How Uber is Going Viral

I almost choked on my food this weekend when my friend told me he had become an Uber driver.

We were sitting at The Brigantine, the best fish taco place in Del Mar having yet another rambling conversation about life. He’s a well-off, former trader (another sign of the times, no?) caught between professions. But what was even more shocking about the switch from trader to Uber driver was his comment about a prevalent behavior of Uber customers:

“Brian, every other person that gets into my car immediately grabs their phone and calls someone special in their life: a colleague, friend, or boyfriend/girlfriend and says something to the effect of ‘I’m in an Uber right now.’ People are personally endorsing the product at such a rate that I can barely keep up with the demand even my territory which is relatively new. In all my years in business, I’ve never seen a product spread quite like this.”

Tim Draper is arguably the founding father of “viral marketing” through a combination of intelligence and shrewd timing. His creative concept to use “viral marketing” in Hotmail (appending a small note to invite friends helped spread the product geometrically) dramatically changed the trajectory of the business. This one small marketing tweak eventually created enough value to drive an estimated $400 million acquisition to Microsoft. Fast forward some 15 years later and we’re seeing a similar behavior—this time in the real world.

Uber is the analog Hotmail.

I can’t recall at a company at Uber’s stage that has ever seen more positive word-of-mouth. And it’s happening on a global scale (e.g. Tokyo, London, Sydney).

What’s so special about the product?

1. The application is simply beautiful and functional. Car arrival visualizations release just enough dopamine to keep you engaged and interested—almost like a game—as you wait.
2. Not carrying cash or a credit card is extremely convenient. The absence of these elements triangulate into an apex experience that simply makes each customer feel special. Even the common man or woman can feel like royalty with Uber.
3. As my friend (the Uber driver) mentioned, corporations love Uber because taxi receipts are an endless source of fraud. But not with Uber because the card is already on file.
4. The coordination of the entire experience is what blows me away. Tap. Wait. Delight. Spread the word. Rinse and repeat.
5. The entire experience is personalized right down to the ratings of the driver (did you know you the customer is also rated?). Don’t underestimate this human value.

It will be fascinating to see where the customers of Uber take this company. Congrats, Travis, Ryan and the rest of the team.

Special thanks to Nivi for talking through this post with me and Scott Hurff for editing help. Get his new book on product development here.

Twitter v. Google and Mobile Video Chess

YouTube has no peers.

They seemingly do it all (hosting, content fingerprinting, advertising, search, analytics, subscriptions, live, video editing…) at such scale that it’s impossible for a human to process. In 8 years the brilliant folks at Google have created a useful and credible alternative to television for a generation that’s thirsty for bite-sized, on demand, two-way content. And now, YouTube has more platform lockin that all the popular social networks combined.

I’ve asked myself many times over the past two years if anybody can compete with them. Hell, I’ve even tried.

And I finally have the answer.

YouTube’s biggest strategic weakness is in mobile. And that’s exactly where they’re slipping.

So it comes as no surprise that a worthy competitor, dressed in green, is moving in to exploit this weakness: Vine.

The first generation of mobile video tools (Socialcam, Viddy and Klip) solved what I call “foundational problems” — the technology and user experience behind video uploading, creating efficient sharing flows and hacking viral loops. They all came very close. But in the world of scalable Internet products “close” means nothing. Just ask MySpace, Xanga and Formspring.

Despite how “close” these players arguably got to solving mobile video, they all missed two critical elements Vine got right:

1. Embracing Twitter’s massive distribution muscle and building directly on top of the beloved network (clearly made easier by Twitter’s acquisition, but this was part of the reason why the deal made so much strategic sense)
2. A UX that elegantly grafted onto the dominant user behavior of the social world: foraging. People want immediate delight from discovering new —atomized — content. They figured out the flows to make sharing video fun. And even more critical, they made the consumption UX actually enjoyable because we all know most user generated video is an absolute bore.

YouTube should be concerned. Vine is literally taking over America. It’s growing faster than SnapChat which is growing faster than Instagram. International growth isn’t far behind. The celebrities are joining in droves.

Twitter’s pulled off something extraordinary here. They’ve grabbed the first seat on the rocketship that will be the mobile video revolution.

Don’t dismiss Vine’s six second consumption experience. That can — and will — change. Mobile hardware, cameras, storage, and bandwidth improvements will impact Vibe as well. Even given Twitter’s minimalistic tendencies, we’ve seen the 140-character product morph into something akin to a real-time media center with Twitter Cards.

Since 2006, it was once almost a rule of law that YouTube was the single greatest acquisition in the history of video.

Those days are over. And those steak knives now go up the road to the Twitter corp dev team.

You can follow me on Vine at @BrianNorgard. On Twitter @BrianNorgard.

Special thanks to Scott Hurff for editing help. Get his new book on product development here.

Welcome

It’s my goal to share what I am learning on this blog. As many of you know, my new chair sits directly at the intersection of entertainment and technology. My belief that a critical element of product design and happiness in life starts with being open and conversational. If there’s any topics you’d like me to discuss please leave them in the comments. In my traditional style, I’ll keep it fun and loose and I hope you do too. While you’re here, please enjoy one of my favorite homes in Hollywood Hills—The Stahl House (which sits gracefully above my office on Sunset). Last, here’s a link to an amazing documentary about modern architecture titled Visual Acoustics. ¡Vamos!