What Gen Z craves now

TIFFANY ZHONG: noplace is really the most social network. On launch day, my teammates and I were in the grocery store when we realized that we were number one in the app store. And it was crazy. Like we found each other across the grocery store in different aisles, and we were just screaming. It’s an unreal feeling to unseat Threads and Instagram and Temu and Shein and all of these other apps. 

BOB SAFIAN: That’s Tiffany Zhong, founder of noplace — a new social media site for Gen Z users that rocketed to the top of download charts this summer. I wanted to talk to TZ, as she calls herself, to understand what it is about noplace that’s got young users so excited. TZ herself was labeled “the world’s youngest VC” when she was hired as an 18-year-old right out of high school, to help hunt for emerging companies. She went on to advise brands on Gen Z trends and user habits, and today is a great resource on what makes young people tick in 2024. We explore what noplace has tapped into, the reasons behind the loneliness epidemic, how to exude authenticity as a business leader, and more. Oh, and TZ shares a great story about landing Alexis Ohanian as an early supporter with a single tweet. It’s a lot of fun, so let’s get to it. I’m Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response. 

I’m Bob Safian and I’m here with Tiffany Zhong, the founder of noplace. TZ, thanks for joining us.

ZHONG: Thanks for having me, Bob.

Explaining noplace, “the most social media”

SAFIAN: So noplace launched publicly this summer, a new social media in a very crowded space. And yet, it quickly jumped to the top of the app store. A lot of downloads, particularly among young people. For those who haven’t seen it, what is noplace? What’s different about it?

ZHONG: So noplace is… Really how we describe it is like the most social network, right? When you look at the last 10 years, I think the pendulum has completely swung towards social media just being media these days. There’s nothing really social about it anymore. You don’t know what your friends are up to anymore. All of it has been taken over by content and media. I realized that there was a huge opportunity to, and a problem to be solved, around giving Gen Z’s and Gen Alpha a place where they can actually be social again, right? In middle school, I grew up on Facebook and Tumblr. And that’s really shaped how I think about product and consumer behavior even today.

Why restrict to text only?

SAFIAN: And, noplace is text based. I mean, there’s no photos or videos, which is kind of counter to the trend. 

ZHONG: It was a very intentional product decision to only do text at first. That doesn’t mean we won’t do photos or videos down the line. But the reasoning behind that was basically, we want people to actually post what they’re thinking. That kind of constraint of only allowing text brings a different kind of creativity and different kinds of posts when it comes to this generation that has never been on a social platform that has been only text. 

How noplace went viral

SAFIAN: Clearly this is resonating. You built up a waitlist of like 500,000 users before you even launched publicly. But a lot of that was through viral TikTok videos, which is, it’s kind of ironic, isn’t it that you don’t do video, but video is sort of what,engaged people about the idea of the site?

ZHONG: Yeah, I mean, you have to go where the teens are, right? And so if they’re spending the time on TikTok and Instagram and Twitter, you know, that’s where we validate the idea early on. It actually, at the end of last year, went viral on Twitter. Even when we were still invite-only and still had a waitlist. And still it managed to go viral and was top of the charts — especially in the social networking category. And keep in mind, like most people who downloaded the app couldn’t get access because you needed an invite code to join. And so it was pretty crazy to see that happen. 

And it especially resonated with the K-Pop and Anime, Manga community on Twitter because of how customizable your profiles are with the colors, being able to share what you’re currently listening to, reading, watching, gaming, your mood, your IRL… And so you’ll see our users being like their IRL, their current location is like school and where they’re going next is the library or Starbucks. It’s really interesting to see that, giving Gen Z is a place where they can be their most creative selves and see what comes out of that. There’s no one profile that is like another profile as a result.

SAFIAN: A lot of people want their ideas to go viral. Is there something specific that you did that helped that happen or was it just organic? 

ZHONG: It was just organic on Twitter. Especially for a generation that was not on Myspace and had never had a place where they could customize however they wanted, right? Like I was too young for Myspace, which is kind of ironic that we’re rebuilding a lot of the different early social networks in one. 

Myspace comparisons

SAFIAN: When someone signs up for noplace, you’re automatically their first friend, which is like Myspace back in the day with the founder, Tom. And some news reports say noplace is like a throwback to the original Myspace. Do those comparisons, do you like that? Does that bug you?

ZHONG: It doesn’t bug us at all. I think it’s really fun. We’re a combination of a lot of different, the last couple decades of social networks and social media, and pull in what’s resonated across the board, right? And so we have wall posts, for example, where I can post on your wall if I’m your friend and vice versa, which is kind of a homage to early days of Facebook. You can see what any other user in the app is posting anywhere in the world, right? So we have some users who described this as, like ‘the world’s biggest group chat’. Like that’s how it feels. And we really fostered that community feeling early on. We wanted it to feel that way. We want people to be friends. We want it to feel like a community where you can jump into any conversation and make new friends. And a lot of our users have found their new close friends, their new best friends, even significant others through noplace.

