Zehra Naqvi remembers the magical days of the early social internet.
She grew up in One Direction and Marvel fandom in the early 2010s. This was back when people were posting photos of their lattes on Instagram with Valencia filters, and Twitter was still Twitter, a place where people came together to exchange jokes and cultural analysis.
But now Instagram is full of influencers and Twitter is a digital town hall X of intense political disagreements.
“The winning platforms were the ones that kept people scrolling the longest and the ones that made them feel the most connected,” Naqvi told TechCrunch. “We now have an abundance of content, but a dearth of joy.”
But that’s starting to change. Naqvi is part of the new wave of social media: niche, interest-driven online communities. This month, she announced the launch of her own company, Lore, a site that helps fans maintain their fandom.
She believes that users increasingly want to spend less time on popular sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and instead participate in online communities tailored to their interests.
Natalie Dillon, a consumer investor at venture firm Marvelon, says more founders are starting to build networks that prioritize profits.
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“Essentially, consumer behavior is driving a shift from performance to participation,” Dillon told TechCrunch. “For the next generation, community is not a feature layered on top of the product; it is the product itself.”
She points to examples such as Beli, an app that allows users to share their favorite restaurants with friends, and Fizz, which connects people who attend the same university. Other options include Co-Star, an astrological bonding app, and Partiful, which lets you connect with friends and plan events.
These are the types of participatory apps Naqvi wants to build, something akin to the early social internet before it “broke down and stopped being fun.”
“Niche spaces give people permission to express themselves and be who they are, without getting lost in an algorithm,” she says.
Previous generations of social media companies achieved success by “doing more,” she continued. More followers, more reach, more noise. However, some founders and users have now come to a different conclusion. There will likely be not one, but several social media apps that will be the “next big thing.”
Perhaps that’s the point.
“What we learned is that depth is more important than breadth,” Naqvi said.
Niche online communities are expanding
Of course, there have always been private groups like subreddits, Discord servers, and Facebook communities. At X, following many of the same accounts was also a way to enter another online realm: Think Tech Twitter and Black Twitter.
But big sites’ algorithms curate content for users by giving them more of what they want to see. Content creators are not innocent either, feeding and fueling trends, topics, debates, and anything else that can spark fame and steady attention for their work.
“We have reached a saturation point,” Naqvi said. “Everyone is tired of doomscrolling and performative content.”
In other words, the days of building large, general-purpose sites like Facebook are over, said Claire Wardle, an associate professor at Cornell University who studies modern information ecosystems.
Wardle said users are becoming increasingly concerned about the time they spend online, content moderation, overly political spaces and the persistence of social media posts.
Of course, there are some obvious exceptions. Beijing-based TikTok has grown significantly in popularity in recent years, but was briefly outlawed in the United States due to government concerns about its potential influence. Even Facebook’s Threads has over 400 million monthly active users as of this month.
But all of these have their founding roots in what has already become the “last generation” of social media. Wardle, in particular, called TikTok a “broadcast-style” site.
“For a few people who love the spotlight, it works,” said Maya Watson, founder of the recently shuttered social media website Why?! Said. She is currently secretly developing another app. “Most people didn’t sign up to be creators. We just wanted a community.”
Alfonzo Terrell’s social network Spill has achieved great success by focusing on community.
Spill became a haven for Black X users who fled in the wake of rising extremism. Terrell said Spill has pivoted its design from simply providing users with content to matching them with communities that might be of interest.
For example, if you love watching the WNBA, you can join a group dedicated to WNBA. Spill also offers games like Spades, a staple of the black community, and has partnered with Netflix, Amazon and Paramount to host co-viewing events called Tea Parties, where users can watch movies and sports together on the app.
“In the next era of social media, it’s not about having a lot of followers,” Terrell told TechCrunch. “It’s about depth and helping people find their people.”
Many black users also fled to Blackski, founded by Rudy Fraser. Together with Blacksky, he is building an open source network on the same protocols and distribution network as Bluesky.
Bluesky’s user base is currently approaching 40 million people, according to an online user tracker built with the Bluesky API. Wardle said the social network is representative of how online communities seek out content tailored to their political interests, given Bluesky’s left-wing leanings.
But Blacksky goes a step further.
It targets minorities and marginalized individuals and has algorithms that can filter out racial harassment. Unlike X, where users block one racist and then see another, Blacksky’s users can completely exclude what they want from their timelines, providing a custom social media experience.
“Sometimes you need a global stage. Sometimes you need a cozy corner with your closest internet friends where you can control who sees what.” Fraser told TechCrunch.
Users own their data and can decide to host such information on Blacksky rather than Bluesky, giving them control over who can access their content.
Fraser said people will also vote together on decisions such as what the community guidelines should be and whether non-Black users can post in the community.
“Unconsciously or not, people have had to choose between the awkwardness of the Fediverse and closed platforms over which they have no control,” Fraser said. (fediverse is another network of open social web services built on top of another protocol, ActivityPub.)
“We are demonstrating that with the AT protocol, you can deliver a great user experience, have fun again on the internet, and have true autonomy at all times,” Fraser said.
Investors are also paying attention to other trends
Artificial intelligence is playing a big role in building more niche social communities.
Austin Clements, managing partner at Slauson & Co., sees founders using AI to better understand nuance and build apps that go beyond niche social networks and create customized experiences.
“The new apps are built natively for the niche itself, allowing us to create tools and features that are most relevant to that niche,” he told TechCrunch. “In fact, new applications are typically tool-driven and call the social part ‘community.'”
Naqvi’s product includes AI tools, but she remains silent on further details. Her product is a search engine that allows people to go down the Internet rabbit hole. It provides an interactive experience linked to fan theories, cultural background, and Easter eggs. We create personalized charts, reveal the latest in fandoms, and provide monthly reports on what you’re obsessed with.
“One of our early testers used to say to me, ‘This is like Wikipedia, but if Wikipedia knew exactly what I was thinking,'” she said, adding that users call her “Mother Lore.”
Consumer investor Emily Herrera, who previously worked at Slow Ventures, said creators like Naqvi are now sitting at the forefront of this new social media ecosystem. Creators are moving away from participating in the “broadcast” ecosystem and instead building environments where they act as owners, she said, citing newsletters as an example of this trend.
Dani Tran, principal at BITKRAFT Ventures, said more “niche passion communities” are emerging in gaming, citing game studio Superbloom, which targets underrepresented audiences, as an example.
“In the future, the most vibrant social communities will be those built around interactive experiences,” she said.
Marvelon’s Dillon added to that. “The winners will be the platforms that combine intimacy, practicality and creativity within one ecosystem,” she said. “They won’t feel like traditional social networks. They’ll feel like multiplayer environments where people can build, buy, and belong all at once.”
Or, as Naqvi put it, people “want tools that help them remember why they enjoyed being online in the first place.”
