
What’s happening with Secret? - prostoalex
https://gigaom.com/2014/12/05/whats-happening-with-secret/
======
vonuebelgarten
Also, I think the perceived value of the application finally fell to the
deserved zero. Who will "anonymously" share secrets through an application
which doesn't uses Tor, asks for phone numbers and requires a Facebook login?

That's just a stupid tool for stupid kids do stupid things. They also got a
lot of problems in Brazil due to schoolchildren using it for harassment --
Google and Apple received court orders to remove the application from their
stores.

~~~
saryant
Most of the stuff I saw on the app hardly qualified as "secret" anyways. Maybe
potentially embarrassing ("I really don't want to fly to see my family this
Christmas") but other than that kerfuffle about the Google acquisition, few
secrets.

Or maybe I just only had lame people on my feed. Either way I deleted the app
a week after I installed it.

~~~
minikomi
It failed to gain much traction here in Japan, apart from Brazilians posting
pictures of butts and (visiting? expat?) gay guys endlessly posting about
saunas in Shinjuku...

------
mortdeus
There just isn't a compelling enough reason to use ANOTHER social network.
There is facebook, twitter, google+, instagram, snapchat, and to some extent
reddit. There is only so much time people can attribute to this kind of social
engagement.

While I personally have imagined the golden potential behind an anonymous
social network (particularly when it comes to data mining; I mean imagine a
world where Taylor Swift can't get a million likes because everybody
attributes what she says to a hot girl). There is just too many social
networks trying to compete for our time. This market is so over populated that
at this point starting a new pizza franchise would probably make more economic
sense.

While I find this ultimately depressing, this is just how things are. I only
hope the engineers at secret don't make a bad mistake and waste that 35
million on a startup that won't overcome this bump in the road. I hope they
decide to pivot and pursue an idea that leads their team and their investors
to financial success.

That's just my two cents anyways.

~~~
mkal_tsr
>I personally have imagined the golden potential behind an anonymous social
network (particularly when it comes to data mining [...])

See, that right there. That is why your anonymous social network isn't going
to work or catch on. You're already openly declaring you're tracking your
users and then planning on using their data in some fashion that they have no
control over. You'll never get the early core adopters you'd need to verify
the claims of anonymity, security/cryptography, and so on. Trying to involve
money taints long-term roadmap direction and intentions.

------
paulsutter
I can understand why journalists love this app, but I can't understand anyone
using it. I was stunned when it asked for a Facebook login.

Back at Apple there was an internal app called "RumorMonger" which was
hilarious. The developer just wanted to experiment with gossip protocols. Of
course, HR thought he deliberately intended to undermine company morale. It
was my first exposure to bureaucracy.

[http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RumorMonger](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RumorMonger)

------
grandalf
\- they split it into "friends" and "everything else" because as the service
grew there was suddenly tons more boring and also hardcore gay content, and
the app was so slow that it really wasn't convenient to scroll past it or skip
it. I don't mind the gay content but as a non-gay person there was just a lot
of it to sort through.

\- to this day it is still it or miss when I open the app on my iPhone. Takes
a while to load and often shows old content

\- when you get notifications it's not clear whether someone hearted your
comment or made a comment, the UX around this is poor

\- old secrets don't just die, so there is a constant reflux of stuff that
should be forgotten just because someone discovers it and posts a lame comment

\- some people started spamming/trolling by posting obviously fake secrets

\- someone found a security hole that makes the app not actually anonymous.
who's going to post anything really juicy when this exists...

------
misingnoglic
Honestly I stopped using Secret when I realized that I could probably be outed
as the person telling the secret pretty easy. You only need like 7 friends on
the app for it to tell you your friend posted something, so at that point
finding who posted something is trivial.

~~~
alwaysdoit
Theoretically, you'd still have some plausible deniability, since it could be
one of those people pretending to be you.

~~~
misingnoglic
Maybe, but if it's something that sounds like you, or is a situation related
to you, or even if a friend knows that out of all their friends you use secret
the most, all these things can harm your privacy. Imma stick with 4chan for
this one.

------
abalone
Initial traction seemed to be punctuated by relatively high-value leaks from
silicon valley, which earned it attention from SV media. More broadly, "leaks"
trends towards cyberbullying. A perfect example of bubble economics, with the
value of startups being largely based on how they feed the startup industry,
not the economy as a whole.

I thought it was a bad sign that the founders pocketed $6M 6 months post-
launch. [1]

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-founders-
pocket-6-mill...](http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-founders-
pocket-6-million-in-25-million-fundraise-2014-7)

------
jliptzin
What they should have done was charge to reveal the author of the secret. That
way they acknowledge that true anonymity is just an illusion and also curbs
harassment, while at the same time generating revenue.

