{"id":96,"date":"2021-03-23T22:27:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T22:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/?p=96"},"modified":"2023-11-13T15:11:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T20:11:03","slug":"growing-app-ecosystems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/growing-app-ecosystems\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing app ecosystems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">On Hacker News I came across a thread with some good insight into app developer experience at Shopify:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ma.ttias.ch\/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-building-a-shopify-app.html\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/ma.ttias.ch\/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-building-a-shopify-app.html<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>HN thread:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=26514612\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=26514612<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The interesting thing about app ecosystems is that, in a way, they\u2019re similar to social networks from a creator perspective: App developers and creators are trying to build a following\/customer base on a new platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, on Youtube, Instagram, etc., the elite with the biggest followings get the attention, making it hard for new creators to build a significant following after the winners are established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same thing happens in app ecosystems (Shopify, WordPress, etc.). Within each category the winners have the most reviews\/installs, which means more sales, which means paying for better placement\/advertising, etc. The nature of these ecosystems exacerbates the power law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, that\u2019s what made TikTok so revolutionary. They approached it differently:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Alex Zhu, Head of Product at TikTok, likens the process to creating a new country and giving a greenfield of opportunities to a new class of creators.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The above excerpt is from&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/turner.substack.com\/p\/the-rise-of-tiktok-and-understanding\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this article<\/a>, which is a great overview of the rise of TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>In previous eras, most of the spoils went to the platform\u2019s earliest adopters &#8211; mining value gets harder as the platform ages. TikTok, on the other hand, promotes all content regardless of who made it or how many followers [social capital] they have.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The above excerpt is from&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getrevue.co\/profile\/caseynewton\/issues\/how-to-predict-facebook-s-future-164017\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this writeup from Casey Newton<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not exactly comparable since apps are different than content in terms of the costs of a poor recommendation. But there may still be&nbsp;<em>something<\/em>&nbsp;to learn here for those growing app ecosystems by jumpstarting with disenfranchised developers hungry for new places to build and establish themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Hacker News I came across a thread with some good insight into app developer experience at Shopify: The interesting thing about app ecosystems is that, in a way, they\u2019re similar to social networks from a creator perspective: App developers and creators are trying to build a following\/customer base on a new platform. For example, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmays.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}