A Myspace-like app tops the charts as upstarts try to replace Big Tech socials
.jpg)
Bringin’ back the “Top 8”… Social app Noplace, which launched last week and briefly hit No. 1 on the App Store, lets users rank their friends into a top 10. That’s not the only way it imitates millennial-fave Myspace: its founder, Tiffany “TZ” Zhong, appears to be users’ first friend (remember Tom?) and the app was originally named Nospace. Noplace also lets users create profiles with their birthday, relationship status, and interests (horror movies, “Animal Crossing,” etc.). The app’s main feed is reminiscent of X with reverse-chronological text-based updates.
Un/filtered: Noplace users can choose between “wholesome” mode and an “unfiltered, unhinged” experience for their feed. Teens get more moderation by default.
Momentum: 500K folks signed up for Noplace’s pre-launch waitlist earlier this year after the app went viral on TikTok, and it’s backed by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian’s venture fund.
Everyone wants to be… the next big social platform, but most surge in popularity and sputter out. BeReal and Lapse were both billed as anti-Instagrams. BeReal, the impromptu pic platform, was bought out last month after its monthly users fell from 74M in 2022 to 23M this year. Lapse also had little luck with unfiltered pics: in November, downloads dropped 70% from their October peak. Bluesky and Mastodon emerged as X replacements, but with users in the single-digit millions, they’re guppies compared to the big-fish platforms. Meta recently said that Threads (its X rival) has 175M monthly users after its first year.
Social media is a #s game… Users don’t seem happy with major platforms like Insta and X (see: data-privacy and moderation issues, adverse effects on mental health), but new social apps aren’t very social when most of your friends don’t use them. Despite Meta’s haters, its apps have nearly 4B monthly users. Threads/Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told Sherwood, “It is easier to get people to try something than to build something that people want to use on a regular basis.” In other words: sustaining hype is hard.