Should I Build It Should I Build It
05 May 2025
Social Media Community

Clubbera is a social platform built to help people connect in real ...

...life through shared experiences. Unlike traditional social media that focuses on virtual interactions, Clubbera encourages users to find and join activities, events, and communities that match their interest

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

Clubbera is entering a crowded space. The "Swamp" category is filled with similar social platforms aiming to connect people in real life, but many struggle to gain traction. With 21 similar products already out there, competition is fierce. While the average engagement for these types of platforms is low (only 2 comments per product launch), the key is understanding why these platforms haven't resonated with users. Building yet another platform without a clear differentiator could lead to the same outcome. Your best bet is to identify unmet needs or underserved niches within the existing landscape.

Recommendations

  1. Delve deep into why existing "IRL" social platforms haven't taken off. Analyze user reviews, identify pain points, and understand the gaps in the market. The discussion and criticism summary from competing products show users care about PC support, direct communication features, and have concerns about spam emails or GDPR compliance. Make sure you provide these.
  2. Instead of targeting everyone, focus on a specific niche or community with unique needs. A specialized approach can help you stand out and build a loyal user base. This will require you to deeply understand the needs of a particular group of people, and tailor the platform to match.
  3. Consider building tools or features that integrate with existing social platforms rather than trying to replace them entirely. Providing additional functionality to well-established platforms can be a strategic move to gain users. The product launch for Socially received mostly positive feedback, however some users raised concerns about differentiation from established platforms like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook. This provides an opportunity to provide functionality to these existing platforms.
  4. Explore adjacent problems related to real-life social connections that might be more promising or less competitive. Could you focus on event discovery, group management, or activity planning instead of building a whole new social network? A user inquired whether Joinby competes with Meetup - is there an adjacent problem you can solve instead?
  5. Prioritize user experience. Focus on features that make it easy for users to discover and join activities, and foster meaningful connections. The product launch for Socially received mostly positive feedback, especially for new comers to online communities. Think about what features would make your platform enticing to your user base.
  6. Before committing significant resources, validate your idea with potential users through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Gather feedback on your unique value proposition and features to ensure you're building something people truly want. The discussion and criticism summary from competing products suggest users were concerned about monetization and sustainability of the project, so be sure to address this with your potential users.

Questions

  1. What specific problem are you solving that existing social platforms aren't already addressing effectively for IRL connections?
  2. How will you differentiate Clubbera from the numerous other social platforms in the 'Swamp' category to attract and retain users?
  3. What is your plan to monetize Clubbera, and how will you ensure long-term sustainability without relying on VC funding, given users' concerns about similar platforms' viability?

Your are here

Clubbera is entering a crowded space. The "Swamp" category is filled with similar social platforms aiming to connect people in real life, but many struggle to gain traction. With 21 similar products already out there, competition is fierce. While the average engagement for these types of platforms is low (only 2 comments per product launch), the key is understanding why these platforms haven't resonated with users. Building yet another platform without a clear differentiator could lead to the same outcome. Your best bet is to identify unmet needs or underserved niches within the existing landscape.

Recommendations

  1. Delve deep into why existing "IRL" social platforms haven't taken off. Analyze user reviews, identify pain points, and understand the gaps in the market. The discussion and criticism summary from competing products show users care about PC support, direct communication features, and have concerns about spam emails or GDPR compliance. Make sure you provide these.
  2. Instead of targeting everyone, focus on a specific niche or community with unique needs. A specialized approach can help you stand out and build a loyal user base. This will require you to deeply understand the needs of a particular group of people, and tailor the platform to match.
  3. Consider building tools or features that integrate with existing social platforms rather than trying to replace them entirely. Providing additional functionality to well-established platforms can be a strategic move to gain users. The product launch for Socially received mostly positive feedback, however some users raised concerns about differentiation from established platforms like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook. This provides an opportunity to provide functionality to these existing platforms.
  4. Explore adjacent problems related to real-life social connections that might be more promising or less competitive. Could you focus on event discovery, group management, or activity planning instead of building a whole new social network? A user inquired whether Joinby competes with Meetup - is there an adjacent problem you can solve instead?
  5. Prioritize user experience. Focus on features that make it easy for users to discover and join activities, and foster meaningful connections. The product launch for Socially received mostly positive feedback, especially for new comers to online communities. Think about what features would make your platform enticing to your user base.
  6. Before committing significant resources, validate your idea with potential users through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Gather feedback on your unique value proposition and features to ensure you're building something people truly want. The discussion and criticism summary from competing products suggest users were concerned about monetization and sustainability of the project, so be sure to address this with your potential users.

