This is a big update for me: 50 Niche Social Networks by the numbers. I used to think we were up against a graveyard of failed projects. There’s truth in that, but it obscures the vibrancy of the existing social media landscape:

• There are 30 social networks most of us have never even heard of pulling in 500k+ monthly active users. This isn’t just a fluke - it’s solid proof that focused, community-driven platforms can thrive.
• In addition to the standard dozen billion+ MAU Major Players (Facebook, Youtube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, WeChat; and .5 billion+ Snapchat, X, Pinterest, Spotify, Reddit, Quora)
• plus the foreign heavyweights (Douyin, Kuaishou, QQ, Weibo)
• there are also 19 pretty other huge platforms killing it

This is testament to

• The viability of focused, community-driven platforms.
• The social media landscape is more diverse than it might seem
• The success of niche platforms suggests there’s still room for innovation and growth in social media, especially for platforms that address specific needs or values that aren’t getting met by current platforms
• One option we have is positioning UpTrust in a different category, we’re not directly competing with established giants but rather creating a new space—where our niche is nuanced conversation about cultural landmines that goes well, in addition to kickstarting the trust economy (instead of the attention economy). It’s not about how long we can keep you scrolling; it’s about creating real connections and actually making people’s lives better.

Platforms with 1-5 Million Monthly Active Users

1. AllTrails: (hiking) ~4 million/mo
2. Letterboxd: (film enthusiasts) ~3 million/mo
3. Bandcamp: (music) ~3-4 million/mo
4. iNaturalist: (nature observation) ~3 million/mo
5. Mastodon: (decentralized social networking) ~2.5 million/mo
6. Ravelry: (knitting) ~2 million/mo
7. Tripoto: (travel) ~2 million/mo
8. Fitocracy: (fitness) ~1-2 million/mo (estimate, exact numbers not disclosed)
9. ResearchGate: (academic research) ~20 million total users, MAU not disclosed
10. Untappd: (beer enthusiasts) ~1.5 million/mo
11. Couchsurfing: (travel networking) ~12 million total users, MAU likely much lower
12. Gaia: (yoga and meditation) ~500,000/mo (estimate)

Platforms with 5-20 Million MAU

1. Fishbrain (fishing): ~6-7 million MAU (estimated)
2. Dribbble (design portfolios): ~5 million MAU
3. Depop (fashion resale): ~4-5 million MAU
4. Day One (journaling): 1-5 million MAU (estimate)
5. Patreon: (creators) ~8 million patrons
6. Komoot (route planning): MAU not disclosed, 40 million total users

Big Niche Social Platforms (20 - 180 million MAU)

1. BeReal: (authentic social media) ~25 million daily active users
2. Fandom: (fan communities) ~315 million total users, MAU not disclosed
3. Soundcloud: (music sharing) ~175 million/mo
4. Discord: (community chat) ~150 million/mo
5. Twitch: (gaming) ~140 million/mo
6. Tumblr: (microblogging) ~135 million/mo
7. Strava: (fitness tracking) ~100 million total users, MAU not disclosed
8. Wattpad (storytelling): ~90 million MAU
9. Goodreads: (books) ~90 million total users, MAU not disclosed
10. Etsy: (handmade and vintage items) ~90 million active buyers
11. Nextdoor: (neighborhoods) ~69 million verified users
12. Flickr: (photo sharing) ~60 million/mo
13. Stack Overflow: (programming Q&A) ~50 million/mo
14. DeviantArt: (art sharing) ~45-50 million/mo
15. Houzz: (home design) ~40 million/mo
16. Duolingo (language learning): ~40 million MAU
17. Meetup: (local community groups) ~35 million total users
18. Behance: (creative portfolios) ~25 million/mo
19. Last.fm: (music scrobbling) ~20 million/mo

Religious Community-Focused Platforms

1. YouVersion: (Christian) ~40-50 million/mo
2. Patheos: (Interfaith) ~10-15 million/mo
3. IslamicFinder: (Muslim) ~10-12 million/mo
4. Pray.com: (Christian) ~5-7 million/mo (estimate)
5. Aleteia: (Catholic) ~20 million monthly visits
6. Catholic.net: (Catholic) ~3-5 million/mo (estimate)
7. Al-Muslimeen: (Muslim) ~2-3 million/mo (estimate)
8. Torah.org: (Jewish) ~1-2 million/mo (estimate)
9. Mi Yodeya: (Jewish) ~500,000-1 million/mo (estimate)
10. Mindar: (Buddhist) ~500,000-1 million/mo (estimate)
11. DharmaMatch: (Buddhist/Spiritual) ~100,000-300,000/mo (estimate)
12. Sikh Sangat: (Sikh) ~100,000-300,000/mo (estimate)
13. Hindu2Hindu: (Hindu) ~100,000-300,000/mo (estimate)

