Funding social media

I am a supporter of the position that many of the problems with social media would be solved if there was more competition among social media providers. This is similar to the position taken by Sinan Aral in Hype Machine. However, once a few social media services come to dominate the market it becomes extremely difficult to establish competition. This challenge is a function of the network effect which makes existing services with a large number of participants far more valuable simply because this is where the opportunities for social interaction exist.

I have been exploring social services for some time. One of my favorites, WT.Social, I joined in late 2019. There are no ads on WT.Social, which might be argued to be a competitive advantage, but the site has to overcome the network effect and the challenge of finding a funding model.

WT.Social is free, but encourages contributions from those who see the benefit in the site. When I joined in 2019, I felt I was contributing more to the site than I was receiving in benefits. This was because I was providing content, but because of the network effect, I received little in social interaction. I also objected to the support model WT.Social was pushing. It expected the commitment to a subscription model. I would have preferred I contributed what I felt was a fair amount given the benefit I received. I wrote to the site several times explaining how I felt and indicating that I was willing to contribute if I was allowed to control how frequently and how much I gave. I reasoned there should be an alternative to free or more than I thought I should provide.

This has now changed. WT.Social has added one time contributions with the opportunity to set the amount provided. Now, I will hang on to see if the service gains in popularity.

Don’t misinterpret my approach to this service. I think there is a real possibility here and it is worth making a contribution or contributions depending on your personal resources.