I guess it comes down to whether you're solving a problem and whether that problem is painful enough for people to want to switch services or start using a new service. It does take some convincing. AirBnB struggled for a long time with that chicken and egg problem, and even did some wild gimmicks for PR purposes (Obama O's cereal).
I'm perfectly aware that there are many facets of the issue but basically, what we're talking about is crossing the chasm [1]. A lot of products are in a chicken & egg situation even if they try to deny it. So much more fun stuff could be done with Around The World for example if more people play.
Would you have used MySpace if no one else was using it? Marketing is like analytics, it's a hell of a lot more fun and easier of there's some momentum to it.
What I'm saying is that I've tried "build it and they'll come" and even for stuff that individually people really really like they're not engaging enough to build the necessary momentum to cross the chasm.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm
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I guess it comes down to whether you're solving a problem and whether that problem is painful enough for people to want to switch services or start using a new service. It does take some convincing. AirBnB struggled for a long time with that chicken and egg problem, and even did some wild gimmicks for PR purposes (Obama O's cereal).
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I'm perfectly aware that there are many facets of the issue but basically, what we're talking about is crossing the chasm [1]. A lot of products are in a chicken & egg situation even if they try to deny it. So much more fun stuff could be done with Around The World for example if more people play. Would you have used MySpace if no one else was using it? Marketing is like analytics, it's a hell of a lot more fun and easier of there's some momentum to it. What I'm saying is that I've tried "build it and they'll come" and even for stuff that individually people really really like they're not engaging enough to build the necessary momentum to cross the chasm. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm