The established social media platforms are starting to show their age. They have become the establishment they were disrupting ten to twenty years back.
Facebook was one of the first to get people disfranchised and looking for alternatives. Now, we see a similar trend in its other products Instagram and WhatsApp.
Tiktok is a newer kid in the block with a fresh take on the audience discovery. They bring the audience to your content but there’s a twist. You may not need to pay for user acquisition but that’s the downside, too.
Users are there for some content, not particularly for your content. Relationship building and retention need to happen elsewhere if you manage to guide the clout to other greener pastures.
YouTube has tightened its content policy and creators are heading for the exit. It’s hard to build a business in a platform where your content may not be visible one day or the recommendation engine avoids you.
Twitter used to be a beacon of free speech. Now, it follows the footsteps of YouTube and getting people irritated in the process.
Medium was the writing platform for some years. Now, it’s getting its paywall blocking articles in a way that only the major news outlets used to do.
All these are signs for a larger transformation that is (hopefully) the theme of this decade: A decentralised web where the content creator is in direct control and owner of the content distributing it directly to the audience.
We are getting back to the very basics of the Internet again. How to connect people and make it resilient without centralised parties in the middle.