Recent Growth Examples:

• BeReal: Grew from 10,000 users in 2020 to 25 million daily active users in 2022.
• Discord: Grew from 56 million MAU in 2019 to 150 million MAU in 2023.
• Twitch: Increased from 55 million MAU in 2019 to 140 million MAU in 2023.
• Pinterest: Grew from 335 million MAU in Q4 2019 to 450 million MAU in Q4 2022.

Anyone drinking molecular hydrogen rich water? A friend of mine bought a water bottle that turns regular water into hydrogen rich water. She’s been drinking this water for several months and swears by it. She says she has more energy, recovers easily from physical exercise, and her senses are heightened.

The water bottle is distributed by a MLM. I thought it was a new thing. But I researched and was surprised to see how popular molecular hydrogen rich water is.

I’ll usually an early adopter of stuff like this but I’m hesitant because the long-term effects are not known.

Is there anyone drinking this stuff? What has your experience been?

Like is different than trust. I think Jordan said at an uptrust session that he misses the like button. I’m having the same feeling lately, there are posts I like that I wouldn’t necessarily say I trust. Or I want to give it some sort of that was cool but I don’t want that statement in my trust algorithm.

But maybe that’s all for the best? Surely some not-insignificant portion of my trust isn’t in my conscious awareness, maybe feeling a sense of yes to something is functionally the same as trust.

Current Session "instructions" (Feb 26): Converse, and see if nudges happen. nudges 

We launched a system where the AI bots can automatically detect intervention points. We need you to make a bunch of comments and new posts to see if they'll engage. So this week we're asking you to engage a bunch, if you can!

It's a little rudimentary at the moment so sometimes you'll get multiple bots responding on multiple posts. We'd love your feedback on which ones you like, don't, when it seemed to miss the spot, anything else you notice. 

Thanks and love yall

J (and the UpTrust team)
p.s. this week I'm at an investor meeting so dara will be with you

# [Optional Zoom](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86795216050?pwd=TllxSzYrTFFXTW5LRmg3WUQrT04vdz09) with Jordan and Dara at least, for faces, questions, help, etc:

UAP are real and artifacts from non human intelligence. I just attended an event wt the capital factory in austin with some really respected people and now I’m wanting to come out: I’m convinced that UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena, the less stigmatized word for UFO):

• are real
• are craft from Non Human Intelligences (aliens)
• USA gov and aerospace companies have actual materials from these craft and someone has an actual craft
• have been hidden for security reasons for decades
• we need to de-classify so we can put the weight of the usa innovation, research and capital markets to learn about this stuff and create technologies that benefit the wellbeing of humanity
• we can learn to engineer einsteins relativity the way we learned to engineer Maxwell’s equations to do the crazy stuff people are seeing and seem
  Impossible

UAP are real and artifacts from non human intelligence. I just attended an event wt the capital factory in austin with some really respected people and now I’m wanting to come out: I’m convinced that UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena, the less stigmatized word for UFO):

• are real
• are craft from Non Human Intelligences (aliens)
• USA gov and aerospace companies have actual materials from these craft and someone has an actual craft
• have been hidden for security reasons for decades
• we need to de-classify so we can put the weight of the usa innovation, research and capital markets to learn about this stuff and create technologies that benefit the wellbeing of humanity
• we can learn to engineer einsteins relativity the way we learned to engineer Maxwell’s equations to do the crazy stuff people are seeing and seem
  Impossible

Racism through a developmental lens. unfinished draft…
note: I’m totally uninformed here…

• Red: Does this benefit me?

• Amber: My race is simply better (or worse) than yours. We perpetuate it because that’s good.

• Orange: Racism is a thing we transcend by being worldcentric and meritocratic; we perpetuate it by constantly looking at everything through the racism lens.

• Green: Systemic racism is everywhere (and at the root of many of our social problems); we transcend it by balancing the scales with education and programs to help the victims and stop the perpetrators; we perpetuate it by taking advantage of our privileges, ignoring it, and doing nothing.

• Teal: Systemic racism is real, but it’s mostly an unconscious self-organizing system that’s perpetuated because of the incentives that keep things how they are. We transcend by owning our projection, and by setting up systems that reward non-racism for each level of development in the currency that level values.

