WEBVTT - Stuff Younger than TechStuff 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.320 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.360 I am your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.880 at how stuff Works and I love all things tech, 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:24.560 and today we're going to continue our discussion about companies 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.320 and services that launched after tech Stuff became a podcast 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.360 and just kind of get perspective on what has happened 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.879 since we started this show ten years ago. If you 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.000 haven't heard part one of this series, you should probably 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.600 do that because we're gonna start right back up where 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:46.320 we left off and away we go. Another thing that 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.760 is younger than tech Stuff is Kickstarter, and boy, this 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.320 is a big one. Kickstarter launched in two thousand nine. 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.920 It was co founded by Yancy Strickler, Perry Chen, and 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.880 Charles Adler, and the concept behind it is pretty simple. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.680 Creators pitch a project and set a financial goal, and 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.880 if it's picked by Kickstarter, if it meets the the 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.200 requirements that Kickstarter sets and doesn't violate any rules, it 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.360 can then go up on the page and you you 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:19.000 choose a fundraising campaign duration typically a month is very common. 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:23.039 They then invite people to come and contribute money. To 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.440 this campaign for whatever it might be, and often it's 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:31.120 in return for promised deliverables should the campaign fund. Campaigns 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.880 are an all or nothing affair on Kickstarter, so if 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.080 the campaign funds, Kickstarter takes that percentage of the overall 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.800 campaign and the rest goes to the creator. If it 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:45.840 does not fund, then people are not charged for their pledges. Ideally, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.000 the creator would use the money generated from their Kickstarter 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.400 campaign to complete his or her project and then send 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:56.040 the deliverables to the appropriate backers. That's not always how 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.920 it works, unfortunately, and there's no shortage of Kickstarter camp 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:05.320 aims that funded successfully but failed to deliver a product. Now, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:07.040 someday I'm gonna have to do a roundup of some 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.840 of the more notable failures in the tech sector on 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:14.480 the Kickstarter, whether they were true failures or hoaxes, because 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.359 I've backed a couple of them and I'm still a 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.120 little salty about it. On a similar note, there's Patreon, 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.480 and that's another way creators can fund their work. This 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.320 is an ongoing means of funding work, as opposed to 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:31.200 an all or nothing campaign. It involves rewarding backers or 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:35.720 patrons with various rewards backers select an amount of money 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.160 they wish to contribute every month to the creator, and 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.720 creators can make tears of rewards for different levels of 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.040 monthly contributions. So you could say, for a dollar a month, 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.000 you will get access to this exclusive content that no 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.160 one else has access to. For five dollars a month, 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.119 I will make content for you for ten dollars, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.799 And Patreon is used by people who continue to make 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.520 something typically, so it ten to be ongoing projects as 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.200 opposed to a one and done affair. So it might 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.639 be a podcast, it might be artwork, it might be 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.600 a cosplay, it might be photography, it could be any 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.079 sort of creative endeavor. Really. In January two thousand nine, 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:19.919 Maker Bought launched uh Bray Pettis, Zach Hoken, Smith, and 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.359 Adam Meyer were the co founders a Maker Bought back 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.400 in New York City, and it was a company aimed 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.240 at bringing three D desktop printing to consumers. So three 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.840 D printers had been around for a bit already, and 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.520 additive manufacturing had proved its usefulness in the industrial world 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.560 several times over, but very few folks in the consumer 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.040 world had very much experience or even knowledge of three 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.360 D printers. Back in two thousand nine, Maker Bought founders 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:52.040 wanted to change that. In two thousand thirteen, Stratusists Incorporated 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.400 acquired Maker Bought in a stock deal worth six hundred 0:03:55.560 --> 0:04:01.320 four million dollars, another princely sum. So wow. Now, in 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:03.760 recent years, the company has had to weather some pretty 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.440 difficult times, including layoffs, the departure of the founders of 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.920 the company, and backlash from the maker community that had 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.640 loyally supported this company in its earlier years. And I'll 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.320 have to do a full episode on maker Bot someday. 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.679 In Spiro was under development and it was first shown 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.520 off at ce S two thousand eleven. I was actually 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.360 there that year. I got to see it, even got 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.320 to drive one of the little things. It was pretty cool. 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.520 The original Sphiro ball robot is ball shaped, has some 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.039 electronics inside it, including a little motor that allows the 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.040 ball to roll around in a controlled way, and you 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.480 would send commands to Spiro through an app on a smartphone. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:45.040 It would turn your smartphone into a controller. Spiro's designs 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.960 got the attention of Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.520 who saw the potential to do a licensing deal in 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.080 which Spiro would make a remote controlled version of a 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.440 little robot that would feature in an upcoming Star Wars movie. 