-blocking will significantly increase in consumer adoption

*Here is the link to [his full report](http://www.slideshare.net/arttoseo/clarity-ray-adblockreport)*

Additionally in a [report by pagefair.com](http://downloads.pagefair.com/reports/2015_report-the_cost_of_ad_blocking.pdf) 
> Ad blocking grew by 41% globally in the last 12 months
US ad blocking grew by 48% to reach 45 million active users in 12 months up to June 2015
UK ad blocking grew by 82% to reach 12 million active users in 12 months up to June 2015

This is creating a dilemma for businesses everywhere.  With everything being online these days, how are they going to be able to fight back against blockers?  How are they going to be able to reach customers?  

# The problem in advertising

Many, including myself, are eager to hear about new businesses and products, but oftentimes advertisers abuse their power and devastate user's online experience trying to get their ads down the user's throats.  This creates a clear problem:
 - How do businesses promote themselves without negatively impacting people's online experience?
 - How do customers find out about new products without intrusive ads?

### Viral media attention

  What excites me about new goods, services and companies are the things that customers are saying about them.  Not those cheesy fake infomercial types who are really just paid actors told to pretend give their "honest opinion" about something.  I'm talking about the real ones, like when a mom found a Chewbacca mask from Kohl's.  Her video went viral as she just showed herself having fun with a product she was excited about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3yRv5Jg5TI

After that video went around the world, sales at Kohl's soared and their shelves were emptied of the masks.  Amazon's price went all the way up to $213 or more as demand skyrocketed!  

# Customer Reviews are the Ads of the Future

![amazon price of chewbacca mask - 213](http://marketingland.com/wp-content/ml-loads/2016/05/chewbacca-amazon.png)

And according to data from Amobee Brand Intelligence from a [MarketingLand.com report](http://marketingland.com/chewbacca-mask-viral-video-drives-sales-kohls-others-178268), Kohl's content engagement doubled and over half of their online interaction was related to the mask that weekend.  Positive viral media attention pays, and it pays big!

# Investing is profitable and powers content promotion

For businesses, the Steemit platform is absolutely brilliant and is going to flip the $60 Billion online advertising world on its head.  Instead of companies paying traditional advertisers to force content at users, users are going to be creating ***real, organic content themselves*** about their experiences with those products and businesses can promote them!  So companies that would be spending hundreds of thousands if not millions on advertising can alternatively put it into the Steemit platform as an investment and as a way to promote users who review their products. 

Microsoft for example has been showing an interest in crypto-currencies for years now, so imagine when they create a Steemit account (and they will).  They have put millions in other projects so imagine when they invest something similar and decide to have a PR campaign on Steemit.  All of their loyal customers will follow them and you know those customers will be upvoting Microsoft posts as well.  So Microsoft will be profiting from their investment and will be ***getting paid to promote their wares*** by users upvoting their public release statements.  MS would additionally be upvoting user's anecdotes about using their products for added free exposure.  **It's genius.**

![mind blown](http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/10/tim-and-eric-mind-blown.gif)
*Mind = Blown*

 - Invest in Steemit and ***you profit***
 - Make public releases and ***you profit***
 - User's talk about your products, and ***you profit!!!***

# How high will the value of Steemit go?

Here is the mouth-watering question of the day.  And the answer could be astronomical.

According to [data from YCharts](https://ycharts.com/companies/FB/market_cap), Facebook's Market Cap is 334.26B currently.  Steemit is at a $300 million market cap which has been growing by about $50 million a day.  If Steemit is the Facebook killer by removing forced ads, paying users to contribute, and allow for open freedom of speech, will their market cap reach into the billions?  Tens of billions?  ***Hundreds of billions??***