All other things being equal, a larger network is more likely to have folks we want to communicate with on it. Ideally, we want our social media platforms to include our tribes. Size isn’t everything, but the network effect has its advantages. But its open network plus community ownership is a strong plus in my book. Whether Mastodon survives and thrives remains to be seen. But the only feature that truly matters at this moment, even more than how “hip” a network is, is if it talks to every other network. Unfortunately, alternative networks can throw marketing money at all sorts of other features trying to convince you that those features matter more. has a great lead feature that none of its competitors have yet replicated-its adherence to the open web. Mastodon is not owned by anyone it’s free, open-source software written by Eugen Rochko and released in 2016. This brings us to Mastodon, which is different. And that has meant leaning hard on data-mining or advertising-driven business models-and companies that don’t do that ultimately find themselves out of the conversation entirely. The immense value of any given social network has ultimately been in data, rather than by offering services to the creator. The financial incentive has created problems over time that have helped to complicate the shape of social media. They are built for onboarding, not for long-term growth, which means that they lead with cool features, not with promises of sustainability.Īnd that’s where commercial networks often falter. And that means that they are built to generate value for their founders. Of course, the distinctive thing about all of these networks is that each ultimately is centralized, rather than being built on an open protocol. Why should you care? Ernie Smith explains why ownership and openness matter when choosing a social network alternative to Twitter. Since going public in 2013, Twitter has only occasionally turned a profit, and one has to wonder if the recent significant pause in advertising by its major customers bodes well for its financial future. Meta’s and Twitter’s main income source is advertising, though both services also make money selling the data they collect to third parties. Of the above platforms, Counter Social is (probably) the only one that owners who’d like to make money don’t control. Hive Social is owned by its founder, Raluca Pop, and an angel investor. Several large venture capital companies own Discord. Post News, launched a few weeks ago, is funded by venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Scott Galloway, and others. An anonymous individual, describing himself as an “American patriot” owns Counter Social. Meta (formerly Facebook) is a public corporation but Mark Zuckerberg controls over half the corporate votes. Twitter was a public company until Musk bought it. Most social media companies are for-profit corporations, whether publicly or privately owned. I’ve included references to helpful resources for you to learn more.īefore we dive into detail about individual platforms, it’s important to understand a few important structural factors that impact user experience and the long-term evolution of these services. Regardless, I hope this summary will be a useful introduction. This is not an exhaustive review (which would at this point need to be book-length). In this post, I’ll share my findings and thoughts. Each platform offers a different experience due to often subtle design decisions. Alternatives to TwitterĪlternatives to Twitter include Mastodon, Discord, Post News, Counter Social, Hive Social, and many more. Time will tell whether the exodus will become a rout, which could happen if Twitter becomes too toxic or unreliable. Click the image for my post: “Why 2017 was a tipping point for Twitter” ~150 of my followers have left the platform since Musk’s purchase five weeks ago. Twitter has already transformed once, becoming more about breaking news than engagement as I describe in my post: Why 2017 was a tipping point for Twitter. I joined Twitter in 2009 and have had ~8,600 followers for the last few years. In response to these developments, I’ve been looking into alternatives to Twitter. Reportedly, Twitter has restored thousands of accounts that were previously banned by the company’s own moderation teams, and half of Twitter’s top advertisers have left the platform. Since Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter on October 27, 2022, its status as a stable social media platform seems to be rapidly imploding.
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