by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
January 14, 2025
The app allows users to gain a profit not only through content but through interactions.
As a TikTok ban looms, Isaac Hayes III’s social media app, Fanbase, has gained traction with over $5.2 million secured through crowdfunding.
Hayes, the son of legendary R&B singer Isaac Hayes, founded the social media platform in 2018. According to its website, creators can directly earn revenue through their content. Furthermore, users can gain money through their interactions on the app. The platform, while free, also has subscription tiers to go further with monetization.
“For people who value content and community, Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social network that allows any user to earn money from day one,” the company website explains.
Although available for years, the app is gaining new popularity as TikTok’s time runs out in the United States. The Atlanta-based platform has risen on the App Store charts as well. Fanbase recently gained the #6 spot on social media rankings and #16 on the overall app store downloads. While doing so, it also crossed the 5 million milestone in crowdfunding.
Hayes wrote about the achievement in a post on LinkedIn.
Hayes not only wants the public to join the app, but take part in its growth as investors. According to Afrotech, users can become investors for a minimum amount of $399 for the Black-owned startup.
He hopes to become the next dominant social media app on the market, one that lets every user have the opportunity to make a profit.
“I’m the only Black-founded start-up social media app that’s currently in existence that was founded for the entire planet, but it’s Black-owned in infrastructure and ownership,” Hayes told the publication’s “Black Tech Green Money” podcast.
“Instead of being customers to our creations, we are turning our innovations into acquisitions, and therefore, that is my pitch to tell people that, ‘Look. Facebook and Instagram are not going to be, and TikTok is not going to be the king of the hill. There’s no business that has existed that has lasted and dominated in perpetuity. Everything goes down.’”
RELATED CONTENT: Gen Z’s Mental Health Struggles Create Catch-22 In Employment, UK Study Reveals
