Yik Yak
Worth $350 million. Sold for $1 million.
CAUSE OF DEATH: Downloads fell 76% in a year. The remains sold for about $1 million.
Yik Yak launched in November 2013 and let college students post anonymously to everyone nearby. Within a year it had raised over $70 million and was valued at more than $350 million. It geofenced itself off every middle and high school in the country. In 2015 it was exposed for systematically downvoting and deleting posts that mentioned competitors. In 2016 downloads fell 76% and it laid off 60 percent of its staff. It shut down in May 2017 and sold its intellectual property for about $1 million. Someone relaunched it in 2021. In 2022 a student showed the app gave away users' locations to within 15 feet. Anonymous, give or take a dorm room.