Questions

  1. What specific problem are you solving that existing social platforms aren't already addressing effectively for IRL connections?
  2. How will you differentiate Clubbera from the numerous other social platforms in the 'Swamp' category to attract and retain users?
  3. What is your plan to monetize Clubbera, and how will you ensure long-term sustainability without relying on VC funding, given users' concerns about similar platforms' viability?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 21
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 2
  • Net use signal: 5.0%
    • Positive use signal: 12.2%
    • Negative use signal: 7.2%
  • Net buy signal: -0.8%
    • Positive buy signal: 1.9%
    • Negative buy signal: 2.8%

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.

Similar products

Relevance

Launching Vibe IRL: A New App to Revolutionize Real-Life Socializing

07 May 2024 Android Social Media Social Networking

Hey HN, we've just launched Vibe IRL, an app designed to bridge the gap between online connections and real-world interactions. In an era where digital interactions often replace face-to-face encounters, Vibe IRL aims to transform how people meet and interact in their local environments.Key Features:Mood-Based Matching: Users can find others based on current mood, promoting more meaningful and relevant meetups. Instant Local Meetups: Designed to encourage spontaneous real-life interactions, making socializing effortless and immediate. We created Vibe IRL as a free platform to help make genuine connections in local communities. We're excited about the potential to not only enhance how people socialize but to also provide a tool that combats the increasing sense of isolation in the digital age.The app is free to download and we're keen to hear feedback from the community to make it even better. Check it out here https://vibeirl.app and let us know what you think!

Users appreciate the spontaneous nature of forming friendships but are disappointed by the lack of PC support.

The product lacks support for PC, which is a significant drawback for users who prefer or require PC compatibility.

Avatar
1
2
-50.0%
-50.0%
2
1
Relevance

ClubHub – We made a useful thing (free forever)

29 Nov 2024 Social Media

ClubHub is free forever - and lets users create clubs and events, and allows them to be exported to a set of calendars (iCal).As club members ourselves we wanted to build something to help alleviate the inevitable 'social-mediaification' of absolutely everything. Even platforms like Strava are becoming more and more proprietary and trying to make it difficult to share GPX files, not allowing 3rd party apps to interact as easily...The feature set is small so far, but we want to ensure people can organise real-world stuff without having a social media platform attached to everything they do.It's super early days - we built this over 3-4 weeks and now are letting people loose on it. The system 'should' be robust - but let's find out.Bugs/comments/slander/whatever absolutely welcome!

Free app for creating clubs and events, early stage.

Feature set is small so far.

Avatar
2
1
1
2
Relevance

Event Driven Social Media to Make Genuine Connections

14 Dec 2023 Social Media Marketing

I have been working on building a platform that aims to bring people closer in a digital world of loneliness (Especially with Gen Z).The idea was that if you meet people first and then interact with them online you will build stronger connections and make better local communities. Would love to hear your feedback!

Avatar
1
1
Relevance

Joinby - The platform to connect your local community

08 Nov 2023 SaaS Community

Custom community platform to connect your community. Main features: * Custom logo & colors * Member directory * Groups * Events * Local map And much more! Checkout out website www.joinby.app/en/

The Product Hunt launch of Joinby is viewed positively, with its custom community platform being recognized as impressive. A user inquired whether Joinby competes with Meetup. Another user asked about the target audience.

Users suggest incorporating direct communication or private messaging features between members to enhance the platform's interactivity and user engagement.

