The Social (global networking community)

What The Social (global networking community) does

The Social is a Switzerland-headquartered global networking community founded in 2013 that organizes curated, in-person and online events for intellectuals and professionals seeking meaningful social and professional connections. Its core product is a calendar of small-format (20-40 attendee) physical events hosted in 50+ cities across 15 countries, supplemented since 2019 by virtual events on Zoom and a hybrid format in which local physical events are broadcast globally. The platform is built on a standard website-based ticketing, registration, and member management system; the company itself does not develop proprietary technology beyond this and runs no mobile app. Local community operations are executed by a distributed network of volunteer Head Ambassadors who study member profiles and facilitate curated introductions, enforcing strict community rules against selling and dating to maintain a social-comfort environment. The Social has completed more than 1,000 events since inception.

The business model combines transactional event ticket sales (typically CHF 15-45 per event, with early-bird and late-bird pricing and a no-refund policy within 48 hours) with recurring membership fees. The Full Membership is priced at 200 CHF annually and bundles access to all event formats, guest-invite rights, and periodic personal check-ins by ambassadors; a Lite Membership is shown as sold out. Pricing is local-currency adjusted across Zurich, Dubai, Limassol, Hong Kong, Almaty, and Astana, with venue capacity typically capped to keep events "human-sized." Distribution is fully self-serve via the the-social.com website, and marketing is primarily ambassador word-of-mouth plus Instagram and SEO-driven event pages. The company has 9 listed employees, is privately held with no disclosed funding rounds or parent entity, and does not report revenue. Its go-to-market is event-driven rather than sales-led, and the volunteer-based operating model is the central cost-management mechanism enabling global reach on a small headcount.

Name

The Social (global networking community)

Legal name

The Social

Website

https://the-social.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Social is a Switzerland-based global networking community founded in 2013 that organizes curated small-format physical and Zoom events for intellectuals and professionals across 50+ cities in 15 countries, monetized via per-event ticket sales and 200 CHF annual Full Memberships run largely by volunteer ambassadors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Networking Services

NAICS

Civic and Social Organizations (8134)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Community Hosting & Membership Platforms (MPACAJAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Local & Neighborhood Community Platforms (MPACAJAI)

Keywords

• Networking events
• Membership community
• Social networking
• Curated introductions
• Professional community

Headquarters

HQ city

Zurich

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices14 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Event Ticket Sales: Revenue generated from ticket sales for physical networking events. Prices vary by location, with early-bird and late-bird pricing tiers. Tickets typically include welcome drinks and basic snacks.
2. Membership Fees: Annual membership fees for Lite and Full members. Full membership priced at 200 CHF, providing access to all event formats, periodic personal check-ins by ambassadors, and the ability to invite guests.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Social curates and hosts small-group networking events (physical, virtual via Zoom, and hybrid) for intellectuals across 50+ cities in 15 countries. Members join under three tiers — Full Member (200 CHF/year), Lite Member (free), or Sporadic Guest (single-event tickets) — and events are governed by strict no-selling and no-dating rules to ensure pure social connection.

Product overview

The Social is a global high-quality networking community for intellectuals that operates as a unified platform combining physical events (in 50+ cities across 15 countries), virtual events via Zoom, and hybrid formats. The core offering centers on curated introductions facilitated by volunteer ambassadors who match members based on interests. The product portfolio includes three membership tiers: Sporadic Guest, Lite, and Full (200 CHF annually). Events typically host 20-40 attendees and follow strict community rules—no selling and no dating—to maintain a professional networking environment. The platform has completed over 1,000 events since its founding in Switzerland in 2013.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Soho House: Soho House operates a global chain of paid-membership clubs for creatives and professionals, offering curated in-person socialization. It is a broader incumbent in the curated-members-only social space and represents the upper-bound scale outcome The Social could aspire to with sufficient capital.

Emerging players

• Friender: Friender is a friend-matching app focused on helping adults find local activity partners based on shared interests. It targets the same 'meeting new interesting people' pain point as The Social via a lighter mobile experience, representing a digital-native alternative.
• The League: The League is a curated dating and friend-finding app targeting ambitious professionals. While primarily a dating product, its networking and friendship tiers overlap with The Social's intellectual-professional target segment and curated-matching model.
• Bumble BFF: Bumble BFF extends the Bumble matchmaking brand into platonic friend-finding, addressing the same consumer need (meeting interesting new people) as The Social but via a mobile-app-first model. It is a partial-overlap emerging peer for the digital generation of social-curation seekers.

Direct peers

• City Socializer: City Socializer is a UK-based social networking platform for adults looking to meet new people in their city through curated group activities. It mirrors The Social's positioning of facilitated offline socialization for newcomers and is a head-to-head international peer in the curated social-meetup niche.
• Meetup: Meetup is the dominant online platform for organizing local interest-based groups and events. It is the closest direct peer to The Social, which uses a website plus in-person event model for curated networking, though Meetup is self-organized and lacks The Social's hand-curated ambassador model.
• Eventbrite: Eventbrite is a leading self-service ticketing and event-management platform used by community organizers worldwide. The Social runs its own ticketing flow for curated networking events, putting it in direct operational overlap with Eventbrite on the event-discovery and ticketing layer.

Others

• Patreon: Patreon is a subscription platform for creators to monetize membership communities. While it does not run offline events, its tiered membership and recurring-fee mechanics are directly analogous to The Social's Lite/Full Membership structure and represent a benchmark for membership-economics design.
• Lonely Planet Meetups / Atlas Obscura Experiences: Atlas Obscura operates curated local experiences and community meetups for intellectually curious travelers, paralleling The Social's intellectual-professional positioning and event-driven model. It is an adjacent peer in the curated-experiences-for-curious-adults category.
• Heygo: Heygo is a live virtual experiences marketplace where hosts run small-group interactive sessions over video. It overlaps with The Social's virtual-event format launched in 2019 and is an adjacent peer on the virtual social-experience monetization layer.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses2 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/17841401373145907
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/thesocialworld

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Social (global networking community)