I'll take the fringe over being #1 anyday
Stewart and Caterina are celebrated (yet again) in Time Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential this week. I mean, these two keep popping up everywhere. Time, Newsweek, international art galleries, global conferences, etc. etc.
But wait? 3 million Flickr community members? Well, that ain't Yahoo!photos (30 million) or Photobucket (15 million) or MySpace (with 70million++). So, what's the big deal?
Heh. Well...the big deal is that the numbers game, which has been our traditional measure of success, is quickly waning as being a measure of influence. What?! You say...what about money? Doesn't money flow from these numbers? Not necessarily say recent reports.
Plus, that's changing, too. Money isn't the only currency in town. Yes, you need money to keep a company going, pay your employees, pay yourself, build better stuff for your community...but is there a specific amount you are going for or is bigger just better? I beg to differ.
I don't think that more of anything after a certain point (comfort/survival/free of worry/freedom/etc.) makes you exponentially more happy. In fact, I think it could make you:
When you get into that top spot, it's just a matter of clinging onto it until the next popularity contest winner comes along (or so goes my theory as I've never been the most popular, which may account for this string of thought. ;)).
So, I created this little diagram to illustrate my Fringe theory:
Nice, huh? Yeah, well, my (rather unpopular at times) philosophy is that we all should be so blessed (and good, I may add) as to be Stewart and Caterina (who are in the bright blue 'pretty darned awesome' box above). 3 million is an amazing number of happy and fulfilled people to mingle with. Personally, I would be giving Yahoo some major push-back on wanting to grow me to the Yahoo!Photos size.
Yeah...small is the new big. And Fringe is the new...um...success story. Yeah. Fringe is the new success story.
But wait? 3 million Flickr community members? Well, that ain't Yahoo!photos (30 million) or Photobucket (15 million) or MySpace (with 70million++). So, what's the big deal?
Heh. Well...the big deal is that the numbers game, which has been our traditional measure of success, is quickly waning as being a measure of influence. What?! You say...what about money? Doesn't money flow from these numbers? Not necessarily say recent reports.
Plus, that's changing, too. Money isn't the only currency in town. Yes, you need money to keep a company going, pay your employees, pay yourself, build better stuff for your community...but is there a specific amount you are going for or is bigger just better? I beg to differ.
I don't think that more of anything after a certain point (comfort/survival/free of worry/freedom/etc.) makes you exponentially more happy. In fact, I think it could make you:
- overwhelmed...then...
- stressed out...which makes one...
- unhappy...'cause all of a sudden you are...
- subject to scrutiny, criticism and jealousy...which leads to one becoming...
- paraniod
When you get into that top spot, it's just a matter of clinging onto it until the next popularity contest winner comes along (or so goes my theory as I've never been the most popular, which may account for this string of thought. ;)).
So, I created this little diagram to illustrate my Fringe theory:
Nice, huh? Yeah, well, my (rather unpopular at times) philosophy is that we all should be so blessed (and good, I may add) as to be Stewart and Caterina (who are in the bright blue 'pretty darned awesome' box above). 3 million is an amazing number of happy and fulfilled people to mingle with. Personally, I would be giving Yahoo some major push-back on wanting to grow me to the Yahoo!Photos size.
Yeah...small is the new big. And Fringe is the new...um...success story. Yeah. Fringe is the new success story.
7 Comments:
I just spent the last five minutes trying to formulate an additional bit to accompany this inspiring post, but you nailed it. Nice.
I can't imagine how being in the top category would be any fun at all. Paparazzi, tabloids, living up to someone ele'se expectations or fantasies. No thank you.
Thhhhhhhhhhhhhhppppppttttttt......if it happened, Tara, that 3 years from now you were that number one person what would you do? Stop blogging? Stop saying what you thought? If you say yes, I don't believe you.
C'mon. Selling out is a bogus term. Its a term that dates back to high school that has no place in an adult conversation. People change as they grow older. People grown to believe differently through experience.
Selling out equates to coming up with something that people relate to. Just because when they started only 50 people knew of them, and now 50 Million do, does not give people the right to try and take their knees out.
I think I agree with jt on this one...
You are already popular yourself (made it into the Top 100 Technorati "favorited" list) and you're just getting warmed up ; )
The iPod has so completely dominated the mp3 player market and is still a fabulous device. So it's #1, extremely popular, and no shark-jumping was needed. Although I guess the Macintosh does fit your chart...
Stewart/Caterina/FlickR aren't #1, but they are still incredibly popular. I'd bump FlickR up to the orange box, although not at the very top.
Perhaps there's another box that could go in there somewhere? And maybe the blue-just-below-orange box (top of the "fringe") could be something other than fringe -- some kind of popular-without-compromise category.
Tara, you'll make a great test of this -- because I'm pretty damn certain that no matter how popular you are, we won't see you compromising or "selling out" any time soon ; )
I think your chart/advice on this makes great sense for someone starting a business... trying to target the orange tier is probably a terrible idea--a "fringe" idea stands a much better chance of developing a passionate following, without having to be in a hugely competitive market. BUT... I still think the fringe idea could become popular without compromising--perhaps more likely, eventually, precisely because they didn't.
Hi Tara,
Well, it's 16 million now for us :)
and flickr has the Yahoo PR machine behind them. We are so different from Flickr, we are not a destination community but a utility for the masses to store and share their images/photos/videos anywhere they want, and let them define who they are , by where they link to.
We are just a quite company, growing over 2 million new users a month...
I do still think Riya is pretty damn cool stuff!
Your post is a wonderful read as I mainline my morning caffeine fix, because your fringe chart deserves to be seen by the mainstream.
my 2 cents.
flickr ad all up the pipeline are just what they appear to be...public water supply according to a moderate middle of the road mentality, that is providing services that have been talked abt for 10 years, and not editorializing except to keep anybody from being grossed-out by...nudity? terrorism? anything daring brave and unique. Welcome World Wonderbread is mainline! Flickr? Possibly the worst. Remember the kid throwing lighted matches? Well the world is numb and somebody better talk meaning. What does it mean to have one thousand trillion meaningless moments frozen, ha! immemorialized to capture some idiot's friends looking like someother idiot's friends ad infinitum ad all! Even the most catapulting geniuses have mundane pictures. Hello. Boredom sets in to the people who think numbers are a sign of the messiah. The chart needs a few more categories for those who are blind.
photobucket?
Hmm? http://www.alexaholic.com/flickr.com+photobucket.com
Comscore says 16,763,000 uniques for Photobucket in April vs 16,516,000 for Flickr.
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