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The idea of online community is as old as the internet itself (at least Web2) but it really accelerated in 2020. With the global pandemic, entire countries went into lockdown and suddenly we were spending more time at home (and online) than ever before.
We are social creatures. We crave interaction with other people. And since IRL interaction was out of the question for a lot of people for a long time...online communities really flourished.
As more people were spending time online, more teams got to work building better tools for online gathering. We are finally (finally!) seeing software platforms built specifically for a modern online community.
Better tooling made even more online communities spring up. As more online communities sprung up, the average person had more experience with being a member of online communities...which inspired many to start their own!
As time passed, we saw more examples of transformational (and profitable) online communities, which inspired even more people to start their own!
We see this cycle with all kinds of creator business models.
Tools become better and cheaper → more adoption
More public examples of success → more adoption
So sitting here in March 2022, online communities are more common than ever before.
We are social creatures. We crave interaction with other people. And since IRL interaction was out of the question for a lot of people for a long time...online communities really flourished.
As more people were spending time online, more teams got to work building better tools for online gathering. We are finally (finally!) seeing software platforms built specifically for a modern online community.
Better tooling made even more online communities spring up. As more online communities sprung up, the average person had more experience with being a member of online communities...which inspired many to start their own!
As time passed, we saw more examples of transformational (and profitable) online communities, which inspired even more people to start their own!
We see this cycle with all kinds of creator business models.
Tools become better and cheaper → more adoption
More public examples of success → more adoption
So sitting here in March 2022, online communities are more common than ever before.