Building for young people

SAFIAN: I will say I downloaded the app and it felt pretty quick right away that it wasn’t really for me, for someone my age. That’s right, isn’t it? I mean, like a lot of the folks were a lot younger… Younger than you. 

ZHONG: So we have a lot of users from middle school, high school, college, recent grads. It definitely skews younger, because this is what they’re drawn to, right? We’re going back to the fact that they’ve never had an app like this before. They don’t have a place that they consider social media these days. So, bridging the gap between self-expression and connection is really what keeps people coming back.

Combating loneliness

SAFIAN: There’s a lot of talk that social media is responsible for the loneliness epidemic. You know, one recent study about Gen Z said 79% say they’re lonely, that young people aren’t going out and interacting in real life the way they used to, because they’re spending so much time on their apps. Do you buy that? Is noplace like a different approach in that aspect? 

ZHONG: I think it’s a very important problem to solve. I think we are helping reduce, at least as much as we can so far, in helping people find friends and be less lonely by connecting over specific interests. I’ve always had the thesis that just because you are in physical proximity to someone doesn’t necessarily mean that they should be your best friend. Your best friend might be living a thousand miles away with the same interests as you and this in similar personalities, similar values. How are you going to meet them? The only way you can meet them is through the Internet, right? And so how can we make that easier for people to find their people? That’s what I care a lot about doing. 

And the fact that our algorithmic feeds are for you feeds on TikTok and content being accessible to us at any time we want, means that people have branched off into having different content interests, right? Think about 15, 20 years ago when we only had cable and TV shows played at the same time every day. Everyone watched the same content. So you had more to talk about with your neighbors, with your friends, because there was only that one option, right? But now what you watch, what I watch are completely different or what you and your neighbor watch are different. Everyone has their own feed of exactly personalized content for them and I think that’s actually causing a bigger gap in between friends and classmates and colleagues as well, because you have less in common to talk about now.

Inside the launch of noplace

SAFIAN: You said that when the app first went public, that the app went too viral to function at first. So can you tell us what that first demand surge was like for you, and then what did your team do? I mean, it’s a small team, right?

ZHONG: We were a very small team. We were in Japan in Hakuba — that’s a ski town. And on launch day, it was just exhilarating, right? Like you open the feed and it’s just a million posts a second. And for me, because I’m auto-friended with everyone, that made my experience even more chaotic where I was just looking at my friend list go up and up and up. My teammates and I were in the grocery store, when we realized that we were number one in the app store. And it was crazy. Like we found each other across the grocery store in different aisles, and we were just screaming. It’s an unreal feeling to unseat Threads and Instagram and Temu and Shein and all of these other apps that were at the top of the charts, right? Post launch, we were just riding that high, staying up all night, fixing things, making sure it functioned. 

Sustaining the initial surge

SAFIAN: So you have this initial surge, but I guess the question is then like, what do you do now? How do you sustain the momentum, the success? I’m thinking of other social apps like BeReal or Lapse or Clubhouse that sort of had brief moments and then faded. 

ZHONG: Yeah, so we have a lot of really fun things coming up with a lot of different types of partners from media companies to say, TV shows, to sports teams — to give a hint of what’s coming next.

SAFIAN: Nothing you can share yet, huh?

ZHONG: Nothing we can share yet, but what I will say is it’s a lot of making sure that we stay relevant and kind of cultural commentary and in pop culture. When things are happening in pop culture, we want to be in the conversation as well.

How TZ became “the world’s youngest VC”

SAFIAN: Listening to TZ, I’m struck by how noplace is both counterintuitive and intuitive. She is going against the grain of today’s social networks — by emulating the networks from 15 years ago. Because what appealed to young people about those early networks still appeals today. After the break, TZ shares how she landed the moniker ‘The World’s Youngest VC’ fresh out of high school, why all business leaders need to prioritize authenticity for a Gen Z audience, and more. Stay with us. 

Before the break, noplace founder Tiffany Zhong shared how reimagining old social media platforms has captured the imagination of new Gen Z users. Now, TZ explores whether lessons from Gen Z will translate to Gen Alpha, how she used social media herself to land early support from Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, and more. Let’s jump back in. 

So as a teenager, I know just out of high school, you got a job at Binary Capital. There were news stories that called you ‘the world’s youngest VC’. It’s an interesting introduction to the world of finance and to the world of media. How did that opportunity come about and was all the attention good for you or disconcerting? 

ZHONG: I started using Twitter when I was in high school to learn about tech and start-ups and asking VCs and entrepreneurs and founders, CEOs, questions on Twitter. I was just curious. And I went in with the mindset that I had nothing to lose. And that’s how I met some of my closest friends and mentors today. 