• Turquoise: We never transcend racism, it’s a construct we enact through conscious embracing and boundarying/channeling or we enact through ignorance.

All these are frames that enact world-experiences that overlap, and they’re all us; these frames keep us from being in awareness and seeing awareness as the stuff the frames are made of-which is the way out of the self-referential self refuting trap of this frame into unity of experience…

note: This doesnt mean everyone who’s using the surface language of systemic racism or whatever is actually at that level—for example there’s a red green alliance that uses Green language because it benefits them directly; there’s an amber-green alliance that uses green language to make their in-group good/better and make others wrong/bad.

Why you should post more: Everything is a mirror of everything.

We’re all censoring most of our awareness.

Uptrust is a currently curated community where we can actually practice thinking.

The more I post the more direct I’m being with everyone in my life. (I have an embedded belief that if I do anything anywhere then I should that anything in more everywheres…but I still curate).

Post about why you’re not posting.

Post about questions you’re asking yourself.

Post about your anxiety.

Post to express art.

This shit won’t last, this fun safe newborn ward. Use this time now to try something. Create a fake name or another account so you can try it from anonymity.

Huge opportunity to bust out of our norms.

Love and play are our natural states of being. Underneath everything is love.

If I can’t feel the love, I know there’s something I’m not including in my experience.

I must be slightly dissociated if I can’t access some touch of gratitude, love, awe, or flow.

There must be something, maybe some pain or grief or anger, something that’s not always easy to feel, that’s calling my attention but I’m not listening to.

So, I tune into my embodiment practice, my support network or simply sit down and try to cry/scream/shake to access myself again.

And when I return to that free flowing and everlasting source of love, that’s where I parent from.

Full commitment to love, play, and nourishment.

My daughter too needs this. When she’s clingy, not able to do any independent play, when she gets easily frustrated or not making eye contact, when she’s starting to hit or throw things or grab stuff from others, there’s usually something that hasn’t been felt. She also needs her support network. Someone who can listen to her.

The listening usually starts through me setting a limit or her experiencing something small but there’s a very large reaction to it. It’s usually not about that thing, but she needs something to help her cry. So I keep placing my limit if I notice that’s what she needs to cry. Or I keep returning our attention to that ball which didn’t fit in the right place (of course, I expect some frustration to be expressed when something doesn’t fit - so here’s always some discernment happening from my side).

After a large big cry in my arms, she returns to play.

Having seen this so many times, I realize this is our natural state of being, this is the action we choose once we’re in alignment with love.

Play

This is how she learns. This is how she lives. This is her ultimate focus of existence. And when all is settled and good, she plays.

If I can’t make time to play with her, if I can’t access the love for life and follow her invitation to see something anew, then something fundamental is missing from my life. Then I’m too serious, too adult, and have lost touch with my fundamental nature, which also is play.

Diapers can be thrown on the wall or placed on your head. If we can use towels to dry ourselves after a bath, we can also experiment with other clothes. We can wash dishes by splashing water from one bowl to another. We can hit the eggs on the counter five times very hard and they crack that way too!

A parent stuck in their role as an authority might look at me and think I’m ridiculous and teaching my daughter to be disrespectful. But at the end of the day, our family goes to sleep with smiles and laughter after a day full of exploration and discoveries, with hearts so full that tomorrow we will continue to play. In that way, it’s a regenerative practice.

The times when I’m attached to outcomes, overbooked with commitments, or deprioritize self-nourishment, I’m not inclined to play, and it’s a negative feedback loop. My daughter feels disconnected, and everything feels harder.

Housekeeping doesn’t feel hard when your toddler runs with giggles to the trash can to throw something away. It feels hard when your toddler is screaming for your attention because you’re ignoring them, so attached to making it clean so you can be with them without the kitchen screaming at you that it needs to be cleaned (this is especially true for women who have diffuse awareness). When I’m connected to love, I invite her to lead us in how to clean the kitchen. Or I clean the kitchen in the silliest way, placing her in the sink while I’m doing dishes, playing with a lot of soap, or giving her the sponge to be in charge of scrubbing.

And she’s not a bad kid for throwing a diaper on the wall, it’s just an invitation for either of us to return to play and love.

Yes, it might look wild. And it is, most of the time. It’s wildly fun. It’s wildly creative. It’s wildly enlivening. It’s wild love. And it only happens when I’m able to really be there, connected to myself, all the opportunities of life and the everflowing current of love.