Start with functionality, end with social networking

There's a popular strategy for original networking that I like to call"Start with functionality, end with social networking"。

At first, attract users with a one-person tool (a specific function), and then over time, let them participate in the network social. This tool helps gather an initial user base. Networks create long-term value for users and defensibility for companies.

Give two examples:

1) Delicious. Its intriguing feature was a cloud service for your bookmarks, which later evolved into a tagging system for discovering and sharing links.

2) Instagram. The original allure of Instagram was its ingenious photo filters. Although some other applications at the time, such as Hipstamatic, also had filters, but they required a fee to use them. Instagram photos can also be shared on other apps like Facebook and Twitter. Of course you can also just share on Instagram, and over time, this became the preferred way to use Instagram.

"Start with functionality, end with social networking"This strategy is not the only way to build a web application. Some one-person tools (features) that have never had a similar one, such as Facebook and Twitter, are hugely successful companies. But it is very difficult to build a network application ecosystem from scratch. We can regard attractive functions as the fire that ignites the network.