Virality and network effects drive organic growth.

less than 1m read

·Nov 3, 2024

The best consumer companies incorporate both virality and network effect, which are different concepts but very closely related, in order to grow their user base organically.

Virality is the idea that one user using your product introduces it to other users somehow in the use of your product, whereas network effect is the idea that the product gets better the more nodes in the network exist.

I'll give you an example from Facebook's early days. So, when you took a picture on Facebook and uploaded it, you were prompted to tag your friends, even if they weren't already on Facebook. Those friends would get an email saying, "Hey, someone's tagged a photo of you; sign up to view the photo." That's a viral mechanic.

By uploading the photo and tagging your friends, you spread it to new users. A network effect comes from Metcalfe's Law: the value of the network is the square of the nodes in a network.

What that basically means is the more people who use this thing, the more valuable it gets. So, WhatsApp is a great example of this.

Why Coca Cola Still Spends Billions On Ads

How to Become the British Monarch

View All

This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)

What’s the connection between a dripping faucet, the Mandelbrot set, a population of rabbits, thermal convection in a fluid, and the firing of neurons in your brain? It’s this one simple equation. This video is sponsored by Fast Hosts, who are offering UK…

30 Years of Business Knowledge in 2hrs 26mins

I am good at only one thing: business. For the last 30 years, I built 19 companies and invested in 78 startups. People ask me every day to be their mentor and to help them, and they’ve even offered me £10,000 to help them just for one day in business. I d…

You Have to Protect Your House! | Life Below Zero

You don’t know when something unique is going to happen out here, but you better be on your toes. There he is, he’s on top of my Ridge now. After a brief stay in Dead Horse, SE has returned home to find a Wolverine lurking around CIC’s perimeter. To prot…

Developing an American colonial identity | Period 2: 1607-1754 | AP US History | Khan Academy

[Instructor] The first long-term English colony in North America was established at Jamestown in 1607. No one expected that it would last very long. It was intended to be a get-rich-quick scheme for its investors, who hoped they would find gold in the swa…

Reasoning with systems of equations | Equivalent systems of equations | Algebra I | Khan Academy

So let’s say I had the equation (2x + y = 8). This is a single equation with two unknowns, and there are many different (xy) pairs that would satisfy this equation. Now let’s add a second equation: (x + y = 5). Once again, if we only looked at this second…

Quantitative information in texts | Reading | Khan Academy

Hello readers! Today we’re going to talk about quantitative information in texts. But I want to start with a question: What’s the best way to describe the way a horse looks as it runs? What’s the most efficient way? I guess I could just use words, right?…

Virality and network effects drive organic growth.

More Articles