Interesting perspective. Emphasis on focused value. Social media is so broad and already dominated. This broadness lacks the focused value that can be provided by a game, canva-like tool, etc.
In other words single intention apps.
Haven’t thought much about superusers not just being the most engaged but also most monetized because they keep buying more.
Completely agree. Many exciting trends in technology and human preference are presenting an opportunity for $20+ a month subscription tiers in consumer products. Products that provide incredible value for a small set of desperate users (but larger than 10,000,000) that are severely underserved. I'm building something in this space right now. Will apply to SPEEDRUN once I launch and get some traction! Thanks for sharing, Andrew; always enjoy reading your insights.
Thought provoking as always, Andrew - and forward looking - Thanks for sharing ! Agree on the limited runway for ad-supported model. Would love your thoughts on ways to get the flywheel effect and sustainable virality from these niche audiences. Monetizable distribution would still matter, I imagine.
Thank you, Andrew, for sharing your insights. You are always ahead of the curve, and it was a refreshing post to read.
Whale verticals will favor 'last movers' with deep domain expertise, profit-focused business models, and superior execution skills. And the bright future isn't in apps but in platforms tailored to B2C-2-B2B verticals.
Contrary to what many founders and investors may think, for anyone with the above 'assets,' there are more and better opportunities today than there were 15 years ago.
Thanks for the insightful article, Andy! It’s highly relevant to what we’re building over at inda.band. Also, just a small note: there’s a duplicated “often” in the sentence “…tools often often scale up in terms of $ on usage…”. Looking forward to your next post!
Thank you for the insightful article. We're focusing on SEO and it is still worth investing in it because it brings us huge traffic. But eventually, it wouldn't work.
Also, our product is B2C and social media, then we've been focusing on rapid organic growth, but it's a good timing to start thinking of monetizing and becoming profitable at this moment.
Thank you for writing this Andrew, your words describe what we’re running into with our project- that sort of “yeah yeah we’ve seen it all…” reaction. We’ve been thinking that examples like Doximity and Muck Rack are the way forward, which align with your thinking/experience…. Keep the writing coming, it helps! Thank you-
You are right. The next mass-appeal mainstream consumer app on mobile will be a 1000X social network with vertical utility workflow as its foundation. And the first hybrid Web2/3 market-network model decentralized on the front end. Where the consumer owns their privacy, data, and UGC. Where community services, not ad-supported models, are the monetizers. And then the true power of dApps emerges. Gamified systems will be a new catalyst for immersive consumer interaction. Novel dynamic mobile programmable GUIs, including multi-modal RWA tokenization and p2p payments, will become a new standard for asset leverage and monetization. The entire value chain as its own vertical market category. A new dynamic network effect. BTW, I invented and patented it all. 18-year journey. I am one of the builders you speak of. I am making an announcement on LinkedIn in three weeks.
That was insightful, now i am starting to feel how "threads" by meta is now a lost opportunity. Even with the network effect its probably not going to create that impact which it may have a few years ago.
An interesting perspective on these are dating apps - generational changes and additiction fatigue are opening the way for a new generation of dating products. Why would this not happen to more mainstream social media apps, you think?
Another note: "Consumers have heard it all" - only applies to all that can be made with current tech! I think this is partly why crypto was so interesting for a while - because it opened the doors to new ideas, but we all know what happened there. I think it's also partly why AI is so exciting to developers right now. The perennial question then arises: < startup : tech :: incumbent : distribution >
You're seeing the same verticalization of consumer apps in social media, with activity-specific apps like Beli and Strava blowing up. They create socialization and gamification around activities a lot of us do (eating out, physical activity). What activity do you think is next?
Agree on so many levels here, the old models of billions of users are for entertainment, and the user is an ad unit. By adding value and focusing on a vertical, the user is given value for what they are doing in business or life, not just manipulated by algos to appear and have ads thrown at them.
Think the ad driven monetization model is too predatory for the new world we are all entering. And AI has already done damage and hurt user experience through algos, few people want to be an ad unit experience in a social tool. The value for the user is connection, for the social company it's to monetize you and ROAS.
The problem with the ad model is you need billions of users in social to make it work, and millions of engaged people at a influencer/business level to monetize. And those audiences aren't driven by masses like they used to be, they are driven by personalized, customized experiences.
So key is that focus on 10% of the users driving most of the revenue, and segmenting so you can serve them better, while finding ways to pick out those who are not yet part of the 10% but are qualified.
Personally I've been unlearning everything I'm doing in the past 5 years, the old ways are so gone.
Interesting perspective. Emphasis on focused value. Social media is so broad and already dominated. This broadness lacks the focused value that can be provided by a game, canva-like tool, etc.
In other words single intention apps.
