Design Learnings from Viral Applications

1. Design Learnings from Viral Applications April 2008

2. Over 50 Applications and Widgets Who is RockYou?

3. The RockYou Mission “To engage the world through social applications”

4. Stats! • Invented the Space • Double Digit penetration across leading social networks (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo..) • 105 Million Uniques • 1.5 Billion Pageviews • 150+Million Widget views a day

5. Agenda • The Social Space • Product Design • Development Phasing • Tuning in Depth • Q&A

6. The Opportunity

7. 2008 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Market for Social Apps is Exploding 2005 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (U.K.) 8 9 Wikipedia.org 10 Alexa Global Traffic Rankings

8. Over 150% Growth! RockYou Integration • Over 18,000 applications • 95% have an application • 60%+ have a RockYou app Social Applications Increase Site Traffic

9. Facebook platform launch Huge Growth Potential Registered Users (MM) (2) Source: eBay Investor Presentation, RockYou • eBay starts Q2 98, PayPal starts Q1’00, Yahoo! starts Q1’95, AOL starts Q1’92, Facebook starts Q4’04, and RockYou Starts Q4’05 • Facebook data represents active users, which was disclosed on 12/05 and 12/06. Undisclosed active user data is extrapolated by applying an average active user penetration to global Unique Visitors (per comScore Media Metrix)

10. How did we grow so fast? Rise of open platforms + laser-like focus on metrics and viral channels Flash Widget Era • Profile • Bulletin • Profile • Requests • Notifications • Email • News Feed • Profile action • Profile • Messages • Notifications • Email • Activity stream • Home surface

11. Product Design

12. RockYou approach to product design • Apply advertising principles to user-facing web design • Build fast and launch asap • Iterate on original design • Let data guide product decisions

13. Apply advertising principles to user-facing web design • Its all about Conversion Rate • Each touch point equivalent to an ad pageview • Profile Views • Canvas Pages • Invites • Feeds • Grow by increasing number of touch points and maximizing conversion on each touch point • Have a plan to maximize use of every channel • Must consider implications for long-term user experience • Don’t abuse the channels

14. Build fast and launch asap • Design simple concepts • Focus on virality and growth • Accept the fact that channels >> features • Channels bring in new users and keep them coming back • Only the top 0.1% of features can accomplish this alone • Validate concepts quickly • User tests • Just launch it

15. Iterate Rapidly • Viral channels should drive product concept and feature development • Not the other way around! • Tune the viral loop • A/B Test • Release Often

16. Let data guide product decisions • Don’t Be Emotional • Numbers don’t lie • There are no user experts • 60% + female • 15-25 • Do user studies when you don’t have web metrics • Viral channels should drive product concept and feature development • Not the other way around! • Have a plan to maximize use of every channel

17. Development Process

18. Development Process • Marketing / Validation • Growth • Engagement

19. Application Types • Channel • Superwall, HugMe • Content • Flixster, iLike, Watercooler • Dating • Likeness, Compare People • Games • Zombies, FluffFriends, SpeedRacer, Friends for Sale • Gifts • Grow-a-gift, Free Gifts, Boozemail • Self Expression • Cities I’ve Visitied, Bumper Sticker

20. Marketing / Validation • Audience • Channels • Messaging

21. Audience Skew heavily to teen and young adult women—brand influencers

22. Audience • What’s the total size of market • What percentage penetration is goal • Whats possible virality of market? • Average number of friends • Myspace vs Ning vs iGoogle

23. Messaging • Develop your concept around high-converting calls to action • Simplicity • Universal • Social persuasion • Novelty (art)

24. Channels • Focus on 1 to 1 channels • Map out several different flows to test • Install to invite to interacting • Install to interacting to invite • Balance relevance to throughput • Channel vs Content Applications

25. Viral Channels • News Feed • Notifications • Email • Profile • Invites • Non-user pages • Profile Action

26. Growth Phase • Break viral barrier • Tune growth (Install vs uninstall) • Promote It

27. Call to action to invite friends x = invited friends Yes Accept? y% = invite accept rate x * y > 1 gives you viral growth! The Viral Loop User

28. Tune It • Superwall Launched in 2 days tuned for 2 weeks • Preview page • Invite Messaging • Targeting

29. Promote It • You know the math works • All about throughput to multiply • Give it a boost! • Ad Networks

30. Engagement Phase • Saturated social circles (audiences) • Critical mass makes features more useful • Tune for experience • Build new features to keep users engaged and happy!

31. Critical Mass • You’ve achieved your goal • Percentage of Social Circle supernodes • 40% Active • 10 % of that • 4% of Market

32. Channels • Focus on 1-to-Many to get People Engaged • News Feed • Profile • Notifications • Non User Pages • Focus on 1-to-1 to re-engage current users • Email • Notifications

33. Viral Tuning in Depth

34. Call to action to invite friends x = invited friends Yes Accept? y% = invite accept rate x * y > 1 gives you viral growth! Metrics for your viral loop User

35. Hypothetical viral numbers • Install flow • x = 5 (friends invited on average) • y = 22% (acceptance rate for invites) • Viral factor = 5 * 0.22 = 1.1 VIRAL! • Engagement flow • Repeat users can generated additional virality!

36. Combine multiple flows and channels • Install flow • x = 5 • y = 10% • Viral factor = 5 * 0.1 = 0.5 • Engagement flow, request channel • x = 3 (invites) • y = 10% (acceptance rate for invites) • Viral factor = 3 * 0.1 = 0.3 • Engagement flow, notification channel • x = 6 (notifications) • y = 5% (acceptance rate for notifications) • Viral factor = 6 * 0.05 = 0.3 0.5 + 0.3 + 0.3 = 1.1 VIRAL!

37. Tuning the viral loop – watch your metrics • What to track • Requests sent & request CTR • Notifications sent & notification CTR • Feed events & feed CTR • Adds / removes • And everything else…platform tracking is not 100% reliable • How to track • …if you’re tight on resources (aren’t we all) • Paid or home grown if you’re serious about growing big • Get stats in real time instead of waiting a day • Store events that can’t be tied to a page (i.e. number of requests sent) • Slice and dice data however you want

38. Using metrics to drive product decisions Y invites sent/user Z% invites accepted X% user dropoff • A/B test entire user flows • A/B test calls to action • Base decisions off of statistically significant data Flow A Annew users Flow B Bnnew users

39. Making the most of viral channels • Graph and compare activity metrics over time to analyze trends • Focus resources on tuning the largest traffic drivers • All viral channels eventually decay – why? • Invites sent decreases due to saturation • Response rate decreases due to user conditioning • So keep tuning to stay ahead of the curve! • …and when you’ve exhausted your primary channels it might be time to explore some creative alternatives

40. Questions?