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i have built products that went to millions of users, zero marketing. If the product is inherently viral, you don't need to market. Othwerwise, you do.

Kiro 10y ago
Same here. One of my main criteria when evaluating a business idea is whether it will need serious marketing or not. If it needs marketing I often dismiss it.
- Kiro 10y ago
  (Dismissing as in not pursuing it myself, not dismissing the idea in whole.)
cookiecaper 10y ago
Can you describe your product's attributes in a little more detail? I had a niche product that went "viral" within its small community. We immediately had people trying to imitate us, and most failed so badly that their products didn't work at all and any gains they made were quickly rolled back; ultimately, these copycats only served to promote our actually working product further, so they were net good things. A few key people who controlled large platforms in this niche spurned us, presumably because they intended to copy our featureset at some point, and actively removed any reference to our product. Despite this, we had continual growth with relatively small marketing budgets. After about a year, a competitor whose product occasionally worked emerged and despite being much worse than us along every conceivable axis, they cannibalized our niche market within 2 months using spammy marketing tactics (astroturfing, fake followers/likes, SEO link rings (now called "Private Blog Networks" in SEO parlance)). They also forged alliances with some of the niche platforms that refused to allow discussion of our product (though these companies ignored similar offers when I tried to make them). The new competitor eventually spammed so thoroughly that they caused a PR issue for a large company whose data this sector depended on. My company and all others that occasionally functioned in this sector, which at this point included me, the spam company, and 3-4 atrocious copies of the spam company, were all shut down by legal threats from this large company. The point of this protracted story is that it seems that any business that could go from 0 to millions would be immediately bombarded by imitators, spammers, and copycats, whose superior marketing game would destroy the original company as long as they can imitate 10% of the necessary core functionality. Did you have defenses against this? If so, what were they?
- KajMagnus 10y ago
  Can I ask for some details about the niche or product/ service you were providing? (I'm slightly worried I might be building something similar and the same thing will happen to me)
blackguardx 10y ago
Were they users or paying customers? It is impressive either way, but they are very different things.
mootothemax 10y ago
>If the product is inherently viral, you don't need to market. Surely the "inherently viral" aspect of a product is a marketing strategy? (albeit one that is open to optimism) This seems to be a larger part of the problem; one developer's marketing strategy is another's "just build it this way".
optymizer 10y ago
serious question: what's an example of an inherently viral product?

Kiro 10y ago

Same here. One of my main criteria when evaluating a business idea is whether it will need serious marketing or not. If it needs marketing I often dismiss it.

Kiro 10y ago
(Dismissing as in not pursuing it myself, not dismissing the idea in whole.)

cookiecaper 10y ago

Can you describe your product's attributes in a little more detail? I had a niche product that went "viral" within its small community. We immediately had people trying to imitate us, and most failed so badly that their products didn't work at all and any gains they made were quickly rolled back; ultimately, these copycats only served to promote our actually working product further, so they were net good things. A few key people who controlled large platforms in this niche spurned us, presumably because they intended to copy our featureset at some point, and actively removed any reference to our product. Despite this, we had continual growth with relatively small marketing budgets. After about a year, a competitor whose product occasionally worked emerged and despite being much worse than us along every conceivable axis, they cannibalized our niche market within 2 months using spammy marketing tactics (astroturfing, fake followers/likes, SEO link rings (now called "Private Blog Networks" in SEO parlance)). They also forged alliances with some of the niche platforms that refused to allow discussion of our product (though these companies ignored similar offers when I tried to make them). The new competitor eventually spammed so thoroughly that they caused a PR issue for a large company whose data this sector depended on. My company and all others that occasionally functioned in this sector, which at this point included me, the spam company, and 3-4 atrocious copies of the spam company, were all shut down by legal threats from this large company. The point of this protracted story is that it seems that any business that could go from 0 to millions would be immediately bombarded by imitators, spammers, and copycats, whose superior marketing game would destroy the original company as long as they can imitate 10% of the necessary core functionality. Did you have defenses against this? If so, what were they?

KajMagnus 10y ago
Can I ask for some details about the niche or product/ service you were providing? (I'm slightly worried I might be building something similar and the same thing will happen to me)

blackguardx 10y ago

Were they users or paying customers? It is impressive either way, but they are very different things.

mootothemax 10y ago

>If the product is inherently viral, you don't need to market. Surely the "inherently viral" aspect of a product is a marketing strategy? (albeit one that is open to optimism) This seems to be a larger part of the problem; one developer's marketing strategy is another's "just build it this way".

optymizer 10y ago

serious question: what's an example of an inherently viral product?