Why it matters to you
Gossip is perhaps nastiest when its perpetrators are anonymous, but gossip may be cut down a bit now that anonymous messaging platform Yik Yak is shutting down.
Anonymous trolls may have a slightly harder time starting rumors and spreading gossip, particularly around college campuses, now that popular messaging app Yik Yak has announced its shuttering. The controversial messaging app, which has always felt oddly like a real life “Gossip Girl,” announced on Friday that it was disbanding. Because at some point, we all have to grow up.
“We started Yik Yak in 2013 because we wanted to help you connect with the people right around you on campus, whether you knew them or not,” co-founders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington wrote in a blog post. “… The idea of local connection was always our number one goal.”
For awhile, Yik Yak looked to be on its way to something huge. It raised more than $73 million in venture funding, and had quite a following across various college campuses. But despite this seeming popularity, Yik Yak never did quite catch up to the plethora of other messaging and social apps in its ecosystem. And now, four years after its founding, it is no more.
More than half of Yik Yak’s staff was let go late last year, and while the co-founders shared that “a few members of the Yik Yak team will be joining the Square family … in Atlanta,” for the most part, you can bid anonymous posts on the Yik Yak platform goodbye.
“The time has come … for our paths to part ways, as we’ve decided to make our next moves as a company,” wrote Droll and Buffington. “With the school year drawing to a close for many of you and summer vacation on the horizon, now feels like a good time for us to say ‘so long for summer’ to y’all, too. To that end, we’ll begin winding down the Yik Yak app over the coming week as we start tinkering around with what’s ahead for our brand, our technology, and ourselves.”