The Cold Start Problem

Original post: The Cold Start Problem

I clearly remember when Google launched its attempt at a social network, Google+, and how it was instantly clear it would be a flop. I also remember my thoughts when I was using it: “There’s nobody in here”.

Now, thanks to Alex Teiva, I can put a name to the problem and understand where Google made a mistake.

The cold start problem is a chicken-and-egg problem: no users without value, no value without users.

A social network is one of the products that greatly benefits from the network effect. Another example is dating apps. The more people use them, the more valuable they become.

Alex explains that Google’s mistake was launching the product worldwide, or rather:

releasing to everyone before any community exists.

As a result, everybody thought the same as I did: “There’s nobody in here. I’ll spend my time elsewhere”.

As a counterexample, Tinder paid much attention to gradually creating different communities. College by college, then city by city, and so on. Whoever was introduced to Tinder already found people, and the app was instantly useful to them. The same happened to Facebook, which started in Harvard and then slowly expanded to other universities.

Once again, I’ve learned something new today.