our early adopters used many different IM programs simultaneously. Our customers were not intimidated by the idea of having to take their friends with them to a new IM network; it turned out that they enjoyed that challenge. Even more surprising, our assumption that customers would want to use avatar-based IM primarily with their existing friends was also wrong. They wanted to make new friends, an activity that 3D avatars are particularly well suited to facilitating. Bit by bit, customers tore apart our seemingly brilliant initial strategy.
