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Media like TV.Trade shows. (e.g. ads on bus station boards, bags, pens, small gifts with alibaba ads offered to buyers for free outside trade shows)Google adwords.SEO. (when you search google for X supplier/manufacturer, you'll see many alibaba results in the front)Buyer invitations.Happy to see more if anyone could add.

Driving? Formal Language? Bureaucracy? FOOD??? Seriously?I am sorry, but the other answers point out some more or less annoying traits of German culture. Some people would see them as positive. Dark sides are obviously bad, disgusting or harmful. Even our noble Germany has its dark or “braun” spots.You asked for the dark side, here it comes.Before I say anything about it, we need to dive into the past.History timeThere was a time, when Germany was split into two parts. Both sides evolved into different directions. This drift was stopped in 1990. The greatest Happy End of the 90s was the (re)unification of Germany.Finally, the equation 1+1=1 made sense again!The initial euphoria was great, until the people realized, that not everything is roses. The West Germans (Wessis) thought of the East Germans (Ossis) as a little bit strange and provincial. The ‘distinct’ dialect of the Ossis wasn't helping either. The Ossis perceived the cold and distant attitude of the Wessis as a rejection of them. The western population was almost four times larger than the eastern. In the West, a discussion began on how to deal with the “New Citizens”. Of course, the New Citizens were not really involved. The West knows Best. So the Ossis quickly started to feel as a minority in their own country.The worst time was about to start a few months later. Agriculture and industry of the former socialist state were not competitive in the free markets of a capitalist world. A trust agency was founded, to privatize the state owned enterprises. The trust agency sold most enterprises for cheap. The buyers were big companies, who wanted to exploit the remnants, or to take patents and other innovations. Many enterprises were closed anyway. Overnight a massive de-industrialization took place.In socialist times, the Ossis had the right to work. Unemployment was non-existent. Now, everyone lived in fear for their jobs and more and more people saw themselves on welfare. The tiny economy dwindled. Everything from the West was better and cheaper. Producing in the east was no longer profitable. This resulted in a huge wealth gap between East and West. Today, 27 years have past, and this is what you see;The differences exactly resemble the former bordersThe feeling of unfair treatment and marginalization entrenched itself in the minds of many Ossis. At the same time, the NPD and other right wing parties preyed on these “victims of society”. The NPD is a nationalist party, which is seen as the successor of the National-Socialist Party of Hitler. Thus, they are called Neo-Nazis. Their demagogues convinced many people to vote for them. Throughout the East, the NPD established itself. Some rural pockets were infested with nationalistic racistsConsequently, the right wing party managed to get voted into two federal parliaments of the East. They even managed to get a seat in the European Parliament (The same parliament, they are rejecting). It is mostly the ignorance and poverty of the rural Eastern population, that keeps the party alive. 4 of 5 votes come from them. ( In the first 5 years, two other right wing parties received attention and votes. Both lost their relevance over time. The NPD prevailed.)National “Democratic” Party, or Hitler’s dorky offspringThe NPD is know for its racist and anti-constitutional ideology. According to the Neo-Nazis, all problems are caused by liberals and foreigners. The adherents mourn at the anniversary of the Germany capitulation in WW II. Hitler’s birthday is a special day for them. The good old days are being venerated by many. Symbols of the Third Reich are officially banned in public. This does not stop the Neo-Nazis to collect them. They reject the constitution and even the Black-Red-Golden flag of today. It is associated with liberalism. Black, white and red were the colors of the National-Socialists, who abolished the other flag. There is a purely ideological agenda at work.The party fuels hatred and prejudices. An European Union has no room inside their nationalistic world view. The ideology is antisemitic, xenophobe, anti-constitutional and aggressive. Violence is more than accepted among the members. This is a problem for the country. The NPD has many young supporters, who are eager to commit violence against supposed opponents. Clashes between Neo-Nazis and Leftists are happening every year. Non-Germans are being targeted sporadicly. Officially, 176 people were murdered by right wing radicals since the unification.