1 word led to 46M users in 6 months (study)

A decade ago, as consumers were discovering digital photography, Currier helped create an online photo repository.

But picking up new users was very hard.

Their main Call To Action was: “Store your photos”.

But what they noticed – their positioning, especially the word “store” sparked users’ motivation to defend and collect.
Users were not promoting their service.

So they decided to change the word “store”.
“Store your photos” became “Share your photos”

Suddenly the psychology had changed to openness and showing off.

Result:
On average, each user started sending out their photos to 120 of their friends.
That means users promoted the photo-service for free among 120 new users.

This resulted in epic viral growth.
After 6 months the company gained 46 million users.

Source: reforge.com/blog/user-psychology-growth-james-currier