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Thanks for sharing! I think the idea is great (Usually new social media networks have some good underlying idea) but how are you going to overcome the massive h

by dewey 5y ago

Thanks for sharing! I think the idea is great (Usually new social media networks have some good underlying idea) but how are you going to overcome the massive hurdle of getting people to join a new social media network? Many people says they "hate" social media, in reality everyone is still using it and it's very hard to even convince people (even close family) to use another messenger even though the barrier is way lower than a social network.

ricokatayama 5y ago
that’s a key question. OP mentioned Path (which was an incredible product), but probably they struggled with the acquisition. One of the super powers in a social network is the network effect and OP need to understand how to overcome that.
jstrafy 5y ago
Thanks for the comment! I think it's a great question, the hypothesis with Circles is that a vast amount of people would like to share online but don't because of the dynamics of these other social apps make them uncomfortable. So in that the hurdle has been overcome because people are able to share content and interact in ways that they 'can't' do elsewhere. There's also a group of people (like myself) who avoid typical social media, so downloading a different solution is less of a hurdle because it's designed for them. However, you point about people 'hating' social media yet still using it is well and true. It's almost like fruit vs mcdonalds, everyone would prefer to be an avid fruit eater and have control of their diet, but few do in the end. In that we believe the only moat for social networks is providing utility that other networks can't - YC wrote a really good blog post on this in relation to WeChat (https://www.ycombinator.com/library/3t-how-wechat-grew-to-be-the-1-app-in-the-world https://www.ycombinator.com/library/3t-how-wechat-grew-to-be...). We're obviously not there yet but it's a start. Also, if looking for a solution to that messaging problem, Beeper and Texts.com are creating something exciting there. Perhaps the social media equivalent of these services will be enabled by interoperability by DeSo, ETH or the like. Interesting to think about.
anderspitman 5y ago
IMO the way to succeed as a new social network is to use the Slack approach. Make your tool useful to small organizations and communities, and then connect instances later. Slack is useful to my team even if no one else uses it, but it's nice to be able to invite anyone who uses slack into our channels.

by dewey 5y ago

ricokatayama 5y ago

that’s a key question. OP mentioned Path (which was an incredible product), but probably they struggled with the acquisition. One of the super powers in a social network is the network effect and OP need to understand how to overcome that.

jstrafy 5y ago

Thanks for the comment! I think it's a great question, the hypothesis with Circles is that a vast amount of people would like to share online but don't because of the dynamics of these other social apps make them uncomfortable. So in that the hurdle has been overcome because people are able to share content and interact in ways that they 'can't' do elsewhere. There's also a group of people (like myself) who avoid typical social media, so downloading a different solution is less of a hurdle because it's designed for them. However, you point about people 'hating' social media yet still using it is well and true. It's almost like fruit vs mcdonalds, everyone would prefer to be an avid fruit eater and have control of their diet, but few do in the end. In that we believe the only moat for social networks is providing utility that other networks can't - YC wrote a really good blog post on this in relation to WeChat (https://www.ycombinator.com/library/3t-how-wechat-grew-to-be-the-1-app-in-the-world https://www.ycombinator.com/library/3t-how-wechat-grew-to-be...). We're obviously not there yet but it's a start. Also, if looking for a solution to that messaging problem, Beeper and Texts.com are creating something exciting there. Perhaps the social media equivalent of these services will be enabled by interoperability by DeSo, ETH or the like. Interesting to think about.

anderspitman 5y ago

IMO the way to succeed as a new social network is to use the Slack approach. Make your tool useful to small organizations and communities, and then connect instances later. Slack is useful to my team even if no one else uses it, but it's nice to be able to invite anyone who uses slack into our channels.