Avatar
77
4
4
77
Relevance

Tagle – Discover Social Profiles Locally Based on Shared Interests

15 Sep 2024 Social Media

Hey HN,I’m excited to introduce Tagle, an app that helps people discover others around them based on real interests rather than superficial social profiles.What it does:• Find people locally who share your passions using flexible interest tags. • Users can unlock social profiles (like Instagram, X) to connect directly. • It’s not about superficial browsing, but about building meaningful connections through niche interests and hobbies.I’ve built Tagle to give users a way to connect authentically by focusing on what matters to them—whether it’s discovering fellow hobbyists nearby or engaging with people who have similar passions.Why I built it:Most social platforms focus on global interactions, but I wanted to create a tool that helps people connect locally through shared, genuine interests. It bridges the gap between the online world and real-world interactions by highlighting what people actually care about.Looking for feedback:I’d love to hear any feedback from the community— thoughts on the concept, ideas for improvement, or even potential challenges I might face. The app is currently available on the App Store, and I’m eager to learn what works and what could be better.Thanks for your time!

Avatar
2
2
Relevance

Stages - Your Community for Places and Events

26 Sep 2024 Events Community Social Networking

Your social media app for discovering and sharing the best events and places worldwide. Connect with friends, join communities, create events, manage guest lists, and share your experiences with a global network!

Mega App is designed to help users plan their free time and avoid missing events. The app focuses on providing an overview of city events while also facilitating social connections among users.

Avatar
6
2
100.0%
2
6
100.0%
Relevance

Sociables: The community platform for content creators and niches

14 Jul 2023 Social Media Community

Hey HN. We've been working on a community platform/Reddit alternative with a focus on building a place for people to create communities instead of just buckets of posts. We want communities to feel like a place where you want to hang out instead of just scroll.At a high level, our platform is like a Reddit/Discord/Patreon hybrid. We took all of the best features from each of those platforms and combined them under one umbrella.Here's a list of the core features of each community:1. Customizable discussion boards: Community owners can set up threaded discussion boards for different topics related to their niche. For example, if a user creates a community for a niche like "Sports", they can create different discussion boards for subcategories like "Soccer", "Football", “Hockey”, and "Golf". This is different from Reddit, where you only have a singular discussion board per community. All the posts within these discussion boards are crawlable by search engines, meaning they will appear in search results.2. Voice rooms: Community owners can set up Discord-style voice chat rooms where users can seamlessly jump between different rooms to communicate verbally.3. Real-time text chatroom: We modelled the chat after Twitch so communities can have a form of instant messaging-style communication.4. Synchronized YouTube/Vimeo player: Community owners can create a playlist of YouTube/Vimeo video embeds. Each community has a media player that cycles through the playlist and synchronizes the playback, so people within the community can watch the same video at the same time.5. Baked-in monetization: Community owners can offer customizable tiered monthly membership plans that allow members to financially support them. Owners can also link their PayPal accounts to receive donations. Users can purchase post bumps within the boards and comment awards, and the revenue is shared with the community owner. (Note: Tiered memberships and paying to bump posts/comment awards are in development. Communities can currently only offer a singular membership tier).6. Link-in-bio page: Each community has a link-in-bio style page where community owners can display a list of links related to their community. Posts from the community also appear on this page along with buttons to monetarily support the owner. This page is meant to act as the “cover” page of the community.7. Moderation tooling: Communities can set up custom user roles and assign different permissions within the community to these roles. You can assign permissions such as being able to move posts between boards, remove posts/comments and more. (Note: Our moderation tooling is currently in development. We are exploring integrating AI to automatically scan and flag posts that the moderators should review).

Users believe that while the technology for social networks is well-established, monetization remains challenging. They suggest explicitly stating the absence of VC funding to boost product confidence. There are mixed feelings, with some wishing luck but expressing doubts about the predictability of the strategy.

Users are concerned about the product's monetization and sustainability, expressing doubts about its long-term viability. There is a lack of confidence that the product will continue to exist, and the strategy behind it is seen as unpredictable.

