For a long time, the global business world was only vested in economic success while having little regard for how it may affect the environment or the health and well-being of the community. However, there has been a shift in recent years where customers and citizens are no longer willing to accept the status quo. This is what makes social entrepreneurs so important. They recognise and pursue innovative opportunities that create social value. They consider the nonprofit and business sectors to maximise their impact.

Social entrepreneurship

<ul><li>Choose what change you want to make in the world. Find one relevant to your customers and connect your products and services to your brand's history.</li><li>Tell the world what you want to accomplish. Make a public statement of your social purpose that is easy to understand. This will help you stay true to your vision.</li><li>Show the world how you're doing it. Design action plans with specific steps on how you are going to achieve the goals.</li><li>Use your goals to build the brand message the world will see. Connect your initiatives and activism into the brand story you've created to demonstrate your efforts.</li></ul>

Create social purpose for your brand

There are four key steps to using social entrepreneurship in your business effectively.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

business

Business

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

How Social Entrepreneurship Can Level Up Your Success

"Everyone should have a side hustle. Even if you love your job., having more than one source of income will give you more freedom and more options."

<ul><li>Is it feasible? Can you execute it in an hour or less a day and expect to see results within a week? Or are you trying to climb Mt Everest on your first attempt?</li><li>Will it be profitable? How much can you expect to make from one sale? What expenses do you have to cover? What’s the optimistic and pessimistic version of this?</li><li>Is your idea persuasive? Can you explain what you’re selling to your grandma in two sentences? What’s your “wow factor?” What’s your unique advantage?</li></ul>If an idea fails to pass the scrutiny of these questions, don’t bother with it.

Generating Ideas For Your Side Hustle: The Validation Framework

The first week of side hustle month is about your ideas. The second week of the program encourages you to get clear about your ideal or target customer. Think of them as ‘your people'. Find out more about “your people”:<ul><li>If you know one of them, have a coffee. </li><li>But If you don’t: have an imaginary coffee with them’, or write a letter to them. </li></ul>

Finding "Your People"

Go from idea to offer with price, pitch, and promise.<ul><li>Your promise should be a bold, provocative statement that highlights the persuasive aspect of your idea. When people hear it, they should see how they can immediately benefit from your idea. </li><li>Your pitch tells people how you deliver on that promise in as few words as possible. </li><li>Your price lets people know how much they have to pay and comes with a clear call to action. </li></ul>

Price, Pitch, and Promise

"Like a comic book superhero, your side hustle needs a history [or herstory]. Don’t just give ‘em the facts; tell them a story."

Look for your own origin story – what is your superpower in relation to “your people” and importantly, what is the drama, or the ‘turning point’ that gave youour superpower.

Create Your Origin Story

"The best hack of all is to do something that makes a difference in [your] people’s lives."

This includes learning to:<ul><li>Clearly explain what your product or service is, why “your people” will benefit and how it works. </li><li>Deliver what you promise, so start simple with your promise, but go above and beyond whenever possible.</li><li> Uncover and respond to unspoken needs. </li><li>Find a way to report back to “your people” in some way. People often forget how bad the problem was, once it is solved. </li><li>Make it fun, interesting, or a source of status to write or record a testimonial for you</li></ul>

How You Can Change Your Customer’s Life

<ul><li>A website. Today, if you’re not online, you don’t exist. All you need is a domain and hosting. </li><li>A social media profile. Pick a platform that you like, where you’ll enjoy creating content and that suits your audience and focus on that.</li><li>A scheduling tool. Eliminates all the back and forth.</li><li>A payment system, to let people purchase right on your simple site</li></ul>If you end up with an idea for a side hustle that requires you to take out a $10,000 loan, you’ve done it wrong. It shouldn’t be expensive.

The Quintessential Side Hustle Shopping List

To sell a product or service, you must emphasize its merits. Focus on its benefits. The key is to connect with people emotionally.You should seek out four types of people who can help you along the way once you’ve identified the benefits of your side hustle. <ol><li>Find supporters first. Families and friends are most likely to be involved – they can lend a hand in a variety of ways and support your effort. </li><li>Find a mentor, someone who offers guidance and advice. </li><li>Identify influencers. Trendsetters are those who spread the word about your product. </li><li>Finding ideal customers is the fourth step. </li></ol>

