Ana Andjelic
substack.com
・
3 Jan 2022
Cash App is the most talked about mobile payment service around
70 million annual transacting users
- Ahead of Venmo in enabling users to send and receive bitcoin for free
- “Play-to-earn” model where user engagement is randomly rewarded and aimed at increasing both users and engagement
- The strategy wiped away Venmo’s first-mover advantage and proved that the highest switching costs come from culture
- For the next generation of companies, the biggest network effect is culture, not technology
Community
People use financial apps their friends are using, so creating social engagement is critical for growth
- Collaborations
- The fastest way to social influence is to piggyback on the already existing social influence and amplify it through go-to-market strategy that emphasizes social activity among Cash App’s initial following
- Content
- Cash App started with empathy for a particular group of people and their particular interests, tastes and values, and curates its brand narrative around the hustle ethos, hip hop aesthetics, and voices of those who have often been traditionally excluded from the establishment but are in charge of cultural innovation
A successful brand revival does not happen in a single moment
There is a continuum of strategic, creative, and operational decisions that, if executed consistently, put a brand on the path to cultural relevance, consumer love, and business success
- This story is much less exciting to tell, but much more effective in the long run
