Amid all the hype surrounding the latest social apps and tools, and how they’ll revolutionize the space, one aspect is often overlooked – building a challenger app, given the current state of Social Media, has become increasingly difficult, with the vast majority of newcomers set up to fail, regardless of the early buzz they generate.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this happen. And yet, trendsetters can’t help themselves fawn over the next big fad, in hopes that they’ll be leaders in the new space, via first-mover advantage. In most cases though, they won’t.

Let’s BeReal, Again

BeReal is the latest hype app that’s feeling the heat in this respect. Once a key trend, BeReal reportedly reached 73 million monthly active users just last August, which had many proclaiming it as the next big thing – a return to the roots of authentic connection on social apps. However, BeReal’s functionality remains fairly limited. Users get a notification once per day to share what they’re doing. Outside of that, there’s really not much else you can do on the app.

The BeReal trend sparked copycat features on TikTok, Instagram, and others, and since that August peak, BeReal downloads have cratered. As a result, BeReal is now trying out new functionalities, including Spotify integration and multiple photos to expand its offers. For the most part, however, it’s time for BeReal to play catch up, which isn’t always the easiest thing for any brand.

Also worth noting is how BeReal, at one stage, was valued at $600 million, showing that market valuations don’t always accurately reflect the state of the app space. To some degree, market valuations are also based on hype – so an app valued even in the billions isn’t guaranteed yet to stick around. Before BeReal was Clubhouse, which tried to ride the wave of audio social that heavily buzzed back in 2021, amidst skyrocketing downloads as the pandemic ensued. In April 2021, Clubhouse had 10 million weekly users and was valued at $4 billion. Can you guess what happened next? Right now, neither BeReal nor Clubhouse would be considered ‘good’ investments, while Meta, Twitter, Snapchat, and others continue to jockey for market share. Of course, the exception here is TikTok because, well, it’s TikTok.

At one point, TikTok was in the same boat, it was a new player, but it also took its time to establish itself and learn from its more successful Chinese version. This approach has seen TikTok become a titan, and it shows what can be done. A challenger app can still come in and dominate, it’s just increasingly hard to do so.

The Wrap

Case-and-point – it’s important to always extensively assess the latest hype trends, and consider whether or not it’d be wise to invest time and effort into building a presence. Most trends just come and go, but there are, of course, exceptions. Still, that doesn’t mean that you should try and jump on every new and shiny app that comes out. Experimenting is always a good move, and it’s worth keeping all of this in mind as you map out your next moves as trends continue to pop up.

Sources

https://bit.ly/3n3PTyQ