Should I Build It Should I Build It
01 Jul 2025
Drinking

it's like a social media, call it Hangover, where user can post their ...

...night out before or on that night, club can use it as host events even better, we book our table at there. And based on the experience it user can see which one is best for their nightout

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

Your idea for "Hangover," a social media platform for nightlife, where users share their experiences and book tables, puts you in a crowded space. With 9 similar products already out there, you're entering what we call a 'Swamp' category. This means many have tried and struggled to create a truly successful solution. The engagement on these similar platforms is low, with an average of only 2 comments per product, and there's no clear positive signal regarding people wanting to use or buy similar products. To be blunt, you'll need a truly unique approach to avoid getting lost in the crowd. Standing out requires either a drastically different value proposition, a strong niche focus, or both.

Recommendations

  1. Deeply research existing nightlife apps and social platforms to understand why they haven't achieved widespread adoption. Analyze their failures to identify unmet needs or pain points you can address. Focus on understanding what users truly want from a nightlife social platform that current apps don't provide. For example, Bardar users requested expansion to new cities and had concerns about the stretched font.
  2. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, identify a very specific niche within the nightlife scene. This could be a particular age group, music genre, or type of venue. Tailoring your platform to a well-defined audience makes it easier to attract users and provide a valuable experience. You could focus on EDM clubs for young adults, or jazz bars for an older demographic.
  3. Explore building tools or services for existing venues and event organizers instead of directly competing with them. Offer a platform that helps them manage bookings, promote events, and engage with customers. This might be a less glamorous but more sustainable business model. Providing value to the existing players in the nightlife ecosystem could be a quicker path to profitability.
  4. Before investing heavily in development, thoroughly test your core assumptions with potential users. Conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to validate your value proposition. Ensure your target audience actually wants and needs what you're offering. If possible, create a simple landing page outlining your idea and gauge interest through sign-ups.
  5. Given that similar products haven't seen much traction (low engagement), consider pivoting to an adjacent problem. Maybe instead of focusing on the social aspect of nightlife, explore solutions around event discovery or safe transportation. Look for unmet needs within the broader nightlife experience that haven't been adequately addressed. For example, develop an advanced recommendation engine based on users' past behavior.
  6. Instead of building a full-fledged social network, start with a simple MVP (minimum viable product) focused on solving one key problem. This could be a booking system for venues or a platform for sharing user-generated reviews. Focus on delivering exceptional value in one area before expanding to other features. Start with the table booking feature to test the market and get feedback.

Questions

  1. Given the number of similar products in the 'Swamp' category, what is the one core feature or experience that 'Hangover' will offer that makes it fundamentally different and more appealing than existing solutions?
  2. Considering the low engagement observed in similar nightlife platforms, how will you incentivize users to actively contribute content and engage with each other on 'Hangover'?
  3. What specific marketing and user acquisition strategies will you employ to reach your target audience and differentiate 'Hangover' from the competition in a crowded market?

Your are here

Your idea for "Hangover," a social media platform for nightlife, where users share their experiences and book tables, puts you in a crowded space. With 9 similar products already out there, you're entering what we call a 'Swamp' category. This means many have tried and struggled to create a truly successful solution. The engagement on these similar platforms is low, with an average of only 2 comments per product, and there's no clear positive signal regarding people wanting to use or buy similar products. To be blunt, you'll need a truly unique approach to avoid getting lost in the crowd. Standing out requires either a drastically different value proposition, a strong niche focus, or both.

Recommendations

  1. Deeply research existing nightlife apps and social platforms to understand why they haven't achieved widespread adoption. Analyze their failures to identify unmet needs or pain points you can address. Focus on understanding what users truly want from a nightlife social platform that current apps don't provide. For example, Bardar users requested expansion to new cities and had concerns about the stretched font.
  2. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, identify a very specific niche within the nightlife scene. This could be a particular age group, music genre, or type of venue. Tailoring your platform to a well-defined audience makes it easier to attract users and provide a valuable experience. You could focus on EDM clubs for young adults, or jazz bars for an older demographic.
  3. Explore building tools or services for existing venues and event organizers instead of directly competing with them. Offer a platform that helps them manage bookings, promote events, and engage with customers. This might be a less glamorous but more sustainable business model. Providing value to the existing players in the nightlife ecosystem could be a quicker path to profitability.
  4. Before investing heavily in development, thoroughly test your core assumptions with potential users. Conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to validate your value proposition. Ensure your target audience actually wants and needs what you're offering. If possible, create a simple landing page outlining your idea and gauge interest through sign-ups.
  5. Given that similar products haven't seen much traction (low engagement), consider pivoting to an adjacent problem. Maybe instead of focusing on the social aspect of nightlife, explore solutions around event discovery or safe transportation. Look for unmet needs within the broader nightlife experience that haven't been adequately addressed. For example, develop an advanced recommendation engine based on users' past behavior.
  6. Instead of building a full-fledged social network, start with a simple MVP (minimum viable product) focused on solving one key problem. This could be a booking system for venues or a platform for sharing user-generated reviews. Focus on delivering exceptional value in one area before expanding to other features. Start with the table booking feature to test the market and get feedback.

Questions

  1. Given the number of similar products in the 'Swamp' category, what is the one core feature or experience that 'Hangover' will offer that makes it fundamentally different and more appealing than existing solutions?
  2. Considering the low engagement observed in similar nightlife platforms, how will you incentivize users to actively contribute content and engage with each other on 'Hangover'?
  3. What specific marketing and user acquisition strategies will you employ to reach your target audience and differentiate 'Hangover' from the competition in a crowded market?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 9
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 2
  • Net use signal: 21.0%
    • Positive use signal: 21.0%
    • 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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Relevance

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The Product Hunt launch received positive feedback, with users congratulating the team and expressing excitement about the concept and live map feature. Many users requested expansion to new cities, particularly Melbourne and other locations outside Australia, and some asked about global nightlife integration. Suggestions included promoting the tool in Sydney. Users inquired about commercialization strategies, such as venue payments or subscriptions. One user likened it to 'Waze for going out' and another asked if it was applicable to Geo Cities.

The Product Hunt launch received criticism for not including Melbourne, Australia. Users also expressed concerns about the stretched font, finding it visually unappealing. Furthermore, the suggestion of applicability to Geo Cities led some to question the product's scope and relevance to modern web development or broader applications.

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SWING - Connecting groups of likeminded friends for temporary events

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SWING is a social mobile app that makes it easier for groups of friends to find like-minded people for spontaneous or planned get-togethers. The app name "SWING" is a slang term used to describe a social gathering with a balanced representation of genders.

The product launch received positive feedback, with users praising the idea as great and expressing their love for it. The product is described as simple, effective, intuitive, and user-friendly, delivering incredible results.

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