The Three Decade Story of Social Media in a Nutshell and What is the Best X Alternative

The birth of social media was arguably in 2002 when Friendster was launched. A year later, MySpace arrived and every Gen X’er, including me, and many Millennials jumped on board. Facebook came in 2004 and has been ever-present for over 20 years. And how about YouTube? Started in November 2005 and sold just 11 months later to Google for $1.6B! I know that today it’s worth a lot more. Current estimates put a value of $500B on YouTube. But making over a billion dollars in 11 months sounds like good money to me!

A year later in 2006 Twitter appeared and then Instagram in 2010. With Instagram we also see a big markup. Eighteen months late, it was bought by Facebook for $1B. At the time, Instagram was a 13-person start-up. It is now a global leader in social media. Could it have succeeded without the Mark Zuckerberg magic? We will never know.

Jump forward to 2025. Twitter has now become X after Elon Musk bought it in 2022 for $44B. And only last month xAI, valued at $80 billion in the deal, bought X for $30 billion. This brings the whole issue of AI and data and privacy into the equation but I want to look at who the other players are in the social market first.

The competitors to X are Instagram, Facebook, GETTR, Truth Social, Parler, Minds and Gab. But with censorship running rampant during the Covid tyranny, a number of platforms promoted themselves as free speech activists. This removes Instagram and Facebook (both owned by Mark Zuckerberg who has now suddenly converted to being a free speech activist … but only for US users). So let’s look at the main free speech players in chronological order.

Minds was the first of a raft of free speech-oriented social media platforms launched in 2015. Minds has been described as more privacy-focused than its competitors and is open source. Some high-profile figures promoted Minds at its 2020 NYC “MINDS: Festival of Ideas”. But Minds remains a niche player that has never really proved a mainstream alternative to the big players. Most recent usage figures from Similar Web are 470,000 visits per month.

Gab launched in August 2016 and then had a full public launch 9 months later. Gab has actively been building and supporting its own server infrastructure. This is a smart move to protect from being shut down but it has meant slower growth. In 2020, Gab migrated to itsr own in-house servers. Gab has suffered from its minimal moderation which has meant it is unable to have an app on Apple or Google app stores. Most recent usage figures from Similar Web are 4.7M visits per month.

Parler was launched in August 2018, billing itself as an unbiased and free speech alternative to larger social media platforms. Conservatives quickly praised Parler for offering a free speech alternative to Twitter and Facebook. Parler’s user base grew massively in 2020 and became the most well known Twitter alternative platform but, after it was accused of coordinating Jan 6, it was removed from the Apple store and Google play store.

And soon after, on January 10th, Amazon Web Services cancelled its hosting and it went offline. It restarted a month later after moving its domain hosting to Epik and a year later was back on Google and Apple app stores. Near the end of 2022, Kanye West agreed to buy Parler but it fell through.

At the time, George Farmer was the CEO. George is the husband of Candace Owens and his father was Treasurer of the UK’s Conservative Party, and life peer in the House of Lords. In April 2023, Parler was acquired by Starboard and was temporarily shut down prior to a relaunch. Eight months later it was sold to another group and relaunched in February 2024. Most recent usage figures from Similar Web are 275,000 visits per month.

Next up is GETTR which was launched on 4th July 2021 by President Donald Trump’s former senior advisor Jason Miller. While Gettr explicitly identifies itself as supporting free speech and opposing censorship, the site moderates user content to at least some extent. It has been available as an app from Apple and Google from the very beginning. Most recent usage figures from Similar Web are 1.4M visits per month.

And the newest kid on the block is Truth Social launched by President Trump in October 2021. President Trump had been banned from Twitter/X in January 2021 and, in true Trump fashion, he started his own social media company. Within a year it was available to download as an app from Apple and Google app stores. Most recent usage figures from Similar Web are 30M visits per month.

So, what is the conclusion to understanding this avalanche of social media options?

Gab sometimes feels overwhelmed with anti-Jewish posts. and only US users can sign up to its paid pro option.

Minds seems to lack traction despite being around for a decade.

Parler has been launched for the 3rd time and so the jury is still out on its future success.

Truth has a large user base but has restrictions on streaming and other capabilities.

GETTR seems to have stood the test of time. It is available on the app stores (unlike Gab). It has great live streaming capabilities (unlike Truth Social) and has never gone down or changed hands (unlike Parler). And of course GETTR has one of the most well-known MAGA advocates ever, Stephen K Bannon. WarRoom streams on GETTR and SKB uses GETTR exclusively so if you want to follow the MAGA architect then GETTR is the place to be.

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