This is one of my favorite concepts when it comes to social apps. After spending some time exploring why some succeed while others don’t, I noticed a common pattern among the successful ones.
I call it: the Cheese Theory.
Disclaimer: this theory compares people to mice purely as a way to understand our behaviours, with no disrespect intended.
Most successful apps follow this simple rule:
Every action users take on their phones requires effort. The goal is to make this process as easy as possible—minimum effort for maximum reward.
The reward is the "cheese." The more valuable it is, the more users are willing to put in the effort—even if there's a paywall. In social apps, this reward is often information, content, or even access to other people.
This brings us to an important question: What makes a reward valuable?
Let’s dive into some examples to figure that out:
Tinder is a great example. They can ask users to complete profiles, verify their identity, pay for subscriptions, and more. Why? Because their "cheese" is a massive pool of other users open to dating, with a database that evolves daily. Tinder taps into our fundamental need for connection and mating.
TikTok works similarly. The "cheese" is entertaining content from creators (or cats, of course haha), with an endless feed that evolves daily. This taps into our basic need for entertainment.
Nikita Bier understood this concept well. His app, tbh, is built around high school students’ desire to know who likes them. This "cheese" motivates them to put in the effort to access that information, tapping into our fundamental need for belonging and a sense of community (to feel secure).
The same principle applies to YouTube, OnlyFans, BeReal, and many other apps.
We have now a clear idea of what makes a reward valuable: something interesting, that evolves daily, and tied to one of our basic needs.
Apps that don’t go viral often miss this key point. Their content or promise isn’t strong enough to get people to invest their time, or do the effort.
So, there's one question to keep in mind when building a social app: is our app offering "cheese" or not?