Good morning! Lara Trump joins Fox News as a host, the NWSL will create a $5 million fund to compensate players in abuse case settlement, and another social app is growing thanks to the politicization of Meta, TikTok, and X.
– Online safety. Emma Bates started January ready for her app, Diem, to see a surge of activity. The social search platform’s user base of young women and LGBTQ people was the exact audience that expected to be affected by a few major events: an impending ban on TikTok and the second inauguration of Donald Trump as president.
But Bates couldn’t imagine just how significant that surge would be. In addition to TikTok’s brief ban and Trump’s inauguration, January saw Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg alienate some users of Instagram and Facebook with a rollback of content moderation and an interview in which he called for more “masculine energy” in corporate America. And while X owner Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration was long known, the reality of that partnership in action (Musk’s access to Treasury information including social security numbers, for example) turned off even more users from X’s increasingly politicized platform. Even when TikTok came back from its less-than-24-hour ban, its messages thanking “President Trump” by name for saving the platform repelled some longtime users.
So Diem in January saw a 40% increase in its total user base and a 115% increase in monthly active users, Fortune is the first to report. Searches on the platform increased by 400% compared to December and contributions to the platform, including posts and comments, surged by 700%. Like Chinese TikTok alternative RedNote and Twitter replacement BlueSky, the app harbored dissatisfied refugees of fast-changing mainstream social platforms.
To support that growth, Fortune can additionally report, Diem has raised $1.8 million from investors including Precursor, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, Swizzle Ventures, Otherwise Fund, and Rogue Women, bringing its total funding to $5 million since the startup’s founding in 2020.
Diem’s platform combines a social experience with a search engine, a combination of Reddit and Google with a different kind of feel to its community; the idea is that its largely female audience can interact with each other and ask the questions Google and even ChatGPT can’t always answer. “We’re building more inclusive alternate ways to search the internet for a huge demographic,” says founder and CEO Bates, a 31-year-old Brit and early Away employee. Recent queries on the app include advice on how to leave a relationship, whether it’s OK to ask a partner to get a vasectomy, where to get a nose job, and how to manage an all-male team at work. Over the past few months, Diem users have also asked about topics including birth control, abortion, and trans health care. Diem also prepared for 2025 by upping its data privacy and promising users that it will do everything possible to avoid complying with subpoenas if ever asked in abortion cases.
Diem last month launched its first advertising on the platform, through boosted posts and a “treat store” where brands can share products. So far its advertisers are aligned female-founded brands like sexual wellness brand Maude and protein powder Made Of. Bates is eager to see where big-business ad dollars are spent in the months ahead. She wants to build the still-young platform with eight employees into an alternative online destination, with its own web browser expected to launch this year.
“We want to make sure there’s always a safe place on the internet,” Bates says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Another one. Google will no longer abide by diversity in hiring targets and is reconsidering whether to put out an annual diversity report. The tech giant says it will still permit identity-based employee resource groups. Wall Street Journal
- Lara goes live. Lara Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, will be hosting a show on Fox News called “My View With Lara Trump.” This will be the first time a sitting president’s close relative hosts a show on a major news network. Axios
- Financial compensation. In a settlement, the National Women’s Soccer League agreed to create a $5 million fund to compensate players that experienced abuse from coaches and team officials. Players raised harassment and other abuse allegations over three years ago. Washington Post
- Off the team. President Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order, banning transgender women and girls from participating in girls’ sports at schools. CBS
- Dear diary. A journal by late writer Joan Didion will be published in April in a 208-page book called Notes to John—John Gregory Dunne was Didion’s husband. This is the first new material from Didion that will be published since 2011. New York Times
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Dina Powell McCormick is stepping down as chair of the board at Robin Hood, a philanthropy working to get New Yorkers out of poverty. She will stay on the board and executive committee.
Americans for the Arts named Erin Harkey CEO. Most recently, Harkey was commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Birdy Grey, a bridesmaid dresses brand, appointed Jill Layfield as CEO. She is the cofounder of Tamara Mellon and most recently was CEO of James Michelle Jewelry.
Watershed Health, a patient care coordination company, named Effie Carlson CEO. Carlson was previously the company's interim chief revenue officer and chief strategy officer. She is also the founder of and a principal at EJC Consulting Group.
Cirba Solutions, a battery recycling company, appointed Claire Zirkelbach as CFO. Most recently, she was VP of finance, business unit CFO, specialties at Albemarle.
Investment management firm Denholtz named Jennifer McCool EVP and head of capital markets. Previously, she was EVP at Kushner.
Oh, which develops uncensored AI products like digital agents, appointed Erika Coppel as CMO. Most recently, she was CMO at Metaphysic.ai; she also previously served as global head of marketing and creator experience at OnlyFans.
Vantage Discovery, an AI-powered search and discovery platform for retailers, named Ali Tiffany head of sales. She most recently served as senior industry manager of retail partnerships at Pinterest.
ON MY RADAR
Mina Kimes on going live to the whole world (right after Beyoncé), talking football on TV in a wild historical moment, and why Steve Harvey is the perfect celebrity GQ
Melania Trump’s decorator quietly picks up where she left off Washington Post
FKA Twigs leaves it all on the dance floor New Yorker
PARTING WORDS
“I no longer second guess my career and if you can't understand it, then respectfully, get out of my way.”
— Rapper Saweetie on not getting distracted or letting anything get in the way of her goals
