Happew's vision

The transformation of social networks

In recent years, the main social platforms have widely adopted short videos as the preferred format. At the same time, mobile video-editing tools have become widespread, and content creation on social networks has become the norm.

The rise of a single cross-platform format, the mainstreaming of production tools, and the normalization of habits have led to one consequence: an explosion in the number of creators and the amount of content published on social networks.

On the other hand, platforms have unanimously adopted the same presentation format: an infinite feed made up of vertical short videos shown one after another, with the ordering decided by recommendation algorithms.

This presentation contrasts with what we used to know: today, attention is no longer on a creator’s personality, world, and ideas, but on content viewed out of context.

Instagram users know this phenomenon well: it has become almost impossible to see a post from a friend you follow in your news feed, as it is polluted with ads, sponsored content, and algorithmic recommendations.

For people we follow as acquaintances, we might be tempted to say that missing updates about them isn’t such a big deal; but that is not the case for creators who care about maintaining ties with their communities.

Indeed, it is a well-known phenomenon among creators who have been doing this for more than two years: views drop drastically and the hard-won notoriety and trust seem to slowly slip away.

Most players in the sector blame recommendation algorithms. However, the truth lies elsewhere: the algorithms haven’t changed (they still try to capture users’ attention); it’s the amount of available content that has increased.

Thus, creators are made invisible not because the algorithm forgets them, but because they are diluted in the crowd of new creators and new content produced every day.

The consequences for creators and fans

To fight against this invisibility, creators have only two options:

• Produce dramatically more content
• Fuel controversy and follow trends only.

The first is a pharmakon—both a remedy and a poison. Producing more content does increase visibility for a while, but it also increases the overall mass of content and the production pace imposed on other creators to stay visible.

The second option helps attract attention. But that attention fades when other creators align with the same level of controversy. Then you have to raise the bar again, and the mad spiral begins.

This system, which we can see is not very virtuous, is not without issues. How can you maintain the quality and authenticity of the bond with your community when producing in bulk is the only way not to disappear?

Worse: how can you hope to share information that matters to you—information that may require some calm to be understood—when adjacent content screams its ambition to steal the viewer’s attention?

So the disappearance or occasional absence of some creators we had followed for a long time is understandable. Because while, for us as consumers—fans of a few but interested in everything—the consequences are still invisible, for creators it is a different story.

Let’s be clear: most creators suffer from this situation. Creators are trapped: if they produce at their own pace and on topics they love, they keep the heart of their community but lose its attention. And if they produce in bulk, they keep attention but lose the heart and trust of their fans.

In today’s world of social networks, values are inverted: TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook value impressions, views, and comments on simple content far more than attentive looks, consideration, and discussion around richer content.

In short, what was originally entertainment has become distraction—a way for fans to fill boredom.

The future of social networks

A natural question is: how did we get here? And the answer comes down to two words: business model.

The reason platforms have changed in this way lies in their economic mechanics. Social platforms, for the most part, monetize people’s attention. The more time you spend on a platform, the more it knows you. And the more it knows you, the more likely you are to give at least three seconds of attention to the 20 to 30 ads it shows you per hour of browsing.

Yes, that’s how social networks make money: by charging brands for 3 seconds of attention on ad posts.

So we understand why this transformation happened: platforms shift attention from creators to content so they no longer depend on creators. Users acquired by these platforms remain there, regardless of the decisions, stability, or reliability of influential creators.

The plan is clear: thanks to this transformation, current platforms create a world in which creators produce astronomical volumes of content designed only to capture users’ attention. And if a creator decides not to play the game, the algorithm quietly makes them invisible—without fans even noticing.

And we can think the trend is not about to change. With the rise of AI and the promise that within a few years (if not a few months) we’ll be able to produce vertical short videos in seconds and publish them everywhere, it’s inevitable that the phenomena described here will intensify.

Happew's vision

Because, for us, content creators are what make the internet what it is, we believe creators deserve better than being put in competition with players whose only ambition is to steal attention.

Here, we believe all creators can coexist, earn a living, and be monetized for who they are—regardless of their preferred format or their size.

Finally, we believe that 3 seconds of a user’s attention has no value, and that only real attention can be monetized.

That’s why we created Happew.

Happew is completely free. But it is a monetized platform: every time one of your fans plays your Happew games, you earn revenue. Monetization starts from day one, for everyone, with no conditions and no limits.

Monetization comes from advertising. To play your Happew games, your fans use a token they obtain in bundles of 3 to 10 by watching a video ad from 5 to 60 seconds.

We embrace ads and monetizing creators because, unlike other platforms:

• Fans choose when they watch ads
• Ads do not interrupt content consumption
• The ads shown are interactive (mobile games, for example) and high quality
• And every ad shown on Happew generates revenue for a content creator.

Beyond monetization—which is between $2 and $8 per 1,000 ad impressions depending on periods and the market (see How monetization works on Happew )—this system has the advantage of keeping only quality: if a game is successful, it’s because fans consider it important.

In addition, your fans are anonymous on Happew. To play, fans don’t need an account and don’t need to log in. Only the app is required.

Not requiring authentication is the best way to guarantee to your fans that we collect no personal data about them (their data is stored on their phone). And it greatly simplifies redirecting your fans from traditional platforms to Happew.

So Happew is anonymous for your fans, monetized for you, and free for everyone.

But it doesn’t stop there.

On Happew, there is no search algorithm: if a fan finds you on Happew, it’s because they know your exact username or click a link to your profile or one of your games. There is no recommendation algorithm on Happew either: when a fan comes for you, they see only you. Happew does not put you in competition with other creators.

You can, however, make recommendations to your community yourself by recommending other creators on the platform. We believe you know your community better than we do, so it’s natural that the decision is yours. The recommendations you make to your fans on Happew appear in the feed.

We aim to build a platform that is both healthy and fair for creators and respectful of fans—a network of values where all interactions share one common point: the quality of the relationship between a fan and the creator they follow. Ultimately, we want to put value back where it belongs: in the bond between a creator and their community.

Download Happew on iOS or Android to better understand the concept thanks to the demo games shown in the feed upon installation, and read What is Happew to discover all the features of the platform.