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.560 And that robot was, of course b B eight, and 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.760 the spher O b B eight is absolutely adorable. UM, 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:04.560 two of us here at the office, at least two 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.120 of us have one of those. Holly Fry would be 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.880 one and I'm the other. The Verge and Polygon are 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.360 both younger than tech Stuff. These are two related websites. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.800 They are owned by a company called Vox Media, and 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.520 The Verge covers tech news and Polygon covers video game 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.839 industry and pop culture news. Joshua Topolski was the founding 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.560 editor in chief of The Verge, a job these days 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.640 held by Kneeli nil Patel, who uh is a really 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.640 fascinating person to Topolsky left his previous position as editor 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.320 in chief of Engadget after Engadget's parent company A O 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:45.320 L released a document that stressed profitability metrics over other concerns, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:50.880 and he just felt that the integrity of reporting under 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.440 A O L was in dire jeopardy, so he and 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.200 several of his former Engadget coworkers left to go try 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.839 and do something else, and ultimately they founded The Verge, 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.919 which launched in November two thousand eleven. Polygon grew out 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.800 of the Verge and launched in October two thousand twelve 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.640 with a primary focus on video games, though in recent 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:12.920 years the site has expanded to cover lots of areas 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.320 of pop culture. And two other companies that are actually 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.919 younger than tech Stuff are Uber and Lift. Both of 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.600 these car hailing services launched after tech Stuff did. Uber 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.400 launched in two thousand nine, Lift in two thousand twelve. 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.240 Then I've covered Uber and tech Stuff, but haven't done 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.960 the same for Lift yet. But these car hailing services, 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.960 which sometimes are referred to as ride sharing services, but 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.080 longtime listeners know I have a problem with that particular 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:44.640 way of describing them. They have been incredibly disruptive businesses. 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.400 They also both have a reputation for not being too 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.599 terribly concerned with playing by the rule book, with Uber 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.760 in particular gaining a reputation for a somewhat cavalier business 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.000 practice attitude, not to mention a corporate culture that until 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:03.840 recently sounded pretty toxic. And then we have one last 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:05.440 one I want to talk about before we go to 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.120 break and that is Soilent, which really isn't a tech company, 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:10.880 but a lot of folks in the text here kind 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.560 of glammed onto it when it launched in two thousand thirteen. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.080 It was originally sold as a powder, and now you 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.960 can find in a few different forms, including liquid bottled forms, 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:25.480 and it's a meal replacement product and cleverly called named 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:29.280 after the fictional soilent that appears in a short story, 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.400 but is mostly known from its appearance in the movie 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.280 Soiling Green, where we find out it's made from people. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:40.000 Soiling Green is, anyway the other versions of soilent, we're not, 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.320 but I think most people think of Soilent as it's 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.920 made of people. The company has backed off the messaging 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:49.960 that you could have soilent for every single meal of 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.080 the day and get rid of quote unquote real food 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.120 and still maintain a healthy lifestyle. They kind of retreated 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.080 on that a little bit, but it's supposed to contain 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.440 everything you need to keep bond trucking, and the fact 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.160 was it was it is a very convenient and fast 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:10.280 way to get some calories and maintain the basic nutrients 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.080 you need. And people who are working ridiculous hours in 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.680 tech companies started using the stuff like crazy because it 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:21.000 was convenient. As for me, in August of decided to 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.080 experiment by only having Soilent for breakfast and lunch for 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.200 a month, and it was the beginning of my weight 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.320 loss journey. And while I no longer regularly drink Soilent, 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.920 I do still have the occasional bottle when I need 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:36.120 something convenient and fast. Now that's all these companies and 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.440 services that have launched since tech Stuff, and of course 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.360 there are tons more. I just grabbed a selection that 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:43.760 I thought were interesting. We're gonna go into a break, 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.240 and when we come back, I'm going to talk a 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.880 little bit about some companies that launched after tech Stuff 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.600 but aren't around anymore. But first let's take a quick 0:08:52.640 --> 0:09:03.240 break to thank our sponsor. Okay, so let's talk about 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.680 some stuff that launched after tech Stuff and now don't 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:12.360 exist no more. Go boom. First, we're gonna start with Vine, 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.160 and I have to do a full episode on Vine 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.280 at some point because that story is also really interesting. 