Niche social network for anglers hits 1 million users

FishBrain is a social networking app for the angling community, which provides users with helpful crowdsourced data.

Nowadays, whatever people’s interests there is bound to be some kind of online community for them. But startups hoping to capture niche demographics always have to negotiate the small user pool — a lack of engaged customers can lead to a less effective service. FishBrain — a social networking app for fishing enthusiasts — appears to have overcome this obstacle, however, reaching one million users in June this year.

The app’s seling point is crowdsourced data for the angling community. Users can access geological and meteorological data (wind speed, humidity, temperature) to find the best places to fish, the most efficient bait for specific types of fish, or other information that will help them win a bigger haul. Users can create their own public profiles, log their activity, and the Instagram-style feed lets them share a photo of their catches so others can ‘like’ and comment. They can also follow friends and other anglers to stay updated about local events and fishing news.

The app is currently free in the App Store and Google Play, but upgrading to premium enables users to compile performance reports and enable predictions for the most effective baits in specific locations. FishBrain has logged 350,000 catches thus far, and the company plans to expand their business into fishing gear, wearables and a platform for videos.

Which group will the next big specialty social networking app cater to?