Mega WordPress Applications WPMU or otherwise

Question

I'm a small-timer, so I was amazed at this question: Ideal WP multisite server setup for up to 1000 sites?. I know that WordPress is a highly flexible platform, but what types of entities/businesses would need or use this type of setup? In situations like this is there much redundant content? How do you begin designing something like this? Are there lessons in this for the small-timers?

Answer 1

Let's see how many use cases I can come up with in 20 seconds (grin)

1. School and university sites where every student gets a blog
2. Community sites (BuddyPress) where every member gets a blog (i.e. Dieting sites like SparkPeople.com)
3. News organizations where the many personalities get a blog (i.e. CBS, CNN, etc.)
4. Businesses trying to emulate the Etsy.com business model, where every site has a store plugin and paypal chained payments gateway
5. Businesses trying to emulate wordpress.com where free blogs are offered and upgrades are available for a fee
6. Businesses that create mini-sites for every affiliate product they promote, on an automated basis
7. Businesses that offer website hosting as a service - instead of a raw hosting account, subscribers get a multisite account pre-configured as a CMS for their business vertical, with access to support and features not available via wordpress.com