Understand Your Side Hustle’s Benefits And Involve The Right People

A guide to launching a profitable entrepreneural venture in less than a month shares practical exercises and inspiring stores about how to plan, launch, and refine a side business with minimal revenue and without having to quit a full-time job.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

books

Books

The author of the New York Times Bestseller THE $100 STARTUP shows how to launch a profitable side hustle in just 27 days. For some people, the thought of quitting their day job to pursue the entrepreneurial life is exhilarating.  For many others, it’s terrifying. After all, a stable job that delivers a regular paycheck is a blessing. And not everyone has the means or the desire to take on the risks and responsibilities of working for themselves. But what if we could quickly and easily create an additional stream of income without giving up the security of a full-time job? Enter the side hustle. Chris Gullibeau is no stranger to this world, having launched more than a dozen side hustles over his career. Here, he offers a step-by-step guide that takes you from idea to income in just 27 days. Designed for the busy and impatient, this detailed roadmap will show you how to select, launch, refine, and make money from your side hustle in under a month. You’ll learn how to: •  Brainstorm, borrow, and steal to build an arsenal of great side hustle ideas (day 3) •  Apply “Tinder for Side Hustle” logic to pick the best idea at any time (day 6) •  Learn, gather, or create everything you need to launch; then set up a real life way to get paid (days 13-14) •  Start raking in the money by channeling your inner Girl Scout (day 18) •  Master the art of deals, discounts, and special offers (day 21) •  Raise your game: improve, expand, or make more money off your hustle (days 24-26) A side hustle is more than just another stream of income, it’s also the new job security. When you receive paychecks from different sources, it allows you to take more chances in your “regular” career. More income means more options. More options equals freedom. You don’t need entrepreneurial experience to launch a profitable side hustle. You don’t have to have an MBA, or know how to code, or be an expert marketer. You don’t need employees or investors. With Chris as a guide, anyone can make more money, pursue a passion, and enjoy greater security – without quitting their day job.

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup and other books. During a lifetime of self-employment, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his 35th birthday. Every summer in Portland, Oregon he hosts the World Domination Summit, a gathering of creative, remarkable people. Chris also hosts Side Hustle School, a popular podcast that is downloaded more than 2 million times a month.

Chris Guillebeau

Side Hustle

Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days

Story comes first. Great graphics will keep us entertained for a couple of minutes, it is story that holds us in our seats.

It is easy to lose ourselves in corporate imperatives, to feel we are beholden to forces that might not be aligned with our personal aspirations and priorities, or with how we wish to give expression to our lives.

The Middle Way is about finding harmony between the structure that helps us function and the fluidity that opens us up to experience more ease, richness, and connection in our lives.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Lawrence Levy received a call from Steve Jobs to become Pixar’s CFO and to lead it towards an IPO. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Jobs initially bought Pixar to make it a hardware company, but realized that that’s not what it was — it was an animation movie/entertainment company.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Lawrence struggles to understand the business and industry, as the entertainment industry is fully controlled by Hollywood. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Pixar and Disney have a deal: Disney pays for production, marketing, and distribution costs for the first 3 movies, but also receives 90% of its revenues.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Lawrence and Steve come up with a 4 step plan to make the company a succ<warningtag>ess.</warningtag></li></ul>

Lawrence Levy Joins Pixar

As developed by Lawrence Levy and Steve Jobs<ul><li>Increase Pixar’s share of film profits to at least 50%. (4 times increase of the current deal with Disney at that time)</li><li>Raise money to finance their own films. At least 75 million dollars to pay for production costs. (Pixar would have to pay all, or a large part, of production costs of its own films. This is a key requirement of negotiating for an increased share of profits)</li><li>Expand the studio to increase the rate of producing films. (One film every 18 months instead of every four years)</li><li>Build Pixar into a worldwide brand.</li></ul>

Four Pillars of the Pixar Business Plan

Factors that determine one’s capacity to affect change:<ul><li>Leverage (bargaining power or strength)</li><li>Negotiation</li></ul>Tactics you employ to extract the best terms you can, given your leverage:<ul><li>How you put the leverage to work for you.</li><li>Courage, fear, tenacity, trustworthiness, creativity, calm, the willingness to walk away, to behave irrationally.</li></ul>

The Capacity To Affect Change

<ul><li>Steve Jobs first became a billionaire from the Pixar IPO. </li><li>When going public for their IPO, investment bankers examined every aspect of the company, its history, assets, debts, products, profits, markets, distribution channels, management team, competition, and anything else relevant to its success.</li><li>IPO preparations didn't go smoothly — Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley don’t want to do it, so Lawrence finds other 3 smaller investment banks. As part of the process, Steve also finds a couple of Directors for the Board.</li><li>The IPO is a massive success, with Steve owning all of the shares (apart from<warningtag> a small employee share pool).</warningtag></li></ul>

Pixar's IPO

Toy Story comes out after 5+ years in production — it’s super hard to make animations back then as you need to think of every single detail and animate it and then put it back on film for the cinemas. It is a massive hit and becomes the 3rd top grossing animation of all time.

