
How to Hit 4 million Users in 6 months – A Startup Case Study - joelg87
http://www.startupremarkable.com/grow-startup-to-millions-of-users
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xxbondsxx
Open graph spamming, arbitrary rewards for inviting your friends, Facebook
ads, cross-promotion, SEO... sounds exactly like Zynga.

Seriously though, hopefully this well shed some light on why Zygna uses the
techniques they are known for -- they work. Amazingly well. Anyone who spends
time in this industry discovers that pretty quickly. And it's really hard for
upper management to see those upward kinks in the graph and say "please stop
doing that."

The problem is that you have to become pushier and pushier over time and this
leads to a slippery slope.

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justjimmy
I don't think inviting your friends and get a reward should be tied to Zynga
(and/or frowned upon) - this tactic has been used by many companies, ie:
Dropbox. I personally like it.

It's Zynga's pay-to-win/continue concept that I have a problem with. That's
the reason why I think Zynga is 'evil'.

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bduerst
Dropbox offers more of a functional reward, vs. the more intangible, arbitrary
rewards that Zynga offers.

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diego
This is a sperm telling you how to fertilize the egg. Swim fast, be fit, etc.

How about all the other companies who try the same (completely obvious)
tactics and don't reach 4M users in 6 months?

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donebizkit
Agreed. I found this article generic. Actually most articles of the like are.
It would be more interesting to know how companies get their first 500 users.

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howardvk
Hey Zabar Yeah although 4 million users is awesome, I totally appreciate that
4 million is nothing compared to Zynga who have 290 million MAU's (you'll see
I refer to this in the blog post in 'caveats', bullet point 2 Cheers Howard

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zabar
Thanks for sharing!

What exactly is social in the game ?

On a side note, 4M users for a game in 6 months is great but not that
extraordinary. Looking at successes like Draw Something and SongPop, from
small developers too, it's more in the 50+M but it's in the mobile social
space, not sure if I Am Playr is mobile or not.

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ab_thomas
"4M users for a game in 6 months is great but not that extraordinary"

Seriously, you think that's not that extraordinary...

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enjo
I had the same reaction! For anyone who's actually attempted to grow anything,
that traction is astounding. The draw-something's of the world did something
that doesn't even register. It's so outrageous it doesn't even count.

Doing this effectively is absolutely remarkable all on its own.

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morefranco
Great article! Thanks for sharing

