I think it will be harder and harder for new platforms to establish themself.
This might be overstating it, but it feels like this, and I'm open for being wrong:
What I think has to be done in 2026, is that you have to show really unique genuine innovation. Not genetic recombination of existing solutions, but genetic mutation and successful such.
Then you have to get that signal out, and with a lot of force. You have to show that you have done something truly unique, and make that signal go viral. If you don't get momentum before someone has vibe coded a clone of your Idea, you will have a hard time catching up
Users seem to pay attention to: - Whether a platform communicates clearly when something goes wrong - If product changes are explained instead of silently pushed - How support and moderation behave during edge cases
In regions like South Asia, I also see people relying more on community signals and word-of-mouth than ads.
Curious how others here see it evolving.