Should I Build It Should I Build It
11 Apr 2025
Social Media

Social media site that only allows posts with full real name after id ...

...verification

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Freemium

People love using similar products but resist paying. You’ll need to either find who will pay or create additional value that’s worth paying for.

Should You Build It?

Build but think about differentiation and monetization.

Your are here

Your idea for a social media site requiring real name and ID verification puts you in the "Freemium" category. This is because users value the potential for increased trust and reduced anonymity, but might hesitate to pay for it directly. With 7 similar products and high engagement (average 12 comments), there's demonstrated interest in this space, but also significant competition. The absence of strong "use" or "buy" signals suggests people are cautiously optimistic but not yet fully convinced. You will need to figure out what is it that your users value so much that they will be willing to pay for, or figure out who exactly is willing to pay in the first place.

Recommendations

  1. Given the "Freemium" categorization and the criticism around verification processes in similar products like "Not Common," focus on a seamless and user-friendly ID verification process. Prioritize a smooth onboarding experience to minimize friction. Make sure your verification process is clearly explained to your user, since this aspect causes the most confusion for them.
  2. Based on the challenge of monetization within the freemium model, explore tiered features. Offer basic ID verification and real-name posting as a free core, but introduce premium features like enhanced privacy controls, advanced reporting tools for harassment, or priority customer support for paying users. You could also offer the option for premium members to 'boost' or further verify their profiles.
  3. Considering the positive feedback for "Not Common" regarding scam prevention, emphasize the safety and security benefits of your platform. Highlight how real-name verification reduces the prevalence of fake accounts, bots, and online harassment, attracting users concerned about online safety. Build a strong moderation team that can deal with spam and abuse and has a very clear reporting flow.
  4. In light of concerns about handling new accounts, implement a phased verification approach. Allow new users limited access initially, gradually increasing privileges as they verify their identity. This will reduce concerns about fake accounts overrunning the platform. Ensure that the process is fully automated, as the criticisms of other similar products suggest.
  5. Recognizing the interest in verifying content authenticity, partner with brands or organizations. Offer them verified accounts and features to demonstrate the authenticity of their content. This could create a B2B revenue stream. Make sure that the cost of verifying the brand is factored into the monthly subscription fee. You can offer content verification as a premium service.
  6. Considering the desire to prevent digital impersonation evident in "Depersonate," clearly communicate your platform's ability to combat identity theft and fake profiles. Provide users with tools to report impersonation attempts and promptly address such issues. This is a massive selling point, so make sure you emphasize it in your marketing and onboarding materials.
  7. Given the resource constraints mentioned in the "Get a verifiable human proof seal for your content" product, ensure scalability in your verification process. Automate as much as possible while maintaining accuracy. Make sure that the verification process is not a bottleneck and does not require any additional resources as you grow.

Questions

  1. What specific safeguards will you implement to prevent the misuse of real-name verification, such as doxxing or targeted harassment, and how will you balance user privacy with the need for accountability?
  2. Considering the challenge of monetization, what innovative premium features or services can you offer beyond basic ID verification to attract paying users or businesses, and what pricing strategies will you employ to maximize revenue without alienating the free user base?
  3. How will you adapt your platform's verification process and moderation policies to accommodate cultural differences and varying levels of digital literacy among users from different regions and backgrounds?

Your are here

Your idea for a social media site requiring real name and ID verification puts you in the "Freemium" category. This is because users value the potential for increased trust and reduced anonymity, but might hesitate to pay for it directly. With 7 similar products and high engagement (average 12 comments), there's demonstrated interest in this space, but also significant competition. The absence of strong "use" or "buy" signals suggests people are cautiously optimistic but not yet fully convinced. You will need to figure out what is it that your users value so much that they will be willing to pay for, or figure out who exactly is willing to pay in the first place.

