4 ms·

How about gmail?

TeMPOraL 5y ago
Definitely FOMO with their limited invites. I'm not sure what other strategies they employed beyond seeding initial users and getting them to invite friends to what was a superior service (1-2 orders of magnitude more e-mail storage than offered by just about anyone else, and for free). IIRC, I got my GMail address off an invite from a high-school colleague.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  I do not recall it being FOMO. It was 2GB of free email when Yahoo and Hotmail were offering what, 20MB or 200MB? I also recall Google offering some combination of IMAP/POP/email forwarding/"send mail as" features whereas Yahoo/Hotmail did not, but I do not recall the exact features that Google offered that the others did not. It was a superior email service, from a company that was growing by leaps and bounds and was obviously going to be huge, so you also wanted to grab an email address without too many numbers. I would have thought Google requiring invites was simply so that they did not get overwhelmed by demand all at once that they could not handle.
  - CharlesW 5y ago
    > I do not recall it being FOMO. This may help jog your memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gmail#Extended_beta_phase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gmail#Extended_beta... Once it became clear that Gmail was real, and not an April Fools' joke, invitations became highly desired. Although the limited rollout was born of necessity, it created an aura of exclusivity which contributed to its publicity windfall. “Everyone wanted it even more. It was hailed as one of the best marketing decisions in tech history, but it was a little bit unintentional” says Georges Harik, who was responsible for most of Google's new products at the time. During the early months of the initial beta phase, Gmail's well-publicized feature set and the exclusive nature of the accounts caused the aftermarket price of Gmail invitations to skyrocket. According to PC World magazine, Gmail invitations were selling on eBay for as much as US$150, with some accounts being sold for several thousand dollars.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      I meant that I do not know if Google used the exclusivity as a tactic to create FOMO and hence hype, like the failed attempt with Google+, or was it simply Google trying to limit the number of people so that they did not over extend themselves in the beginning. It does not make sense to me that they would have needed any tactics such as those discussed in this thread to gain traction for Gmail. The simply fact that it offered an order of magnitude more storage for free, and it was better in every way sold itself.
      - cehrlich 5y ago
        Yeah, I got Gmail in the first week that it was online, and the reason everyone wanted in is because it truly was that much better than anything else at the time. It’s difficult to remember nowadays how bad Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. were in comparison.
    - antifa 5y ago
      FOMO doesn't really apply here. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-cope-with-fomo-4174664 https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-cope-with-fomo-4174664
      - CharlesW 5y ago
        People who couldn't get invites literally Feared Missing Out. "Despite the sort-of fakeness to this methodology, I hate to say it, but it’s working. There’s a bit of FOMO going on. Those without Inbox invites are hitting up their contacts at Google, and bugging their friends. Or yes, selling invites on eBay." — TechCrunch, Oct 24, 2014 https://techcrunch.com/2014/10/24/google-rolls-out-an-invite-system-for-its-new-email-app-inbox-by-gmail/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/10/24/google-rolls-out-an-invite...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - omarfarooq 5y ago
    I remember the FOMO, it included getting the username you wanted.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      I understood FOMO in the context of this thread to mean that Gmail got its users by hyping it up, whereas I would say Gmail got its users simply by being so much better than the alternatives. There was FOMO, but not due to any strategy at Google to cause FOMO in order to increase hype, in order to increase number of users. Or at least that is my unsubstantiated opinion.
    - gnicholas 5y ago
      Interestingly, this is now a curse, as common usernames receive tons of misdirected emails for people who mistakenly put down the wrong email.
      - withinboredom 5y ago
        My email is last.first and someone out there has the same first.last. We aren’t related AFAIK. Anyway, there’s been a few conversations we’ve had over the years where some doc or something has put in the wrong email and we forward the appropriate email or delete it. We’ve never had a serious conversation or anything, just “uh hey, did you get this email?”
mschuster91 5y ago
IIRC, they kickstarted it by having their employees hand out invite codes after the internal beta had ironed out the worst bugs and most Google employees switched over for their internal communication, and then these users could also create invite codes... and given that Gmail offered a whopping 1GB of free storage whereas common providers offered sometimes only single-digit megabyte quotas, people were going nuts for invites.
- firecall 5y ago
  This is correct IIRC. I got in early when it was 1GB! As you say, at the time over free email was only in the single or 10s of MBs. Or you had your work email! OMG to think I used to use Work email for personal emailing! GMAIL also came out with a different and fresh approach to sorting and filing! No more folders, it was tagging and filtering! Which felt very cool and modern at the time!

