Social's Next Wave: BeReal, Poparazzi, Mastodon, Post

Friends,

It's never easy to start a social media company.

Few sectors require such relentless experimentation or invite as much controversy. But if you do want to try your hand at minting the next megahit, there has not been a better time to do so in at least five years.

For the reasons outlined in last week’s Part 1, previously invulnerable-looking incumbents are showing signs of real weakness. Though disrupting these giants will be difficult, it no longer looks impossible.

Today, we’ll conclude our mini-series with a look at social media’s upstarts like BeReal, Poparazzi, Mastodon, Post News, Yubo, Farcaster, and others. In particular, we’ll focus on the disruptive strategies they’re attempting and how they might change the landscape of social media. We’ll also think through how technologies like AI could transform our future.

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Social's Next Wave

Actionable insights

If you only have a few minutes to spare, here’s what investors, operators, and founders should know about social media’s next wave.

• Winning close friends. Social media’s largest companies may have started with the intention of connecting close friends, but they are largely no longer used for that purpose. As TikTok and Instagram focus on acting as modern broadcasters, there’s space for startups that connect close ties.
• Fragmentation along political and ethical lines. Increasing polarization has created opportunities for insurgents that seek to be the “good” version of an established platform. Of course, good means different things to different people, spawning right-wing and left-leaning upstarts.
• New business models gain traction. The last generation of companies relied on advertising above all else. Startups increasingly ignore that money spigot in favor of subscriptions, in-app payments, or e-commerce. On a small scale, several of these experiments look promising.
• We may not need each other in the future. Already, we see small pockets resort to synthetic personalities for companionship and romantic connection. In ten years, speaking to AI friends at least as often as to human ones may be normal. That could reduce our desire to use social networks to find online kinship.

***

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it,” philosopher Henry David Thoreau said. By that measure, social media is among the world’s most expensive products. Over the last two decades, consumers lavished extraordinary sums of time on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap, and TikTok, allowing them to monetize through advertisements.

These empires of attention are beginning to show signs of decline. As outlined in last week’s piece, industry incumbents face business model uncertainty, fiercer competitive dynamics, mounting political pressure, and managerial instability. Suddenly, disrupting these giants seems merely difficult rather than impossible.

A new wave is emerging to meet this opportunity. Upstarts like BeReal, Poparazzi, Mastodon, Post News, and others seek to win by promising a better use of our most valuable resource: time. These companies don’t aim to dominate every second of our day or every one of our relationships. They position themselves as productive alternatives to the controversy and chaos of old platforms, escapes from the fiefdoms of Zuckerberg and Musk.

For now, these companies are still in growth mode – their investors will not judge their current success or failure on revenue. In time, though, some trade-offs will need to be made. Either these startups will play the same game as the last generation, looking for the most efficient way to gobble up time and monetize it through advertising, or they will embrace alternatives. That might involve subscriptions, payments, e-commerce, or other approaches. Better uses of our life may require spending money.

In Part 2 of our investigation into the social media landscape, we’ll assess the most promising startups and their tactics. We’ll also discuss how the sector may change in the years to come, especially as AI, VR, and AR mature.

Join The Generalist’s fireside talk with Kevin Hartz: On building and backing unicorns

This coming Wednesday, January 25, The Generalist will host a Fireside Talk with legendary entrepreneur and investor, Kevin Hartz.

Kevin is the co-founder of Xoom and Eventbrite, and a successful investor in companies like Uber, Square, Airbnb, OpenSea, and Pinterest.

During our virtual chat, Kevin will share insights on his journey as a founder and investor, what it’s like to build and back unicorns, as well as his thoughts on current opportunities in the venture market.

This will be special.

As a note, our Fireside Talks are only open to The Generalist Community members. If you want to save your seat for our session with Kevin, sign up for the community today.

In a meme

​​​​​​​​For the pictorially inclined, here's the whole piece — all 3,300 words of it — in a single meme.

Puzzler

​​​All guesses are welcome and clues are given to anyone that would like one. Just respond to this email for a hint.

“I’m back, baby!” With those now infamous words, frequent Puzzler winner Jim W returned to the top of the podium after a hiatus. He was joined by fellow cerebral sleuths Greg K, Austin V, Rohit K, Neil C, Joshua K, Ali B, Michael O, Shashwat N, Epicurean, Reed M, Ash T, Robert M, Tony B, John J, Samuel Ian R, Marty J, Brett L, Bernard v, Kam C, Antoine Y, John G, Jonathan H, Krishna N, Gary J, Jules M, Tim B, Steven L, David, Nicky M, Jason S, Adam F, Saagar B, and Savanna H. All deciphered this riddle:

The answer? A stream or river.

Now, it’s time for a coffee, a walk, and a little bit of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I am reading for the first time and finally getting into :)
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Until next time,

Mario