Successful Launch Of The First Movie — Toy Story

<ul><li>Melding business realities with creative priorities was always integral to Pixar’s collaboration and business model.</li><li>Pixar’s successful process relied much on the relentless critique of each other’s work, and the willingness to put aside ego enough to hear that critique.</li><li>Pixar ceded creative control and decision-making to the creative team. This was contrary to the popular Hollywood model of executives making creative decisions.</li></ul>

Pixar's Business Model

The problem with success, even a little success, is that it changes you. You are no longer walking along the same precipice that drove you to do great work in the first place. Now you have something to defend: a reputation, money in the bank, a brand, real customer expectations. Success can take the edge away.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

entertainment

Entertainment

A Sunday Times Best Book of the Year 2017 One day in November 1994, Lawrence Levy received a phone call out of the blue from Steve Jobs, whom he'd never met, offering him a job running Pixar, a little-known company that had already lost Jobs $50 million. With Pixar's prospects looking bleak, it was with some trepidation that Levy accepted the position. After a few weeks he discovered that the situation was even worse than he'd imagined. Pixar's advertising division just about broke even, its graphics software had few customers, its short films didn't make any money and, on top of all that, Jobs was pushing to take the company public. Everything was riding on the studio's first feature film, codenamed Toy Story, and even then it would have to be one of the most successful animated features of all time... Full of wisdom on bringing business and creativity together, and recounting the touching story of Levy's enduring friendship with Jobs, To Pixar and Beyond is a fascinating insider's account of one of Hollywood's greatest success stories.

Lawrence Levy

To Pixar and Beyond

In today’s information-saturated age, people are often too preoccupied to notice what you’re offering unless it’s packaged and presented appealingly enough to break through all the noise.<ul><li>When people ask, “What do you do?” or “Why should I buy this?” it’s your job to make a long story short.</li><li>If someone can’t repeat your message back to you after you’ve told it, they didn’t “get it.” </li><li>If someone can’t remember your message, you wouldn’t get their business.</li></ul>

POP!: The Premise

You need to answer the “9 Ws” for your message/product/service:<ul><li>What am I offering?</li><li>What problem does my idea or offering solve?</li><li>Why is it worth trying and buying?</li><li>Who is my target audience?</li><li>Who am I and what are my credentials?</li><li>Who are my competitors and how am I different from them?</li><li>What resistance or objections will people have to this?</li><li>What is the purpose of my pitch?</li><li>When, where, and how do I want people to take action?</li></ul>

The Nine Ws You Need To Ask Yourself

<ul><li>The first requirement of a POP pitch is to be purposeful. People need to be absolutely sure of what you do/offer from your image/introduction/slogans alone. Examples of memorable slogans are given.</li><li>A pitch also needs to be original or one of a kind. Things that are original are appealing or, at the least, novel enough to try.</li><li>Pithy means concise and precise. The top slogans of the 20th century, as selected by Advertising Age magazine, are all less than seven words.</li></ul>

Your Pitch: The Three Requirements

The “alphabetizing technique” is where you take some of the “core words” relating to your product/service/message and make them more original by going through the alphabet and changing the sound of the first syllable.A bar used the alphabetizing technique with their “happy hour” to produce “yappy hour”, a special hour for dog owners.The “spell chuck” technique is switching out words or parts of words with homophones, such as “Curl up and Dye” for a hairdresser, “VoluntEARS” for a Disney customer service program.

Word-y Techniques

Try to “capture conversational catchphrases.” Pick up on unique phrases used in your industry or in relation to your message/product. Build a Rewarding Career, Job Search Techniques sounds dull but  I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This sounds catchy and conversation oriented.Come up with catchphrases that are linked to what the customer/reader wants to hear in relation to the product. For example, for a toothpaste company making a child’s toothpaste: Look, Ma. No cavities!

Catching The Conversation

Anytime we elicit a laugh, people are more likely to like us and whatever it is we’re offering.Use all sorts of humour (except adult, rude, offensive) in your message and pitches. Trashy newspaper headlines, etc.Rearrange clichés to end up with fresh sounding phrases. For example, “I rub people the right way.”To Michael Jordan, it was said “Remember, Michael, there’s no I in team.” Jordan replied, “Yeah, but there is in win.”

