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Multi-Hit Wonders: Embracing Apps With Short Shelf Life

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The rise of scaled social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has made it increasingly challenging for newcomers to compete directly. Per network effect theory, for any innovation a startup can create, an existing network can quickly imitate and distribute to its own scaled user base. This is evident in the fact that it’s been years since a new consumer social application has scaled, even though their product innovations have propagated across existing social giants (e.g. live audio rooms and ephemeral stories). As a result, startups have shifted their focus toward more intimate formats, where their smaller user bases give them an advantage over incumbents. Simultaneously, consumer app success has become more transient, driven by accelerated news cycles and algorithmic feeds that constantly reshape users' attention. New consumer apps may burn bright for a few weeks or months, only to be replaced by a newer “it” social app. In a sense, consumer products now resemble entertain

Possessed Photography/Unsplash The rise of scaled social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has made it increasingly challenging for newcomers to compete directly. Per network effect theory, for any innovation a startup can create, an existing network can quickly imitate and distribute to its own scaled user base. This is evident in the fact that it’s been years since a new consumer social application has scaled, even though their product innovations have propagated across existing social giants (e.g. live audio rooms and ephemeral stories). As a result, startups have shifted…

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