FriendFeed: Inflection Point Wanted
July 10th, 2009
Scoble notes flat traffic at FriendFeed and lists 12 reasons why. All great, but I’d like add one thought in particular.
Tony Hung points to the need for an “inflection point” (great analogy), some important event that makes people realize FriendFeed’s value over Twitter or Facebook, and ignites that “hockey stick” growth everyone drools over.
I just want to add that this must be something external to the company – beyond any technical prowess of the team. It won’t arise from additional features, marketing, or early adopter evangelizing. Well, unless that early adopter is Ashton Kutcher or Oprah. But my point is the moment must surely be viral – unplanned, uncontrolled, and genuinely spread by wildfire.
It also must be exclusive to FriendFeed. Recent events, breaking in real-time, that people want to know about now: Iran elections, an earthquake, Michael Jackson, etc. You could hear the news from FriendFeed – but also Twitter and Facebook. Saying “hear about it on Twitter, then discuss it on FriendFeed” isn’t enough. FriendFeed needs something separate from Twitter.
Even I, who used FriendFeed for over a year, cannot think of a single, important event exclusive to FriendFeed. I suppose the most unique aspect are participatory memes like “20 reasons why I’m cooler than you” or “let’s take a photograph where I pretend to milk a chimpanzee.” And those aren’t galvanizing moments that push the service into the public consciousness, no matter how amusing they may be.
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Posted In: Technology
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It's like the reverse of a killer app, really.
[...] largely targeted at Twitter users. Their traffic flattened in the challenge to gain more users, a goal that increasingly seemed outside the hands of the company. Maybe they hit a point where it was just easier to sell to a larger company: FriendFeed technology [...]