Noplace: The New Social Media App Revolutionizing Connections | AppBajar

Noplace: The New Social Media App Revolutionizing Connections

Aiming to bring the “social” back to “social media,” a new app called noplace has surged to the top of the App Store as it launched out of invite-only mode on Wednesday. Designed to appeal to a younger crowd—or anyone who wants to connect with friends or around shared interests—noplace is reminiscent of Myspace with its colorful, customizable profiles that allow users to share everything from relationship status to what they’re listening to, watching, reading, and more.

Noplace had already gone viral ahead of its public launch, thanks to its feature that lets users express themselves by customizing the colors of their profile. Even though Gen Z may not have grown up with Myspace, there's a nostalgic appeal to a social networking experience they never had.

“I think that part of the magical, fun part of the internet is gone now. Everything is very uniform,” says Tiffany Zhong, founder and CEO of noplace. Zhong, who previously founded her own early-stage consumer fund, Pineapple Capital, and in her teens, worked at Binary Capital, has a knack for spotting the next big hit in consumer social apps.

Zhong’s keen eye for trends was evident when she flagged Musical.ly in 2015 as a startup poised to become the next Snap or Twitter. Her insights and analysis, often shared on social media, have earned her a following, making her well-equipped to understand what might appeal to today’s younger users in a new social networking app.

“I’ve always loved social,” Zhong says, but she notes that social media today doesn’t feel very social. “Everything is just media. It feels very disconnected.” This disconnection, she believes, is because our content is highly personalized. “We’re watching different content and [following] different interests than our friends, so community is harder to find as a result,” she says.

Noplace aims to solve this by providing a platform where people can follow their friends and discover others who share their interests. The app features mini, customizable profiles where users can share what they’re currently up to and personalize them to reflect their interests. Profiles can include tags, or “stars,” representing interests or topics users care about, making them discoverable by others. It even includes a “top 10 friends” section, reminiscent of Myspace’s top 8.

However, unlike Facebook or Instagram, noplace focuses on text-based updates and doesn’t support photos or videos for now. Users are encouraged to share what they’re currently doing rather than what they’ve done. If you’re in a new city, watching a show, or checking out a new band, these can be your status updates. The app offers two feeds: one with your friends and another global feed from everyone in the app, both in reverse chronological order. There are no private profiles.

To ensure safety, particularly for younger users, noplace provides a moderated feed for those under 18 and has built an internal dashboard for content moderation, managed by a dedicated team.

Noplace leverages AI technology for suggestions and curation, offering summaries of missed content rather than editing the feed. “We did that intentionally… having a global, public feed is what makes it so fun. It’s like everyone’s brain on paper,” Zhong notes.

Developed by a remotely distributed full-time team of seven, noplace started its journey in the latter half of last year and launched an invite-only beta phase late last year. The app “accidentally went viral,” prompting the team to distribute invite codes to early adopters, including some K-pop fans.

Now poised to offer younger Twitter users an alternative to the network now known as X under Elon Musk, noplace combines text-based feeds with friend-finding features and customization options that resonate with their demographic.

Noplace is a free download on iOS and available in read-only mode on the web. Monetization plans are not yet underway. The app competes with other friend-finding apps targeting Gen Z, like Wizz, Yubo, purp, LMK, and others.

Backed by investors including 776 (Alexis Ohanian) and Forerunner Ventures, noplace raised $15 million in a Series A1 round, at a pre-money valuation of $75 million, bringing its total raise to over $19 million, according to PitchBook data.

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