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It's surprising they didn't learn from Gmail. For a while I was the most popular person in my circle of business colleagues because I had gmail invites. Artific

• hencq 4y ago
  On the contrary, they did try the artificial scarcity thing with G+, but unlike Gmail, a social network isn't really useful if your friends aren't on it.
  • esprehn 4y ago
    They already knew that from Wave, which also had the "my friends aren't on it and I have no invites" headwind.
  • grumple 4y ago
    Yet Facebook was hyped because of artificial scarcity. They started by rolling out to one elite university at a time.
• blackoil 4y ago
  Gmail was able to leverage open email standards, so aren't constrained by network effect. Second, it was way ahead of competitors in terms of storage and overall product. Google+ was competing head on with Facebook which had a huge leverage in terms of the network effect.
• kryptiskt 4y ago
  It doesn't work if the service needs the network effect. Google Wave crashed and burned right out of the gate because it was exclusive and it was exceedingly unlikely that all the people you wanted to collaborate with were able to get in.
  • passion__desire 4y ago
    Isn't Reddit what Google wave tried to be?