Want to make a change
Will try to keep this post as succinct as possible.
I’ve been toying with the idea of building a new, or I guess old, kind of social media platform and structuring it as a non-profit.
I have the funds and skill set to build an initial version myself, but I’m definitely not a marketing person, so I’m somewhat worried about getting the network effect going, which imo is by far the hardest problem to solve.
I’ve become incredibly fed up with current social media platforms. The incentives of almost all of them just aren’t aligned with their users. They’re businesses, and at the end of the day the longer you scroll, the more money they make.
Subscriptions don’t really solve this either, because most people simply aren’t willing to pay for social media.
So this brought me to the idea: what if you build something that’s almost a hybrid between Facebook and Instagram (leaning more towards Instagram), but structure the whole thing as a non-profit?
The main ideas would be:
- Connections, not followers. You mutually connect with people.
- No ads, sponsored posts, or brands buying attention.
- No engagement-maximizing algorithm.
- Designed for relationships, not reach.
I think to make this work properly you’d probably also need to build a privacy-focused messenger alongside it.
My main question is pretty simple:
If something like this existed, would you actually use it instead of traditional social media?
And maybe more importantly, would you try to get your friends on it too?
TL;DR: Non-profit Instagram/Facebook-ish social network. No ads, no followers, no engagement algorithm. Just connections, posts and messaging. Would you actually use it?