A home for the passionate
Maracudja is the passion fruit — that's its name in the French Caribbean. We couldn't have put it better ourselves: what we're building is a place for people who light up about something — a vegetable garden, a telescope, an old engine, embroidery, animated film — and who are looking for people to really talk about it with.
A passion is hundreds of hours of reading, failed attempts and small victories. It deserves better than a feed that buries it between two ads. Here, your passion gets a place, people to talk to — experts, professionals, enlightened amateurs and the simply curious — and the time to exist.
And since a passion is first shared with the people you love, Maracudja is also made for telling your family and friends about your life, your travels and your wins, without broadcasting them to the whole world.
Bubbles and agoras: a town, not a feed
On Maracudja, content lives in bubbles: communities each dedicated to one subject. Pottery, astronomy, film photography. In a bubble, you follow what's new in the field, ask your questions to people who know what they're talking about, help beginners find their feet, and show your work to an audience that can appreciate it.
Agoras gather neighbouring bubbles on a main square: the sciences, the crafts, the performing arts. That's where you wander, stumble upon a bubble you never knew existed, and let yourself be surprised.
A healthy space, run by humans
Online conversations have become exhausting: misinformation, harassment, the race to pick a fight. Kind creators get attacked; curious people no longer dare to ask questions. We refuse to build on that.
At Maracudja, moderation is taken seriously and done by humans. Reactions aren't limited to a heart: you express yourself on a whole spectrum, from reasoned objection to enthusiasm. Citing your sources is easy, encouraged and valued. And when a claim deserves nuance, context notes written and rated by the community shed light on it, right under the content.
You also know who you're talking to: a member's areas of expertise, once verified, are displayed on their profile. Everything you need to debate seriously, without fighting.
No ads. No infinite scroll.
No advertising in the interface, and no product placement slipped into the middle of a video. Ads bend content to please advertisers, and they push platforms to design apps that get you hooked, to maximise screen time. We prefer a simpler, more honest model: a monthly subscription, and that's it.
In practice, this changes the app itself. Your feed shows the people and bubbles you follow, in chronological order. No infinite scroll, no ad profiling, no algorithm deciding for you what deserves your attention.
For discovery, we have another ritual: la Récolte — the weekly harvest. Once a week, on the same day for everyone, a finite selection takes you off your beaten track — twenty discoveries at most, picked because they deserve it, never padded for volume: new bubbles, creators to follow, the content everyone's been talking about. Browse it at your own pace through the week, and when it's done, it's done. Your feed, meanwhile, stays yours.
Creators paid for quality, not for buzz
On Maracudja, part of your subscription will go to creators. And it's split at your scale: your money goes to the creators you actually read and watch, not into a common pot captured by the biggest accounts. The quality of a piece weighs in the calculation — not its ability to farm clicks.
Every creator gets a transparent dashboard detailing what they earn and why. And if you want to thank someone for something that stayed with you, a discreet tip is enough — an occasional thank-you, never a purchase of visibility.
Your data stays in Europe
Protecting your data isn't a line in our terms of service; it's a design constraint. Maracudja complies with the GDPR and hosts all of your data in France and in Europe, out of reach of extraterritorial US laws.
And what's ephemeral really disappears: when a story expires, it's wiped from our servers — not archived in a database for analysis.
The door is always open
Your memories belong to you. Need a break? Put your account into Dormance — dormancy: free, anytime, for as long as you want. Billing stops, nothing is deleted, and your archive — your photos, your words — stays readable and downloadable without paying. Like a seed waiting for spring, your account is ready to wake the day you are. The subscription pays for the club, never for access to your own life.
Want to try somewhere else? Take everything with you, whenever you want: a complete export in open formats — your original photos, your words — readable with any tool, with no need for us. And if you leave for good, deletion takes under two minutes — with 30 days to change your mind, the choice between erasing everything or leaving your contributions anonymised in discussions, and full transparency about the little the law requires us to keep. You can even leave a note on your profile telling your people where to find you.
We will measure how long cancelling takes, and we will publish it. A platform that respects you doesn't need to hold you against your will.
A mission-driven company, not a slogan
Maracudja is being built as a société à mission, a binding legal status under French law: our purpose and our social and environmental commitments will be written into the company's articles, in black and white, with a referee in charge of making sure we live up to them. That framework is constraining — and that's exactly why we chose it.