Avatar
7
3
-66.7%
3
7
Relevance

Sociables, a Discord/Reddit/Patreon hybrid community platform

21 Jun 2023 Social Media Community

We've been working on Sociables in our free time over the past few years and have decided to officially launch today in light of all the recent Reddit news. While we initially intended the product to be primarily used by content creators, the platform works well as a drop-in Reddit alternative.We’ve combined Discord style voice rooms, Reddit style discussion boards, Twitch style instant messaging chatrooms, and Patreon style tiered membership plans into a singular platform.Here's a list of the core features of each community:1. Customizable discussion boards: Community owners can set up threaded discussion boards for different topics related to their niche. For example, if a user creates a community for a niche like "Cars," they can create different discussion boards for subcategories like "Car Mods," "Car Photos," "Car Sales," etc. This is different from Reddit, where you only have a singular discussion board per community. All the posts within these discussion boards are crawlable by search engines, meaning they will show up in search engine search results.2. Voice rooms: Community owners can set up Discord-style voice chat rooms where users can seamlessly jump between different rooms to communicate by voice.3. Real-time text chatroom: We modeled the chat after Twitch, so communities can have a form of instant messaging-style communication.4. Synchronized YouTube/Vimeo player: Community owners can create a playlist of YouTube/Vimeo videos. Each community has a media player that cycles through the playlist and synchronizes the playback, so people within the community can watch the same video at the same time.5. Baked-in monetization: Community owners can offer customizable tiered monthly membership plans that allow members to financially support the admins and mods. Owners can also link their PayPal accounts to receive donations. Users can purchase post bumps within the boards and comment awards, and the revenue is shared with the community owner. (Note: Tiered memberships and paying to bump posts/comment awards are in development. Communities can currently only offer a singular membership tier).6. Moderation tooling: Communities can set up custom user roles and assign different permissions within the community to these roles. (Note: Our moderation tooling is currently in development. We are exploring integrating AI to automatically scan and flag posts that the moderators should review).7. Link-in-bio page: Each community has a link-in-bio style page where community owners can display a list of links related to their community. Posts from the community also appear on this page along with buttons to monetarily support the owner.One of the key design decisions was to include different methods for monetization within each community so that the community admins/mods can get paid. We take a minority cut of each transaction to help fund the platform. We are conscious of trying to ensure that the methods we add for the communities to make money don't come at the detriment of the community itself.Check out our Product Hunt page: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/sociablesThanks!

Avatar
7
7
Relevance

Sociables - The all-in-one community platform for creators and niches

21 Jun 2023 Social Media Community reddit

Sociables is a community of communities. Capture your niche by setting up threaded discussion boards, voice and text based chat rooms, monthly membership plans and more.

The Product Hunt launch received congratulations from users. One user inquired about the availability of educational materials or LMS-like features. Another user expressed that the innovation and hard work behind the product are inspiring.

Avatar
74
2
2
74
Relevance

Socially - The community builder platform for creators

11 Jun 2024 SaaS Social Network Community

Socially is a saas based social networking platform for NICHE communities. Start your own community platform with a powerful web app & 2 native iOS, Android apps in matter of clicks. Stay in control of your timeline

Socially's Product Hunt launch received mostly positive feedback, with many users congratulating the team and expressing excitement about the platform's potential for community building. Several comments highlighted the platform's good design and functionality, especially for newcomers to online communities. However, users also raised concerns about audience growth, differentiation from established platforms like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook, community management/engagement, and GDPR compliance regarding email practices. One user suggested open-sourcing the project and mentioned it having too many features.

Users criticized the product launch for sending unsolicited spam emails, potentially violating GDPR. Concerns were raised about the platform being a walled garden with too many features and not being open source. Users questioned how the platform differentiates itself from established SaaS community offerings and how it will help new communities grow their audience. The difficult registration process, particularly the password setup, was also a point of concern.

Avatar
186
19
21.1%
5.3%
19
186
21.1%
5.3%
Top