Executive Briefing
Glossier was building its own social network for years. Great idea or terrible idea?
Companies that sell physical products should think about making digital products. But it’s a different game.

Glossier, the pioneering direct-to-consumer beauty brand, has famously used social media, digital content, and community as foundational parts of its business.
Less well-known: That for years — and until recently — Glossier had been developing its own social platform.
Founder and CEO Emily Weiss talked vaguely about it in an interview with Kara Swisher in early 2019, hinting at a tool where people “could really connect to find the information or the inspiration that they need really quickly.”
The idea, I’ve heard, was that it was intended to be a place where people could connect and talk about beauty products and routines — a more vertically focused Reddit, you might say. Or perhaps a reinvention of Into The Gloss’s comments section — that was Weiss’s popular beauty blog that led her to launch Glossier in 2014 and helped shape its early products through user feedback.
The New Consumer Executive Briefing is exclusive to members — join now to unlock this 1,200-word post and the entire archive. Subscribers should sign in here to continue reading.

Hi, I’m Dan Frommer and this is The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their time and money.
I’m a longtime tech and business journalist, and I’m excited to focus my attention on how technology continues to profoundly change how things are created, experienced, bought, and sold. The New Consumer is supported entirely by your membership — join now to receive my reporting, analysis, and commentary directly in your inbox, via my twice-weekly, member-exclusive newsletter. Thanks in advance.