3 ms·

Give 5 examples where this has worked (also with less marketing).

nreece 18y ago
Sure, I can give you many examples. Here are some of them: Google Search - At a time when Web search (portals) was dominated by the likes of Altavista, Excite, Yahoo etc., Google focused only on the search side of things. A minimal homepage, no groups/usenet, no frills. Just better search. Twitter - They focused on short messaging (status updates). Unlike Facebook (who also offer status updates), they have no photo albums, no groups, no advanced privacy controls. Just simple messaging in 140 chars. Vimeo - They focused on online videos. YouTube already dominates this space. Vimeo on the other hand kept it simple - allowing only videos created by the users - user generated visual content. No 3rd party videos, no copyrighted content. Just original creative work. Campaign Monitor - They are a great example of a slick yet simple service. No fancy marketing bullshit. Pure simple email newsletter delivery with only the necessary tracking tools and highly customizable newsletter designing templates. Pay as you go, no monthly fees. Send newsletters to 5, or 100,000 people. GitHub - Source control and code repository is nothing new, but GitHub offers just what's needed. Nothing more, nothing less. iPod Shuffle - Music on the move? Been there, done that. No radio, no fancy controls, no digital display. Under $50. Posterous - Blogging started a new wave of online expression and information sharing. How about a dead simple place to post everything, through email. No fancy admin panel, no hassles with updates and templating. Feedity (shameless plug) - Create instant RSS feeds, for pretty much any public webpage. No filtering, no fancy UI (pipes!), no signup required. Today, four of our paying customers are state government offices. All these products/startups are notable and profitable (ok, except Twitter, but they are not far from it). What do they have in common? In my opinion, they started by offering less. And, less is more. Marketing is a different, and unrelated (to this discussion), topic altogether. My viewpoint is to keep the feature-set simple.
- markessien 18y ago
  None of the products you mention took over the market, they just addressed a different market. Only google took over the market, but they did that by differentiation of the core product, not by stripping down anything out of search.
  - nreece 18y ago
    Starting up a business is not about taking over the market. It's about making profits to sustain and grow. You can't learn to walk, until you learn to crawl.

Sure, I can give you many examples. Here are some of them: Google Search - At a time when Web search (portals) was dominated by the likes of Altavista, Excite, Yahoo etc., Google focused only on the search side of things. A minimal homepage, no groups/usenet, no frills. Just better search. Twitter - They focused on short messaging (status updates). Unlike Facebook (who also offer status updates), they have no photo albums, no groups, no advanced privacy controls. Just simple messaging in 140 chars. Vimeo - They focused on online videos. YouTube already dominates this space. Vimeo on the other hand kept it simple - allowing only videos created by the users - user generated visual content. No 3rd party videos, no copyrighted content. Just original creative work. Campaign Monitor - They are a great example of a slick yet simple service. No fancy marketing bullshit. Pure simple email newsletter delivery with only the necessary tracking tools and highly customizable newsletter designing templates. Pay as you go, no monthly fees. Send newsletters to 5, or 100,000 people. GitHub - Source control and code repository is nothing new, but GitHub offers just what's needed. Nothing more, nothing less. iPod Shuffle - Music on the move? Been there, done that. No radio, no fancy controls, no digital display. Under $50. Posterous - Blogging started a new wave of online expression and information sharing. How about a dead simple place to post everything, through email. No fancy admin panel, no hassles with updates and templating. Feedity (shameless plug) - Create instant RSS feeds, for pretty much any public webpage. No filtering, no fancy UI (pipes!), no signup required. Today, four of our paying customers are state government offices. All these products/startups are notable and profitable (ok, except Twitter, but they are not far from it). What do they have in common? In my opinion, they started by offering less. And, less is more. Marketing is a different, and unrelated (to this discussion), topic altogether. My viewpoint is to keep the feature-set simple.

markessien 18y ago
None of the products you mention took over the market, they just addressed a different market. Only google took over the market, but they did that by differentiation of the core product, not by stripping down anything out of search.
- nreece 18y ago
  Starting up a business is not about taking over the market. It's about making profits to sustain and grow. You can't learn to walk, until you learn to crawl.