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.480 But in short, the summarized cliffs Notes version. I don't 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.679 even know if cliffs Notes still exist. A Cliff's Notes 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.880 still exist. It used to summarize stuff anyway. Vine was 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:32.400 created in two thousand twelve by russ yusup of Dom 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.560 Hoffman and Colin Kroll, and the apps started out as 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.680 a program that would let people cut videos together using 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.520 a mobile device, so you could edit together a video, 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.880 and it wasn't terribly stable, and it had no time 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.280 limit attached to the videos. You can make very long videos, 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.120 but that meant the videos were very difficult to share 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.720 because the file sizes were so large, it was difficult 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.120 to send it to someone else to watch. That's when 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.600 the co founders figured that if they created a time limit, 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.160 if they made sure that the videos could only be 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.280 a few seconds long, they could make it a share 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.400 double experience because the file sizes would not be too 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.880 large to send over cellular networks or WiFi. Sort of 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.480 the video version of what Twitter was, where you could 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:21.160 record short social videos for your friends. And Twitter loved 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.080 that idea. They presented it to Twitter and Twitter said, 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.920 this is a great idea. We like it a lot, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:32.080 and they purchased Vine, reportedly for around thirty million dollars. 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.640 And Vine had not yet launched yet, and just as 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.839 Twitter had started out as one thing in the minds 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.520 of its creators and then turned into something else. If 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.880 you're familiar with the story of Twitter, you know that 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.080 they originally were thinking about a service where you could 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.640 send out a text message to a group of friends, 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.679 and that was really the only use case they were 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.959 thinking of with Twitter was just I'm gonna go do something. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.200 I wanna let my friends know what I'm about to do, 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.680 so I'm gonna blast us them all with this Twitter message. 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.560 It turned out the Twitter turned into something much different 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:11.200 where you had celebrities, news outlets, brands, all these different 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.120 entities that were blasting out information to the general public 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:17.920 and creating a new means of communication. It was not 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:21.520 that was not Twitter's mission at the beginning. The same 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.080 thing was true for Vine. They wanted to create a 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:29.480 way for people to make very short, socially UH focused 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.640 videos that could be easily shared. But people began to 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.439 take that six second limitation as a challenge to create interesting, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.320 super short form video stories. But Vine didn't stick around UH. 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.959 Instagram and Snapchat both took a lot of wind from 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.280 vines sales. Instagram did it by creating longer form videos 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.439 and by longer formament that at first they were fifteen 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.520 seconds long than they ended up being a bit longer. 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.640 Snapchat did it by making it easy to share videos 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.840 with friends that would later those videos would disappear, and 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.679 it would keep it very social and timely, And so 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.280 Twitter chose to shut down Vine in two thousand and sixteen. 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.760 It is no longer a thing. Although you can still 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:15.440 watch previously created Vine videos, you can't make new ones 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.880 because the service doesn't exist anymore. Or how about cool 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.440 cool as in c U I L I remember doing 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:25.600 an episode about this way back in the day. In fact, 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.079 before it launched. Cool launched in July two thousand eight, 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.280 just a month after tech Stuff went live. Maybe it 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.080 was shortly after Cool launched when we did our episode, 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.840 but Cool was the search engine that claimed to have 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:42.440 the largest number of indexed web pages among all search engines. So, 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.720 in other words, they said, hey, if you want to 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.959 find the information on any topic, trust us. We're gonna 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.160 have it because we've indexed more pages than anybody else. 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:55.360 And it would present search results with longer entries about 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.120 those specific results, as opposed to maybe the sentence or 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.959 two you might get from Google. You would get longer ones, 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.720 and also you would get thumbnail pictures of various sites 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.280 that were supposed to be relevant to whatever the search 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.880 results were. But things were rocky for cool from the start. 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.440 One month after it launched, the head of the technology department, 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.880 essentially the person in charge of the search technology, quit 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:24.360 the company after getting into disagreements with the CEO about 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.320 the company's direction. It made a bit of a splash 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.880 when it debuted, but it didn't gain momentum and by 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.040 the fall of that year. By the fall of two 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.760 thousand eight, and had already dropped to nearly no traffic 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.920 at all, the amount of traffic going to cool Head 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.120 gone to a tiny, little trickle. The company continued along 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:51.280 until September and then cool unceremoniously shut down, laid off 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.439 all the employees who were told there would be no 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:55.679 more checks, they would not be getting paid for their 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.320 last few days of work, and the servers all went offline. 