Context-Based Social Networks

Written by Hithesh Shaji

September 3, 2024

Most people think the “social media” era is over. They look at giants like Meta and Google and think, “The world is already connected; there’s nothing left to build.” But if you look at history, every time we have a platform shift, it produces new ways of communicating.

Back in the day, we had UnixMail for nerds on servers. Then the PC came along, and we got Gmail and Hotmail for everyone. When we moved to mobile, we got apps like Superhuman to help us manage the massive volume of emails we were suddenly receiving.

As we go through the platform shift of AI what new social and communication tools will be used by 1b+ users?

Three Waves of Social Networks

So far, social networks have gone through two big waves. The first was Connection-based (like Facebook or LinkedIn)—it was all about who you know. Then came the Content-based wave (like TikTok or YouTube), which is all about what you find entertaining.

I believe the third wave is Context-based which is about who you actually are. Context is information that is useful for inference e.g thoughts, actions, data, app activity, wearable integration etc. Because context is so much richer than a simple “like” or a “follow,” it allows for connections that feel human and substantive rather than algorithmic and shallow.

Just as the previous era of social media was built on a “long tail” of content, context based network will be built on a long tail of social apps that generate and use context. However, social apps have a context cold start problem.

The Cold Start Problem

• For Users: When you open a new app, it’s a blank slate. It doesn’t know your history or your relationships, so the “immediate value” is non-existent. You have to put in weeks of work—like training Spotify to learn your taste—before the experience feels personal. Often, users churn before that “magic” ever happens.
• For Builders: Developers are stuck in the dark. They can’t create those “magical moments” right away because they have no data to work with. They are forced to build generic experiences while they wait for the user to manually provide enough context to make the app useful.
  
  

Currently we only record about 2% of our context digitally however we are doubling the amount of context every 3 years. How do you manage all of your context? How can we utilise our context while still being in control of what you share with others. Today’s social apps like Instagram are based on an ads model which means that the context they build on the user are not portable to other apps. This limits the amount of useful application we can build.