Using Humor

The “Half-and-Half Technique” is when you make columns of related words that are based on your message and then try combinations of them. This is a common technique for coming up with domain names.Blend two words into one, like giraffiti, staremaster, Internut etc.

Two To Tango

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth

The “contraband” technique is when you take a contrary position in a message, such as a “TV is good for your kids” or an upside-down Christmas tree (“leaves more room on the floor for gifts!”) .Difference stands out.Think “how can I introduce something that causes people to rethink their assumptions and question their current beliefs?”

Saying The Unexpected

<ul><li>Alliteration is given as a technique to make powerful titles. Examples: Weight Watchers, King Kong, Boombox, Dirt Devil. </li><li>Do remember to never sacrifice clear for clever.</li><li>Change a message to fit a beat or natural-sounding flow if one presents itself (e.g. rhymes). </li><li>Is your slogan in a beat that’s easy to repeat?</li></ul>

Sounds Good To The Ears!

<ul><li>Make your content come alive with first-person stories.</li><li>Examples are better than explanations.</li><li>Re-enact stories rather than “telling” them. Be visceral and active in your storytelling.</li><li>People remember stories, even if they don't remember anything else.</li></ul>

Keeping The Interest: Storify

<ul><li>Comb newspapers for current quotes.</li><li>Quote yourself, if you wish.</li><li>Quotations are a quick way to establish precedence. (And to validate ideas.)</li><li>Open eyes, ears, hearts, and minds with Aha! quotes.</li><li>Craft a memorable money phase. “Show me the money” from Jerry Maguire is given as an example. Money phrases drive word-of-mouth marketing.</li><li>You can “rip off” quotes by changing them to include your message in a funny way. For example, “I think, therefore iPod.”</li></ul>

The Power Of Quotes

Pop! is a lively, fun, and inspiring guide to getting heard, getting remembered, and getting results.

An inspirational handbook introduces the POP! process--to make messages Purposeful, Original, and Pithy--in order to promote one's ideas successfully, discussing such concepts as Muse It or Lose It, the Eureka Moment, the Jerry Maguire Rule, Contra-Brand, and Idea Chemistry.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

startup

Startups

While being memorable is important in one's personal life, it takes on an added urgency when trying to sell yourself, your business, or your product. In such a saturated market, with consumers being constantly bombarded with advertising messages and marketing images, how can you make sure to POP! out of the crowd? In her new book, Sam Horn reveals ways to ensure that you, your business and your product never blend into the background again. 'POP!' (or Purposeful, Original, and Pithy) has the power to propel even lifetime wallflowers into dynamic self-promoters.

Sam Horn

Pop!

Pop!: Stand Out in Any Crowd

Growth loopsEngagementRetentionDefensibility

The benefits of Social+

<ul><li>Having a social graph that is unique and inseparable from the product.</li><li>Own the community – building a product on top of a pre-existing social graph means the network is owned by someone else.</li><li>The social element needs to be integral to the experience.</li><li>Peer-to-peer social engagement is essential to the product.</li><li>The community should engage with each other rather than being a passive audience.</li></ul>

What makes a company Social+

<ul><li>The social interactions should feel authentic.</li><li>Has an interactive layer, which appeals to the user’s emotional and cognitive side, and a transactional layer which appeals to the rational and functional side.</li><li>These layers should be mutually reinforcing.</li></ul>

Challenges to building a Social+ company

Social+ companies usually surpass their non-social counterparts. TikTok and Fortnite have higher values achieved on shorter time frames than Spotify and Assassin's Creed.Categories that remain open for Social+<ul><li>Fitness</li><li>Food</li><li>Money</li><li>Real Estate</li><li>Education</li></ul>Social+ allows us to layer social into the activities that we already enjoy.

The future is Social+

Companies like TikTok and Fortnite have built an integrated social experience around music and gaming. They are Social+ companies.