(Have in mind, that this is not the USA. We have a small country, pacifist population, low poverty, generous welfare, high security, barely firearms, 350 annual homicides etc. The absolute majority of Germans is aware of right wing radicalism. Our scum is under much better surveillance than the disgusting white brotherhoods in the Land of the Free. I feel really sorry for you.)This number of deaths is too high for us.But I am not finished yetThese radicals are just the tip of a hidden ice berg.The East still has problems with poverty and unemployment. Poor people are prone to the simple explanations of agitators. The consensus of the racists is, that the non-German population is a big reason for the misery. Every single foreigner is stealing at least one job of a deserving German. Their definition of German is racial. A citizenship can not make you a German, only your ancestry matters.There is one problem with this explanation. The regions with the most NPD supporters, have the lowest percentage of non-Germans.Percentage of people with migratory backgroundMany Ossis barely see any ‘genetic’ foreigners. So prejudices can grow and manifest themselves in the society, as real life contacts to the ‘others’ are scarce. The Internet and selective media coverage only make things worse. Over time, a communal spirit evolved among Ossis.A former MINT student once talked about his hardships after graduation. He applied for similar jobs in the East and West. Only the companies in the West invited him for job interviews. Three of them rejected him anyway. The reason was his appearance. The jobs included regular business trips to the East. He looks Indian and has an exotic name. Poor guy.The employers literally said following sentences:“We could/would lose customers in the East.”“You have to understand, the Ossis are of a special kind.”“I don’t want to do this to you”At least, they were honest.Even the Wessis accept this divide, due to their own prejudices. The lack of courage only makes things worse, as some racists can live just a little bit longer in their bubbles. But in our modern world, tolerance is essential and the mixing of cultures can not be avoided.Luckily, the NPD is only supported by a tiny fraction of the Population. The majority of Germans is welcoming towards the world. For every ignorant racist out there, you can find dozens of pleasant and educated people.Whenever there is a demonstration of a right wing party, you see this scene:“Nazis get off!”The counterprotests are always multiple times larger than the few xenophobe gatherings. The Germans are a great people with a sense for their history. The terror of fascist ideologies is still in the mind of the general population.No one wants anything similar to ever happen again.Some carry this attitude to the extremeThe racists are always accompanied by a massive police force. Otherwise they get beaten up by antifascists. Leftist violence is another chapter in the dark sides of German culture…Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.-Her are some further sources, if you are interested in this topic:The Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, but Germany is still dividedTwo maps of GermanyFew foreigners in eastern Germany but xenophobia is rife25 Jahre Mauerfall - Ein Land, zwei Einwanderungs-Kulturen

No, it's not just about building a good product as all the other answers here seem to suggest. That's where so many startups get it wrong.Companies that grew big grew big because they figured strategies for seeding the market. Having a great product is critical but you need to move the market towards it. This is ESPECIALLY difficult when you are building a community or marketplace and not just a standalone product.I've posted this on Quora before but I'll reproduce it here. If you'd like to explore further detail, you should also check out my book Platform Scale: How an emerging business model helps startups build large empires with minimum investment, which has been a #1 Amazon bestseller for several weeks since launch. (Or get the first three chapters free at Main Page)I will be writing this in the context of both one-sided (Quora) as well as two-sided (ebay) communities. Hence, I'll be using the terms producer and consumer though these roles overlap in the case of a one-sided community.1) Create tools of self-expression which are really easy to use: No matter what your platform does, users should be able to create something there which they would want to spread. A user may not want to spread the word about your platform but would definitely want to spread the word about what she created on it. E.g. Youtube grows everytime a video goes viral because users personally invest in marketing it. This is marketing that scales with adoption and super-effective. Kickstarter and Change.org allow users to spread their cause to the whole world. Users are vested in marketing it. Forget gamification, forget viral design... there is no bigger incentive for users than the ability to spread their creations, beliefs and causes in a manner that wasn't possible before. (More at http://platformed.info/hacking-your-way-to-critical-mass/)2) Target a micro-universe: You said it yourself, you want early sophisticated users. Facebook's early sophisticated users were at Harvard, Yelp's early sophisticated users were the tech-savvy crowd of San Francisco, Quora and LinkedIn's early savvy users were the VCs and startups of Silicon Valley. Find a micro-universe which contains your early sophisticated users. (More on how to do that at http://platformed.info/facebook-harvard-seeding-growth-traction/)3) Widgets: Be shareable and embeddable: OK, that's 3 awkward words in one sentence but here's the thing. Facebook sharing was great, still is... but it's a fad and is really poor at targeting savvy users who have, over time, become desensitized to what gets shared on Facebook. Instead, ensure that what gets created on your platform can get shared where your savvy users want to share it, namely on blogs and niche forums. YouTube got traction because MySpace users (musicians) needed a way to share videos and Youtube offered them a solution. (More on this at http://platformed.info/how-paypal-youtube-and-stumbleupon-gained-rapid-traction-through-piggybacking/)4) Fake it till you make it: When users come initially to your platform and there's nothing there, they see little value in using it. Platform