A few years ago there was the doubt in the minds of many people if Bitcoin would really be recognized worldwide, and that was one of the reasons why Bitcoin was so cheap. But now, it's easy to see that there are people who find strong use cases for it, especially in countries like India and Venezuela.
Bitcoin was not used by many people back then because the Digital Currency was pretty new to the scene. Certain people in specific countries and especially Asia has witness their money being scammed because of MLMs plus the other fake Digital Currency systems that people are building up over the years that makes investing in Bitcoin a little skeptical since they will lose their money investing in nothing.
Bitcoin is making a little bit of progress and the people who try to scam with their own Digital Currencies are recognized as a suspicious entity a lot easier.
I agree bitcoin was not used by many people back then and still were not used by many people until now. So far bitcoin is only active in trading platform nothing else. Though in some cases people tend to use bitcoin to pay for their bills and online shopping, majority of the transaction happens inside the trading or casino platform.