No category is really won until the social product is built. These are challenges and the open opportunities in building "social+" companies.

product

Product & Design

Community Takes All: The Power of Social+

<ul><li>There’s more opportunity for audio-first products that go beyond passive listening</li><li>Platforms can provide user-generated content, live conversations, and other social interactions</li></ul>

Beyond Podcasts

<ul><li>The social application of video started with a small group of innovators and then exploded to include platforms like YouTube and TikTok, the audio format will follow suit</li><li>Though audio apps may have begun with podcasting and audiobooks, we’re on the front-end of a decade of innovation in social audio</li></ul>

The precedent for social + audio

There are many existing audio use cases that can be categorized by product attributesThemes shaping the future of social audio<ul><li>Innovation in the content format</li><li>The evolution of the business model</li><li>The growing ubiquity of audio</li></ul>Convergence of technology and human behavior<ul><li>The demand for audio is at an all-time high, motivating entrepreneurs to be more adventurous in user-generated methods of creating audio content</li></ul>

How social audio might innovate

Audio will create the next generation of startups in social networking and publishing, much like the innovations we have seen in messaging, video, and other media to date.

We’re on the cusp of a wave of audio innovation that will rival the explosion of video apps. Now new social + audio startups are stretching beyond podcasts.

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

creativity

Creativity

The Next Phase of Social? Listen Closely | Andreessen Horowitz

<ul><li>Games are constantly reinvented: the biggest games today like “Fortnite” and “Clash of Clans” run most of their network on the cloud</li><li>True cloud-native games are only playable within the cloud infrastructure</li><li>Benefits: no download time or updates, users can play instantly and on different screens</li><li>But individuals’ local PCs or other devices may limit cloud interactions and simulations</li><li>Combination of live video and games: enables different inputs to impact the simulation environment in real time</li><li>Crowdsourced game playing, like Pokemon and choose-your-own adventures</li></ul>

First-wave cloud-native games will revolutionize gameplay and hyper-personalized storytelling

<ul><li>Arcade system: no need to pay for one whole game and just jump around games</li><li>Shift towards subscription pricing model and free-to-play</li><li>Potential for “YouTube of gaming:” people prefer to process over video than text</li><li>Design playbook: shorten the “time to fun” for instant play</li><li>Comeback of instant IO games, shared through Discord and YouTube</li></ul>

Setting the stage for new business models

<ul><li>AI enables NPCs (non-playable characters) to adopt objectives and behaviors, generating believable script</li><li>Fosters more dynamic, enriching experiences and reactions: players can express themselves more freely</li><li>Second wave of cloud gaming will unlock limitless behavior and immersion game play</li><li>Having AI assistants that can implement building enables developers to spend more time on brainstorming and conception</li><li>Cloud easily updates shared experiences and shared worlds</li><li>Improved client-side processing: less limits on number of players at an instance</li></ul>

Google Stadia unlocks a new level of storytelling and immersion with realistic characters

<ul><li>Accessibility accommodates different ways of play for different moods and desires</li><li>Players can feel included no matter the skill level, time availability, or device</li><li>Video games generates video as it’s consumed, ensuring shareability and interactivity</li><li>Games as the new social platform: in cloud-native gaming worlds, players can be more spontaneous and not have a purpose, similar to socializing in real life</li><li>Vision of Metaverse as a community</li><li>Games as crucial part of pop culture, appealing to all ages and cultures</li><li>Developing requires constant experimentation in a gray box</li></ul>

Cloud gaming opens up full spectrum of interactions, from light to deep connections

Jade Raymond of Google Stadia discusses how cloud gaming will revolutionize play and unlock unprecedented storytelling and socializing in virtual worlds.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

The Social Serendipity of Cloud Gaming | Andreessen Horowitz

Two ways this can be done:<ol><li>Subscriptions to the platform or to a specific creator subscription allow users to select different things based on their level of engagement</li><li>Reduce reliance on brand sponsors and increase the authenticity of creators. The drawback is the content reaches fewer people</li></ol>

VIP Membership Subscriptions for personalized content

Pinterest pioneered this field, but TikTok and Instagram are now moving into the ‘space’ as wellIncentives for both fields align when the creator is seen as an expert in the field the product is coming from

Commerce: Platforms that help creators sell their product

Typically one-time purchases are to a specific live event. The PPV model of boxing. A relatively new medium that has been accelerated by COVID-19

Virtual live experiences

These companies allow users to interact with people who have shared interestsCan be done for fitness, mental health, career guidance, etc.Platforms act as matchmakers and users are the community that people seek in that specific field

Internet-based paid communities

Popular in China and in video gamesAmong Us, a popular game, uses these to personalize a character despite the game being freeBeyond gaming, there has been little adoption in the US

Digital goods and in-app purchases

Livestream tipping has become a $10 billion industry in China. Twitch uses this in the US for videogame streamers. The downfall to this is that the tipping can be an inconsistent stream of revenue

Tipping, donations, and microtransactions

While the traditional ad model has worked well for social platforms in the past, new entrants have found new ways to monetize beyond targeted ads.

