Why Did Flickr Win?


Won

Originally uploaded by *Dario*.

As a up and coming company with more then a dash of community about it, I’m interested for Tangler’s sake in what people think are the reasons that Flickr won.

I mean, there were a lot of photo sharing sites, or at least online photo storage sites around when Flickr got started, but it carved a big niche and was successful as a startup, selling to Yahoo.

What was the difference?
Was it the product?
The team?
The timing?
The things they did?
Or their logo?

Obviously it’s a combo of these, but before I spout out my thoughts, I’d like to here from our massive population of followers (hi mum!).


Posted by Mick on Jan 21 2007 under Business 2.0, Industry, Tangler, flickr, social




7 Responses to “Why Did Flickr Win?”

  1. Judson Says:
    January 21st, 2007 at 7:00 pm

    Flickr won because…

    They we’re the first of their kind. Their are many photo sites, but not of the same social caliber.

    There is one focus: photos. Their is a lot of features to it, but you don’t have to use them, and they aren’t in your face about not doing those features.

    Simple, Elegant, Easy. It does everything you would expect it to do, and does it well. For instance, navigation is simple, and I can make some minor changes to the photo without any problem.

    Timing, the amount of focus, and the team. It all adds up in the end though.

  2. mick Says:
    January 21st, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    OK, sure. Those things are correct but I’m trying to (cheaply) find out any specifics, or direct things that made that significant difference.

    I don’t agree that they were the only ones focused on photos. I do agree that they had a social difference, but what exactly does that translate into? A discussion forum? A community liaison officer? Flickr picnics?

    Or is it subtle? Is it that they did 100 things slightly differently which made the difference?

  3. aj Says:
    January 22nd, 2007 at 3:50 am

    I think they won because they offered a simple way to share your latest family photos with grandma overseas.

    I agree with Judson: the interface was simple and intuitive, and they had a first mover advantage with something of immediate value. The fancy features came later and kept it in front.

  4. Tara Hunt Says:
    January 22nd, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    Your site ate my comment, so I wrote a blog post about it.

    http://www.horsepigcow.com/2007/01/22/what-makes-flickr-so-special-anyway/

  5. Scrapblog Blog » Conditions for serendipity Says:
    January 25th, 2007 at 8:20 am

    [...] Tangler recently brought up the question “why did Flickr ‘win’?”. For Tara Hunt, a big part of the answer is they have “mojo“: “Everyone [in the Flickr team] experienced the growth from a different perspective, but I believe that they all understand that a passionate team, working together towards a similar Higher Purpose, does what it does to get wherever it is that team is going. Furthermore, I conjecture that each of them understand that all of these elements working together, combined with the environmental factors they couldn’t control contributed towards that success.“ [...]

  6. ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon » What Makes Flickr So Special Anyway? Says:
    April 8th, 2007 at 4:21 pm

    [...] The reason I bring this up right now is that I’m working on some solid examples for my upcoming presentations at the Future of Web Apps and ETech as well as the fact that Mick brought it up on the Tangler blog. [...]

  7. scott Says:
    November 11th, 2007 at 4:34 am

    I find flickr quite hard to use in fact. I used it several times and never went back to it. smugmug.com is a lot better in terms of ease of use.

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