How to Hit 4 million Users in 6 months – A Startup Case Study

Open graph spamming, arbitrary rewards for inviting your friends, Facebook ads, cross-promotion, SEO... sounds exactly like Zynga.<p>Seriously though, hopefully this well shed some light on why Zygna uses the techniques they are known for -- they work. Amazingly well. Anyone who spends time in this industry discovers that pretty quickly. And it's really hard for upper management to see those upward kinks in the graph and say "please stop doing that."<p>The problem is that you have to become pushier and pushier over time and this leads to a slippery slope.

This is a sperm telling you how to fertilize the egg. Swim fast, be fit, etc.<p>How about all the other companies who try the same (completely obvious) tactics and don't reach 4M users in 6 months?

Hey Zabar Yeah although 4 million users is awesome, I totally appreciate that 4 million is nothing compared to Zynga who have 290 million MAU's (you'll see I refer to this in the blog post in 'caveats', bullet point 2 Cheers Howard

Thanks for sharing!<p>What exactly is social in the game ?<p>On a side note, 4M users for a game in 6 months is great but not that extraordinary. Looking at successes like Draw Something and SongPop, from small developers too, it's more in the 50+M but it's in the mobile social space, not sure if I Am Playr is mobile or not.

Great article! Thanks for sharing