The self-sustaining flame

The self-sustaining flame

摘要

Certain products and services have the network effect — the property that the more people using them, the better they get for everyone. A related concept is that of a platform: where the more developers there are building things, the more users are attracted, which in turn attracts more developers, in a self-reinforcing spiral. Most of my experience is in the context of the web platform, but similar patterns occur for other developer platforms and even for some classes of user-focused products. Generally these spiralling dynamics are evidence of an underlying ecosystem.