How to transport networks hotmail, skype, facebook

The world methought has difficulty quantifying the value of a network. Networks are the most powerful thing on the planet, they are used to connect people. Hotmail, Skype, and Facebook are all examples of ways people have been tied together through networks.

According to you, what is the best way today.

People pointed out that, Robert Metcalfe is attributed with something called “Metcalfe’s law”, in regards to ethernet, it means “the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n^2)”- Wikipedia.

Basically, a network becomes more valuable the more nodes you add to it, which makes sense. If you have two phone lines, you can only make one connection, but if you have twelve lines you can make sixty-six connections.


Robert Metcalfe (who the law was named after, but not by) who is the father of digital networks, talks about this concept in this video.

But what if the 12 people didn’t like each other, only 6 did. Or what if they all spoke different languages except for 2.

Present that the internet is at scale, I think that networks will grow differently. I believe that the value of a network is no longer based on every participant in the network, it is based on a related participants in the network.

Hotmail and Facebook showed that friendship was a great way to relate people to one another and gain value. Unrelated participants get no value from each other, but related nodes get a continuous amount of value from each other. People conclude, the value of a network used to be judged based on how many potential conversations could happen. Now it will be judged based on how many conversations can happen in a certain subsect of people. At Boost VC we call these vertical networks.

In theory, a vertical network is a group of people focused around the same sector’s goals. For example, the community of block chain (we include Bitcoin in this category) related people is made up of investors, entrepreneurs, mentors, and enthusiasts, and they are all trying to push the role of block chain technology forward. 

Their focus on one common goal makes the network they are tied to inherently stronger than a broad network.