François CholletVerified account

People often don’t realize just how many apps and brands Facebook has launched and sunk due to failure to gain traction. They have a huge user-base and marketing power but can’t make any of their own products successful.

And you don’t get to choose who joins your community. You can target some demographic but it doesn’t guarantee engagement. Companies that learn to adapt to the needs of their actual users can survive. Lucky ones hit the viral spiral and try to ride the wave as long as they can.

Also needs to hit right the name. Up to not too long ago Apple stuck to Objective-C while everyone else (including me) was caught by the C++ catchy name-bait joke.

Also timing. During vine-times there were no month-long lockdowns where people had nothing better to do than to produce silly videos.

Honestly I think it's *mostly* community and brand. The feature set is very rarely innovative and when it is, it gets cloned immediately and the advantage is lost. Snapchat filters are a good example. Snap had a moment, but couldn't keep up "cool" factor and was eaten by clones.