Tech Twitter and hackathons was really how I found people who I could learn a lot from and also build products and like people my age. And so from there, I learned a little bit about venture funding. I was sourcing deals for this fund and they were like, “why don’t you join us full-time after high school?” I was 18 at that time, with the intention of, “hey, you could help us find the next Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram. We need you to find the next big social app for Gen Z…” So I’ve been surrounded by consumer social apps for the last decade, whether as an investor or just meeting founders, helping founders out when I can throw kind of my network or understanding of Gen Z, and also building products myself. 

Advice from investor Alexis Ohanian (Reddit co-founder)

SAFIAN: You have your own VC firm, Pineapple Capital since 2017. But noplace isn’t just self-funded. Alexis Ohanian, the founder of Reddit is among your backers. Any particular advice he’s given you about building a community-based business?

ZHONG: He’s been incredibly helpful sharing lessons and like experiences from building Reddit, how they’ve thought about micro-communities, influencers, and creators. I just try to absorb as much knowledge as possible from him because there are some parts of what we’re building that trend towards becoming more and more like a parts of Reddit, kind of like a Gen Z Reddit of sorts. 

SAFIAN: Was Alexis one of those early folks who you met on Twitter? 

ZHONG: I did meet Alexis on Twitter. That’s how he ended up investing as well. He sent me a DM. The rest is history. We hopped on a call a week later.

How will noplace monetize?

SAFIAN: I noticed there aren’t any ads on noplace right now and it’s free to use. So there’s no monetization plan. At least not yet, I can see right now. I imagine there is.

ZHONG: Yeah, we’re thinking through a bunch of different revenue streams. Consumer social is undoubtedly one of the hardest spaces to build in because a lot of it is art, right? Art more than science. There’s no specific playbook like there might be in B2B SaaS, right? You have to ship things fast, iterate, listen to your users, see how they’re behaving, how they’re using the app, and also have a balance between looking at the data and trusting your intuition. But I think the biggest thing in building consumer products is persistence, being patient with the process.

What do people misunderstand about Gen Z?

SAFIAN: You founded another company called Zebra Intelligence to help brands reach a Gen Z audience. What do business leaders today most misunderstand about Gen Z? 

ZHONG: Gen Z’s really care about authenticity, both brands that they shop from, but also a place where they can be their real authentic self. After years of being on platforms where edited, curated, kind of photos of yourself — we’ve seen that play out and now we’re completely shifting to the other direction of ‘I just want a place where I can share whatever’s on my mind with close friends. I’m not trying to hyperedit every single photo anymore’. Or at least I don’t want to. That’s why this has resonated so much with Gen Z’s. Gen Z’s want that feeling of not trying to make everything perfect. 

SAFIAN: You’ve said that Gen Z sort of see through the BS. For you personally, does that make you kind of more at ease to be yourself as a leader or sort of more self-conscious of what you say and do, because like, they’re going to see through my BS? Like, do you have any advice for other business leaders about how they should conduct themselves?

ZHONG: I think leaning into your personality, right? For me, for example, I try to be extremely real with our users. I will jump into random posts and comment and just be myself. And I think our users really appreciate that. That doesn’t necessarily mean I resonate a hundred percent with a hundred percent of our users. I have my own personality and my own values and Gen Z’s care more about seeing that than seeing a perfect caricature that’s designed to sell to them, right? Like they can see through that.

How will trends shift with Gen Alpha

SAFIAN: Yeah. How much have you thought about when Generation Alpha turns 18 and kind of culture shifts again? Like, do you feel particularly suited to Gen Z trends as a Gen Z yourself, or will things shift again when Gen Alpha starts to rise? 

ZHONG: Everything happens in cycles, right? If you look at 15, 20 years ago, like what’s old is new again: Y2K, vintage film cameras, all of that. Like that’s cool again. And so we will see that happen with every generation as well. I think of Gen Z as a generation that grew up on smartphones and Gen Alpha probably more so on tablets. The generation after that, maybe that’s AI, right? People don’t change that much in terms of consumer behavior and consumer psychology. We all still care about human connection. That’s never going to go away. 

SAFIAN: Well, TZ, this has been great. Thanks so much for doing it. 

ZHONG: Thank you, Bob. This was super fun.SAFIAN: Tastes and trends are evolving faster than ever — in business, in politics, everywhere. What’s cool today might not be tomorrow. It’s TZ’s job, and to some extent everyone’s job, to stay tapped into those ever-changing trends. I’m fascinated by TZ’s observation about the deterioration of social connection. The content we consume becoming more niche, so there’s less overlap to connect with other people — less water cooler moments, if you will. And AI will likely make that even more personalized. Now, how many of our friendships are really built on cultural taste? I don’t know. But with isolation hgh, any attempt to foster true community — whether virtually or “IRL” as TZ would say, is positive. Thanks for being part of the Rapid Response community. I’m Bob Safian. Thanks for listening.

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