A Look Into Cara — Maybe Host Your Own Art | anderegg.ca
Cara is a social media app aimed at artists that’s grown by more than 600,000 users in the past week. I just learned about it today, but it’s been around since at least the beginning of 2023. Its key features are that it won’t host AI content yet, and it tries to dissuade scrapers from indexing art on the platform for AI training. The quick growth of Cara has been a reaction to Meta’s new AI policies, which allow Meta to train their models using content uploaded to their platforms.
This sort of growth is expensive for anyone, but Cara currently only monetizes through donations using Buy Me a Coffee. It’s also backed by Vercel Functions. Vercel’s offerings are great for getting a project off the ground, especially if you don’t have a team of back-end specialists, but they’re expensive. Cara’s monthly Vercel bill is already north of $96,280, though Vercel staff have reached out to potentially help with that. I’m betting there’s only so much Vercel will do, given that it’s the first week of the month.
You can use Instagram/Threads/Facebook for free because Meta monetizes your attention and analyzes your content. The new AI policies haven’t changed much, other than the output of the analysis. To Meta, this is part of the fee for using one of their platforms. It’s the whole “if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product” idea. Cara is also free, which makes me wonder about how it will foot the bill for its newfound popularity.
