As Quora takes off, it demonstrates the network effect
“The genius of these companies is that their users do most of the work and create most of the value; once the ball is rolling, it’s the users who keep pushing it along.”
That line is from a recent James Surowiecki piece in the New Yorker. He may have been writing about Groupon, but in the following paragraph describing the brilliance of the common model behind Facebook and Twitter, Surowiecki also explained why Quora is suddenly generating so much buzz.
“Most of the companies that have transformed the Web have certain things in common. They have distinctive technologies. They benefit from what are usually called network effects: the more people who use the service, the more valuable the service becomes. (You’re more likely to use Facebook or Twitter when lots of your friends have signed up, and the more people there are who use Google the more accurate its searches become.) Most important, they scale easily, meaning that they can grow very big without much additional effort.”
Unless you’ve been hibernating, you know that the new question-and-answer site co-founded by two early Facebook employees, Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever, is the flavor of the day, week, month. Sign-ups are accelerating. Twitter is aflutter with links to answers – a brilliantly simple way to call attention to your answers, which promotes the site, builds your visibility, and, if your answer is any good, adds to your own personal reputation. And users aren’t just using, they’re blogging about using. Talk about getting the users to do all the work.
Right now Quora is at that weird moment when it’s popular enough for all the digerati and early social adopters to be there, yet young enough that people don’t totally get it. Then again, whatever there is to get is still TBD, for if Quora is to grow, prosper and survive, not only will users do the work of building it, they’ll also define what it can become, perhaps taking it beyond anyone’s initial thinking.
Will it be more a place to ask questions and find answers that are genuinely helpful? Or more a place to answer questions, perhaps helping discover new clients, expand your following, even secure speaking gigs.
Are you on Quora? What do you think?
Comments
It will be interesting to see how Quora evolves and how brands utilize it.
You're right about Quora being at that "weird moment". People are flocking to it without quite knowing why. I'm hoping it becomes an easy way for people to connect and learn from each other. Kind of like LinkedIn questions without the pesky profile.
BTW, the link to Surowiecki's New Yorker piece takes you to his piece about Groupon.
rebrivved Yes it does, as I tried to make clear in the post. "He may have been writing about Groupon, but in the following paragraph describing the brilliance of the common model behind Facebook and Twitter, Surowiecki also explained why Quora is suddenly generating so much buzz." But the reference to network effect comes from that article. He wasn't writing about Quora, but his explanation of Twitter and FB success is relevant to what's happening here. Yes?
So I'm the poster child for not getting it? Ouch...
miketrap You offered up the perfect tweet. Was going to use the entire visual, but figured the link was good enough. :-) Plus no one really gets it as I said. "Then again, whatever there is to get is still TBD." Hope you don't mind.
edwardboches Of course not. Thanks for the mention.
Edward, Need a Quora invite, if you have an extra...
Nishad done
[...] But soon people started talking about a “thin end of the wedge” approach in respect to Quora. Here, digital media entrepreneur Semil Shah writes convincingly on Techcrunch about seven ways Quora may grow in relevance. Edward Boches commented on how Quora is demonstrating the Network Effect in its meteoric growth. [...]