Comments on: Go-to-market strategies for vertical social products

By: Clarityx

Clarityx — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:51:58 +0000

Can I use this info on my blog using the direct link to your blog? Thanks in advance

By: UltimateFootballNetwork

UltimateFootballNetwork — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:08:50 +0000

Thanks. That is what I was looking for!

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:08:43 +0000

The one that scales quite well is ad-buying, figuring out what it takes to become profitable, and plowing that investment back into ad-buying. Especially given the down ad-economy, if you can make this work, you'll have a nice distribution channel.

But certainly these vertical products tend to grow much more slowly than the purely viral horizontal stuff. Good luck!

By: UltimateFootballNetwork

UltimateFootballNetwork — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:25:07 +0000

I am currently talking to companies with complementary technologies to work on some distribution partnerships. Any suggestions for other kinds of distribution strategies for vertical apps?

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:15:11 +0000

what were you looking to hear?

By: UltimateFootballNetwork

UltimateFootballNetwork — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:54:53 +0000

I was really looking forward to your thoughts on this particular topic given that this is precisely something I am working through right now, but I found little other than your point that vertical products have a harder time getting that viral-type of rapid growth.

I think the recent economic developments and the associated the early stage fundraising climate are going to make the horizontal viral success stories harder and harder to come by. The very nature that makes them viral— horizontal, simple and mostly free are typical of the Web2.0 features that may be unable to become products or companies, with Twitter being the most obvious example.

Vertical applications are much easier to monetize, both through advertising as well as via more traditional business models and are much more likely to be the focus of whoever is left among the early stage consumer internet investors. And because distribution strategies are harder for all the reasons you mentioned, a good discussion around how to identify complementary opportunities for distribution partnerships would be valuable for all.