I'm pretty sure in that context "success" would be on a path to scale to be comparable or even displace existing legacy social networks.... Like Bitcoin has done (or is doing) with legacy financial systems.
Discussion
Yeah, I think this is probably what he meant, but it is a gross way of thinking about it. It's like saying a niche web forum isn't successful because not everyone in the world is using it. In reality it's more like how http was successful the moment people started using it because it was better than alternatives.
there's "success" from the protocol angle (as you point out) and "success" from the investor/influencer angle 😬