Matchmakers

Chapter 5

Ignite or Fizzle

Multisided Platforms Must Secure Critical Mass, or Else

Now what?

The three guys, all in their twenties, started working on the website on Valentine’s Day. People were posting short videos on the web, like ones of the tsunami that had hit Southeast Asia a few weeks before, on December 26, 2004. But the clips were hard to find. More videos were sure to come with the spread of digital cameras, cheaper and faster broadband connections, more and cheaper server storage, and better video software, particularly Adobe’s easy-to-use Flash 7.¹

They had a first version of the website ready on April 23, 2005. It was a simple place where people could upload videos and watch videos that had been uploaded.² Except no one ...