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Mobile app WeAre8—which launches in the U.S. today, Adweek can exclusively share—aims to offer a social media alternative to hate speech and misinformation. Its ad model lets people opt in and get paid to watch ads.
That money can then be withdrawn or directed to charitable causes such as Feeding America, Save The Children and Water.org.
WeAre8 has been live in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand over the last 12 months. The platform is backed by publishers like The Independent, LADbible and Pink News, which publish content to the platform daily.
“The world of social that we live in today fuels hate, climate misinformation, and destroys our democracy,” said Sue Fennessy, founder and global CEO of WeAre8. “I thought, what if we can reimagine the digital ad model and then wrap around it a social media that is full of love, supports the planet and where people come together to make a positive impact every day.”
The app doesn’t allow tobacco, big oil and gambling firms to advertise on the platform.
More effective, lower-carbon ads
WeAre8 generates revenue via ads but shares 50% of it with people via micropayments, 5% with charity and climate change solutions, and 5% with its creator and publishers.
Because people can cherry-pick the content they like, the ads, in theory, are more effective for brands. Research by ad effectiveness tracking platform Lumen found that for every 1,000 impressions on an ad delivered on WeAre8, 14,819 seconds of eyeballs watched the ad. This is 10 times the amount of attention compared with its closest competitor TikTok, and 26 times more than an Instagram in-feed video, according to the company.
