Viral Effects Are Not Network Effects

Network Effects are the foundation of many great Silicon Valley technology companies/ You need users to make a product work – network effects are the results of positively connecting people through technology which organically makes that technology better.

Viral growth builds on the power of networks to acquire users, often free of charge. Product-Driven Viral Growth Viral growth is deeply misunderstood—you might read the phrase and think, is this the same thing that happens when a funny video “goes viral”? Or maybe it makes you think of an ad agency organizing a clever stunt to share on social media

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I redefine it so that it’s not one singular effect, but rather, three distinct, underlying forces: the Acquisition Effect, which lets products tap into the network to drive low-cost, highly efficient user acquisition via viral growth; the Engagement Effect, which increases interaction between users as networks fill in; and finally, the Economic Eff

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