Software is now user-generated content

Eight years ago, as a bored web content writer trying to break into tech, I sketched out a thing I called Val’s Cool Spectrum of Content Value.

It was basically a horizontal line, with “low-value content” plotted at one end (spam emails, troll comments on social media, Taboola chum, etc.) and “higher-value content” at the other—viral tweets, longform journalism, paid newsletters, bestselling books, and so on.

I could never figure out if it should be a linear line, a quadrant, a map… whatever. It doesn’t matter. But what does matter is that, at the furthest end of Val’s Cool Spectrum of Content Value, was “software code”.

(Side note: Somewhere along that line, I also realised that UX writing was pretty far up on this scale. This was one of the butterfly wing-flapping moments that kickstarted my career in product content design—but that’s another story.)

Now that vibe coding and AI coding agents are here, I think back to that thought exercise in 2018 a lot. Just how valuable is code now? Where would it fall on that imaginary line today?

One thing seems clear: code and software are now user-generated content.

It started with a chart

In June, a chart showing the explosion of new app submissions to Apple’s App Store went viral on the tech bro part of Twitter.

So far, so old hat. AI make number go up, etc. But the chart had another trend line, and this is what got all the attention: this other line showed that NONE of these new apps were gaining any adoption.

Several members of the Tech Twitter Commentariat piled on with the same (kinda lazy) take:

The reason for this dearth of users was obvious. It’s the distribution, stupid.

It’s not the distribution

Software software everywhere and not a user to drink is not a distribution problem. Not really. It’s a new category problem. It’s the first great unfurling of a new long-tail problem.

To go back to my spectrum, it’s the value of a previously valuable thing suddenly going to zero problem.

Software is now user-generated content. That means infinite software: a lot of it good, most of it meh, and some amount that will change the world, for better or worse.

And what’s really fun about this new category of content is that we get to see it before the next new platform comes along to harness and commoditise it further.

Right now, we’re still stuck in the rusted-on old ways of defining software: app stores, Product Hunt posts, Twitter/X launch threads, oh my god you guys influencer affiliates, etc.

Enjoy it while it lasts. Abundance is here, which means Aggregation Theory is here too. It’s discovery, not distribution, stupid.

Like the great prophet Ben Thompson foretold with Aggregation Theory, entirely new discovery-focused platforms are on the way, drawing you to them to build, host, post and share new software/widgets/apps/mini-apps/interactive-somethings you vibe-coded on the fly.

The creator economy is about to get a whole lot click-ier (I’m so sorry).

Meet the new platform players

There are many contenders already making a first play at becoming this new platform:

I could go on. There are, and will be, others. Lovable just raised a monster new funding round and is boasting that a million projects are being made every week.

I’ve been a Lovable skeptic in the past, but the joke’s on me, I guess. I guarantee those cracked Swedes are thinking about how they can become the next great aggregator. They own the .com now, so it’s coming.

Evan Armstrong gets it too. Here’s how he sees this new content category playing out:

For the app market, there are five ways the value will likely be distributed:

  1. Social mini-apps: Building a new age YouTube or Instagram for apps, with coding and social sharing baked into the platform.
  2. Studio system: App creators will have their own network of agencies and ad partners.
  3. General-purpose building: Tools will charge cheap subscriptions for code and try to monetize the services surrounding the apps.
  4. Vertical integration: Meta, Google, or XAI will embed apps native into their existing attention platforms, monetizing the same way they always have.
  5. Token monsters: Coding agents like Claude or Codex monetize on the volume of code generated.

So, will any of these new platforms succeed in the UGC software space? Maybe. But I’m not convinced there’s much reason to seek them out just yet.

Social media still enjoys a monopoly on scrolling while sitting on the toilet. So why should I seek out a vibe-coding platform and browse other people’s vibe slop?

Make it emotional

The “why” for seeking out a vibe-coding platform as a consumer is probably two-fold: games and emotional engagement. The games one is obvious, so let’s focus on the second one.

Infinite user-generated software means, like all the other commoditised content mines out there, riches in niches, lowest-common-denominator crap, and a bunch of funny, sad, stirring, enraging, and just plain clever and creative stuff.

User-generated software should move you. It should tickle your brain, hit you between the eyes, jab you in the solar plexus, or put a lump in your throat. Here again Evan Armstrong gets it. He recently wrote about vibe-coded software that moved him, quite literally, to tears.

For my sins, I vibe-coded software purely for one feeling and one feeling only: shitposting.

To test out Lovable, I made a Petty Goals Generator—productising a tracker for my stupid goal of getting more LinkedIn followers than my secret nemesis, who, to this day, has no idea about this one-sided rivalry. (Fun fact: we’ve never met. How petty am I!!)

My completely normal Petty Rivalry Generator. Open it in its own tab if you want more room.

Who will make the main app maker?

Curiously, the most common emotion I feel when I see other people share their own vibe-coded software is mild irritation.

I think: “I could’ve prompted this myself and made it more useful and toned down the Tailwind slop. Also, how long are you actually going to maintain this for? Who are you to think this is good enough for others?”

This is definitely a me problem, but I suspect there are others like me (dozens!). Whoever nails the consumption side of UGC software also needs to solve for this crankiness in the product itself.

Anyway. There we go. Software is now user-generated content. We’ve got the creation part done thanks to the frontier AI labs, now bring on the consumption part.

As for what the future aggregator might look like, I’m thinking Product Hunt-meets-Twitter-meets-GitHub-meets-Hacker News-meets, I don’t know… Glitch. Remember Glitch? RIP.

Most likely, though, it’ll resemble none of those things, and be something we’ve never seen before, but looks so obvious and inevitable in hindsight.