Re:Ask YC: How do we announce the alpha launch?
by swombat on Monday August 04, 2008 @04:04AM
(#266104)
I totally agree. There is a lot of power in the launch. That's why you should only use it once you have something that can actually impress then tens of thousands of people who'll come and have a look.
You say Cuil did a great job on the marketing. Yes, they did. However, most people who went and tried Cuil had a bad experience. That compares very unfavourably with Google, which is unflinchingly brilliant. Result? Sure, Cuil did great by getting (say) a million people to try them on the first day. But of that million, maybe a thousand will actually use them more than once.
It's not really worth going through all that PR work if your stick rate is only 0.1%. Unless, of course, the whole thing was about investors / buyers, not about users (which I believe is the case).
You say Cuil did a great job on the marketing. Yes, they did. However, most people who went and tried Cuil had a bad experience. That compares very unfavourably with Google, which is unflinchingly brilliant. Result? Sure, Cuil did great by getting (say) a million people to try them on the first day. But of that million, maybe a thousand will actually use them more than once.
It's not really worth going through all that PR work if your stick rate is only 0.1%. Unless, of course, the whole thing was about investors / buyers, not about users (which I believe is the case).