In recent years, discussions about what the future of social media might look like have increasingly become common. The rebranding of Twitter to X after Elon Musk’s acquisition, the introduction of new social media startups, and Meta’s launch of Threads have made it clear that the next five years from now won’t look like the last. The world now actually doesn’t know what social media will look like five years from now. Many startups and large legacy players like Meta appear to think that there will be a new catch-all platform that will capture people’s attention in the way that Twitter and Facebook did, but will everyone simply move to a platform only different in name to continue the same cycle? That’s what is crossing a lot of people minds after the launch of Threads by Meta.
One thing that is clear though is the niche of social media verticalized entities that target a specific demography or a hobby than start ups looking to build large platforms. In todays market, a platform with a tighter focus will have more potential because it allows for strong communities to be built. One of the recent social media app that have targeted a specific demography is Lex. Lex is a social app aimed at the LGBTQIA+ communities. At three years old now, Lex doesn’t look like the next Reddit, Tinder or Twitter, although its scope grows as more folks publicly identify as LGBTQIA+. On Apple’s U.S. charts, Lex ranks around No. 350 among iPhone social networking apps. Lex allows its users to find friends, roommates or events, all rooted in the queer space.
Startups like Lex make a lot of sense as the are capitalizing on the fact that if someone is joining large social platforms like Threads or Twitter to find a specific community, it’s definitely a lot easier to just join a platform that is already focused on and have well curated content for that community or interest. Why would someone from a marginalized group scroll through irrelevant content, hate and bots to find their community when there’s already a dedicated space elsewhere? Lex offers the best answers to this question. There are many such demographic-specific platforms (and many more are in development) that focuses on bringing together people who share the same interests and hobbies.
Another example is Twitch. Twitch is a platform for gamers to connect, stream video, and talk about games. Twitch has now expanded beyond its initial focus, and is now estimated to have 31 million daily active users. Many people could urge that gamers and people who identify as LGBTQIA+ make up quite large populations, but most “niche” communities generally tend to be bigger than they first appear. And there are many venture-backed companies seeing a lot of engagement from these so-called small groups. This same aspect has seen an increase in people flocking dating sites targeted at a specific community, music apps, movie apps, agricultural apps, technology apps, travel apps and many others just to get that specific satisfaction they are yawning for without being seen as or considered outcasts.
The chances of success of these new fleet of social media startups that are trying to target a specific demography or specific hobbies, are high and investors are competing across the world to invest or buy these ventures as their futures’ are bright. On the contrary, this is not conclude that the new fleet of social media startups that are trying to target everyone will fail. If these platforms don’t end up building the same appeal as Twitter or Instagram, they may still be able to find devoted communities to keep them going. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, TikTok and more are immensely popular, but they are in no way perfect. As people evaluate their relationship with social media among all the chaos, I think they will look for a better option — or options. For social media investors, it’s likely the future riches will be in the niches.