In  September  2016,  I  wrote  about  the  less  than  month  old  social  network  Gab  as  a  first-­‐in  social  network  opportunity  for  any  business.

What  is  Gab?  Similar  to  Twi@er  but  with  this  mission  “The  People  First  Social  Network”.

Has  Gab  grown  since  August  2016?  Total website traffic- August 2016: 240,000 visits - December 2016: wejnerskgkgrxnkjg visits

Global website rank- December 2016: 11,663 NOTE: There are currently over 1.1 billion websites in the world and Gab ranks in the top .001%.

Gab users- August 2016: 0 - December 2016: 100,000 NOTE: There are 200,000 more users that have signed up but are on wait lists.

At  the  beginning  of  December,  I  asked  a  few  quesJons  to  Gab’s  Chief  CommunicaJon  Officer  Utsav  Sanduja.    

The  following  was  our  correspondence.

Ques:on  If  you  are  able  to  share,  how  many  people  have  created  accounts  (rough  number)  and  how  many  are  using  Gab  each  day  or  month?

Answer  At  present  our  organizaJon,  which  began  on  August  of  2016,  has  over  100,000  users  with  200,000  in  wait  list  signups,  along  with  an  unprecedented  2.45  million  gabs  sent,  of  which  an  average  of  20,000  gabs  are  shared  per  day.    

The  site  ranks  19,685  globally  in  online  acJvity,  3,300  in  The  United  States  and  has  over  24  million  page  views,  with  our  largest  growth  base  emanaJng  from  the  United  States,  India  and  Brazil.  Finally,  Gab  is  very  intent  on  recruiJng  users  from  France  in  anJcipaJon  of  the  upcoming  presidenJal  elecJons  there.

Ques:on  What  would  you  say  to  businesses  that  might  have  a  Facebook  or  Twi@er  account  and  are  wary  about  trying  a  new  social  network?

Answer  Gab  has  a  strong,  deep  and  rich  organic  set  of  users  that  vary  from  professional  class  workers,  young  families  and  those  in  reJrement.  

One  thing  that  Gab  takes  immense  pride  in  is  the  ease  in  which  entrepreneurs  and  self-­‐employed  individuals  are  able  to  set  up  shop,  promote  their  brand,  products  and  services  in  an  expediJous  manner.    

Further  to  this,  because  of  our  close-­‐knit  ecosystem  and  culture  that  Gab  has  fostered,  business  people  everywhere  have  commended  us  for  the  quality  of  interacJons  amongst  our  user  base.  It  is  due  to  this  congenial  and  personable  environment  that  has  given  longevity  and  security  to  business  relaJonships  of  all  kind  on  Gab.  Finally,  Gab’s  growth  internaJonally  in  India,  Brazil  and  France  have  allowed  us  to  reach  niche  user  bases  that  Big  Social  have  failed  to  uJlize.

Ques:on  I  think  when  people  look  at  Gab,  myself  included,  it  gets  compared  to  Twi@er  since  that  gives  it  context.  What  would  you  say  are  the  big  ways  Gab  has  differenJated  and  will  conJnue  to  differenJate  itself  from  Twi@er?

Answer  (part  1)  Facebook,  Twi@er,  and  Reddit  are  taking  the  path  of  censorship — Gab  does  not.  This  alone  sets  us  apart  from  Big  Social.  The  aforemenJoned  placorms  also  rely  immensely  on  adverJsing  revenues  for  their  core  business  model,  a  concept  that  is  proving  to  be  fuJle  in  an  environment  of  ad  blockers  on  both  mobile  and  desktop  web.    

Lastly,  we  feel  that  Big  Social  does  not  empower  content  creators,  but  rather  exploits  them  as  said  companies  make  billions  off  their  creaJvity,  Jme  and  energy.  Gab  takes  a  different  approach — we  put  the  user  in  charge  in  the  expurgaJon  process,  we  put  content  creators  first  so  they  can  sustain  their  business  and  passion.  And  more  importantly,  we  put  free  speech  above  all  else.

Answer  (part  2)  Gab  has  also  innovated  in  areas  where  other  placorms  have  refused  to.  300  characters  allows  for  more  thoughcul  and  meaningful  discourse  in  a  microblogging  environment.  UpvoJng  and  downvoJng  allows  both  posiJve  and  negaJve  senJment  as  it  empowers  the  community  to  surface  great  content.  Categories  help  users  discover  interesJng  topics  and  diverse  communiJes  on  Gab  who  share  similar  interests.  EdiJng  along  with  edit  logs  allows  users  to  make  quick  changes  and  modify  addiJonal  informaJon,  while  keeping  the  integrity  of  the  post  in  check.

Ques:on  Do  you  have  a  rough  esJmate  of  when  Gab  will  allow  users  to  upload  pictures  and  videos?  Is  Gab  planning  on  giving  YouTube  a  run  for  their  money  as  a  video  hosJng  placorm?

Answer  Stay  tuned!

Ques:on  For  now,  Gab  seems  to  be  dominated  by  the  poliJcal  right,  how  will  Gab  posiJon  itself  to  create  an  environment  where  a  wide  array  of  opinions  are  expressed?

Answer  We  challenge  this  premise  completely — to  the  contrary,  Gab  has  a  number  of  diverse  users  globally.  Whether  it  is  Catholic  stoics  from  Austria,  Hindu  philosophers  from  India  or  up-­‐and-­‐coming  independent  rap  arJsts  with  socially  liberal  viewpoints  in  Canada,  here  on  Gab  we  openly  welcome  and  embrace  the  diversity  that  is  at  the  heart  of  our  ecosystem.    

With  respect  to  our  conservaJve  user  base,  when  a  group  of  people  are  being  systemaJcally  dehumanized  and  labelled  as  the  alphabet  soup  of  phobias,  they  will  look  for  a  place  that  will  allow  them  to  speak  freely  without  censorship  and  devoid  of  Social  JusJce  bullying.  Down  the  road,  our  future  plans  include  open  sourcing  our  trends  secJon  to  the  developer  community  so  that  biases  of  any  kind  can  be  curbed  and  brought  down  to  a  minimum.  Gab  is  for  everyone,  regardless  of  one’s  ideological  predisposiJon.

Next  week  is  part  2  I  will  break  down  Gab  and  Twi@er’s  early  days  and  dig  into  why  businesses  should  not  just  keep  a  close  eye  on  Gab  but  also  how  it  illustrates  the  quickening  pace  of  social  media  a@enJon  shiks.

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