<i>Some networks never had single-player tools, including gigantic successes like Facebook and Twitter.</i><p>I think he's spot on with the overall piece, but I think Twitter is a fine example of the principle too. Twitter <i>was</i> a single-player tool for me at the start. I signed up after hearing about it around SXSW 2006 but there was no-one I knew on there so I just used it as a personal "microjournal" of sorts for several months as it was lighter than the Movable Type setup I was then using (which was amazingly slow at the time). It then <i>became</i> a network for me as people followed me via my email address.
Interesting to think about with respect to Fred Wilson's Dentist Office Software Story: <a href="http://avc.com/2014/07/the-dentist-office-software-story/" rel="nofollow">http://avc.com/2014/07/the-dentist-office-software-story/</a>
Always liked the single player vs multiplayer framework of breaking out products.<p>John Gruber's podcast, touches upon this in the recent episode with Ben Thompson as a guest
<a href="https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2015/01/24/ep-108" rel="nofollow">https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2015/01/24/ep-108</a>
This sounds like a potential great way to tackle chicken egg problem in marketplaces. Single player / multiplayer is something I hadn't heard before but makes it very clear. It might not be feasible (eg what's single player on car sharing app?) but it's a good thing to think about.