Email #4: Viral Case Study Two- ICQ

Dear <firstname> ,
In 1996, four Israeli men, two of whom didn’t
even finish high school, dreamed up a 
communication system called ICQ (I Seek YOU).
After their army service the four men took jobs 
at a local computer store.

At night they worked on their dream project….
a program for instant easy Internet communication. 
They called their company Mirabilis.

Internet service was very expensive in Israel, so 
the men moved to California and later to New York. 
It took less than 18 months for more than 10 million 
computer users to download and install ICQ. ICQ 
was free.

Those 10 million people had heard about ICQ by 
“word-of-mouse” advertising. (What we call Viral 
marketing or Buzz marketing). Mirabilis said a firm 
‘NO” to Microsoft, but accepted a 300 million dollar
 buy out from AOL. ICQ then quickly exploded to 
100-million downloads and a million new subscribers 
each week. 

The interesting thing about ICQ is their marketing.
They just didn’t do any marketing. All of their efforts 
were directed at motivating  users to spread the word.

They made it easy to spread the word by using the 
standard e-mail that will invite your friends to join, 
but the software can also be instructed to scan your
 address book and send all your friends invitation 
letters. Their idea was to build a tool that includes an
inherent mechanism for spreading the work and then
just letting it grow! 

Now, to the meat and potatoes – You may not create
a program like hotmail or ICQ but your products can
go viral, earning you tons of subscribers and cash.

Fasten your seatbelts because you're about to learn how.

To your successful viral campaigns,

“Your Name”
“Your Website Link”
