Unicorn social app IRL to shut down after admitting 95% of its users were fake
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techcrunch.com
An internal investigation by IRL's board of directors found that 95% of the app's reported 20 million users were "automated or from bots."
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Internal investigation? They didn't know they set up 19 mln of not accounts? Or maybe someone did it for them?
The board of directors for a company is supposed to act as an internal balance. They're the ones that do the overall governance and make sure shit isn't going sideways. Basically, they're the ones that are supposed to watch the watcher (CEO).
What likely happened is that the CEO and others in charge of decision making didn't give a shit that an ever-increasing number of their users were bots because it made numbers go up. Advertisers were still paying. 20 million users looks GREAT for an IPO. Who cars if they're fake?
The board did their job, which was to fact check everything that went on.
With 95% of users being fake this means that there really is no way to be sustainable but more importantly THIS IS FRAUD.
No users, advertisers are being deceived, users are being deceived, potentially the fucking SEC being deceived... yeah, you pull the plug as soon as you find that shit out and start pointing fingers.
Probably they knew but they tried to save face by putting up a show.