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“The Circle” was released in U.S. theaters in April 2017. James Ponsoldt directed it and wrote the screenplay together with Dave Eggers, based on Eggers’s 2013 novel of the same name. Emma Watson plays the lead, and Tom Hanks plays the head of the company. Reviews were mostly negative; many critics found the message too heavy-handed. For the principle of Network Effects, the film is nevertheless instructive, because it follows the logic through to the end.
A job at the platform
Situation
Mae Holland, played by Emma Watson, gets a job in customer service at The Circle, a huge technology and social media company. She needs the money, partly because her father has multiple sclerosis and the family needs support. The campus is bright, friendly and full of perks. Anyone who works there is expected to take part online as well.
Link to the principle
The platform draws not only its customers but also its employees into its network. Every activity makes the network denser and leaving more expensive. What begins as an offer becomes an expectation.
Cameras everywhere
Situation
The head of the company, Eamon Bailey, played by Tom Hanks, presents SeeChange: small, cheap cameras that transmit images in real time from everywhere. When Mae capsizes in her kayak at night, it is precisely these cameras that make her rescue possible. Afterward, she agrees to be the first employee to live fully “transparent” and broadcast her daily life around the clock.
Link to the principle
The value of a camera network grows with every camera. The denser the network, the more it can do, even when it comes to saving a person’s life. It is exactly this real value that makes it so hard to escape the network.
The account becomes mandatory
Situation
Mae campaigns for citizens to be able to vote only with an account at The Circle. The platform would then no longer be voluntary but a precondition for life as a citizen. Ty Lafitte, played by John Boyega, invented the company’s social network. He is troubled because it has slipped out of his control and is being used differently than he intended.
Link to the principle
This is lock-in in its harshest form. When taking part in a network becomes a condition for other important things, there are no switching costs anymore; there is simply no switching. The film shows where the principle stops being a business strategy and becomes a question of power.
Those who stay outside
Situation
Mae’s childhood friend Mercer, played by Ellar Coltrane, wants nothing to do with the platform. During a demonstration, Mae is supposed to show how quickly users can find any person, and she is pressured into searching for Mercer. He flees from his pursuers and their drones and dies in a car crash.
Link to the principle
The larger a network, the more expensive it becomes to live outside it. In everyday life, this shows up in harmless ways: if you’re not in the group, you don’t hear when things are happening. The film takes it to the extreme: the network tolerates no one who stays outside.
The turn
Situation
Mae returns to the company and asks Ty for a favor. On stage, she challenges Eamon Bailey and his partner Tom Stenton, played by Patton Oswalt, to become fully transparent themselves. Then she reveals that Ty has found and exposed the two men’s email accounts. She turns transparency against those who preached it.
Link to the principle
The ending remains ambiguous. Mae does not leave the network; she uses it against its inventors. The film leaves open whether it is even possible to escape a large network.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- A network is strongest when it creates real value.
- Watch for places where voluntary participation quietly becomes an obligation.
- Pay attention to those who want to stay outside.
- The larger a network, the more responsibility rests on whoever steers it.
- A bond built on value is something different from a bond built on coercion.
Summary
“The Circle” tells the story of Mae Holland, who rises at a technology company and becomes the face of its platform. Cameras everywhere, one account for everything, and in the end the demand that people be allowed to vote only with this account. The film shows how a network grows more powerful with every user and how switching costs can turn into a situation with no way out.
