Social Network as we know it today, is coming to an end(2/2)
Recap: In the first part of this article, I spoke about how and why I moved away from Facebook. To sum it up, it was because of two reasons 1/ Lack of association 2/ Facebook did not grow up with me — its system was not dynamic enough.
In this piece, we will take a larger deep-dive into how social networks as we know it will continue to evolve and fragment. Facebook’s disruption sits right on the principles of a bell to barbell curve movement. Facebook started by generalizing social networks, and as it scaled it became less and less specific to a point that it almost lost its essence for people. Now, the social network mass-market product is being challenged from all sides some solving specific use cases better such as Tik Tok, some making social networking more niche towards the right with stuff like Clubhouse.
Not everyone has the same rights in the platform to invite and create groups, depends on how invested you are in the community; moderating quality of conversations through unequal participation
Andrew Chen from a16z tweeted some time ago that “Clubhouse could be the next silicon valley”. We will have to wait and watch if and how this will be impacted. So, what does Clubhouse do differently, lets have a look:
The clubhouse is an audio-format invite-only social network that allows different people to chat about common themes and ideas in a room. It makes it easier to speak to strangers, and also listen in life to some high-profile speakers. Its intimate nature is probably one of its strengths,s for now, imagine if you mainstream it → how troublesome it may get. It's also not a democratized social network → where anyone can make a group without any authority on the topic. Selected super-users have different rights and as you become a veteran on the platform you get more chances to participate in building these groups for networks.
Frankly, the jury is still out on Clubhouse, it does have the early attention because it is trendy, raised a bunch of cash but as it grows in users, it will continue to get more generic → thereby losing its charm. Today, almost everyone I know in the startup/ VC world is in the clubhouse.
Communities that are bounded by rules, specific interests are more powerful than generic connections. On Facebook, anyone can fake it, but harder on these rule-based association platforms→ which will soon take off
You have heard of Bumble, right? Correct, the one that did IPO recently. On its website, Bumble defines itself as a “women-focused” social network and dating platform. My alumni network at INSEAD already has an alumni directory that allows me to reach out and schedule a chat with anyone in the ecosystem; simple, sophisticated, and specific segmentation of its customers by their work will become more powerful places to network and meet people.
Rise of the private social networks; Value add that goes beyond just conversation
I would also like to mention a young startup trying to do more than just network for women based out of India: Leapclub. A women-only social network that allows leaders from companies to chat, network, and attend masterclasses together, but it doesn't take everyone — just like every elite institution. Because these private social networks dont scale, they need to monetize their customer base by providing more than a place to chat and network. They provide professional coaching, master classes by industry experts among other things.
There is an underlying trend here that is driving such a change. This is not the first time that smaller social networks have tried to build products to provide these services. But, this is the first time that it is tech is affordable and more readily available. As the new industrial worker (read: engineer) gets more commoditized, the development of social networks has become a lot easier from 10–12 years ago. Engineering as a moat for Facebook has died, resulting in its inability to continue to hold onto innovation in the social network domain. More and more leapclubs will rise to service niche segments → redefining what we expect from our social networks of the future.
