Sidechat: a Study on Marketing With Tipping Points
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/style/sidechat-app-college.html
A New York Times article published on May 27th 2022 details the meteoric rise of the social media app “Sidechat” across college campuses. Sidechat follows in the steps of apps like YikYak, which strive to provide a space for anonymous discussion for college students. At universities where it has been rolled out, any student can sign up with their student email and begin posting and commenting on an online message board anonymously. After citing concerns about the potential for hate speech and toxicity offered by the anonymous nature of the platform, the author of the article details some of the marketing tactics that Sidechat has used to create user bases on new campuses. She writes that student “ambassadors” are offered cash in exchange for getting others to download the app, and even that Sidechat was paying students to post about the app on other social media platforms like Instagram.
Sidechat is a perfect example of a service that has network effects. Sidechat becomes more and more appealing as the number of students using it rises. The article even cites a Harvard student who states that she deleted then re-downloaded the app because she felt that she was missing out. Further, Sidechat’s creators have taken advantage of the app’s network effects when they designed their marketing campaign. They clearly understand the importance of the “tipping point” with a product like Sidechat and through their ambassador system they can tap into already existing social networks on campus like Greek life organizations and clubs to promote their app. Just like some companies offer discounts to early adopters of their products with network effects, Sidechat offered cash payments to students who downloaded and promoted the app, essentially a way to discount a product that is already free to use. Therefore, the owners of Sidechat have demonstrated that they are aware of how important network effects are for their service and have clearly marketed Sidechat with this in mind.