Recommendations

  1. Given the "Freemium" categorization and the criticism around verification processes in similar products like "Not Common," focus on a seamless and user-friendly ID verification process. Prioritize a smooth onboarding experience to minimize friction. Make sure your verification process is clearly explained to your user, since this aspect causes the most confusion for them.
  2. Based on the challenge of monetization within the freemium model, explore tiered features. Offer basic ID verification and real-name posting as a free core, but introduce premium features like enhanced privacy controls, advanced reporting tools for harassment, or priority customer support for paying users. You could also offer the option for premium members to 'boost' or further verify their profiles.
  3. Considering the positive feedback for "Not Common" regarding scam prevention, emphasize the safety and security benefits of your platform. Highlight how real-name verification reduces the prevalence of fake accounts, bots, and online harassment, attracting users concerned about online safety. Build a strong moderation team that can deal with spam and abuse and has a very clear reporting flow.
  4. In light of concerns about handling new accounts, implement a phased verification approach. Allow new users limited access initially, gradually increasing privileges as they verify their identity. This will reduce concerns about fake accounts overrunning the platform. Ensure that the process is fully automated, as the criticisms of other similar products suggest.
  5. Recognizing the interest in verifying content authenticity, partner with brands or organizations. Offer them verified accounts and features to demonstrate the authenticity of their content. This could create a B2B revenue stream. Make sure that the cost of verifying the brand is factored into the monthly subscription fee. You can offer content verification as a premium service.
  6. Considering the desire to prevent digital impersonation evident in "Depersonate," clearly communicate your platform's ability to combat identity theft and fake profiles. Provide users with tools to report impersonation attempts and promptly address such issues. This is a massive selling point, so make sure you emphasize it in your marketing and onboarding materials.
  7. Given the resource constraints mentioned in the "Get a verifiable human proof seal for your content" product, ensure scalability in your verification process. Automate as much as possible while maintaining accuracy. Make sure that the verification process is not a bottleneck and does not require any additional resources as you grow.

Questions

  1. What specific safeguards will you implement to prevent the misuse of real-name verification, such as doxxing or targeted harassment, and how will you balance user privacy with the need for accountability?
  2. Considering the challenge of monetization, what innovative premium features or services can you offer beyond basic ID verification to attract paying users or businesses, and what pricing strategies will you employ to maximize revenue without alienating the free user base?
  3. How will you adapt your platform's verification process and moderation policies to accommodate cultural differences and varying levels of digital literacy among users from different regions and backgrounds?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 7
  • Engagement: High
    • Average number of comments: 12
  • Net use signal: 20.0%
    • Positive use signal: 20.0%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 0.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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Hi HN, I’m excited to share a prototype[1] that enables self-sovereign verification. It uses public key signatures to establish a trusted relationship.In light of the recent Twitter spat between Elon Musk and The NY Times[2][3], I thought it would be useful to demonstrate how verification can be done without reliance on platforms / third parties.Here's how it works, let’s say Alice is on Twitter and wants to prove to Bob that she is a NY Times reporter.1. The NY Times will create a signing key pair, and publish their public key on their website.2. Alice will also create a key pair.3. Alice will create a document that includes her public key, name, twitter handle, position at the NY Times and any other information (i.e. “claims”), Alice will self sign this document.4. Alice will send this to the NY Times, where the NY Times will verify the validity of Alice’s relationship, if valid the NY Times will sign this document.5. The NY Times will publish this signed document or send it back to Alice to publish.6. Alice will then link to the signed document from her Twitter bio.7. Bob can now verify that Alice works at the NY Times by following the links and verifying the signatures and information in the signed document.The repo [1] enables you to generate a key pair, sign an object, and verify signatures on a signed object. There is also a script to generate HTML pages to publish (it takes signed objects and a root public key as input). I also made a simple verifier page where you can link a signed document to verify signatures.You can see a working example of how my cofounder, Jenna, and I leveraged this to establish a relationship between our domain and our twitter handles.- https://v.arxsky.com/ - List / Index- https://v.arxsky.com/jenna - Jenna’s Verified Credential- https://v.arxsky.com/michael - Michael’s Verified Credential- https://v.arxsky.com/verifier - Demo verifier to check signaturesI’m bullish on extending the usability of public key cryptography beyond its current uses (e.g. HTTPS, SSH). I’m also bullish on a self-sovereign world where this technology enables privacy, data ownership, interoperability, and security. Ultimately these will create a more trusted and human driven internet.Excited to hear what the community thinks, and what questions or ideas you have.Thank you!—1 - https://github.com/arxskycom/ssi-verification/2 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/03/30/new-york-t...3 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/04/02/elon-musk-...

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