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On Wednesday, BuzzFeed founder and chief executive Jonah Peretti announced his plan to launch BF Island, a new social media platform and consumer app.
Peretti shared a manifesto explaining his rationale for launching the new product, pointing to the algorithmic bias of other social platforms and the toxic effect the technology has on its users. In contrast, BF Island will center artificial intelligence, letting audiences use the technology to create content, share it, and find like-minded communities.
Beyond those broad elements, Peretti offered next to no details about the new venture, and company spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment. There is currently no timeline, monetization strategy, or explanation of how BuzzFeed could hope to compete with its infinitely better-resourced competitors in Silicon Valley.
Below are the biggest open questions surrounding BF Island.
Is the timing right?
While BF Island has only a slim shot of success, it does have a few tailwinds at its back. BuzzFeed has a long history of digital innovation and ingenuity in working with social platforms, and AI enables far smaller teams to compete with larger incumbents.
But more critically, the news comes amid a period of growing discontent with the existing social media landscape, according to Clear Sky Collective founder and CEO Kerri Mason.
The most prominent social platforms have all but removed the features that once made them social, and users are increasingly gravitating toward niche engagement rather than scale, creating the white space for a new kind of platform.
As a result, the timing might be better now than it has been in years, according to Sparrow Advisers principal & co-founder Ana Milicevic.
“We’re finally ready to acknowledge that the average person’s online experience today could use a lot of improvement,” Milicevic said. “With incumbents embracing algorithmic curation and recommendation more, it’s opportune to ask how this experience could be better if designed from scratch today.”
How will BuzzFeed drive adoption?
For any new social platform, getting users to actively sign up and participate is a significant hurdle.
“Media brands that can make people show up in physical spaces are inherently limited,” Mason said. “Getting a human being to consciously register for any new digital thing is a close corollary.”