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?

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Due_Appointment_2428•17 days ago•1

connect with me I would be interested to chat.

Fun-Active5273•17 days ago•1

imo the real question isnt whether people would use it, its whether they'd stay after the novelty wears off. Without an algorithm surfacing content, the feed gets quiet fast once your 12 friends stop posting. Thats the retention wall every "anti-algorithm" project hits.

keshaun21•15 days ago•1

A few thoughts on building a non-profit social media platform:

The network effect is the hardest problem you will face. Getting people to join is easy. Getting them to stay and invite their friends is the hard part.

Start with a hyper-specific audience. Do not try to build "another social network." Build a platform for birdwatchers in Ohio. Or for jazz musicians in Brooklyn. A small community that actually needs what you are building is worth more than a generic platform that nobody cares about.

Study what failed before. Mastodon, Diaspora, Friendster, Google+ -- they all had technical strengths. They failed because they did not solve a problem that was urgent enough for people to switch from what they already used. What is the one thing your platform does that Twitter, Discord, or Reddit cannot?

Build one feature, not fifty. Resist the urge to add everything. Launch with your core value and nothing else. Add features based on what users actually ask for, not what you think they might want.

Community management is harder than code. You will spend more time moderating, setting norms, and building trust than you will writing code. Budget for that.

I work with social platforms on strategy and community design. Happy to share more if useful.

Jabburr•15 days ago•1

We built something kind of similar with Jabburr.

But we have a recommendation engine and full ecommerce included.

Jabburr cost about $6 million to build with architecture. User acquisition cost is about $.30.

So to get 100 million users costs about $30 million. Then you're going to lose some of the users.

Retention has to be really high. Twitter retention was 31% pre-Elon. Snapchat 34%. FB 65%. Jabburr is 62%.

We've grown from 11,000 user last year to approx. 300,000 users now.

It's an expensive business to build. Good luck.

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