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Has social media reached its peak in terms making a new unique platform?
Posted by on July 19, 2020 at 8:32 pmThink about the current big platforms right now: Instagram. Twitter. YouTube. Facebook. Snapchat. Reddit. And most recently, TikTok.
While all platforms have their similarities, such as likes, followers/subscribers, and commenting, each all specialize in something and are the biggest name brand in their field (although Snapchat to me is the least robust of the bunch in what it’s best in).
The majority of these platforms came out in the 2000s, with Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok emerging in the 2010s.
Now that we are into the 2020s, it’s got me wondering: is there room for a newer social media platform to take over?
Think about it, most people don’t want to use a social media app that none of their friends are using. Vero is a platform I keep hearing about that’s suppose to “make some noise” but it hasn’t been succeeding because there’s just no incentive to join it. Many of its features are too similar to Instagram/Facebook.
How does a new social media startup find success in the 2020s? What incentives can it offer that are revolutionary enough and not just another Instagram clone?
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24 Replies
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You cannot predict a new social media gaining popularity and general adoption. To say that there can be no new competition is just not right.
Example: Oh the car market is dominated by the big car brands and there won’t be new company success. Then Tesla comes and disrupts the car market.
Hell, even TikTok is doing this to some degree. Of course, innovation and adoption of new products are possible.
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I think the next step is going to be live videos, a platform with only live streams. Sort of like TV but everyone has their own channel so you have more to choose from and everybody will make their own live content.
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Think of it like TV or Radio. There you go.
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A 3D metaverse – think Second Life 2.0…and later a virtual 3D metaverse, but that idea hinges on proliferation of VR adoption, so a good way off for that.
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Social media is still at it’s infancy. 10-20 years from now you will understand this comment.
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Hijacking this thread to ask an alternative question:
When do you expect platforms like Instagram to go the MySpace route and fade from relevancy? In other words, they still exist but aren’t considered mainstream anymore.
Initially I predicted another 3-4 years but now I’m starting to question it could be much longer.
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Yes there is room. It’s not going to be easy. The big companies will try to crush you. Good thing is that eventually theyll try to buy you.
Look at tik tok.
You’ll need tons of money to make it. Start niche and then expand. -
*edit*: Thank you for approving this comment. Would a moderator please tell me what triggered your filter, so I can avoid it in the future? As you can see, I have not included any links. Perhaps screenshot your modlog so we can find out what is going on.
There’s always time for new platforms to come out. I think that you should pay close attention to what’s going on with the ActivityPub ecosystem though.
Some background information: around 2-3 years ago, the World Wide Web Consortium (the W3C), a standards-making body in charge of things such as HTML and HTTP, created an open, decentralized social networking protocol allowing for interoperability between independent social networking sites (this is called Federation. It’s a lot like how email works today).
You have diverse implementations such as Peertube, Pixelfed, Mastodon, WriteFreely, or even plugins for your WordPress site.
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No, not in the least. It still has a huge uphill climb on figuring out how to better monetize it, secure it, all while not pissing off its user base with horrific marketing practices.
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I think as in some previous comments said that social media will adapt to AR & VR which will make things like “meeting” people and talking to people way more interactive than ever before. Almost like the Pokemon Go that everyone went crazy for back in 2018, I feel there will be integration for social media in those types of forms moving forward. There’s always something new that pops up, it will never end. I think it just takes true timing and a wave of tons of people to really make something go no matter what the premise of the app is (live stream, chat groups, music groups, etc).
I believe instagram will stay alive for a long time because they copy everything from new emerging social apps (like the new Reels they are launching in August to go against tik tok). They already have the market share, theres no reason they’d fade out by staying so current.
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Yes we don’t need any new social media platforms except platforms that support privacy and quality of time spent.
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It usually presents itself when needed. Snapchat made it big when privacy was an issue, next one will be a response to these… Who knows what though. I heard about tiktok when theyhad a ton of ads on reddit, just pay attention to new watermarks
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I Think we will more and more live in a sort of data-crachy. Currently Mark Z has more power than the US President.
So we are just at the beginning.. because data accumulation has just started and who knows in 50 years how much it will matter: A LOT.
In my opinion social media has not reached its peak, absolutely not: and we’ve just started seeing the bad fx on people. (Mental health problems, attention rate decreased, difficulties in establishing solid relationships) we are leaning towards a more stupid form of human being, whose thinking is easily driven and manipulable. (This is not a boomer-like sentence is just observing reality, so don’t accuse me of being against progress or what) -
No, however if the platforms continue shady business practices (lack of data protection, questionable privacy policies, targeting narratives) social media will become decentralized.
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