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.520 This despite the company raising more than thirty million dollars 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.439 in venture capital over the course of its existence. Also, 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:11.079 it gained a reputation for irrelevant search results, sometimes presenting 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:15.920 very inappropriate images in response to search results, and other 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.520 major problems. And like I said, did an episode on 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:20.720 cool back when it launched, but maybe a full story 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.640 could be an order. I might. I might revisit it 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.720 because it is again another interesting study in how tech 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.520 can go wrong. Next, I want to talk about Pebble, 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.400 and this one hurts. I was a fan of the 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.680 idea of Pebble all the way back to when the 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:40.040 Kickstarter campaign launched in the spring of The campaign was 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.960 a wild success and it raised more than ten million dollars. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.240 It made it the most successful Kickstarter campaign up to 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.800 that point, and unlike lots of other tech crowdfunding campaigns, 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:57.520 Pebble actually shipped their promised watches starting in January. So, 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.280 in case you aren't familiar with it, Pebble is sort 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.120 of a semi smart watch with a connect via Bluetooth 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.240 to a smartphone and you could get notifications on it. 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.440 You could run certain apps on it, you could change 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.920 the face on it. It had a very ultra low 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.240 power l c D screen that was monochromatic, so it 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.360 had a really good battery life. It was water proof 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.960 or at least water resistant. Um it was neat. It 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.160 would vibrate whenever you would get a notification, so you 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.600 could actually read things like Twitter messages or emails on 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.400 your watch, and uh it was. It was a kind 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:38.120 of a low cost smart watch. But Pebble wasn't able 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.360 to make a profit, and in sixteen the company had 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:46.120 to file for insolvency. Fitbit ended up acquiring most of Pebble, 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.760 though not the actual hardware. Fitbit got the software and 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:54.440 the assets, meaning the programmers and developers Pebble as a 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:58.840 company closed shop at the end of Another piece of 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.640 hardware that doesn't exist anymore is uh Yeah oh u 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:07.640 y a launched in This was originally a micro console 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.960 running on the Android operating system, a gaming micro console, 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.120 that is. It was crowdfunded and reached its goal in 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.360 just eight hours on Kickstarter, and finished the campaign more 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:23.600 than above its goal, with a final tally of more 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.120 than eight and a half million dollars. The games on 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.280 the console were largely in that casual gaming category, and 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.520 it could run a few other apps in addition to 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.440 running games, but sales of the uh Yeah didn't do 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:41.080 very well outside the initial crowdfunding campaign. Reviews of prototype 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.360 builds were mixed or some of them were mildly negative, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.960 but those reviews improved significantly once the retail version of 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.880 the Uyah was ready to ship for customers. They said, 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.200 oh well, yeah, paid attention. They listened to the problems 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.040 we had with this and they addressed it, and the 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.880 new build is much better. Even so, it never really 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:05.119 cut on in the marketplace, and Uyah accrued debt, it 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.880 could not pay, it could not renegotiate, and eventually it 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.560 was forced to sell off its assets to Razor Incorporated. 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:17.000 The hardware was discontinued and Razor put the employees of 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.280 Uya and the software assets to use elsewhere under its 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.960 own umbrella, and Uya was no more. Now we have 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.080 more to say about these companies and services in just 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.400 a moment, but before we get to that, let's take 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:40.240 a quick break to thank our sponsor. Now, just before 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.040 the ad break, I talked about Ouyah. Now let's talk 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.280 about on Live, which was first discussed at the two 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:52.119 thousand nine Game Developers Conference. Users would buy hardware that 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.240 would allow them to access games online, and they would 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.480 pay a monthly service fee for the opportunity to play 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.399 numerous games from an on line library. So instead of 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.840 buying a game, you would pay this monthly fee and 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.439 you would have access to a library of games and 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.280 it would stream to your machine, then you could play 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.959 in the cloud. This is very similar to what was 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.840 pitched as the Phantom console back in the day, except 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:21.760 this one really had intent behind it. People were really 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.200 determined to make a working service and a working product. 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.720 After a few months of its launch, the company announced 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.040 it would move to a free service model, but you 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.800 would have to pay to access specific games, so you 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.440 no longer have to pay a monthly subscription fee to 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.280 access it, but you would have to pay money to 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.399 either rent a game, meaning you would have access to 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.560 that game for a given amount of time, or I 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.160 believe you could actually quote unquote purchase a game, which 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.280 just meant that you could access that game whenever you 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:56.200 wanted from that point forward. But in August two thousand twelve, 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:01.159 the company laid everybody off. Everyone got hired, The company 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.160 sold all its assets off, and then formed a new 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:06.920 on Live company. So essentially it was like a do over. 