4 ms·

The same strategy that failed with Google+. It's not as foolproof as you're making it out to be.

• bink 4y ago
  That's not really apples to apples though. Gmail worked with external SMTP services to send and receive mail. Google+ required that anyone you wanted to connect to also have been offered and accepted an invite (or received one of your limited invites).
• yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  It seems plausible that social networks have more of a network effect than things like a game streaming platform. Obviously there's still some network effect and a certain marketing aspect to it, but I don't think they're directly comparable.
  • pb7 4y ago
    You have to convince game developers to port their games. If the reward is a few thousand users, it's going to be a hard sell. Also the R&D and infrastructure required to even start up the project is too high. Building a Gmail (especially back then) is small potatoes in comparison.