Don't miss Penenberg's book Viral Loop if you're interested in an easy (and don't mind a fully US-centric) read on the "viral" dynamics and patterns of the Social Web. Beginning with viral models like Tupperware and Ponzi schemes he gives an overview of a selection of viral Web businesses such as Hotmail, Facebook or Ning. Their success builds on common factors like free basic services, a simple concept, intuitive use, built-in-virality (user spread the product out of self-interest), network effects (the more the merrier), stackability (synergies between two or more networks) or exponential growth (in average every user brings more than one new user to the network). He ends his piece by taking the reader back to flesh world concluding that the most viral element of all is our DNA - and that viral loop businesses is just a small part of what we do and who we are.
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