In the second month of 2021 and the third round of national lockdown, the last thing we need is another social media app.
Or so we thought. Hive has made its way into the trending Twittersphere this week as users scrambled to download the app and bagsy their usernames.
Although Hive isn’t new (there were murmurs about the platform in 2019), it only soared in popularity on Tuesday night, with over 130,000 new members in just a few hours causing the servers to crash. It’s now the number one social media app on Apple’s App Store, and the number two most-downloaded app overall.
everyone that got on hive before it shut pic.twitter.com/qY7IaxHl1L
— raul (@rauItra) February 3, 2021
But what is Hive? And exactly why is it suddenly so popular?
The app was created to be a hybrid of all the most used social media apps –with a little nostalgia thrown in for good measure. It gives users a Twitter-like profile where they can post text, photos and videos, has an explore page like Instagram, and lets you add music to your profile like the good old days of MySpace.
Interestingly, it also allows users to monetise their accounts as soon as they join the platform – something that other social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram doesn't allow.
how it started: how it’s going: pic.twitter.com/rd4B9Rwfao
— ari⁹⁴ #TCOE (@xilysmhaz) February 3, 2021
The overnight success of the app can be attributed to their paid influencer advertising on TikTok. @thickblackthot stars in a video complaining about the recent changes to Instagram, saying ‘it has just gone downhill’ since being bought by Facebook, and promotes the new app as an alternative. ‘Hive has everything you love about the old Instagram... ditch the Facebook-owned app and join Hive.’ The video has half a million views.
Fans of the app are also keen to support a female-owned platform. The CEO, Kassandra Pop, seems to operate in a very small team and even runs the platform’s Twitter account herself.
So – another app to clog your phone’s memory or a refreshing change of scenery for the social media world? See for yourself – once the server’s back up and running.
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