Every subtlety in Path's product is a conscious decision. Of course they intended you to accidentally message all of your contacts - but in this post I was trying to shed light on the the real victims of the spam: other app developers

No company being on the other end of a "flip" (i.e. an acquirer) will mistake rapid growth and short term virality for long term health.

There are a number of telling examples though. Zynga and OMGPOP, for one.

Gaming is a tricky example, with gaming being a hit driven business: hits only last in the short term.

I don't believe Zynga was mislead by a viral product in Draw Something. They saw a fascinatingly simple game built by a great team, and I hope that's what they intended on purchasing, instead of yesterday's hit.

sad truth