“some critics believed that the Auction Universe interface was more intuitive than eBay’s and included a better search engine; however, the site failed to […] displace the advantage eBay obtained from the [first mover] lock-in effect it had on a large number of auction bidders and sellers.”
“If you want to reach the network effect don’t leave it to luck, make it happen yourself”[4] – subsidizing users to achieve high and fast adoption rates was one method eBay got to a critical mass of users.
Getting the word out – and to the right people – matters
Development of complementary goods/services
Examples of eBay’s strategy here include PayPal, eBay classifieds, and StubHub. Developing these complementary goods helps increase the ‘stickiness’ of the overall platform, as well as attract new users who may come in because of one of the complements.
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