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Instagram Is Over

theatlantic.com

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Re: Instagram Is Over

#221

Post by BbzzbB »

rglullis wrote: post #202
isametry wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, and do those providers have 1.5 billion users like Gmail does? I'm not really sure whether you made this analogy to disagree or to prove their point.

Neither. The analogy was to say that their point was irrelevant . The fact that there is a network with 1.5B users does not prevent of a smaller, pay-to-join, network.

It obviously doesn't, plenty of space for niche players.

But it does prevent them from becoming the next 2B people social network which will default to becoming to go-to social media to connect with just about anyone you meet in the world.

A $1/month app won't replace Instagram (the article is about IG dying).

Re: Instagram Is Over

#223

Post by rglullis »

BbzzbB wrote: post #221
rglullis wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither. The analogy was to say that their point was irrelevant . The fact that there is a network with 1.5B users does not prevent of a smaller, pay-to-join, network.

It obviously doesn't, plenty of space for niche players. But it does prevent them from becoming the next 2B people social network which will default to becoming to go-to social media to connect with just about anyone you meet in the world. A $1/month app won't replace Instagram (the article is about IG dying).

My sibling comment addressed this point: my bet [0] is that the next big social media network is not going to be a monopolistic walled garden, but it will be instead made by a constellation of federated providers. My belief is not that Instagram is going to be replaced by one niche app where people pay $1/month, but it will die and be replaced by thousands of smaller players who can interoperate:

- Newspapers, TV networks and streaming services who will offer a "free" account to their Mastodon (or similar) server for paying subscribers.

- "Influencers" who will be hosting their own ActivityPub servers

- Companies who will realize that they can put all their marketing communications under their own control and branding.

- Fringe communities who will be running their servers just because they can.

- Commercial providers who will look for something that can differentiate themselves (privacy, custom clients with special features) and charge for it.

- etc, etc, etc.

[0]: By bet, I mean that literally. This has been one of my side-projects and I've put already a non-negligible amount of time and money into it. Thanks to Musk, my service has seen more activity, signups and inquiries about custom hosting in the past 3 weeks than it has seen in the first 3 years.

Re: Instagram Is Over

#224

Post by specialist »

kodisha wrote: post #151
specialist wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the CPG, dating, porn, gaming, and clothing industries? Some categories of brands can be long lived. Coca Cola and Disney. Some categories of brands are mayflies. Pop music, TV, fast fashion. My hunch is the average lifecycle of social media brands and MMORPG properties are roughly the same. Say 5-10 years?

WOW would like to have a word.

Mosdef. Ravelry and metafilter are my go to examples of outliers. By what magic are they sustaining themselves?

Re: Instagram Is Over

#225

Post by wrycoder »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #204
devoutsalsa wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube figured it out, whether it was intentional or not. Let me pay money to not see ads. I watch a lot of YouTub & have a premium subscription. If I needed to watch unskippable ads, or any pre roll ads, I’d mostly stop using YouTube at all.

No. Paying money not to see ads is completely backwards, it's just extortion. Why should I pay to avoid having my attention stolen or my mind programmed with corporation trademarks? It should be illegal for them to even attempt to invade my mind like this. My mind is mine , it's not a blank slate for them to insert their little brands at will. Advertising is aggression and ad blocking is self defense. Paying any amou…

You are paying directly for servers, admin, content creators, and bandwidth in real money.

Instead of wasting time watching annoying ads.

I think it’s a great deal.

Re: Instagram Is Over

#226

Post by flawn »

63 wrote: post #107
Animats wrote: post #86

"To scroll through Instagram today is to parse a series of sponsored posts from brands, recommended Reels from people you don’t follow, and the occasional picture from a friend that’s finally surfaced after being posted several days ago. It’s not what it used to be." That seems to be how social media services die. Too many ads, fewer users, revenue drop, more ads to boost revenue, still fewer users, irrelevance. This…

This isn't my experience with Instagram at all. I only follow people I know personally, check in once or twice a day and see posts and stories from them and really nothing else. No sponsored posts, no reels, etc. Maybe some ads. I don't use the discover page and stop scrolling my feed once I get through all the new posts so maybe that's it.

I true that. That article seems like a big cap to me, younger generations including me still use it pretty avidly. Interesting that there is such a different perception on that
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