STEP 1—SIGN UP Enter your email, create a username and password STEP 2—PERSONALISE Add a profile picture and bio, select your interests STEP 3—REQUEST Press the + icon in the navigation bar to request a new group chat STEP 4—LiNK Join chats, connect and converse with like-minded people STEP 5—ARCHIVE Chats will be archived after 12 hours of inactivity STEP 6—REPEAT Repeat steps 3-5 At LiNK, we believe social networks have become boring. Incumbent platforms are overly restricted, encourage incessant consumption over meaningful connection, and focus more on advertisers than users. Moreover, we recognise the growing trend of loneliness in young people—73% of Gen Z report feeling alone either sometimes or always, which is higher than any generation ever. As such, we have created an app that seeks to alleviate both of these important trends. To achieve this feat, we must first answer the question, what exactly does a fun social media look like? We believe that a fun social media platform is based around urgency and both short and long term value. Short and Long Term Value—Users want to express themselves and be entertained and/or educated in the process, experiencing as little regretted time on the relevant social network as possible. Urgency—Social networks largely gain their value from the extent to which users are willing to contribute, and user contribution can be maximised through some notion of urgency, that if they do not act now, the opportunity to be entertained and/or educated will disappear for a significant portion of time. Keep these thoughts in mind... Next, we must answer the question, what does a social media that alleviates some notion of loneliness look like? Of course, this involves instigating and maintaining genuine connections between users. Connection—Users want to connect with like-minded individuals, people who share their beliefs, humour, perspectives, interests, and psychology, regardless of where they are from or what they look like. Therefore, we can say that a fun AND social platform is one that merges short- and long-term value, urgency, and genuine connection between users. With those characteristics, we decided that data-driven group chats that archive after 12 hours of inactivity would be the most effective solution to the relevant issues being tackled. Data-driven, because other group chats platforms leave the match-making to users themselves, whereas LiNK collects users' data and uses this to match users more effectively on their behalf, resulting in more fun and deeper connections. Group chats, because in both real and virtual worlds, the best connections are made and the most fun is had in small, intimate groups. (Also, we're tired of incumbent group chat platforms largely revolving around people trying to promote or sell something.) Archive functionality, because in order to encourage everyone to contribute and join the fun, there must be a sense of urgency involved in relevant the process. So this is our thinking behind the LiNK app. As a general overview, LiNK seeks to make group chats fun and social. We use data to create small, fun, ephemeral group chats filled with people who are interested in the same things as you. If this sounds fun and interesting to you, download the LiNK app and join the fun!
