However, by the simple fact that the platform uses a new token rather than Bitcoin, it becomes less desirable to the end users
Nice article, regarding the quote above i would like to point out that Bitcoin is also available in the app. Both Bitcoin and Gemz have the same addresses and their own wallet. You send Bitcoin the receiver gets Bitcoin, you send Gemz you receive Gemz.
On the end users, Gemz are primarily aimed to the younger generation, teens and especially females which are ruling the social networking traffic but are missed in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Gem means a precious stone, in this case the Gems brand is imo more attractive to this target group. Most of them don't know what Bitcoin is or don't really bother to use it. Gems It's like a bait to attract this target group to Bitcoin through Gems. Actually i tested this out on a friend of mine, i showed her Glyph and Gems, she choose for Gems because she liked it more and could relate it more to Whatsapp after i told her the 2 are similar. Apart from that it's hard to get it's business model done with just Bitcoin.
Ultimately Bitcoin is making decentralised banking, Openbazaar is making decentralised online market place, Storj is making cloud storage decentralised, Gems is making social messaging decentralised. It will succeed with community support and especially marketing, not just inside the crypto community but outside of it aswell.