Poparazzi, the once-hot photo-sharing app that hit the highest of the App Retailer in 2021, is shutting down. The corporate announced the information by way of a Medium weblog late final week, informing customers that the app could be discontinued and customers had till June 30, 2023 to obtain their content material. Final 12 months, Poparazzi’s founders at TTYL Inc. mentioned the app had grown to five+ million whole installs and confirmed its raise of $15 million in Series A funding.
Although Poparazzi had felt on the time like an in a single day sensation, co-founder and CEO Alex Ma and his brother, co-founder Austen Ma, had spent three years growing apps and pivoting to realize the success they generated with Poparrazi’s launch. In a 2022 interview with TechCrunch, Alex mentioned Poparrazi was really the eleventh or twelfth app that was generated by these efforts. Amongst these was the audio social community, TTYL, a kind of “Clubhouse for buddies,” which their firm can also be named for.
Poparrazi, nevertheless, generated a lot of hype quickly after its launch, climbing the charts to succeed in No. 1 on the App Retailer. The idea behind the app was a photo-sharing-focused social community that primarily took Instagram’s tagging function and turned it into your complete expertise. On Poparazzi, customers may tag their buddies however couldn’t put up pictures of their very own. The thought was that this might create a extra genuine sort of social community, as pictures wouldn’t essentially be the polished, perfected pictures that fill Instagram, however quite the informal moments that make up individuals’s actual lives.
Picture Credit: Poparazzi
Final June, the company confirmed its $15 million Series A raise led by Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel, who beat out a16z for the deal. The startup had beforehand raised $2 million in seed funding, led by Floodgate, in a spherical that included different traders like SV Angel, Shrug Capital and numerous angels. On the time, Poparazzi mentioned its funds would give its crew of 15 a runway of over two years.
However quickly, there have been indicators that Poparazzi’s time may very well be coming to an finish.
In August 2022, TechCrunch noticed the crew was now dabbling with a brand new app, Made with Friends, that supplied a twist on Poparazzi’s authentic idea of social networking profiles crafted by a person’s buddies. Made with Pals as a substitute requested its customers to put up all types of content material to their buddies’ profiles, not simply pictures. For instance, they may put up text-based content material like solutions to questions or prompts, in addition to movies. The app had been out there as a pre-release at the moment, but it surely’s since been faraway from the App Retailer someday after March 26 of this 12 months, app intelligence agency Apptopia confirmed to TechCrunch.
Utilization for Poparrazi had additionally been slowing post-launch, the agency famous. It estimated there have been 6.2 million lifetime installs for the app, but it surely now has solely round 2,000-3,000 month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs) after reaching a peak of 4 million MAUs beforehand.
In its weblog put up, Poparrazi didn’t affirm its future plans, if any, solely noting the upcoming shutdown and thanking its group and supporters.
“We’ve been extremely blessed to work with an incredible crew of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs to assist deliver this motion to life. And none of this might have been attainable with out the backing from essentially the most supportive, world-class group of traders,” wrote Alex Ma, within the announcement. “To our group, we’re so grateful for the assist and perception that you’ve got proven us all through our journey. Your enthusiasm and fervour for Poparazzi has been the driving power behind every thing we’ve achieved. Thanks from the underside of our hearts.”
TTYL Inc. has been requested for remark. Alex Ma responded, after publication, that whereas the corporate didn’t have an official assertion to share, they may affirm it was winding down and could be returning capital to traders. The crew, nevertheless, will keep collectively and work on different tasks.
Up to date 5/1/23, 8:53 pm et with firm response.
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