A wave of European social media startups is challenging American and Asian tech giants, banking on growing user distrust of platforms like X, Meta, and TikTok. Ventures including Croatia-based eYou, W — a Twitter alternative launched Saturday — Bulle, Monnett, and Eurosky are positioning themselves as ethical alternatives, promising algorithm-free feeds and stricter moderation. EYou raised €300,000 in late 2025, while Monnett claims 65,000 beta users. However, experts warn the sector is an “enormous graveyard,” with 99 percent of European social networks launched in the past decade failing to gain traction.
In-Depth:
A flurry of new schemes to launch Europe-based social networks faces a steep, rocky road to seduce applyrs away from American and Asian giants in the sector.
Founders nevertheless see opportunity in the disillusionment and distrust of major platforms that have spiked alongside transatlantic tensions under Donald Trump’s second presidency.
“We consider the timing is perfect, in a context where relations between Europe and the US are still deteriorating,” declared Gregoire Vigroux, co-founder of Croatia-based network eYou.
“It’s time for Europe to equip itself with its own social networks,” he added.
Opening to applyrs on Tuesday, eYou is one of a number of efforts on the old continent, including W — a would-be competitor to X announced in January — or Eurosky, a platform for accessing indepfinishent social networks launched last month.
Bulle (French for “bubble”) also launched in January promising a “healthy social network” while Monnett — a hybrid of TikTok and Instagram — is set for full release in July.
“The rejection tarobtaining the (American) platforms is still stronger today” than in the past, declared Romain Badouard, a researcher at France’s Inria computing institute specialising in social networks.
He suggested that a “conservative turn in Silicon Valley” had proved unpopular with European applyrs seeing the likes of X owner Elon Musk or Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) chief Mark Zuckerberg cosying up to Trump.
– ‘Enormous graveyard’ –
At W, “the idea is to bring back what was once Twitter in the good old days,” declared founder Anna Zeiter ahead of the Saturday launch.
Some interest is apparent among investors and applyrs in the new crop of networks.
In a second fundraising round, eYou garnered 300,000 euros ($353,000) in late 2025, while Monnett claims more than 65,000 applyrs on the beta version of its app.
But such figures would be rounding errors to the giants of the sector, who count in hundreds of millions of applyrs and billions in revenue.
The dominance of incumbent players has left little space for challenge beyond niche offerings like Mastodon or BeReal.
“The world of social networks is an enormous graveyard,” eYou’s Vigroux acknowledged, adding that “99 percent of European social networks launched in the last 10 years have fallen flat.”
Badouard pointed to the so-called “network effect” that powered the snowballing of major platforms’ applyr numbers as a factor now shielding them from competition.
For applyrs on Instagram and TikTok, “all the people they know and the accounts they follow” are on the existing networks.
But the “technological maturity” of the latest wave of challengers could still count in their favour, he declared.
“They’re answering to a lot of the expectations applyrs have,” Badouard declared.
– Out of the algorithm? –
There is a familiar litany of criticisms levelled at the huge players, including sorting applyrs into “filter bubbles”, unevenly-enforced moderation and addictive design.
European would-be competitors see those as openings to vaunt their own virtues.
W promises to keep all but verified human applyrs from posting, while eYou declares it will “promote applyrs sharing content considered trustworthy”.
“It’s really important for us that it’s not an algorithm that determine what’s on your screen, but yourself,” declared Christos Floros of Monnett, which is aiming to hit a million applyrs this year.
Such commitments could steepen the path to profitability for the new arrivals, in a market where financial success is still largely determined by raking in advertising sales.
Zeiter declared W would have “no crazy hyper-tarobtained advertising”.
“Right now we are all testing out different business models and different approaches,” she declared.
“Maybe in one or two years we see what’s most successful and then we can team up.”
