A single‑click sign‑up feels like a gift to prospects, but the hidden cost is a dilution of the “cost of switching” that normally binds power users to the platform. When the barrier to entry disappears, the platform attracts a flood of marginal participants whose activity adds little value and whose churn rate is high.

Those marginal users increase the apparent size of the network, but they also raise the average cost of moderation, inflate server load, and most importantly, lower the average “network value per user” that core participants rely on to justify their continued engagement. Core users notice more noise, more spam, and a slower response time, prompting them to seek alternatives where their contributions retain higher impact.

The platform’s own data team may celebrate a surge in sign‑ups, yet the revenue per active user begins to slip, and the churn of the most profitable segment accelerates. This second‑order effect is the “friction paradox”: the very mechanism that should accelerate growth ends up eroding the moat built on network effects.