~~~
GeneralMayhem
Ooh, social experiment as business model. I like it.

Although I'm pretty sure LinkedIn already stole that one.

~~~
baddox
Interesting experiment, but I can't think of an incentive for anyone to post
interesting secrets when they know others can pay to reveal their identity.

~~~
girvo
Have some of the money paid to reveal them also paid to the person who is
revealed perhaps?

~~~
baddox
Perhaps if the poster can choose the price, that could work, but I think it's
more likely that that would just make no one interested in the secrets.

------
hw
Secret is one of those things that is fun in the first few weeks, and then it
just becomes another app on your phone that you don't click on anymore. Bad
press might have contributed to its decline, but fundamentally the idea isn't
one that would have taken off. It needs to somehow provide more value to the
end-user to justify spending one's time on the app.

------
Zigurd
They named it for something it isn't. Kind of like "Vitamin Water."

~~~
tedunangst
? Are there no vitamins in Vitamin Water?

~~~
markdown
> Wait—are there consumers who really think Vitaminwater contains actual
> vitamins?

> Coca-Cola’s legal team would say no. In court briefings, attorneys
> representing the company claimed “no consumer could reasonably be misled
> into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”

[http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-26/drink-
decept...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-26/drink-deception-
and-the-legal-war-on-vitaminwater)

~~~
Karunamon
There _are_ vitamins in vitaminwater.

The problem is, that doesn't make it a health drink. Stuff's loaded with
sugar.

------
suyash
Secret basically seems like a hackathon project, no wonder users are finding
no value in it after a short stint.

~~~
ztnewman
Most startups these days are hackathon projects trying to gain funding. It's
laughable half of them manage to become actual companies.

------
cwilson
I really disliked the negativity and I know many others who agreed and also
deleted the app. It just wasn't worth it. I'm not at all surprised they are
struggling.

------
DAddYE
I don't believe cracking down cyberbullying or harassment was the cause.

I think was a wrong formula packed by hype.

Yik Yak (which I adore) is still doing strong.

IMO, the main issue (as others reported) is that you start with your friends
then friends of friends then popular then basically has not anymore sense to
me because I don't know anymore anyone.

Remember Yik yak pretty much on the same market is doing really well and IIRC
got recently another big amount of investments.

------
Animats
Secret has an image problem. Pando Daily's article on Secret is titled "With
bullying app Secret on life support, investors learn the risk of investing in
assholes".

[http://pando.com/2014/12/06/with-bullying-app-secret-on-
life...](http://pando.com/2014/12/06/with-bullying-app-secret-on-life-support-
investors-learn-the-risk-of-investing-in-assholes/)

------
danieltillett
So basically the only value of secret was as a tool to harass and intimidate.

~~~
ams6110
It's one possibility but another is that it was ready to crater just like so
many other apps that have a flash of popularity and then just as quickly fade.

Also did anyone note that the piece seemed to be written by a 12-year-old? "It
looks like Secret will be majorly overhauling its product soon."

~~~
dwightgunning
Yes. The use of the dovetail joint metaphor stood out particularly.

------
zaphar
At the end of the article:

    
    
        In this market, a conscience may be bad for business.
    

If a conscience might be a liability in the market you are in you might want
to reconsider the market you are in.

------
moultano
The app is unbearably slow. I still use it, but it's unnecessarily
frustrating. I'd attribute the decline in usage to it taking half a minute to
refresh.

------
applecore
I think the answer is “competition.”

Secret is losing in the marketplace and its competitors—namely Whisper and Yik
Yak—are winning.

------
hownottowrite
If Secret just rebranded with the name Trololo I'm sure downloads and usage
would take off again.

~~~
jkaljundi
The Mr. Trololo Song:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oavMtUWDBTM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oavMtUWDBTM)

