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Assuming by viral we all mean achieving exponential growth without marketing, then this article is wrong. The company I work at has been seeing 20% growth per

by wanderr 17y ago

Assuming by viral we all mean achieving exponential growth without marketing, then this article is wrong. The company I work at has been seeing 20% growth per month for many months now, and we don't seem to be meeting his definitions: "A user's usage of those products - without anything more - markets the products themselves." We do facilitate the word of mouth process by including a feature that allows users to share with Facebook or Twitter, but there's nothing inherent in our service's usage that makes users market the service for us.

herdrick 17y ago
Assuming by viral we all mean achieving exponential growth without marketing Don't assume that. Viral is a class of mechanisms and is orthogonal to growth rate, not a descriptive term for growth that means "good".
gojomo 17y ago
'Viral' does not mean "exponential growth without marketing". It means, "transmitted from person to person like a virus" -- which might result in accelerating growth, but the essential part named by the word 'viral' is the mechanism, not the result. Also, Weissman is speaking of whether a service is in-and-of-itself 'viral'. There's the related but somewhat different idea of "viral marketing", where some aspect of a marketing campaign is designed to get people to pass along the marketing message. A shocker or stealth marketing campaign that's so interesting people pass along its details is 'viral', even if it's for a non-viral product like a blockbuster movie. Your tool to help users tout your service is a mild form of 'viral marketing', but it doesn't make your service 'viral'.
- wanderr 17y ago
  I'm still having a hard time understanding the distinction. What is meant by "like a virus" and how is that different from how our service is growing rapidly due to word of mouth? Are viral services spread "like a virus" because their use is automatic promotion, like how having a virus automatically exposes people around you to it? If users consistently choose to promote you because they are compelled by how awesome the service is, doesn't that amount to the same thing?
  - gojomo 17y ago
    Every good product spreads at least a little by positive referrals. So is every good product also 'viral'? Not in the sense Weissman is talking about. Yes, if you squint, any positive word-of-mouth is passed along vaguely like a virus. But then everything is 'viral', and the word has lost its value for distinguishing products that are strongly and inherently 'viral'. Those that are 'viral products' are passed to more customers by their design and mechanisms of operation, which is different (and deserving of a unique label) compared to just 'good enough to remark to friends'.

by wanderr 17y ago

herdrick 17y ago

Assuming by viral we all mean achieving exponential growth without marketing Don't assume that. Viral is a class of mechanisms and is orthogonal to growth rate, not a descriptive term for growth that means "good".

gojomo 17y ago

'Viral' does not mean "exponential growth without marketing". It means, "transmitted from person to person like a virus" -- which might result in accelerating growth, but the essential part named by the word 'viral' is the mechanism, not the result. Also, Weissman is speaking of whether a service is in-and-of-itself 'viral'. There's the related but somewhat different idea of "viral marketing", where some aspect of a marketing campaign is designed to get people to pass along the marketing message. A shocker or stealth marketing campaign that's so interesting people pass along its details is 'viral', even if it's for a non-viral product like a blockbuster movie. Your tool to help users tout your service is a mild form of 'viral marketing', but it doesn't make your service 'viral'.

wanderr 17y ago
I'm still having a hard time understanding the distinction. What is meant by "like a virus" and how is that different from how our service is growing rapidly due to word of mouth? Are viral services spread "like a virus" because their use is automatic promotion, like how having a virus automatically exposes people around you to it? If users consistently choose to promote you because they are compelled by how awesome the service is, doesn't that amount to the same thing?
- gojomo 17y ago
  Every good product spreads at least a little by positive referrals. So is every good product also 'viral'? Not in the sense Weissman is talking about. Yes, if you squint, any positive word-of-mouth is passed along vaguely like a virus. But then everything is 'viral', and the word has lost its value for distinguishing products that are strongly and inherently 'viral'. Those that are 'viral products' are passed to more customers by their design and mechanisms of operation, which is different (and deserving of a unique label) compared to just 'good enough to remark to friends'.