The Rise of a (Potential) Social Monster
Analyzing the Growth and Success of Social Monster (SoMon) Using On-Chain Data
In the decentralized social media landscape, platforms like Lens and Farcaster have garnered significant attention, capturing the imagination of Web3 enthusiasts with their promise of open and user-owned social protocols. However, another contender is quietly making waves: Social Monster (SoMon). Built on the Open Social Protocol, Social Monster is showing signs of rapid growth and success, as evidenced by its on-chain activity. By leveraging data from Agnostic, we can track the platform’s key growth metrics—including user profiles, community creation, and subscriptions—along with token performance. While the initial numbers paint a promising picture, a closer look reveals both opportunities and areas for caution, particularly when it comes to unusual patterns in profile creation.
User Growth
The first indicator of the platform's success is the steady growth in user profiles. Over the past few months, we’ve seen a consistent rise in the number of profiles created each week, indicating growing interest in the platform. The cumulative profiles graph shows the platform nearing 175,000 total profiles by mid-September 2024.
The weekly breakdown shows that while some weeks see a larger influx of users than others, there is a clear upward trajectory overall. The spike in new profiles during certain weeks might correlate with targeted marketing efforts or feature releases.
Community Engagement
Communities are a key feature of Social Monster, offering users the ability to form groups or channels around shared interests. The growth of communities has been steady, with the platform reaching over 3,500 communities by mid-September.
While the weekly creation numbers show consistent growth, there has been a slight downward trend in recent weeks. Nevertheless, the steady creation of new communities suggests that users are not only engaging with the platform but are also taking meaningful steps to deepen their involvement. It's important to highlight that creating a community requires an ETH payment of at least 0.001, making it a significant action for users, which further underscores their commitment to the platform.
Subscriptions Growth
Subscriptions are another important metric, as they reflect user commitment to communities and creators. By mid-September, the platform had reached over 17,500 cumulative subscriptions, showing that users are increasingly investing in the content and communities they follow.
Notably, subscription growth appears to be more stable compared to the fluctuations seen in profiles and communities. This steady growth suggests that subscribers may represent the platform's core, or "power users," who are highly engaged and seeking to derive the most value from the product. These users are likely the ones driving sustained activity on Social Monster, reinforcing the platform's long-term viability.
Token Activity: OwO Token’s Role in the Ecosystem
In parallel with user growth, Social Monster’s native token, OwO, has maintained a relatively stable price over the past few weeks. Currently hovering around $0.02, OwO is used within the platform for transactions and incentivizing participation. The token has seen activity spikes, particularly when rewards were issued on the platform. It appeared our top token list for Base during the past two weeks, indicating increased trading volume and user interest.
Despite the positive trend in user growth, the token’s transaction volume and number of unique addresses show variability. This could suggest that while the platform's growth is promising, it’s still early days for the full adoption and usage of the token across all facets of the platform.
Concerns and Suspicious Activity
While Social Monster’s growth metrics are undeniably impressive, a deeper dive into the data reveals some anomalies. In a specific block (18250367), we observed the creation of multiple profiles with similar usernames, such as ‘hritiana,’ ‘hritianal,’ and ‘hritianaf.’ The similar structure and timing of these usernames suggest that there could be an algorithm or bot behind some of these profile creations.
This pattern raises questions about the authenticity of some of the growth, which could distort the real user activity and engagement on the platform. It’s important for Social Monster to address such issues early to maintain trust with its user base and ensure genuine growth.
Conclusion
Social Monster’s platform is off to a strong start, as evidenced by consistent growth in profiles, communities, and subscriptions. Its native token, OwO, has seen sustained interest, maintaining a stable price as user activity on the platform increases. However, the presence of suspicious profile creation patterns suggests that not all of this growth may be organic.
What sets Social Monster apart from traditional Web2 social platforms is its commitment to transparency through on-chain data. In contrast to Web2 networks like Facebook or Twitter, where data is kept behind closed doors, Social Monster allows for public, verifiable insight into platform activity. This openness represents a significant shift towards making social information more accessible and accountable—like this analysis. As the platform evolves, on-chain data from tools like Agnostic and Dune will be critical for tracking its progress and ensuring that the platform remains aligned with its decentralized ethos.
Overall, Social Monster is a promising addition to the decentralized social media space, with real potential to build a vibrant and engaged community.
Final Thoughts
While this analysis highlights key metrics like profiles, communities, subscriptions, and token activity, there is even more data available around rewards and user activities. However, some of these insights were more difficult to obtain due to the current data structure (most of it is in ERC-4337 UserOperations). If you're interested in diving deeper into these areas or discussing how Social Monster’s on-chain growth could evolve, feel free to reach out. We'd be happy to provide additional details and explore further data points with you.