Aiming to put the “social” back into “social media,” a new app is being called nowhere has soared to the top of the App Store as it goes live by invitation only on Wednesday. Designed to appeal to a younger crowd—or anyone looking to connect with friends or around shared interests—noplace is like a modern-day MySpace with its colorful, customizable profiles that let people share everything from relationship status to what they are listening to or watching, what they are reading or doing and more.
Boding well for its potential in the often difficult consumer social market, nowhere it had already gone viral before its public release due to its feature that allows users to express themselves by customizing their profile colors. While Gen Z may not have grown up with MySpace and all its chaotic customizations, there’s still a sense of nostalgia for a social networking experience they never had.
“I think that part of the magical, fun part of the Internet is gone now. Everything is very even,” says the founder and CEO Tiffany Zhongwhich previously founded its own early-stage consumer fund, Pineapple Capital, and, in her teens, worked at Binary Capital helping them source early stage consumer offerings.
Having played with every consumer social networking app for the past decade, Zhong has a keen eye for the next big hit. He singled out Musical.ly in 2015 as the startup that would become the next Snap or Twitter, for example, after realizing how popular it was with kids and other younger users.
She too tweet often its product insights and analysis, particularly on consumer applications, gaining a following on social media. Given her background, it’s no surprise that Zhong has well-developed ideas about what today’s younger users might like in a new social networking app.
“I’ve always loved social,” he says, but added that social media doesn’t feel social anymore. “It’s all just media. It feels very disconnected.”
In part, that’s because all of our content now is highly personalized, says the founder. “We watch different content and [following] different interests than our friends, so community is harder to find as a result,” he explains.
With noplace, the idea is to provide a place where people can follow their friends as well as find others who share their interests in one place.
The app offers a mini, customizable profile where they can share what they’re currently doing and customize it to reflect their interests. Users’ profiles can have tags, which the app calls “stars,” which are their interests or topics of interest. For example, users can add their astrological sign, Myers-Briggs personality type, hobbies or fans to their profiles, which then makes them discoverable to others.
But noplace looks more like a global group chat or Twitter/X rival than a Facebook alternative, as it focuses on text-based updates and doesn’t currently support photos or videos.
“Facebook 10 years ago – or Facebook when I was in high school – there were cool, life updates everywhere,” Zhong explains. “We don’t get it anymore, do we?” she says. “You may follow [friends] on Instagram, but it’s still highlights, less updates.”
Also on noplace, users are meant to share what they are currently doing, not what they have already done. If you’re in a new city or watching a show or looking for a new band, these could be your status updates. The app offers two streams, one with your friends and another global stream from everyone in the app and both are in reverse chronological order. There are no private profiles.
Entrants under the age of 18 will also receive a more moderate feed. The company is focused on moderation, having created its own internal dashboard for this purpose and assigning a team to ensure that users stay safe.
Instead of algorithms, noplace leverages AI technology to drive recommendations and curation. The app doesn’t edit the stream for you, but uses AI to do things like offer recaps of what you missed.
“We did it on purpose… having a global, public stream is what makes it so fun. It’s like everyone’s mind on paper,” notes Zhong. “People are having a blast. They say, “I’ve never had an app like this before.”
The Tokyo- and San Francisco-based founder first started working at noplace in the second half of last year alongside a remote, full-time team of seven. Late last year, noplace launched in an invite-only beta phase and “accidentally went viral,” Zhong says, prompting the team to distribute some invite codes to early adopters, which included some K-pop fans.
The app is now poised to offer younger Twitter users an alternative to the network now known as Elon Musk’s X, offering the same ability to post to a text feed, but combining that with friend-finding capabilities and customization options that appeal to their demographics.
The app is free download on ios and is available in read-only mode on the web. Monetization plans have yet to be launched.
Noplace is backed by funding from investors including 776 (Alexis Ohanian), Forerunner Ventures and others. According Pitchbook data, the company raised $15 million in a Series A1 round, at a $75 million pre-money valuation, bringing its total raise to $19 million.