How about gmail?

Definitely FOMO with their limited invites. I'm not sure what other strategies they employed beyond seeding initial users and getting them to invite friends to what was a superior service (1-2 orders of magnitude more e-mail storage than offered by just about anyone else, and for free). IIRC, I got my GMail address off an invite from a high-school colleague.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
I do not recall it being FOMO. It was 2GB of free email when Yahoo and Hotmail were offering what, 20MB or 200MB? I also recall Google offering some combination of IMAP/POP/email forwarding/"send mail as" features whereas Yahoo/Hotmail did not, but I do not recall the exact features that Google offered that the others did not. It was a superior email service, from a company that was growing by leaps and bounds and was obviously going to be huge, so you also wanted to grab an email address without too many numbers. I would have thought Google requiring invites was simply so that they did not get overwhelmed by demand all at once that they could not handle.
- CharlesW 5y ago
  > I do not recall it being FOMO. This may help jog your memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gmail#Extended_beta_phase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gmail#Extended_beta... Once it became clear that Gmail was real, and not an April Fools' joke, invitations became highly desired. Although the limited rollout was born of necessity, it created an aura of exclusivity which contributed to its publicity windfall. “Everyone wanted it even more. It was hailed as one of the best marketing decisions in tech history, but it was a little bit unintentional” says Georges Harik, who was responsible for most of Google's new products at the time. During the early months of the initial beta phase, Gmail's well-publicized feature set and the exclusive nature of the accounts caused the aftermarket price of Gmail invitations to skyrocket. According to PC World magazine, Gmail invitations were selling on eBay for as much as US$150, with some accounts being sold for several thousand dollars.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    I meant that I do not know if Google used the exclusivity as a tactic to create FOMO and hence hype, like the failed attempt with Google+, or was it simply Google trying to limit the number of people so that they did not over extend themselves in the beginning. It does not make sense to me that they would have needed any tactics such as those discussed in this thread to gain traction for Gmail. The simply fact that it offered an order of magnitude more storage for free, and it was better in every way sold itself.
    - cehrlich 5y ago
      Yeah, I got Gmail in the first week that it was online, and the reason everyone wanted in is because it truly was that much better than anything else at the time. It’s difficult to remember nowadays how bad Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. were in comparison.
  - antifa 5y ago
    FOMO doesn't really apply here. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-cope-with-fomo-4174664 https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-cope-with-fomo-4174664
    - CharlesW 5y ago
      People who couldn't get invites literally Feared Missing Out. "Despite the sort-of fakeness to this methodology, I hate to say it, but it’s working. There’s a bit of FOMO going on. Those without Inbox invites are hitting up their contacts at Google, and bugging their friends. Or yes, selling invites on eBay." — TechCrunch, Oct 24, 2014 https://techcrunch.com/2014/10/24/google-rolls-out-an-invite-system-for-its-new-email-app-inbox-by-gmail/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/10/24/google-rolls-out-an-invite...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- omarfarooq 5y ago
  I remember the FOMO, it included getting the username you wanted.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    I understood FOMO in the context of this thread to mean that Gmail got its users by hyping it up, whereas I would say Gmail got its users simply by being so much better than the alternatives. There was FOMO, but not due to any strategy at Google to cause FOMO in order to increase hype, in order to increase number of users. Or at least that is my unsubstantiated opinion.
  - gnicholas 5y ago
    Interestingly, this is now a curse, as common usernames receive tons of misdirected emails for people who mistakenly put down the wrong email.
    - withinboredom 5y ago
      My email is last.first and someone out there has the same first.last. We aren’t related AFAIK. Anyway, there’s been a few conversations we’ve had over the years where some doc or something has put in the wrong email and we forward the appropriate email or delete it. We’ve never had a serious conversation or anything, just “uh hey, did you get this email?”

mschuster91 5y ago

IIRC, they kickstarted it by having their employees hand out invite codes after the internal beta had ironed out the worst bugs and most Google employees switched over for their internal communication, and then these users could also create invite codes... and given that Gmail offered a whopping 1GB of free storage whereas common providers offered sometimes only single-digit megabyte quotas, people were going nuts for invites.

firecall 5y ago
This is correct IIRC. I got in early when it was 1GB! As you say, at the time over free email was only in the single or 10s of MBs. Or you had your work email! OMG to think I used to use Work email for personal emailing! GMAIL also came out with a different and fresh approach to sorting and filing! No more folders, it was tagging and filtering! Which felt very cool and modern at the time!