That's different. Our "product" is a framework that repeatably lets apps become viral and get millions of users, through mobile phone invitations instead of facebook. Bsaically it turns your mobile phone into a social platform, with the address book playing the role of the friend list.
I guess it comes down to what you understand "viable" to mean. Because if:
1. our app couldn't work on all mobile platforms => you wouldn't be able to invite many of your contacts, losing a lot of virality that could make the difference (http://luckyapps.com/blog/?p=12)
2. we didn't produce native apps, e.g. with phonegap => lack of integration with addressbook would reduce virality and convenience for the user
3. our app didn't have a one-step invite process => people would get tired of jumping through hoops and virality would suffer
4. our app didn't have realtime updates in chat => people would have to keep refreshing the page on their mobile phone and not get rewarded for engaging with the app
5. our app didn't have offline notifications => engagement would suffer, as the app wouldn't be able to notify people of relevant things via transactional notifications
6. we didn't have ways to manage notifications => people might get annoyed they are getting too many notifications ... yes, this one we could have done later
7. we didn't have ways to manage privacy / access => then everything would have to be public, making many people concerned ... yes, this one we could have done later
8. didn't have auto scaling where we split shards that get too hot and bring up more machines => if all the virality and engagement was as high as we expect, then our machines would quickly crash and we would lose ALL our momentum.
So we decided to invest in 1-8 up front before launching. We have an unusual strategy, having built a distributed platform with all the features of a social network that puts the power into your hands, and works with realtime and mobile ... and having a completely distributed team that is based throughout Russia and Ukraine. We are now in a position to launch many viral apps very efficiently and manage all their common issues on one platform.
PS: We didn't just sit on our hands while building this framework. We already released two apps that have 250,000 monthly active users, so that is why we were worried about growing exponentially from there, once we made them "social".
PPS: Wow, this was a long post. I hope it was informative.
https://medium.com/musings-about-text-boxes/8157c364d26a
Compare: http://qbix.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/a-new-kind-of-platfor... :)
I guess it comes down to what you understand "viable" to mean. Because if:
1. our app couldn't work on all mobile platforms => you wouldn't be able to invite many of your contacts, losing a lot of virality that could make the difference (http://luckyapps.com/blog/?p=12)
2. we didn't produce native apps, e.g. with phonegap => lack of integration with addressbook would reduce virality and convenience for the user
3. our app didn't have a one-step invite process => people would get tired of jumping through hoops and virality would suffer
4. our app didn't have realtime updates in chat => people would have to keep refreshing the page on their mobile phone and not get rewarded for engaging with the app
5. our app didn't have offline notifications => engagement would suffer, as the app wouldn't be able to notify people of relevant things via transactional notifications
6. we didn't have ways to manage notifications => people might get annoyed they are getting too many notifications ... yes, this one we could have done later
7. we didn't have ways to manage privacy / access => then everything would have to be public, making many people concerned ... yes, this one we could have done later
8. didn't have auto scaling where we split shards that get too hot and bring up more machines => if all the virality and engagement was as high as we expect, then our machines would quickly crash and we would lose ALL our momentum.
So we decided to invest in 1-8 up front before launching. We have an unusual strategy, having built a distributed platform with all the features of a social network that puts the power into your hands, and works with realtime and mobile ... and having a completely distributed team that is based throughout Russia and Ukraine. We are now in a position to launch many viral apps very efficiently and manage all their common issues on one platform.
PS: We didn't just sit on our hands while building this framework. We already released two apps that have 250,000 monthly active users, so that is why we were worried about growing exponentially from there, once we made them "social".
PPS: Wow, this was a long post. I hope it was informative.