It doesn’t matter how many people know your name. It matters how people care about you.

That’s the idea behind Escapex, the company that made the Jeremy Renner app, which thrived for two-and-a-half years as a safe space for fans of the actor but was killed recently by online trolls. The same company is behind hundreds more apps designed for those with large flocks of followers to make money from those followers.

Sephi Shapira, the chief executive of Escapex, explained that he did not care what his famous clients did to attract their fans, or even, really, if they were celebrities. (The most famous American names on the platform include the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese and the model and activist Amber Rose.) Their interests and expertise were beside the point. Really, only one skill was essential.

“The ability to create and retain engagement — that’s their talent,” he said of his clients. “That’s how they’re measured.” As to how they amassed their following? “I’m agnostic,” he said.

Escapex, along with similar companies like Disciple, is premised on the idea that, on the familiar social media platforms, those with hundreds of thousands of followers are leaving money on the table. Escapex’s name suggests the alternative these companies offer: that these people should “escape” from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and build private, walled-off platforms for their most engaged audience.