Peanut, a social network app for women, was initially popular because it connected women at the beginning stages of motherhood. The network has grown to help women at all stages of their lives. This will now include menopause. It is a life stage that will affect nearly half of the world's population at one point. However, there are very few online communities that allow women to connect and learn.
Michelle Kennedy, Peanut founder and CEO, has been thinking about this stage of life for a while. There will be one billion women in menopause by 2025. Yet, there is literally nothing available in terms of support, community, and networking, Kennedy says.
Kennedy says that the company saw this opportunity by looking at what women were discussing on the app.
The app was historically more geared towards young women starting to build families and marriages, but there were many women who had experienced chemically-induced or surgical menopause due to breast cancer or other medical conditions. They were now in early or premature menopause. The women began to talk about how this was affecting their lives, especially as parents. Women who felt they might have experienced menopause were also feeling it, but their doctors dismissed their concerns because they were too young. They wanted to share their experiences with other women going through similar situations. Others were more mature and in the menopause and sought community.
Peanut Menopause is a new feature that will help address this market. It's a dedicated area in the app where women can find others at the same life stage, whether they are menopausal or premenopausal.
Peanuts' new live audio rooms feature, Peanut Pods, allows women to join groups and ask questions. They can also use the app's matchmaking feature to find other women in their same age group, and they can chat via messaging or video.
Kennedy points out that menopause has been a topic women have kept quiet about. Many suffer in silence because of the scarcity of support and online networking resources.
This is not something men can build for us. We have to do it ourselves, she said. We must build what we want and need.
Peanut may be available to a wider range of women through its expansion. The average Peanut user is 32 years old. However, communities that are menopause-focused may attract women who are over 49 and those who have experienced the process at a younger age.
Peanut is disappointed that not all investors see the potential in meeting the needs of women who are menopausal. Kennedy stated that one investor seemed dismayed at the expansion and said they loved the younger age demographic. Kennedy said that this comment was a complete surprise to her.
These are women at a time in their lives when they have more disposable income. Peanut said about the new demographic Peanut now includes. They are considered more users in many ways. They are not as impulsive. They don't have 30 apps on their phones, and only the ones that they do have are really invested in. She adds that it is amazing to me that anyone in the investment community would make such a comment.
Peanut has not yet made it possible to monetize its users. Instead, Peanut plans to introduce the freemium model, where women will pay to unlock premium features. This model is a good fit for the dating apps industry, where Kennedy is a former CEO of Badoo and a founding board member at Bumble.
This is the latest addition to a long list of features that has been added over the years, including Q&A forums and Peanut Pages. Peanut Groups have also been expanded, as well as Peanut Pods. Peanut has grown into an online community with over 2 million members. You can download the Peanut app for free on both iOS and Android. A preview of its communities is also available online.
