Should I Build It Should I Build It
01 Jul 2025
Social Network Social Media

Social media platform for rating books, sharing lists and following ...

...users

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

The idea of building a social media platform for rating books, sharing lists, and following users falls into a crowded space. Our analysis indicates you're entering a 'Swamp' category, where numerous similar solutions exist, but none have achieved widespread success or significant user love. The presence of 7 similar products suggests considerable competition, making it challenging to differentiate your platform. The low average comment count of 3 across these similar products reflects low engagement, highlighting the difficulty in capturing and retaining user attention in this niche. Entering this market requires a fundamentally different approach to stand out, which is going to be hard.

Recommendations

  1. Given the crowded market and low engagement observed in similar products, thoroughly investigate why existing book rating and social platforms haven't fully resonated with users. Focus on understanding their pain points and unmet needs. For example, the negative reviews of similar products mention the need for better design and user experience so this should be investigated.
  2. If you decide to proceed, identify a specific niche within the book-loving community that is currently underserved by existing platforms. This could be a particular genre, demographic, or reading habit. Tailor your platform to meet their unique needs and preferences. Also, since other similar products struggle with biased user-generated ratings, you should consider your approach for handling these biases.
  3. Instead of directly competing with established platforms, explore opportunities to create tools or services that enhance the functionality of existing book platforms or cater to their users. This could involve developing integrations, plugins, or complementary services that solve specific problems within the existing ecosystem.
  4. Given the challenges and competition in the book-focused social media space, consider exploring adjacent problems that might present more promising opportunities. This could involve expanding to other media formats, such as movies or music, or focusing on a related aspect of the book industry, such as author discovery or book marketing.
  5. Based on your idea, another idea mentioned the need for goverment ID verification, which is unlikely to be possible with a book-related social media platform. Be mindful of edge cases like this when considering your design choices.
  6. Consider exploring adjacent areas, like building tools for authors to connect with readers, or creating a platform for book clubs to organize and discuss readings. These may have less direct competition and a clearer value proposition.
  7. Before investing significant time and resources, validate your assumptions about user needs and preferences through surveys, interviews, and user testing. This will help you refine your concept and ensure that it addresses a real problem in the market.
  8. Given the challenges in the market, carefully evaluate the potential return on investment before committing to this project. Consider whether your skills and passion could be better applied to a different opportunity with a higher likelihood of success.

Questions

  1. What unique features or functionalities will your platform offer that are not already available on Goodreads, LibraryThing, or other existing book-focused social networks? How will you ensure that your platform stands out from the competition and attracts a loyal user base?
  2. How will you address the issue of content moderation and prevent the spread of misinformation or harmful content on your platform, while also respecting freedom of speech and user privacy? What measures will you take to ensure a safe and positive online environment for your users?
  3. Considering the low average comment count and engagement levels observed in similar products, what specific strategies will you employ to foster meaningful interactions and build a thriving community on your platform? How will you incentivize users to actively participate, share their thoughts, and connect with one another?

Your are here

The idea of building a social media platform for rating books, sharing lists, and following users falls into a crowded space. Our analysis indicates you're entering a 'Swamp' category, where numerous similar solutions exist, but none have achieved widespread success or significant user love. The presence of 7 similar products suggests considerable competition, making it challenging to differentiate your platform. The low average comment count of 3 across these similar products reflects low engagement, highlighting the difficulty in capturing and retaining user attention in this niche. Entering this market requires a fundamentally different approach to stand out, which is going to be hard.

Recommendations

  1. Given the crowded market and low engagement observed in similar products, thoroughly investigate why existing book rating and social platforms haven't fully resonated with users. Focus on understanding their pain points and unmet needs. For example, the negative reviews of similar products mention the need for better design and user experience so this should be investigated.
  2. If you decide to proceed, identify a specific niche within the book-loving community that is currently underserved by existing platforms. This could be a particular genre, demographic, or reading habit. Tailor your platform to meet their unique needs and preferences. Also, since other similar products struggle with biased user-generated ratings, you should consider your approach for handling these biases.
  3. Instead of directly competing with established platforms, explore opportunities to create tools or services that enhance the functionality of existing book platforms or cater to their users. This could involve developing integrations, plugins, or complementary services that solve specific problems within the existing ecosystem.
  4. Given the challenges and competition in the book-focused social media space, consider exploring adjacent problems that might present more promising opportunities. This could involve expanding to other media formats, such as movies or music, or focusing on a related aspect of the book industry, such as author discovery or book marketing.
  5. Based on your idea, another idea mentioned the need for goverment ID verification, which is unlikely to be possible with a book-related social media platform. Be mindful of edge cases like this when considering your design choices.
  6. Consider exploring adjacent areas, like building tools for authors to connect with readers, or creating a platform for book clubs to organize and discuss readings. These may have less direct competition and a clearer value proposition.
  7. Before investing significant time and resources, validate your assumptions about user needs and preferences through surveys, interviews, and user testing. This will help you refine your concept and ensure that it addresses a real problem in the market.
  8. Given the challenges in the market, carefully evaluate the potential return on investment before committing to this project. Consider whether your skills and passion could be better applied to a different opportunity with a higher likelihood of success.

Questions

  1. What unique features or functionalities will your platform offer that are not already available on Goodreads, LibraryThing, or other existing book-focused social networks? How will you ensure that your platform stands out from the competition and attracts a loyal user base?
  2. How will you address the issue of content moderation and prevent the spread of misinformation or harmful content on your platform, while also respecting freedom of speech and user privacy? What measures will you take to ensure a safe and positive online environment for your users?
  3. Considering the low average comment count and engagement levels observed in similar products, what specific strategies will you employ to foster meaningful interactions and build a thriving community on your platform? How will you incentivize users to actively participate, share their thoughts, and connect with one another?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 7
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 3
  • Net use signal: -12.9%
    • Positive use signal: 0.0%
    • Negative use signal: 12.9%
  • Net buy signal: -8.6%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 8.6%

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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