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.280 It was a control alt, reset, control delete, where you 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.200 you you say, well, we had this company, We're getting 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.399 rid of everybody. We're dissolving the company. We're forming the 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.520 new company and the Louder Partners l A U D 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.720 E R. We're the new owner of on Live. That 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.920 company continued on until two thousand fifteen. Then Sony Entertainment 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.120 swept in and bought up most of the company's assets 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:38.560 and online service shut down in April, so not a 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.840 big success. And I remember talking about on Live back 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:42.760 in the day with Chris Billett two where we were 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:47.399 both kind of skeptical about the prospects of a cloud 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.879 based video game company at that time. These days, I 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.359 would actually think it'd be not that difficult to do, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.679 and in fact, Microsoft is doing this over on Xbox. 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.919 You can pay to be part of a Microsoft service 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.119 where at least the Microsoft games, you can have access 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.680 to those month to month as long as your service 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.159 subscription is active, so it does still kind of exist, 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.800 although you are downloading at least part of those games 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.720 to your Xbox console, so it's not exactly the same thing, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:19.159 but we're seeing some similar business practices that are in 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.680 place today. Next, I'll chat about yik Yak. This one 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:25.960 hits a little close to home because I once had 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:30.880 to um to uh moderate a panel with the yik 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.600 yak founders. That would be Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.520 and yes those are their actual names, and that service 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.679 launched in twenty thirteen here in Atlanta. It was a 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:47.480 location based anonymous messaging service, So you would log into 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.240 yik yak and you could read messages written by other 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:55.399 people that uh are in the same general location that 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.760 you were in same general region of your city or town. 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.320 So um as you moved around the city, the messages 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.119 you could read would change because it was all proximity based. 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.360 So if you happen to be near a college campus, 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.199 you could read the messages from that college campus because 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:14.760 you were close enough to it. But as you moved 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:16.600 across to the other parts of the city, you would 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:21.320 see messages from other areas. Users could post about just 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.960 about anything, and again, because it was anonymous, at least 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.320 at first, you didn't really have a lot of accountability there, 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.359 and that caused a lot of issues. It got a 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.040 lot of criticism from people who said the platform enabled 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:37.520 harassment and bullying. Yek yek used geo fencing techniques to 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.720 create blackout zones around places like middle schools and high schools, 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.520 So if you were an administrator of a high school, 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:48.360 you could use that to black it out the service 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:50.880 around your high school so that students wouldn't be able 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.000 to use it while they were on campus. UH there 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.160 were a lot of issues with with students using this 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:01.680 um while in school and causing issue use, and critics 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:06.000 pointed at instances of mean spirited pranks, destructive gossip, and 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.719 hate speech on the platform. K attempted to respond to 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.320 these issues in a few different ways, including creating mandated 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:17.040 handles so you no longer could be completely anonymous, but 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.680 saw its user numbers decline and eventually the company shut 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.240 down the service in the spring of tween. Then there's 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:28.000 r d O or r d i O, the online 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.200 music streaming service that one launched in twenty ten, very 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:35.080 similar to other streaming services like Spotify or in some 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:39.240 cases like Pandora. There were two main tiers of r 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.159 d O service. There was a free tier that was 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.240 AD supported, so you could listen to music and occasionally 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:48.159 an AD would be inserted in between songs. And then 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:51.040 there was a subscription add free tier that you could 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.040 uh subscribe to and so you'd pay a monthly fee 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.880 and you'd be able to listen to music without ads. 0:22:56.920 --> 0:22:59.960 But the service failed to survive in a very crowded 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.520 space and eventually had to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.160 and so selling off some of its assets to its 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:13.320 former rival Pandora as a result. Then let's talk about 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:16.520 Juice a Row. Juice a Row is one of those 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.320 things that kind of makes me scratch my head. Sometimes 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.600 venture capitalists irritate the heck out of me, and that's 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:25.600 the case with juicer Row. It was a WiFi enabled 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:29.760 juicer that relied on a subscription service. You would subscribe 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:34.000