And because a platform that celebrates passions owes a lot to the world that feeds them, we commit to giving a share of our revenue to non-profits as soon as our finances allow it — and you will choose which ones: the basket of organisations will be put to a member vote. Protecting the living world is especially close to our hearts — think of projects like Planet Wild or Mossy Earth, which restore ecosystems in concrete, measurable ways — but any organisation true to Maracudja's principles will have its place. And we'll report on those donations in full transparency.
Longer term, we want to go beyond donations and create an independent endowment fund to finance investigative journalism and research. Independent in the strong sense: its charter will protect it from us, and we will have no say in what it funds. A platform devoted to critical thinking should feed the people who practise it, without ever owning them.
Language is never a barrier
A passion has no borders, and your favourite bubble might speak three languages. Maracudja builds translation in without ever betraying authors. Polyglot? Publish your own translations and keep your intent and your style. You read Italian but write it badly? Set your languages, and the app shows you originals when you understand them, and a translation when you need one.
AI in its right place
No AI writing in your place, and no generated content disguised as human work — we actively watch for it. Here, artificial intelligence stays an instrument in service of your critical mind: it checks that cited links are alive and archived, flags claims that could use a source, offers you a private plain-language explanation of a technical passage, and digs up the discussion in a bubble's archives that already answers your question.
It also works for accessibility: automatic transcripts and subtitles for videos, suggested descriptions for images. Everyone should be able to follow their passion, whatever their abilities.
A format for every passion
Every passion expresses itself its own way. Maracudja lets you choose the form:
Aphorisms
Short texts to share a thought, ask a question or start a debate. A deep reflection or a quip — your call.
Essays
For those who love to write: in-depth articles, a base of loyal readers, and the time to develop your ideas.
Photos and carousels
Your best wildlife shots, your creations, your travel journals.
Videos, short or long
From the thirty-second sketch to the deep-dive documentary. Long videos get chapters and sources anchored to the second: when a creator claims something, the reference is one click away, at the exact moment they say it.
Live
Here, a live stream is an event: announced in advance, with its own page, its chat room and a full replay — conversation included. At the end, a creator can invite their audience to carry on the evening at another creator's. Invite — never force.
Series
A serialised essay, a season of videos, a long-running thread: link your work into a series your audience follows episode after episode, whatever the format.
Moodboards
Visual collages to plan a sewing collection, a workshop layout or your next trip.
Audio
Your podcasts and original music, at home among everything else.
Veillées
One expert, one evening, your questions. Scheduled gatherings where a bubble hosts someone who knows their subject, with questions voted on by the community. (A veillée is the French word for those long evenings spent talking by the fire.)
The ephemeral layer
Stories that disappear for good, a note of the day on your profile — the song on repeat, the book on your nightstand —, the weekly Moment to give news of yourself without staging, and the Éclair, a photo that can be seen only once. All of it without counters or rankings: this is offstage. You can breathe.
Mes cultures
Your personal library: the albums, films and books that made you, in pride of place on your profile. No global average rating on works — what matters is what the people you follow think of them.
And meeting in real life
We believe it deeply: the best conversations happen in person. It's Maracudja's north star, the one that guides everything else — cultural centres where you practise your passion with real equipment (telescopes, a recording studio, a workshop, a vegetable garden, a stage) and where you meet the people from your bubbles at events organised by the community.
Those places will open when the community is there. In the meantime, bubbles already organise their own meetups, and the platform is designed to help them do it.
Frequently asked questions
Is it paid?
Yes, through a monthly subscription: that's what lets us do without advertising and pay creators. The price will be announced when the public beta opens. You'll still be able to share content with friends who aren't subscribed, thanks to gift links.
What if I want a break, or want to leave?
Dormance — pausing your account — is free and unlimited: nothing is deleted, and your archive stays accessible without paying. A complete export of your data is available anytime, and deleting your account takes under two minutes. See "The door is always open" above.
When?
The platform is under active construction and will soon enter private beta. Join the waiting list and you'll be the first to know — and the earliest sign-ups will be offered founding member status, with perks that last.
On which devices?
On the web first, on desktop and on mobile. iOS and Android apps will follow.
Who is behind Maracudja?
An independent French company, being incorporated as a mission-driven company, with no ad business and no data resale. Our model is your subscription: we answer to you alone. And as soon as our finances allow it, a share of our revenue will go to a basket of non-profits chosen by member vote.
Join the first ones
Maracudja opens gradually, bubble after bubble, so that quality is there from day one. Join the waiting list: you'll know your place in line, you'll follow our progress, and you'll be among the first in.
And above all, tell us what you're passionate about: your answers will decide which bubbles open first.
Already creating around your passion — videos, articles, photos, podcasts? Tell us that too: we're preparing the opening together with the first creators.