Pheed? The opposite of what the world is waiting for. Facebook? It will survive Armageddon.

“There’s a new kid on the block, and boy, the kid is tough” wrote Jack Prelutsky in 1984.

There’s a new kid on the social media block, and boy, the kid is tough. Its name is Pheed, and it’s based around some strong ideas – but are we sure “strong” is better than “smart”, nowadays?

From Mashable: ‘Is there room for another social network? A new startup, Pheed, certainly hopes so.’

‘Pheed is the ultimate “mashup” of other sites, says Pheed cofounder and CEO O.D. Kobo. Kobo and his team “cherry-picked” what they liked best of their social media predecessors, and left out what bothered them, creating in Kobo’s opinion something both significant and simple.’

‘Pheed’s concept is based on offering premium content. Pheeders have the ability to apply a month subscription fee ($1.99 to $34.99 per month) to their streams or users can charge on a pay-per-view basis ($1.99 to $34.99). Pheed takes 50% the content’s revenue and the user takes the rest.’

Good? Bad? Lol? Will it work? Who knows?

The importance of being specific in social media

In my opinion, the real question is another one: do we really need a new Frankestein-esque social network, sort of hotch-potch of various other platforms?

Or is the world waiting for the opposite, i.e. something specific, with a unique purpose, and/or niche?

Let’s come up with a cheap analysis of what is going on with other popular social media:

Wanna blog?  Go for Tumblr.

Easiest way to share your photos in a matter of seconds? Instagram, hands down.

Feeling the urge to complain about the rude waitress? Tweet it!

Fancy creating a mood board on which you pin the things you like? Would you like to come up with a wish list that defines you as a sophisticated devotee of consumerism? Want to sell and buy special and unusual things? Pinterest and Fancy are your new best friends.

The aforementioned platforms somehow have the monopoly of a specific “social media action”, and they achieved it after noticing that Facebook couldn’t handle all these things at the same time, without looking like a headless chicken.

And now it looks like we are going back to that mess, with Pheed.

For instance, f-commerce never took off. People don’t buy from Facebook. In fact, 88% of them use the network to spend their free time. Then go somewhere else to buy things. It’s like these restaurants in Italy or in Spain: you are trying to enjoy your meal, and suddenly there is a guy next to you with a guitar, singing regional songs, until you hand him a fiver. Don’t get me wrong: I love food and live music, I just don’t like to have them both at the same time.

And, boy, Fancy and Pinterest are going strong – Mashable reports: ‘Pinterest Tops Facebook in Driving Ecommerce’, while Forbes breaks some other interesting news: ‘Fancy Bests Pinterest Again, Adds AmEx, Gift-Giving Platforms’.

The importance of not being specific in social media

Twitter owns the complaint, Instagram the photo-sharing thing, and Facebook owns the rest: our free time – and, ultimately, everything else about us.

And this is the main reason why Facebook will never die: it is not “specific”.

Just like crisps: they don’t fill you up, but they are a decent snack when you are puckish and/or you want to kill some time.

In general, three points suggest Facebook will survive Armageddon:

• There’s no real alternative to Facebook
• The fact that is not “specific” will save it from annihilation – it’s there, we are used to it, we don’t even question its function anymore
• How could you possibly stop a billion people from doing something they do everyday, 10 hours a day?

What do you think?

London Web Agency Appnova – keep following us on Twitter @appnova and “like” us on Facebook for useful news and tasteful digressions about geeky stuff.