usage requires investment; you set up a profile, you browse around... it takes time. Users won't invest if they don't see activity. Well, if there isn't any activity, create some. Reddit did it. Paypal did it. A lot of marketplaces do it. (More tactics on this at http://platformed.info/seeding-youtube-megaupload-paypal-reddit/)5) Seed the community on standalone mode: Essentially, a user should be able to derive value out of the product even when other users aren’t on it.A product that has standalone value irrespective of the network is more likely to get traction among at least one set of users.Source: http://platformed.info/seeding-platform-standalone-square-opentable-delicious/6) Don't try to change behavior for both consumers and producers: Consider the strategy of NFC players vs. Square. NFC is trying to change behaviors at both ends by making the user pay with his mobile phone and making the merchant accept payments on a new terminal. In addition to the logistical challenge of proliferating terminals and getting NFC chips out, the chicken and egg problem becomes more difficult to crack as there is a barrier to usage for both parties. Square, on the other hand, introduces new behavior for SMBs (accept payments using your phone) but the consumer behavior remains the same (pay using the credit card). This was one of the reasons Square disrupted retail payments when everyone was expecting NFC to.Source: http://platformed.info/payments-platform-mpesa-nfc-square/7) Provide a service for producers that enables them to interact with their consumers: This is so obvious, it's often ignored. Your producers already have consumers. There, that's the solution to your chicken and egg. Loyalty startups likeShopkickalso do something similar. Get the producers, get their consumers on the network, cross-promote other producers to these consumers. RInse. Repeat.Source: http://platformed.info/how-to-use-your-producers-to-seed-the-platform/8) Provide access to new production infrastructure that the user would use even if the network was a ghost town: When Youtube started off, users didn't care if there was a network of potential users, early users were happy enough to have a facility to host a video easily and embed it on their sites.Source: http://platformed.info/how-to-use-your-producers-to-seed-the-platform/9) Get a marquee player or seed your own content: An extension to the above point, sometimes, signing up a top-notch producer can help draw consumers in, especially if you serve as an exclusive channel for that producer. Once consumers come in, other producers can be signed on and the network grows.Source: http://platformed.info/apple-iphone-evernote-youtube-airbnb-seeding-strategy/10) Make the transaction the focus of your product and minimize the traction required on both sides for the first transaction to take place: Easier said than done. But this is what Groupon did VERY successfully. Groupon solved this by doing 2 things very well:Solving for the buyer: Focusing on a specific transaction and attracting buyers to a current and live transaction rather than a (dead) marketplace with a potential for future transactionSolving for the seller: Allowing the seller to back out if a minimum number of buyers were not achievedSource: http://platformed.info/groupon-clones-critical-mass-paypal/11) Make the two-sided network one-sided: Target a specific group which has both the consumers and producers of your service and where the lines between them blur. Even if they are two distinct types of users, the members of this group fulfill both requirements, or at least some of them do. This is important because the WOM required to spread the word among the producers simultaneously spreads the word among the consumers as well since they're part of the same group.This is what worked for Etsy. People who make crafts typically like to buy from other craftspeople. This really helped them target exactly one group and spark transactions within that successfully before branching out.Source: http://platformed.info/two-sided-market-seeding/12) Piggyback on an existing network: Piggyback on a thriving network as long as your platform is contextual and complementary to that network.StumbleUpon benefited a lot from being one of the first plug-ins on the Firefox browser. It was a natural complement to a browser which is essentially used to find information. It was one level of abstraction above Google's "I'm feeling Lucky" if i could put it that way.Source: http://platformed.info/how-paypal-youtube-and-stumbleupon-gained-rapid-traction-through-piggybacking/13) Steal: There are a lot of niche classifieds and ecommerce sites that compete with Craigslist. Quite a few of them started off by posting listings on Craigslist and directing the traffic to their site.14) Focus on superconnectors: Remember, Branchout gained rapid adoption the day Michael Arrington downloaded the app. He had a large following on Facebook.15) Be exclusive but be smart about it: Try starting with an invite-only beta. However, this is not a one size fits all as what worked for gmail didn't work for google wave. More on how to make this work at http://platformed.info/exclusive-seeding-gmail/Apologies for the many different links. There was no way I could have put everything on this subject within this space. Also, I don't know the specifics of exactly what you are doing or I could offer pointed feedback. But I hope this is helpful.I write often on this topic at http://platformed.info. Again, If you'd like to read about this in detail, do check: Platform Scale, the book, or get the first three chapters free at Main Page).