Ask HN: Snap is killing Zenly, firing team, why cant team just make it again?

10 points

4 years ago

This might be a dumb question but I am going to ask it anyway. SNAP is killing Zenly and apparently firing the whole team in Paris(1). SNAP acquired Zenly for $250-350m in 2017(2). Zenly seems to be doing pretty well in different markets including Japan. It has 35m active users(3).

Why can't the team just remake it with a new name?

I realize they would have to be self supporting for a little while, but I assume most/all the employees have severance. Would a VC fund this?

For the engineers, if it doesn't work out, they will most likely not have a problem getting a job.

What are the downsides/obstacles to doing this?

Sources:

(1) https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1564986820999405568

(2) https://venturebeat.com/business/inside-frances-zenly-the-social-mapping-app-that-was-just-bought-by-snap/

(3) https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/18/social-maps-app-zenly-rolls-out-its-own-maps/

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