

Andrew Chen: What's your viral loop? Understanding the engine of adoption - andrew_null
http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2007/07/whats-your-vira.html

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Tichy
Does anybody else feel slightly uneasy about the modern practice of requesting
user account information to gather all social links of a user (email is worse
than MySpace, I guess, but still).

I wouldn't want my friends to submit my email-address anywhere, it is hard
enough to keep spam in check as it is.

Also I think just having such a pesky "recommend me" form is not all there is
to viral marketing. Some products can also be inherently viral, if they
require several people to use. An example would be a multiplayer computer
game. Slideshows and Photos are not that viral in comparison, because you can
just watch photos passively.

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steve
"Some products can also be inherently viral, if they require several people to
use. An example would be ..."

You fail at marketing 101. The point of marketing is that can greatly increase
your adoption. Even if your product is the best thing in the whole world --
that doesn't at all mean that adoption of it will spread like wildfire.

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Tichy
I thought the point of making it viral would be to make it spread like
wildfire? What does marketing 101 say about this? My guess is that "viral
marketing" is not yet a word that is used in marketing 101.

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steve
Article would have been useful with many more examples.

