Network effects. It’s one of the most important concepts for business in general and especially for tech businesses, as it’s the key dynamic behind many successful software-based companies. Understanding network effects not only helps build better products, but it helps build moats and protect software companies against competitors’ eating away at their margins.
Yet what IS a network effect? How do we untangle the nuances of ‘network effects’ with ‘marketplaces’ and ‘platforms’? What’s the difference between network effects, virality, supply-side economies of scale? And how do we know a company has network effects? …
ANDRÉ CRAMER 