News and Insights
New social media platforms for 2023
January 20, 2023
Over the past few months, Twitter has seen a major shake-up with the Elon Musk takeover. The billionaire entrepreneur has been using the platform to promote his various business ventures, changing features daily, and not to mention laying off around half of Twitter’s staff, with many shortly after being begged to come back! Unsurprisingly, all of this has caused quite the stir among Twitter users who are growing tired of his constant presence. As a result, many are looking for alternative social media platforms to call home.
Let’s take a look at some social media platforms set to make their mark in 2023.
Hive Social
When was Hive Social released? October 2019
How many users does Hive Social have? Over 2 million
What is Hive Social?
Hive is a social media app with a strong focus on content creation and rewards users for their contributions. Users can create and share content in the form of text, images, and videos, and they can also earn rewards in the form of Hive tokens for their engagement on the platform. The rewards are determined by the community through a system of upvoting and downvoting, like other blockchain-based platforms like Steem.
What are Hive tokens?
One of the key features of Hive is its built-in wallet, which allows users to store, send, and receive Hive tokens. The platform also has a built-in marketplace where users can buy and sell goods and services using Hive tokens.
Hive also has a strong focus on community building and allows users to create and join groups based on their interests. There are a variety of communities on the platform, including ones focused on art, photography, and cryptocurrency.
In February 2021, Hive Social reached #1 on the iOS App store. Though it’s since plummeted in the rankings, it could make a resurgence in 2023 with users seeking new social media alternatives.
WeAre8
When was WeAre8 released? WeAre8 was founded in 2012, certified as a B-Corporation in 2020, and launched in the UK in 2022.
How many users does WeAre8 have? The total active monthly users of We Are 8 is still unclear as the shortest lived of our upcoming social platforms for 2023. We Are 8 launched in the UK in 2022 with its next aims being to conquer the US and Australia.
What is WeAre8?
“A social media app that inspires you, is good for the planet, free from hate, puts money in your wallet and celebrates the good in life in just 8 minutes a day.”
WeAre8 is a social networking app that pays you to watch ads and then gears 60% of all ad spend directly to its users and “impact” oriented causes!
Yep, you heard right, you can now get paid for watching adverts. WeAre8 believe it’s time to put the power – and money – back in consumers hands. Plus, they want to put people and the planet in prime position to be the ones benefiting from the platform’s success, not business directors and shareholders. The company give 55% of ad spend to people and charities, with a further 5% dedicated to a creator fund to fuel micro shows, collaborations, and monthly challenges on the 8Stage – a hate-free evolution of the social feed.
“Choose if you watch ads or not but get paid for those you do.”
The ad experience on WeAre8 is far more tailored than most social media platforms. Rather than interrupting the content and feed experience, users can choose if and when they want to watch adverts and after they do, they will be rewarded with a payment between 5-20p. These payments can then be used to pay off mobile bills, cashed out directly into their PayPal account, or forwarded to charities. Over 50% currently do the latter.
The platform also allows users to connect with like-minded individuals and build communities around shared interests. Users can create and share content in the form of text, images, and videos, and they
can also connect with friends, join groups, and participate in discussions.
Having secured funding from Channel 4, among other businesses, and gaining valuable screen time with their TV ad, 2023 looks set to be a big year for WeAre8. And with the UK approaching (or arguably already in) an economic crisis, literally paying people for their time and attention on social media may be perfectly timed.
Lemon8
Preview from the App store of Lemon8
Heard of that platform TikTok that’s grown crazy traction over the past few years? Well, its parent company, ByteDance, also owns Lemon8. So watch this space!
Created to compete with another huge Chinese platform, Xiaohongshu, ByteDance crafted Lemon8. By March 2022, they had already acquired more than 1 million downloads across Japan and has since been expanding into new markets.
What is Lemon8?
Lemon8 is focused on connecting people with similar interests and hobbies. Users can create and join groups, share content, and participate in discussions on various topics. Though you can post what you like, much like Instagram, as a highly visual platform it has a focus on topics such as fashion, makeup, food, travel, home decor, and pets.
The name stems from the word ‘lemonade’, and offering something fresh. With the number 8 also symbolising infinity. To put simply, we could interpret the name as ‘always something fresh’.
Despite ByteDance’s tremendous success with TikTok globally, Lemon8 is a way off tackling the social media giants here in the UK. But we’ll be keeping a close eye on how it advances over this coming year.
Mastodon
When was Mastodon released? 2016
How many users does Mastodon have? About 1.8 million
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a decentralized social media platform that allows users to create and join communities based on their interests. The platform is open-source and is similar to Twitter in terms of functionality. It allows users to create “instances,” which are essentially their own independent versions of the platform that can have their own rules and communities. The instances are run by volunteers and are not for profit.
Users on Mastodon can post short text updates, called “toots,” that can include text, images, and videos with options to share only to their followers, people they mention, or to the world. Mastodon also has a feature called “Boosting” which is similar to the “Retweet” feature on Twitter, and also allows hashtags to be included in content.
It was reported that Mastodon had over 2.5 million monthly active users during its peak in October and November 2022. Their impressive jump in users matched the timing of Musk’s Twitter takeover almost perfectly. Since then, this has levelled to around 1.8million, which is still a very impressive and noteworthy figure.
As Musk continues to cause friction with Twitter users, who’s to say more won’t jump onto the Mastodon bandwagon in coming months.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as social media continues to evolve – or many may say de-volve in Twitter’s case – new and innovative platforms are emerging to meet the changing needs of users. Whether it’s privacy, decentralization, payments, or sustainability, these new platforms are offering something different and unique. It will be interesting to see which platforms will rise to the top in the coming years, and even how the landscape changes in 2023.
Which platform are you betting on?