Every community might eventually have its own social app

Almost every online community is forced into the same few platforms.

A founders’ community and a cooking community need completely different things. They value different contributions, interact differently and have different reasons for participating.

Yet they are usually given the same feeds, likes, comments and follower counts.

Large social platforms cannot deeply serve every community because they need one system that works well enough for billions of people.

That could be about to change.

Building software has become dramatically cheaper and faster. Communities can now have products designed around their specific goals, culture and behavior. Not simply a generic feed with a niche name, but features, incentives and structures shaped around what the community is actually trying to accomplish.

A founders’ network might prioritize useful feedback and introductions. A cooking community might organize shared recipes, substitutions and results. A local community might prioritize trust and real-world participation.

The next generation of social media may not be another platform attempting to replace the largest networks. It may be thousands of smaller networks, each organized around a particular community and a meaningful activity beyond posting.

Once purpose-built platforms become affordable, will communities still choose to live permanently inside networks that were never designed for them?