Social Media Platforms - June 2021

  Instagram revealed how it decides what content, like posts and stories, to show you. One of the deciding factors is how often you interact with the person who posted. Here are the other three things Instagram uses to feed you content.

Platforms to keep an eye on

The challengers: These young multi-billion dollar platforms are nipping at the heels of social giants that grew up in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Tiktok: China’s first globe-spanning social app has cemented its place alongside US-based competitors like Facebook and Twitter.  note: I personally haven't used it and I don't intend to use it.

Clubhouse: With just 10 million users, the year-old audio-only platform generated major buzz during the pandemic and has spawned copycats from almost every major social media player. (More on that below.)

Discord: After turning down an acquisition offer from Microsoft, the audio- and text-based chat platform is eyeing an IPO.

Experiments to watch: These nascent platforms are testing users’ appetite for new content formats that haven’t been packaged together in exactly the same way by the reigning social networks.

Houseparty: The video chat app allows users to spontaneously hop into calls with any of their friends who are online, or join any open group conversation in which they know at least one person. Yubo: This French social network aimed at teens combines elements of dating apps like Tinder with live streams of everyday life you might find on Twitch. Poparazzi: The photo sharing app doesn’t allow users to add pictures to their own profiles. Instead, users add to their friends’ profiles by uploading photos of them (acting as their paparazzi—get it?). Honk: In this live texting app, messages aren’t saved and friends see your messages in real time as you type them.

Brief history

2004: Mark Zuckerberg drops out of Harvard and launches Facebook.

2005: Two University of Virginia students launch Reddit with $100,000 from Y Combinator.

2006: Two ex-Google employees launch Twitter as a side project while building a podcasting tool.

2009: WhatsApp is founded. Facebook would later buy it and guide its growth to 2 billion users.

March 2010: Pinterest launches in an early beta mode.

Oct. 2010: Instagram is founded. Facebook would later buy it and guide its growth to 1 billion users.

2011: Snapchat is founded. Facebook would later make an unsuccessful attempt to buy it, followed by a more successful attempt to hamstring its growth by copying its “story” feature.

2012: Vine, the last major platform of the early social media era, is founded. Twitter would soon buy it and kill it.

Of the newer challengers mentioned above, Discord was founded first, in 2015. It wasn’t until 2018 that the app began seeing explosive growth—and, as with TikTok and Clubhouse, Discord was catapulted into further popularity during the pandemic in 2020.

Charting Facebook’s dominance

Facebook owns four of the world’s most popular social platforms, illustrating the extent to which the company was able to consolidate its power over social media over the past decade.

Quartz   There are a few possible factors that help explain the new faces in the field: Regulators spooked Facebook by stepping up antitrust enforcement. Wary of attracting negative attention, the social media giant has eased up on its usual practice of buying up potential competitors, giving them time to develop on their own. Users have embraced new content formats and no one platform can do everything well. Apps like TikTok and Clubhouse filled unserved niches (short video and live audio, respectively) that the major platforms left vacant. Incumbents lost users’ trust. Facebook and Twitter have borne the brunt of the blame since 2016 for amplifying misinformation, snooping on user data, and applying inconsistent moderation standards, leaving people more willing to try out a new option. The pandemic left people feeling bored, lonely, and eager to find new ways to connect via social media. Whatever the reason, we’re about to find out which theory is right. The challengers could continue to grow, carving out their own niches or even stealing market share for Facebook. Or the giants could win again. 23 June 2021: Google is facing another antitrust investigation by the EU. Officials are scrutinizing whether Google prioritized its own online ad business over competitors. More on the probe here.