Hive is quickly becoming the alternative to Twitter, which is gradually seeing its users decide to run away from the ship.
We are talking about an independent social network that exceeds a million users and is run by only three people.
After the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, the users they have chosen another alternative Social: hive. Although it is not the only one that is seeing its users increase, the open source microblogging platform Mastodon is also experiencing a notable increase in users.
But back to Hive, which is currently in the top 20 in the US app store after seeing this surge of interest over the weekend as things on Twitter are getting worse.
In 2019, Kassandra Pop decides to found Hive, which is not a clone of Twitter. It is a social application focused on Gen Z. It combines concepts from several well-known social networks, including MySpace, with interesting functions such as adding music to their profiles, among other striking things.
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What is Hive?
It’s no coincidence that Hive, the alternative to Twitter, is becoming so popular. The app doesn’t rely solely on the feed like Twitter does. Hive users can explore their interests in a wide variety of topic communities such as: science, cars, music, fashion, crafts, video games, art, food, crafts, pets, etc. In these communities, users can publish the content they want, leave their likes, comment on other content, share what interests them, etc. You can even click on their respective hashtags to delve deeper into these topics.
We could say that several features of Hive will help many former Twitter users to feel like their new home, thanks to the simple and familiar set of navigation options. It has tabs to see the main timeline or the feed, a Discover section to explore the social network, another to access the profile and notifications, etc.
The mutual friendship model is not used as in other social networks (Facebook, for example). In this case, the same followers model that Twitter uses is used.
Hive does not monetize through ads
Another huge difference that exists with the rest of the social networks is that Hive avoids personalization algorithms in favor of a chronological feed and does not monetize through ads. Instead, Hive offers its users the ability to pay to unlock additional slots that will give them the ability to showcase more of their favorite music on their profile. With values from $0.99 for a second, up to $1.99 for a third or fourth, as we can see from the app’s App Store listing.
The alternative to Twitter, Hive exceeds one million users
Obviously, after everything that is happening with Twitter, this social network is gaining a lot of ground. According to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, about 214,000 of Hive’s 733,000 installs on iOS and Android occurred in the last 30 days.
Hive seems to have caught the attention of a lot of people outside of the US, accounting for 86% of downloads, Sensor Tower reports.
If we compare them to Data.ai’s estimates, it all adds up, seeing more than 720,000 total installs as of November 20, though they see a higher number coming from the United States.
Over the weekend, the application saw the number of users increase considerably. Perhaps not coincidentally, this occurred when Musk decided to welcome former President Donald Trump to Twitter by unlocking his account.
Trump has yet to send out any tweets, stating that he prefers his own Truth Social app, apparently Musk’s move was more than enough to turn off a huge number of users who were already thinking of leaving the social network.
Data from Sensor Tower makes it clear that Hive had more than 144,000 installs from Friday, November 18 to Sunday, November 20, 2022. Of all these installs, 22,000 were from the US. In this same period, the app passed from number 338 in the iPhone store, to number 17 today. In the UK it sits at number 17, while in Canada it sits at 24.
A new home for former Twitter users
From what we’ve been able to see in a post on Hive’s TikTok, the app crashed over the weekend when more than 80,000 people signed up at the same time. From Hive’s Twitter account, it was reported that the app now has almost 900,000 registered users in total (this data doesn’t align with Sensor Tower’s download estimates, though the third-party data isn’t an exact science).
However, this weekend isn’t the first time Hive has seen an impressive influx of new users. The app experienced a small increase in downloads in February 2021, when it achieved 439,000 new installs, of which 64% came from the United States. This move can be attributed to the founder’s decision to pay a TikTok influencer to create a video, which resulted in some 250,000 installs in a few days, they claimed at the time.
Everything seems to indicate that the new generations are more attracted to new social networks run by independent founders, leaving aside the big technological brands.
The app was previously seen raising money on WeFunder, though no official announcement was made about this. To clear up some doubts, the app, available at Hivesocial.app, should not be confused with the older Hive Social app, which was previously hosted at hivesocial.com.
Kassandra Pop said that subscriptions as of Thursday night had surpassed 400,000 and the app has already surpassed 1 million users.
A social network run by three people
So that we understand the concept a little; Hive is run by a team of three, including Pop and two other developers, whose full names have not been provided to the press by the founder.
Given this situation, many users have expressed their concerns regarding the security of the social network. They have noticed that the app has some strange quirks, such as non-unique usernames that could lead to phishing, for example. It was also noted that the terms and privacy policy are somewhat vague, the lack of 2FA, and an inexperienced team are all things to be wary of.
