On the Internet, viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect. One example of successful viral marketing is Hotmail, a company, now owned by Microsoft, that promotes its service and its own advertisers' messages in every user's e-mail notes. The definition of viral marketing or viral advertising is promoting information or products that other customers are compelled to give to other friends, colleagues and family. By definition viral marketing is a way to promote a service or product exponentially. When effectively done one person will give it to several people who in turn will promote it to several other people. This is what makes viral marketing so effective. For instance, if I wrote and e book, and then I forwarded that e-book to 10 people, who in turn forwarded that e-book to 10 people. One hundred people have read that e-book. Now if it is forwarded that same way just four more times ONE MILLION PEOPLE have now read that same e-book. By definition viral marketing gives the consumer something that they can use for free with the intent of gaining that customer to market other products and to create a brand name awareness. A great example of an effective viral marketing campaign is Google's gmail. It is a free email service that can only be signed up for by invitation only. The only way you can receive an invitation is by another user. Another great example for the definition of viral marketing is by creating an e-book or an e-zine. When an ebook or an ezine is effectively written the consumer will want to share it with others who in turn will share it with others as well.