Haven’t thought much about superusers not just being the most engaged but also most monetized because they keep buying more.
Definitely makes me think…
Thanks Andrew great ideas!
Completely agree. Many exciting trends in technology and human preference are presenting an opportunity for $20+ a month subscription tiers in consumer products. Products that provide incredible value for a small set of desperate users (but larger than 10,000,000) that are severely underserved. I'm building something in this space right now. Will apply to SPEEDRUN once I launch and get some traction! Thanks for sharing, Andrew; always enjoy reading your insights.
Thought provoking as always, Andrew - and forward looking - Thanks for sharing ! Agree on the limited runway for ad-supported model. Would love your thoughts on ways to get the flywheel effect and sustainable virality from these niche audiences. Monetizable distribution would still matter, I imagine.
Thank you, Andrew, for sharing your insights. You are always ahead of the curve, and it was a refreshing post to read.
Whale verticals will favor 'last movers' with deep domain expertise, profit-focused business models, and superior execution skills. And the bright future isn't in apps but in platforms tailored to B2C-2-B2B verticals.
Contrary to what many founders and investors may think, for anyone with the above 'assets,' there are more and better opportunities today than there were 15 years ago.
Thanks for the insightful article, Andy! It’s highly relevant to what we’re building over at inda.band. Also, just a small note: there’s a duplicated “often” in the sentence “…tools often often scale up in terms of $ on usage…”. Looking forward to your next post!
Could Substack itself be the next large horizontal app?
Thank you for the insightful article. We're focusing on SEO and it is still worth investing in it because it brings us huge traffic. But eventually, it wouldn't work.
Also, our product is B2C and social media, then we've been focusing on rapid organic growth, but it's a good timing to start thinking of monetizing and becoming profitable at this moment.
Memo to myself: https://glasp.co/kei/p/36fe7484b038ead70e3b
This information is invaluable. Thanks a lot Andrew for sharing :)
Thank you for writing this Andrew, your words describe what we’re running into with our project- that sort of “yeah yeah we’ve seen it all…” reaction. We’ve been thinking that examples like Doximity and Muck Rack are the way forward, which align with your thinking/experience…. Keep the writing coming, it helps! Thank you-
You are right. The next mass-appeal mainstream consumer app on mobile will be a 1000X social network with vertical utility workflow as its foundation. And the first hybrid Web2/3 market-network model decentralized on the front end. Where the consumer owns their privacy, data, and UGC. Where community services, not ad-supported models, are the monetizers. And then the true power of dApps emerges. Gamified systems will be a new catalyst for immersive consumer interaction. Novel dynamic mobile programmable GUIs, including multi-modal RWA tokenization and p2p payments, will become a new standard for asset leverage and monetization. The entire value chain as its own vertical market category. A new dynamic network effect. BTW, I invented and patented it all. 18-year journey. I am one of the builders you speak of. I am making an announcement on LinkedIn in three weeks.
That was insightful, now i am starting to feel how "threads" by meta is now a lost opportunity. Even with the network effect its probably not going to create that impact which it may have a few years ago.
An interesting perspective on these are dating apps - generational changes and additiction fatigue are opening the way for a new generation of dating products. Why would this not happen to more mainstream social media apps, you think?
Another note: "Consumers have heard it all" - only applies to all that can be made with current tech! I think this is partly why crypto was so interesting for a while - because it opened the doors to new ideas, but we all know what happened there. I think it's also partly why AI is so exciting to developers right now. The perennial question then arises: < startup : tech :: incumbent : distribution >
You're seeing the same verticalization of consumer apps in social media, with activity-specific apps like Beli and Strava blowing up. They create socialization and gamification around activities a lot of us do (eating out, physical activity). What activity do you think is next?
Agree on so many levels here, the old models of billions of users are for entertainment, and the user is an ad unit. By adding value and focusing on a vertical, the user is given value for what they are doing in business or life, not just manipulated by algos to appear and have ads thrown at them.
Think the ad driven monetization model is too predatory for the new world we are all entering. And AI has already done damage and hurt user experience through algos, few people want to be an ad unit experience in a social tool. The value for the user is connection, for the social company it's to monetize you and ROAS.
The problem with the ad model is you need billions of users in social to make it work, and millions of engaged people at a influencer/business level to monetize. And those audiences aren't driven by masses like they used to be, they are driven by personalized, customized experiences.
So key is that focus on 10% of the users driving most of the revenue, and segmenting so you can serve them better, while finding ways to pick out those who are not yet part of the 10% but are qualified.
Personally I've been unlearning everything I'm doing in the past 5 years, the old ways are so gone.
This might be my favorite essay you've written. The thesis hits harder every time I revisit with a fresh perspective.