From VIP subscriptions to next-level ecommerce, here’s how social companies are skirting the traditional ad model.

Six Ways New Social Companies Will Monetize | Andreessen Horowitz

In 2021, with 1.9 billion monthly active users in 150 countries, and an employee base of over 110,000, the company recorded an astonishing $58 billion in revenues.How has it been so consistently successful? An important contributing factor is its innovation strategy, which relies on a shared-service platform, or SSP.

ByteDance, the most valuable startup in the world, has shattered records for growth.

<ul><li>Bytedance uses its SSP platform differently from most companies. The company's product teams or units don't control their own operating resources.</li><li>Many common business, technology, and operating functions (among them HR and legal) are centralized and organized into corresponding teams, so that the right people can be found and flexibly deployed as needed to each new venture.</li></ul>

Specialized Teams

ByteDance has searched broadly for new product opportunities and does not hesitate to send multiple teams into the same segment.Rapid iterationIt is renowned for its speed of development and getting products to market, much of which is enabled by its SSP.Selective focusByteDance allocates key resources to a few select priorities for a few years at a time. Its first 3 years were dominated by text- and photo-content experiments relating to the success of Toutiao, its news app, while 2016 marked a pivot to a short video.After experimentation, it made growing its education business a priority.

Broad exploration

ByteDance’s SSP allows for new product teams to easily integrate best-in-class technologies and features, saving precious time and resourcesProductizing platform servicesShared services often begin as new functions but are elevated to the SSP level if use, actual or projected, increases across multiple productsOrganizational EnablersByteDance's SSP strategy - accelerate new projects by providing instant access to best-in-class technology and operations - has been so successful that one would expect many other companies to have embraced it.

Maximum-capability cross-pollination

ByteDance's strategy and operations are driven by a transparent, bi-monthly Objectives and Key Results (OKR) system that flows from the very top, aligning the priorities and actions of SSP and product teams.Explicitly flattened hierarchyByteDance eliminates the use of titles and deliberately flattened its hierarchy to just a few layers so that employees can focus on their responsibilities instead of worrying about status.

ByteDance's SSP-based innovation strategy has allowed the company to incubate rapidly and broadly and to scale efficiently, by using centralized but flexibly deployed technical and operational stacks.This strategy has served the company well in part because of the similarity among its various algorithm-driven products.

Data-driven culture

Unpacking the success of the company that built TikTok, Toutiao, and Douyin.

How ByteDance Became the World’s Most Valuable Startup

<ul><li>Two of the fastest-growing categories among the social apps were friend discovery and vertical communities</li><li>Will the future of social media be interest-based platforms that foster meaningful connection?</li></ul>

Results

<ul><li>Usually, Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU) are used to measure scale and growth</li><li>DAU/MAU=stickiness. Can be used to evaluate an app’s network effects, or how strong the network is based on how frequently its users engage.</li><li>DAU/MAU is helpful but isn’t all-encompassing—often will be higher around media consumption</li><li>Addiction (number of times app is accessed a day) and absorption (how long each session on the app lasts) are also important metrics that were analyzed. The key is the combination of the two given by the attention equation: frequency+depth=total time spent</li></ul>

Social App Metrics

<ul><li>Every app’s success benchmarks are specific to the app’s category</li><li>Dating apps should be compared to other dating apps, not TikTok or Facebook, etc.</li></ul>

Benchmarks by Category

<ul><li>Fastest growing social apps</li><li>Friend discovery—teens turn to social apps to make and build friendships</li><li>Vertical communities—the value of going niche; social networks formed around specific interests</li><li>Combination of utility and community results in high retention and downstream monetization opportunities</li></ul>The best social apps are those with an intrinsic social component. Measuring success can be difficult and there is more than one path. Category matters for benchmarks!

Friend discovery apps and vertical communities

Evaluating the potential of a social app can be complicated. Many factors must be considered. Using Apptopia, social platforms in the top 1,000 on the US App store were analyzed and ranked according to growth rate (see graphics in-article).

When assessing a social app’s potential, what does “good” look like, anyway? The most important metrics—and benchmarks to aspire to—according to the data.

The Stickiest, Most Addictive, Most Engaging, and Fastest-Growing Social Apps—and How to Measure Them | Andreessen Horowitz

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