Dear travelers,
I come to you with exciting news. At Steemfest 4 we have launched a radically new social media app for and by travelers. An app that allows you to share your content with all travelers, not only those on the Steem blockchain, but also your friends on other social media networks! Sounds good? Let me explain how it works! But before, let us look at the base layer, at where it all started.
Steemitworldmap
Where it all started is Steemitworldmap. A tool, I am sure you will agree with me, is loved by all travelers on the Steem blockchain. We are one of the oldest running projects on Steem, with over 45.000 posts on the map, of which 8.500 have been curated by our amazing curating team over more than two years on a daily basis. In that time it became the go-to tool to track your own travels and share it with the world. It humbles me that so many of you have been using and are still using the map.
Haveyoubeenhere is all about enhancing the Steemitworldmap experience, and make it available to all travelers. Not only those on the Steem blockchain.
Haveyoubeenhere
Haveyoubeenhere is the social media app for and by travelers. The entire development is focused on community first, blockchain second. So here is how we did it.
Login
We made it possible for users to login to Haveyoubeenhere using either Facebook login or Steemconnect. This allows new users to immediately sign up and start using the app, whether they have a Steem account or not.
Creating posts
In Haveyoubeenhere each post consists out of multiple waypoints. To add a waypoint to your post, you select images for one location and write about your experience there. Optionally you can also add a rating and tags that fit that place. Automatically those combine into one post for you. This post shows up in Haveyoubeenhere in the feed for everyone who is following you.
If you want to post it to the steem blockchain (which I imagine most of you would want to do), you just tap the steem icon button and it is cross-posted to steem and automatically added to Steemitworldmap. Later on you will also be able to directly post to more traditional social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more.
Waypoints?
You might wonder why do I need waypoints? Well, one of the most demanded features for the map was to be able to pin a post on multiple locations. Within Haveyoubeenhere each waypoint has its own location and a date-time (which you can change). This allows us to show all these waypoints on their own specific location and even more fun, we can link them together to create a tripview for you automatically.
Tripview
You can add waypoints either in a post, or decide not to have them in a post. Because they all have a location and a date-time, we can create a tripview, where you can see how many kilometers you traveled, what day you were where and easily go through all your amazing experiences whilst seeing on the map where it all happened! For more details on the tripview, definitely check out the full presentation linked at the end of this post.
Mapview
Within Haveyoubeenhere every user of course has a map where all their waypoints show. Very similar to your personal map on Steemitworldmap. But as it's all waypoints, they're all on the exact location of where you had your travel experience.
What do we do for Steem?
So as a traveler you're happy to use this application, but you're wondering if what we're doing is helping out the Steem-ecosystem. The answer is a resounding yes. From the Steemitworldmap account we will claim accounts. Once we notice users on Haveyoubeenhere using the app through Facebook login are consistently posting great content we will offer them a Steem account, they have now become Steemians, and if they decide to, they can post to the Steem blockchain directly. This enhances the quality content on- and the userbase of-, the Steem blockchain and will be curated by the Steemitworldmap team. In return these travelers earn Steem, which in the long term they can exchange for travel services.
To make this model sustainable, both for us and to enhance the value of steem, we will work together with businesses in the travel sector. They pay us a subscription in either fiat or steem for visibility on Haveyoubeenhere. We in turn use this subscription fee to power up our steem account. This drives the price of steem from our side, as there is less steem on the market and we are constantly buying more steem. This allows us to support the continuous growth of high quality travel content.
In short, a scalable solution where travelers, businesses, the steem community and our team can thrive.
What do we need?
Haveyoubeenhere needs to have a big user base to become sustainable. It's as simple as that. It also means that in the short term, it is unlikely we will be profitable. So any and all support to keep the project running for the short term is greatly valued. You can vote for this proposal. Or think in terms of delegations, following our trail or even direct investment. If you want to support us but have more questions, please contact us at support@haveyoubeenhere.com!
We are not running any advertisement on our platform. Even putting ethical questions beside us, it's not an effective business model. The social media platform that currently has the highest revenue -not profit- per user per year is Facebook at a meagre 7 USD per year. For the amount of ads you see when using their services, it's ludicrous. We believe in creating a great user experience and ads are not part of that plan. Instead we will focus on creating value for businesses and run an ethical and sustainable model based on subscription fees from these businesses.
Short term goals
- iOS app
- Cross-posting to traditional social-media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,...)
- UX improvements based on the feedback we are getting from all of you -> the easiest way is by reaching out to us on Discord: https://discord.gg/EGtBvSM
- Optional background location to make the tripview more detailed
- Placeview, where you can book at businesses who have subscribed to Haveyoubeenhere and directly get directions to any place on Haveyoubeenhere.
If you need more details, please contact us on support@haveyoubeenhere.com
Big thanks
Everything presented here is the result of a team effort and the project would not be where it is today without certain people.
First of all I want to thank the Steemitworldmap curation team: @livinguktaiwan, @choogirl, @lizanomadsoul and @itchyfeetdonica. They have been incredibly patient whilst I (@martibis) have been focused on development, causing me to be more absent with regards to Steemtiworldmap.
Second I want to thank Yum Leadership. They have been supporting me financially and provided me with consultancy. Without them, Haveyoubeenhere would not exist.
Third I would like to thank @fundition. They have been supporting Steemitworldmap for a while, making it possible for us to keep growing, cover our costs for Steemitworldmap, allowing me to focus on development of Haveyoubeenhere.
Last but definitely not least, I want to thank all of you travelers using the map and I look forward to seeing your content on Haveyoubeenhere as well, where you can share it not only with the Steem community, but with your not-steemian-friends as well easily.
Want to see the entire presentation?
You can find the entire presentation from Steemfest 4 underneath. It starts at the 42nd minute.
So how do you get started?
Get the app in the Playstore or search for "Haveyoubeenhere".
Or go to our website to learn some more.
See you there, Your Steemitworldmap team
