Arch Viral: Creating Social Apps for Social Platforms (Lance Tokuda, Startonomics SF 2008)

Arch Viral

Creating Social Apps for Social Platforms

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Wikipedia.org

Alexa Global Traffic Rankings

Market for Social Apps is Exploding

2008

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2005

(U.K.)

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Web 1.0 Website Growth

Year 0 Year 10

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Web 2.0 Application Growth

Year 0 Year 10

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Top Growth Categories

Messaging and Gifting

Social games and quizzes

Other

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Top Growth Categories

Social games and quizzes

Messaging and Gifting

No channel for being notified when friends do something

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Million User Applications on Facebook

FACT: only 1% of all applications reach 1M installs

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Referral traffic is key for viral growth

Primary sources of referral traffic

Install flow

Engagement flow

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Install flow example for Bumper Sticker

You don’t have to be grammatical to be a

top 10 app!

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Engagement flow example for Friends for Sale

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Metrics for viral loop

UserCall to action to

invite friends x = invited friends

Accept?

No

Yes

y% = accept rate

x * y > 1 gives you viral growth!

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Typical viral numbers

Install flow– x = 5 (friends invited on average)– y = 22% (acceptance rate for invites)– Viral factor = 5 * 0.22 = 1.1 VIRAL!!!

Engagement flow– x = 20 (friends invited on average)– y = 6% (acceptance rate for invites)– Viral factor = 20 * 0.6 = 1.2 VIRAL!!!

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Use multiple flows and channels

Install flow– x = 5 – y = 10%– Viral factor = 5 * 0.1 = 0.5

Engagement flow, invite channel– x = 3 (invites)– y = 10% (acceptance rate for invites)– Viral factor = 3 * 0.1 = 0.3

Engagement flow, notification channel– x = 6 (notifications)– y = 5% (acceptance rate for notifications)– Viral factor = 6 * 0.05 = 0.3

0.5 + 0.3 + 0.3 = 1.1

VIRAL!!!

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Supplement with Ads

Install flow– x = 5 – y = 10%– Viral factor = 5 * 0.1 = 0.5

Engagement flow, invite channel– x = 3 (invites)– y = 10% (acceptance rate for invites)– Viral factor = 3 * 0.1 = 0.3

0.5 + 0.3 = 0.8

NO GROWTH

Paid ad for 30% additional flow– Growth factor = 0.3

0.5 + 0.3 + 0.3 = 1.1

GROWING!!!

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Important tips

Install flow should generate most of your referrals– everyone installing will use that flow so make it good– user test different calls to actions

Engagement flows supplement virality– not everyone will engage, generally weaker than install flow– left nav and profile action should link to the primary engagement flow– consider having the primary engagement flow invite new friends– user test different calls to actions

Decay– invite rate decreases as you saturate– acceptance rate decreases as you saturate– engagement tends to decay– continuous improvement required!

The End

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Source: eBay Investor Presentation, RockYou(1) eBay starts Q2 98, PayPal starts Q1’00, Yahoo! starts Q1’95, AOL starts Q1’92, Facebook starts Q4’04, and RockYou Starts Q4’05(2) Facebook data represents active users, which was disclosed on 12/05 and 12/06. Undisclosed active user data is extrapolated by applying an average active user penetration to

global Unique Visitors (per comScore Media Metrix)

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Who is the fastest growing company ever?

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Source: eBay Investor Presentation, RockYou(1) eBay starts Q2 98, PayPal starts Q1’00, Yahoo! starts Q1’95, AOL starts Q1’92, Facebook starts Q4’04, and RockYou Starts Q4’05(2) Facebook data represents active users, which was disclosed on 12/05 and 12/06. Undisclosed active user data is extrapolated by applying an average active user penetration to

global Unique Visitors (per comScore Media Metrix)

Facebook platform launch

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RockYou is the fastest growing company ever!