Does Europe need its own social platforms?

I've been thinking... Europe could really use homegrown, privacy-first alternatives to Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp, and the other tech giants.

✅ Built on open-source tech like Laravel

✅ Maybe paired with NativePHP for desktop apps

✅ Hosted mainly on servers owned by EU companies

✅ And with a clear message: This is a European platform, for everyone—but with European values front and center.

I'm genuinely excited about the idea. Is anyone else feeling the same? Who's in? Let's brainstorm, sketch ideas, or even start hacking something together.

Drop your thoughts, feelings, or just say "I'm interested!" 👇 Let’s see where this can go!

martinbean

1 year ago

Level 80

@muuucho I think if a Europe-focused social network was wanted, it would have been built by now. But the fact of the matter is, the layperson doesn’t really care about where an app is hosted nor what technology it’s built with. They’re to going to care if there’s a native app, and if it’s built with NativePHP, or with React Native, or with native technologies like Swift/Kotlin.

For example, if I told either of my parents, “Check out this site: it’s hosted in Europe and has an app you can download that was written in NativePHP” they wouldn’t care. They’d just ask if their Facebook friends/family members are on this other platform. They don‘t care where their data is hosted, or what Meta does to it, or what the app in the App Store was built with.

muuucho

1 year ago

Level 11

@martinbean Thanks. I think that the demand for a Europe social network has increased a lot lately. So maybe now is the time to build it.

And you should not tell a parent about it, you should explain and convince them that this is right with all the uncertainty in the world going on. But I am aware of the hen and egg problem, however nowadays most people uses both Whats up and Messenger which indicates that there are room for more than one app.

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