What’s a product you loved… that completely failed?
You ever fall in love with a product, tell all your friends about it, and then… disappeared?
I really liked Wunderlist (task management application). It had a super clean UX, funny tone and felt like it should’ve blown up. Well, in the end it didn't survive (I think some internal political war ruined it), but at least now there like 20 new ones in the market to take their space. 😅
Have you ever had a favorite product that totally flopped or shut down? Why do you think it didn’t make it?
Replies
GoDutch - This was an expense splitting app, similar to split wise. But it had very good UI and UX and everything was so easy to do, free features had everything someone will ever need. They raised good funding but eventually one day decided to close. Maybe due to lack of people paying for the product. But great product to beat the Splitwise monopoly.
@nischal_kanishk Yes, I noticed several smaller ones in the market popping up and then dying again, but all of them struggle to make money I guess.
@laura_cornely Clearly! I feel there could be two reasons,
the people weren't ready for something like that
People don't want to pay because it isn't something they use daily or frequently
Clubhouse! I was absolutely hooked on this audio-only social app during lockdown. The invite-only exclusivity made it feel special, and I burned through my invites getting friends to join. It was my digital escape from pandemic isolation for a few glorious months in 2020-2021.
Then... poof! Once real life resumed, everyone disappeared. They ditched the invite system, conversation quality tanked, and bigger platforms copied the format. A $4 billion valuation evaporated into thin air 🥲
Anyone else miss those early Clubhouse days, or was it just me? 😅
@talshyn Sounds really cool actually, but I never used it. Maybe it wasn't popular in London at the time?
@laura_cornely yeah, it hit different regions at different times. I would say you didn't miss much, it was an amazing moment in time, but it faded incredibly fast 🤪
Smart Keys for Mac
GetAround in the US (Reason: Maybe cultural issues? Not sure. It seems they are focusing on the European market now.)
Spark AR by Meta (Reason: I think it was due to the lack of a curated store of filters for the end user, which led to people not using much all those filters created. The Studio was really good.)
@diegodottac Ah yes, I remember Spark AR, but they actually closed before I even got the chance to try it out. Must have been so shitty for the talented staff that built it!
I was irrationally attached to Google Reader. Still grieving.
RIP to the best product Google never understood.
Interesting question! One that jumps out at me is Revel, which ran a moped service similar to the electric scooter services that are now pretty common with a related app. I think the economics just didn't work for them, but it didn't help that they had a really primitive support system. Anything with physical assets that need to be maintained etc. is going to be tricky, though.
But man, was it fun!