A new wave of social media apps offers hope in a world of doom

Zehra Naqvi recalls the magical days of the early days of the social web.

She grew up in the One Direction and Marvel fandoms in the early 2010s. It was a very long time ago when people posted photos of Valencia-filtered lattes on Instagram and Twitter was still Twitter, a place where people got here together to exchange jokes and cultural evaluation.

But now Instagram is full of influencers, and Twitter is X, a digital town hall with sharp political divisions.

“The platforms that won were the ones that kept people scrolling the longest, not the ones that made them feel the most connected,” Naqvi told TechCrunch. “Now there’s a lot of content, but not a lot of fun.”

But that is starting to vary. Naqvi is part of a new wave of social media: area of interest online communities focused on interests. This month she announced the launch of her company, Knowledge— a site that helps fans stay awake thus far with their fandoms.

She says users increasingly need to spend less time on generic sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and as a substitute join online communities tailored to their interests.

Natalie Dillon, a consumer investor at enterprise firm Maveron, says she’s beginning to see more founders building business-focused networks.

“At its core, consumer behavior is driving a shift from efficiency to participation,” Dillon told TechCrunch. “For the next generation, community is not a feature put on top of the product. It is the product.”

He gives such examples Buy itan app that enables users to share their favorite restaurants with friends, or Fizz, which connects people studying at the same university. Others include an astrology bonding app Co-Staror even Partialthat enables people to attach with friends to plan events.

These are the types of participatory apps Naqvi desires to create – something reminiscent of the early social web, before it “became fractured and joyless.”

“Niche spaces give people permission to be specific and show up as a whole person without getting lost in an algorithm,” she said.

The previous generation of social media firms found success with “more,” she continued; more followers, more reach, more noise. But some founders and users are now coming to a different conclusion – perhaps there is no single social app that may turn out to be the “next big thing.” There can be several of them.

Maybe that is the point.

“We have learned that depth matters more than width,” Naqvi said.

Niche online communities are growing

Of course, private groups like subreddits, Discord servers, and Facebook communities have all the time existed. On X, following many of the same accounts was also a solution to enter one other online sphere: Think Tech Twitter or Black Twitter.

However, large sites’ algorithms curate content for users, giving them more of what they think they need to see. Content creators are not innocent either, they fuel and fuel trends, topics and discussions – anything that may create fame and keep eyes on their work.

“We have reached a saturation point,” Naqvi said. “Everyone is tired of doom scrolling and performative content.”

In other words, the days of large, generalized sites like Facebook are over, in response to Claire Wardle, an associate professor at Cornell University who studies modern information ecosystems.

Wardle said users have turn out to be concerned about the amount of time they spend online, content moderation, hyper-political spaces and the persistence of social media posts.

Of course, there are a few glaring exceptions: Beijing-based TikTok, which has seen a huge surge in popularity in recent years, was briefly banned in the U.S. as the government became concerned about the scale of its potential influence. Even Facebook Threads currently has over 400 million monthly lively users this month.

But all of them have their roots in social media, which has already turn out to be the “last generation”. Wardle, in particular, called TikTok a “broadcast-style” site.

“For the few who like to be the center of attention, it works” – Maya Watson, founder of the recently closed social networking site Why?! he said. Now he’s working on one other app in secret. “Most people didn’t sign up to be creators; we just wanted a community.”

Alphonzo Terrell’s social network Spill has been very successful with its focus on community.

Spill became a haven for Black X users who fled in the face of rising extremism. Terrell said Spill has modified its design from simply providing users with content to matching them to communities that may interest them.

For example, those that enjoy watching the WNBA can join a group specifically for this purpose. Spill also offers games like Spades – a staple of the Black community – and has partnered with Netflix, Amazon and Paramount to host co-watching events called “Tea Parties,” where users can watch movies and sports together on the app.

“The next era of social media won’t be about having the most followers,” Terrell told TechCrunch. “It’s about depth; helping people find their people.”

Many black users also fled Blackfounded by Rudy Fraser. Together with Blacksky, it is building an open-source network based on the same protocol and distribution network as Bluesky.

Bluesky’s user base is currently is approaching 40 millionin response to an online user tracker built using the Bluesky API. Wardle called the social network an example of how online communities are looking for content more aligned with their political interests, given Bluesky’s leftist leanings.

But Blacksky goes a step further.

It targets minorities and marginalized people and has an algorithm that may filter out racial harassment. Unlike X, where a user can block one racist person and then see one other, Blacksky users can completely filter out every part they need from their timelines, providing a custom social media experience.

“Sometimes you need a global stage. Sometimes you just need a cozy corner with your close friends on the Internet where you can control who sees what,” Fraser told TechCrunch.

Users own their data and can decide to store this information on Blacksky slightly than Bluesky, giving them control over who has access to their content.

Fraser said people also vote collectively on decisions like what the community guidelines needs to be and whether non-Black users should have the ability to post to the community.

“Until now, people have had to make a choice, unconsciously or otherwise, between the tackiness of Fediverse and closed platforms over which they have no control,” Fraser said. (Fediverse is one other network of open social networking sites built on a different protocol, ActivityPub.)

“With AT, we are showing that you can have a great user experience, have fun online again, and have true autonomy at all times,” Fraser said.

Investors also follow other trends

Artificial intelligence is playing a big role in building more area of interest social communities.

Austin Clements, managing partner at Slauson & Co., sees founders using AI to create apps that understand nuance so well that they go beyond area of interest social networks and offer tailored experiences.

“New apps are built natively for the niche itself, allowing them to create the tools and features most relevant to that niche,” he told TechCrunch. “In fact, newer apps tend to offer tools and call the social part “community.”

Naqvi’s product includes an AI tool, although it does not reveal further details. Its product is a search engine that enables people to go down web rabbit holes. Provides an interactive experience by referencing fan theories, cultural context, and Easter eggs; creates personalized charts, reveals fandom updates, and gives users monthly reports on their obsessions.

“One of our early testers put it best: ‘It’s like Wikipedia — but if Wikipedia knew exactly what I thought,’” she said, adding that users call her “Mother Knowledge.”

Emily Herrera, a consumer investor who worked at Slow Ventures, said creators like Naqvi are now in the highlight of this new social media ecosystem. Creators are moving away from participating in the “broadcast” ecosystem to building environments in which they act as owners, she said, citing newsletters as an example of this trend.

Dani Tran, director at BITKRAFT Ventures, said she is also seeing the continued growth of “niche passionate communities” in gaming, giving Super bloomfor example, a game studio targeting underrepresented audiences.

“Looking into the future, the most vibrant social communities will be those built around interactive experiences,” she said.

Dillon from Maveron added to this. “The winners will be the platforms that combine intimacy, utility and creativity in one ecosystem,” she said. “They won’t look like traditional social networks; they will look like multiplayer environments where people can build, buy and belong at the same time.”

Or as Naqvi puts it: People “want tools that help them remember why being online was cool in the first place.”