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Why One Million users for a Startup is a lot of people, more than you think
- byoung2 16y agoAll of the examples mentioned in the article (house party, indie concert, baseball game, Woodstock) are constrained by geography. The beauty of the internet is that it transcends geography, just like television does. Take that concert with 90,000 people (the most people you can fit in a typical stadium). Put it on TV and you can reach 5 million households (like Barbara Streisand did in 1994 http://barbra-archives.com/tv/90s/concert_streisand.html http://barbra-archives.com/tv/90s/concert_streisand.html). Put it on Youtube and you can reach 5 million people a week if you're lucky. The best part about the internet is scale. With 1 billion people using it, reaching just 1/10 of 1% is already a million people.
- aorsi 16y agoThe fact is that you have still to convince 1.000.000 people to use your product. If Internet was 100 billion just reaching 1/1000 of 1% would be huge. Because you are in a competition and if more people are there using the net, more competitors you have there trying to attract those people. And attracting people and convincing them to use your product is a difficult task. The steps toward one million are many. And IF you arrive there you still have to figure out what to do with your users. That's why I think having customers win hands down.
- aorsi 16y agoAnd for television: television is a channel. People are there watching what happens. Internet is a lot more about choice. If you reach, with a video, 5 million people, kudos to you. Still you have to reach 1 million people using something. Not just looking once at something (and one million would still be a lot).