Table of Contents
In a move beyond Meta and traditional centralised social media, decentralised social media platforms (DeSo) are trying to step in and change one of the world’s most influential spaces. And we’re seeing how and where it’s happening.
Traditional Social Media’s Popularity
With five billion people on social media, traditional social media companies have the most active users, by far. Facebook leads in popularity with 3.06 billion active monthly users, YouTube sits behind with 2.70 billion, WhatsApp and Instagram follow closely behind, with 2.4 billion and 2.36 billion respectively.
While they have the lion’s share of users, traditional social media has several significant issues from data breaches to inconsistent content moderation. Meta, Twitter and LinkedIn, while well-used, are often under serious scrutiny. This, to the degree that only 18% of users said that they trust Facebook (Meta) with their data.
And we’re seeing the uptick on decentralised, private platforms to counter it. Telegram’s 5-year search growth of 400% puts it as the social media app that has experienced the most adoption in the last few years by far, TikTok’s 227% trails behind it.
Comparing Telegram to Meta’s WhatsApp
Telegram’s approach is at odds with the leaders but it’s intentional: The privacy-focused app is working hard to work with new and emerging security sensitive technology like blockchain. While the platform itself isn’t decentralised, Telegram has aggressively adopted Web3 integrations.
New developments including the Mini Apps Store, blockchain-based gaming and The Open Network (TON) and users are onboarding.
Telegram’s Mini Apps have seen 500 million users step in and shop on them. The integrated blockchain by Telegram, The Open Network (TON)is the fastest growing Layer 1 chain this year. The TVL has risen a massive 27 times from $1 million to $386 million in the last eight months.
In contrast, Meta’s WhatsApp has made no inroads into the Web3 space or implemented any blockchain technology processes into any of its systems.
Other Decentralised Platforms
Mastodon
Mastodon has seen a major user increase, with the platform itself hosting over three million users. The consumer base places value on privacy and data security.
Lens Protocol
Launched in 2022, Lens Protocol has embraced the growing demand for decentralised social media. The platform offers unique features like allowing users to mint social handles as NFTs.
Steemit
One of the earliest iterations of a DeSO platform, Steemit has developed a model which allows users to earn cryptocurrency for creating and curating content. It’s a way to encourage creation, and not just consumption.
The Hot Take
The hot take from the team behind Coin Insider is that WhatsApp and centralised media will remain the giant - for now. Convenience is where the masses are with social media and people will stay where others are.
Convenience also will start to come at a cost; whether it’s data or finances and more people will lean towards the privacy-centric decentralised platforms. When there is a wave of movement towards decentralisation, the mass exodus from centralised platforms will likely follow.
