增长黑客GROWTH HACKER
增长黑客：创业公司的用户与收入增长秘籍 The first systematic book on Growth Hacking published in China: data-driven marketing, market-guided products, and technical means to achieve explosive user and revenue growth at near-zero cost. Now the author has open-sourced the full text himself.
A classic, open-sourced by its own author
This was among the first books to systematically introduce Growth Hacking to China. Some cases carry the marks of their era — but the underlying methodology, let data speak, validate by experiment, and let the product itself drive growth, has only become more mainstream.
Rather than letting it gather dust on a shelf, I chose to put it in the sunlight — so it can keep helping founders on their journey, product and operations folks curious about growth, and anyone who wants to think more clearly about growth itself.
— Fan Bing, on open-sourcing the book
- TitleGrowth Hacker: Secrets of User & Revenue Growth for Startups
- AuthorFan Bing (a.k.a. XDash)
- PublisherBroadview Publishing
- ISBN978-7-121-26360-6
- ForewordTimothy C. Draper (coined "viral marketing")
- AccessFree here · open on GitHub · EPUB download
Growth hackers: people who replace ad budgets with code and creativity
Growth Hacking originated in Silicon Valley: people who drive marketing with data, guide products with market signals, and execute growth goals through technical means. They know both technology and user psychology, and excel at creating explosive growth for startups at low or even zero cost.
The era of buying traffic with brute-force budgets is over. This book answers one question: with zero budget, where does growth come from? From the product itself, from data experiments, and from the small levers big companies overlook.
Eight chapters. The complete growth loop.
Structured along the AARRR funnel: start by building the right product, then acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and virality — closing with five complete case studies. (The full text is in Chinese.)
Plus: Foreword (Tim Draper) · Author's Preface · Endorsements · Afterword: The Ethics of Growth Hacking · Appendices: A · Key Metrics / B · Notable Growth Hackers
Real companies. Real growth battles.
Five complete teardowns in Chapter 8, plus dozens of examples throughout — study their battles to win your own.
Airbnb
From selling cereal to stay alive to a short-stay empire: piggybacking Craigslist for users and boosting conversion with professional photography
Tinder
"Win the women, win the market": campus seeding ignited social virality, paired with clever product mechanics
GitHub
Built to scratch its own itch, grown by network effects and a free-to-paid engine into the synonym of code hosting
Meilishuo
First seed users for ¥500: social-dividend acquisition and content operations of a shopping-guide community
Waimaiku
A college startup's low-cost acquisition playbook: with no budget, execution itself is the growth engine
Build the right product: cutting 90% of the bloated Burbn to keep only photos, filters, and sharing
Endorsed by founders and investors
「The most fascinating thing about the internet is the ever-present possibility of acquiring massive users at zero cost. I'm glad China finally has a book on growth hacking — its wealth of local cases is a treasure no foreign book can offer.」
「When I evaluate a company today, "do they know growth hacking" matters as much as "how they build the product".」
「Startups often need the wisdom of achieving more with less — acquiring the most resources and users in the cleverest way. That is the wisdom of growth hacking.」
「The era of crudely buying traffic is over — anyone can do that. Great teams earn the most eyeballs and traffic with the least money.」
「Every startup team faces the challenge of growth. May this book help you master the methods and craft of growth hacking — no longer at a loss.」
「Growth hacking is a fundamental capability of Silicon Valley internet companies, yet China is just getting started. May Fan Bing's book bring you inspiration.」
The full endorsements are in the book — read them here →
Who it's for
- Founders worried about user and revenue growth
- Frontline product, operations, and marketing practitioners
- Students and newcomers aiming at growth roles
- Researchers of classic internet growth cases
Who it's not for
- Anyone expecting a silver bullet — this book offers methods and cases, not magic
- Anyone hunting only the latest platform hacks — read this as a foundation, not as news
Free forever · no sign-up · all original illustrations
The value of knowledge lies in flow, not in hoarding
The author chose to open-source the full text. If this book ever helped you think more clearly about growth, star the GitHub repo — or pass it on to someone who needs it.