How CapCut got its users

Put your mark on the lazy path, not the paid one. CapCut starts every new project with a branded ending clip already switched on (the setting is literally called "Add default ending"), and it lets a free user delete that clip or toggle it off in two taps. The brand rides out on the export because the export is the default, not because removal costs money. Do the same: stamp the file, the page or the player your product produces by default, and make removal one visible click that costs nothing.

done whenOpen your own product, start something new, export or share it without touching a single setting: does the thing that leaves carry your name? If a user has to opt in to credit you, you have no channel.

Give each output its own public page that a logged out stranger can actually see. A CapCut template lives at capcut.com/template-detail/<name>/<id> and shows the creator handle, the use count ("5.71M uses"), the duration, the format and the hashtags to anyone who lands on it. Login is only demanded at "Use this template". Split your product in the same place: the result is public and account free, the action is where you ask for the account.

done whenPaste your share URL into a private browsing window. If a stranger hits a login wall before they see the actual content, the page is not a channel, it is a door.

Attach the link back to your product inside the platform where the output is consumed, not on your own site. CapCut exports straight to TikTok and the video arrives with the "CapCut · Try this template" anchor rendered in TikTok's own UI, under someone else's post, in someone else's feed. Find the one place your users already publish and make your product emit content that carries a native, clickable reference back to you there: an anchor, an embed, a link card, a byline in the file itself.

done whenPost one output the way a normal user would. From where a stranger sees it, count the clickable paths back to you. Zero means you have a product, not a distribution loop.

Make the click land on a working, pre-filled copy, not on a signup form. The anchor promises "Try this template", and the recipient gets the same edit with the same cuts, effects and timing, waiting for their own clips. Your escaped artifact must open an instance of your product that is already populated with what the stranger just saw, so their first move is swapping in their own material, not filling in fields.

done whenTime yourself as a stranger: from tapping the link to having your own version on screen. If it takes more than a minute, or passes through a pricing page, fix that before anything else.

Credit and count the users whose artifacts get copied. CapCut names the template author on the detail page and shows publicly how many people re used their template, which turns making templates into a way to farm attention rather than a favour to the company. Ship a visible counter of re uses per artifact with the author's name on it, so your users start producing artifacts aimed at strangers instead of at themselves.

done whenCheck whether any user in your product has made something aimed at other people rather than at themselves. If nobody has, your loop stops at one generation.