Zehra Naqvi recalls the magical days of the early days of the social Internet.
She grew up in the One Direction and Marvel fandoms in the early 2010s. This was back when people were posting photos of lattes using the Valencia filter on Instagram, and Twitter was still Twitter, a place where people gathered to exchange jokes and cultural analysis.
But now Instagram is full of influencers, and Twitter is X, a digital town hall with a fierce political divide.
“The platforms that won were the ones that kept people scrolling the longest, not the ones that made them feel the most connected,” Naqvi told TechCrunch. “Now there is an abundance of content but a dearth of joy. »
But that is starting to change. Naqvi is part of the new wave of social media: niche online communities focused on priority interest. This month, she announced the launch of her company, Lore, a site that helps fans track their fandoms.
Users increasingly want to spend less time on generalized sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and instead join online communities tailored to their interests, she believes.
Natalie Dillon, a consumer investor at venture capital firm Maveron, says she’s starting to see a growing number of founders building interest-first networks.
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“At its core, consumer behavior is driving a shift from performance to participation,” Dillon told TechCrunch. “For the next generation, community is not a feature layered on top of a product. It’s the product.”
She offers examples like Beli, an app that lets users share their favorite restaurants with friends, or Fizz, which connects people attending the same university. Others include astrology bonding app Co-Star, or even Partiful, which lets people connect with friends to plan events.
These are the type of participatory apps Naqvi wants to create – something akin to the early days of the social internet before it “became fractured and joyless”.
“Niche spaces give people permission to be specific and present as themselves without getting lost in the algorithm,” she said.
The previous generation of social media companies found success through “more,” she continued; more followers, more reach, more noise. But some founders and users are now coming to a different conclusion: Maybe there isn’t a single social media app that’s becoming “the next big thing.” There will be several.
Maybe that’s the point.
“What we learned is that depth matters more than breadth,” Naqvi said.
Niche Online Communities Are Growing
Of course, private groups like subreddits, Discord servers, and Facebook communities have always existed. On X, following many of the same accounts was also a way to enter a different online sphere: Think Tech Twitter or Black Twitter.
But big sites’ algorithms curate content for users by giving a person more of what they think they want to see. Content creators aren’t innocent either, fueling and fueling trends, topics and discussions – anything that might spark fame and keep a close eye on their work.
“We have reached a saturation point,” Naqvi said. “Everyone is tired of doom and gloom and performative content. »
In other words, the days of creating large, generalized sites like Facebook are over, according to Claire Wardle, an associate professor at Cornell University who studies contemporary information ecosystems.
Wardle said users are increasingly concerned about the time they spend online, content moderation, hyper-political spaces and the permanence of social media posts.
There are, of course, some glaring exceptions: Beijing-based TikTok, which has grown dramatically in popularity in recent years, was briefly banned in the United States as the government worried about the scale of its potential influence. Even Facebook threads now have over 400 million active monthly users this month.
But all of these have founding roots in what has already become the “last generation” of social media. Wardle, in particular, called TikTok a “broadcast-style” site.
“For the few people who like being in the spotlight, it works,” Maya Watson, founder of the social media site Why?! said. She is currently working on another stealth application. “Most people didn’t sign up to be creators; we just wanted a community.”
Alphonzo Terrell’s social network, Spill, has seen a lot of success by focusing on community.
Spill has become a refuge for Black X users who have fled in the face of rising extremism. Terrell said Spill changed its design from simply providing users with content to connecting them with communities they might be interested in.
For example, those who enjoy watching the WNBA can join a group specifically dedicated to that. Spill also offers games, like Spades — a staple in the Black community — and has partnered with Netflix, Amazon and Paramount to host co-viewing events called “Tea Parties,” where users can watch movies and sports together on the app.
“The next era of social media is not about having the most followers,” Terrell told TechCrunch. “It’s about depth: helping people find their people.”
Many black users also fled to Blacksky, founded by Rudy Fraser. With Blacksky, it is building an open source network on the same protocol and distribution network as Bluesky.
Bluesky’s user base is currently approaching 40 million, according to an online user tracker built with the Bluesky API. Wardle called the social network representative of how online communities seek content more tailored to their political interests, given Bluesky’s left-leaning leanings.
But Blacksky goes even further.
It targets minorities and marginalized individuals and has an algorithm capable of filtering out racial harassment. Unlike X, where a user can block one racist person and then see another, Blacksky users can completely filter what they want from their news feed, providing a personalized social media experience.
“Sometimes you need a global stage. Sometimes you just want a cozy corner with close Internet friends where you can control who sees what,” Fraser told TechCrunch.
Users own their data and can choose to host that information on Blacksky rather than Bluesky, allowing them to control who has access to their content.
People also vote together on decisions, Fraser said, such as what the community guidelines should be and whether non-Black users should be allowed to post in the community.
“Until now, people have had to make a choice, unconsciously or not, between the fragility of the fediverse or closed platforms over which they have no control,” Fraser said. (Fediverse is another open social web service network built on a different protocol, ActivityPub.)
“We are demonstrating with AT Protocol that you can have a great user experience, have a great time on the Internet again and have real autonomy at all times,” Fraser said.
Investors are also following other trends
Artificial intelligence plays an important role in creating niche social communities.
Austin Clements, managing partner at Slauson & Co., sees founders using AI to create apps that understand nuance so well that they go beyond niche social networks to deliver tailored experiences.
“The newer apps are natively designed for the niche itself, allowing them to create the tools and features most relevant to that niche,” he told TechCrunch. “In fact, newer apps usually lead with tools and call the social part “community.” »
Naqvi’s product has an AI tool, although she remains tight-lipped on further details. Its product is a search engine that lets people navigate the rabbit holes of the Internet. It offers an interactive experience, linking fan theories, cultural context and Easter eggs; it creates custom charts, reveals fandom updates, and provides users with monthly reports on their obsessions.
“One of our first testers said it best: ‘It’s like Wikipedia, but if Wikipedia knew exactly what I was thinking,'” she said, adding that her users called it “Mother Lore.”
Emily Herrera, a consumer investor who worked at Slow Ventures, said creators, like Naqvi, are now at the forefront of this new social media ecosystem. Creators are moving away from participating in the “broadcast” ecosystem to creating environments in which they operate as owners, she said, citing newsletters as an example of this trend.
Dani Tran, director of BITKRAFT Ventures, said she also sees the rise of “niche passion communities” in gaming, giving as an example Superbloom, a games studio that targets underrepresented audiences.
“In the future, the most vibrant social communities will be those built around interactive experiences,” she said.
Dillon from Maveron added to that. “The winners will be the platforms that combine privacy, utility and creativity in a single ecosystem,” she said. “They won’t look like traditional social networks; they will resemble multiplayer environments where people can build, buy and own at the same time. »
Or, as Naqvi puts it: people “want tools that help them remember why being online was fun in the first place.”
