I have not used YikYak since they required me to add a phone number, it's so antithetical to their entire point that, in hindsight at least, their decision to de-anonymize it is unbelievable. Are any of the wave of anonymous social apps doing ok or well?
As far as I can see, none. There was some discussion recently about Secret coming back into vogue, but that seems to have fizzled in the past fortnight.
The sad thing is, a lot of these apps are really successful in the outset, but then end up burned as the companies try, heavy handedly, to monetise.
As much as the startup world sees themselves as morally above the like of Google who will sell out customers, many startups seem to sell out both their customers and their product, making fundamentally incompatible changes with what they were built on in the pursuit of cash.
Speaking of Secret, the founder of Secret's subsequent startup just launched a side project which is definitely not a stealth attempt at revitalizing Secret: https://bold.io/about-io-2016-12-06
Oh, I agree that ultimately, someone must pay - but how you do it is important.
There are many dimensions in which to monetise, the simplest being getting users hooked and then charging a fee, and others that are more complex, and all of these vary in how much money they will bring in and how many users will reject them.
What I don't understand is why startups so often choose monetisation strategies that have such huge drawbacks in the context of their "killer features". In this case, in order to sell out their users (and build profiles ripe for exploitation in the most honest, business sense), they also had to sell out the purpose of the app: anonymity.
It's likely that in an alternate universe, YikYak tried something with a lower yield to what they saw with this strategy, but didn't headshot their customerbase.
Why do people get upset about a phone number? That's like a 1/2 step above an email address. Don't you have a Google Voice number (not on a Gmail account you use) or something for things like that?
Is that why my comment was down voted? LOL Weird, I don't know about Yil Yak but using a Google Voice number has never been a problem before for me. Maybe I don't use the right services? People who only use a VOIP number are out of luck I guess? I take it back... I wouldn't use that service either.
