Full Q&A - Who Will Win the Race to Become Canada’s Social Media Empire?
For those interested in the full Q&A with Canada’s social media platform creators, read on…
We sent questions to the creators of:
North Social
Eh!
Hey Cafe
Gander Social
Here’s what they had to say.
Interview with the Founders:
Q: What problem with existing social media are you most trying to fix?
A: Northsocial.ca is a privacy-first alternative to foreign-controlled social networks – built by our team, Zynim Media Inc. – on Canadian infrastructure. We are addressing growing concerns across Canada about data sovereignty – meaning, who owns your data – and restoring the ability to share news in Canada, while keeping Canadian data on Canadian soil. We are also tackling something equally broken – the outrage culture that dominates mainstream social media. Because our community members have been respectful of our Terms of Service, Northsocial.ca is becoming a rare space where Canada comes to leave the noise behind and engage in meaningful dialogue.Q: How are you tackling the network-effect challenge of getting people to actually switch platforms?
A: We are not trying to replace mainstream social media. It would be unrealistic to expect the population to "switch," as the world – transcontinental families, friends, and everyone in between – is already on existing platforms. We are simply creating a medium for connecting people, rooted in Canadian values – a space that exists alongside other platforms, not asking people to choose. We build community by modelling those values in our branding, our engagement, and our voice – something that manifests naturally when you have a team of Canadians who come from different backgrounds. Our team, like all of Canada, brings a mosaic of stories and experiences to every discussion. That diversity of experience is woven into every design choice as we continue to foster genuine human connections on Northsocial.ca.Q: What would success look like for you in five years?
A: We hope to strengthen the Buy Canadian movement and support local businesses. We want to continue shining a well-deserved spotlight on local products and work by our nation’s talented artists, authors, artisans, makers, and Canadian content creators. At the heart of it all, if Northsocial.ca continues to be an "oasis" – as one of the users on the platform has called it – for Canada in celebrating our communities, our towns, and our everyday moments, then we will have laid an unyielding foundation to a legacy we leave future generations who call this country home.Q: What's different about your platform versus the others being developed?
A: We are all taking different approaches in building our systems and communities. At Northsocial.ca, our goal is to solve the problem of local discovery and community building that foreign-controlled platforms often overlook. When you sign up to Northsocial.ca, you’ll notice we don't ask for demographics – no age, no gender. People can share as much or as little as they want, and the community shows up to welcome them. Here's how we think about it: We built a rink, and each community member brings their own equipment – their uniqueness, creativity, and humanity – to make Northsocial.ca their own. We have been open to the public and growing since Canada Day 2025. Northsocial.ca is 100% Canadian-owned and operated using Canadian-built software. Canadians are clearly ready for something different when it comes to privacy and data ownership – and our team welcomes the healthy competition. It pushes all of us to build better systems for Canada.
Q: What problem are you most trying to fix?
A: The algorithm. Every major platform has optimized for engagement over connection — outrage keeps people scrolling, so outrage gets amplified. EH! uses a simple chronological feed. You see what people post, in order. No manipulation, no hidden ranking. It sounds basic because it used to be standard.Q: How are you tackling the network-effect challenge?
A: We're not trying to convert everyone at once — we're growing organically within communities that already have a reason to care: Canadians who are tired of their data living on US servers, people who've been burned by algorithmic toxicity, small business owners who've lost organic reach. Over 21,000 users in without spending a dollar on advertising tells us the appetite is real. We let the product speak.Q: What would success look like in five years?
A: EH! becomes the default digital gathering place for Canadians — and the blueprint for how community-first social media can work across cultures around the world. Not the biggest platform, but the most trusted one wherever we land. Data stays local. Community is real. And the people using it actually feel like they own their experience.Q: What makes EH! different from the others?
A: Most platforms are built to extract value from users — your attention, your data, your content. We're building in the opposite direction. EH! is designed to provide genuine value back to the people using it. That means a feed you control intentionally, not one curated by an algorithm with its own agenda. Groups and Events that make it easy to actually organize and connect around the things you care about. Canadian data sovereignty baked into the infrastructure. And a model we believe can work across cultures, not just here at home. Canada is the starting point — the mission is bigger.
Q: What problem with existing social media are you most trying to fix?
A: The lack of privacy, too much data collection, ads, and slow and confusing interfaces. I have always from the start with everything I work on been about user privacy and not needing to collect personal data, track activity, or sell ads to make a few bucks at the expense of users. Social sites right now are focused on being ad platforms to make money, and it hurts the users.Q: How are you tackling the network-effect challenge of getting people to actually switch platforms?
A: Keeping users engaged and helping them switch is a hard task that has only become worse in the last few years. We don't send out emails to users unless they ask for them first, and we don't use push notifications or tactics like that to force users to keep coming back so for us, it's extra hard. But we are up for the challenge.Q: What would success look like for you in five years?
A: We have been around for almost 2 decades now, we ran a social network from early 2010 to 2017, Hey.Café has been around since 2021, and we don't plan to go anywhere. We developed everything to be as efficient as we can, so our costs are almost nothing to maintain and have headroom to grow. By working with the community and engaging on new features and feedback we have grown a great set of features and a robust API.Q: What's different about your platform versus the others being developed?
A: I think the biggest difference we like to share is we use NO American providers, we don't have ads, we don't have algorithmic feeds, we don't track what users do and collect data on them, and we are fully user funded so no VC funding that requires us to make money in ways that affects users negatively. We have an open API, or stats are public, or front end code is all open source, and we engage with the community.
As of publication, the Gander Team has not responded to requests for comment.
We would love to hear your thoughts on the platforms and which one you see taking the lead. Drop a comment on our Instagram post here.