Anonymous app Sidechat picks up rival Yik Yak…and users aren’t happy

Sidechat, the nameless posting platform that began blowing up last year on school campuses, seems to have acquired a rival nameless social platform, Yik Yak. Whilst you might recall Yik Yak’s troubles from earlier years, the place bullying and harassment finally led to an ignominious exit within the type of an acqui-hire by Sq., the gossip app relaunched underneath new Nashville-based possession in 2021, promising improved moderation.

However now Yik Yak’s app has been republished underneath the identical App Retailer developer account as Sidechat — Flower Ave. It had initially been revealed underneath its personal title, Yik Yak, Inc. (The primary model underneath the unique founders was Yik Yak LLC).

As well as, Sidechat’s customers are complaining in App Retailer opinions in regards to the compelled migration from one app to the opposite.

“Convey again Yikyak,” one evaluation is titled, noting they acquired an replace that warned them that their “herd is transferring,” which pointed them to Sidechat’s app. A number of opinions additionally complain that Yik Yak had been nameless, however Sidechat was asking for college students’ faculty emails in an effort to take part.

“Yikyak merging with sidechat is the worst resolution,” one other reviewer lamented, including that Yik Yak had been obtainable to everybody, not simply school college students. Plus, the reviewer mentioned, everyone seems to be nervous in regards to the merger as a result of their account data is now being related to their faculty.

Oddly, not all Yik Yak customers have gotten the push emigrate. As different App Retailer opinions famous, Yik Yak remains to be working in some markets however not others. In actual fact, we had been capable of log in to Yik Yak in our area people when testing the app in the present day — and haven’t but acquired a push to maneuver to Sidechat.

It might be that Sidechat is selectively pushing customers positioned on or close to universities and school campuses emigrate, as that’s its core demographic.

What’s fascinating about this M&A occasion — which we’re listening to is extra akin to an acqui-hire than some form of large exit — is that each corporations’ founders have tried to remain nameless. Yik Yak earlier refused to answer questions on its relaunch. And even when being profiled by The New York Times, Sidechat solely responded to press inquiries from a generic e mail. Dozens of scholar ambassadors for the app had additionally declined to answer or ignored the paper’s inquiries.

Nevertheless, an SEC filing for Sidechat’s father or mother firm, Flower Ave., factors to involvement from ex-Snap engineer Sebastian Gil and ex-Snap product designer Chamal Samaranayake. Per the submitting, the corporate raised north of $10 million final summer season, shortly after getting written up by varied college press, like The Harvard Crimson and The Tufts Daily. Extra not too long ago, Sidechat was lined by Annenberg Media, a paper funded by USC Annenberg Faculty for Communication and Journalism. A few of the papers highlighted college students’ misgivings over Sidechat’s moderation capabilities and total affect on campus.

When requested, Sidechat’s founders declined to be interviewed for these articles as nicely.

Our cellphone calls, emails, and different outreach to Yik Yak, Sidechat, and its founders haven’t been returned.

However there are many social media complaints in regards to the merger from less-than-satisfied customers.

The timing of the complaints and App Retailer opinions level to a deal that went by someday final month. For what it’s price, Yik Yak Inc. updated its privacy policy in January, nevertheless it has not disclosed any change in possession.

In keeping with app retailer intelligence agency data.ai, Yik Yak’s app modified the title of its writer from Yik Yak Inc. to Flower Avenue Inc. on February 28, 2023.

The agency tells us the brand new Yik Yak has seen roughly 3.5 million installs since its August 2021 relaunch. The very best rating it ever acquired was the day after its relaunch when it briefly grew to become the No. 1 General app on the U.S. App Retailer. At this time, it not ranks within the General listings however is No. 89 in Social Networking.

Picture Credit: Sidechat screenshots

Sidechat, in the meantime, had simply barely north of 180,000 lifetime installs, making it the smaller of the 2 apps. (However maybe the one with extra runway!). Its highest rank was No. 30 within the U.S. Social Networking class, which was achieved in November 2022.

The merger is sensible provided that each Sidechat and Yik Yak share an analogous function of connecting individuals anonymously, although Sidechat has extra squarely centered on school scholar gossip.

However staying nameless when asking others to belief your platform is an odd alternative for these corporations — and one which appears to be backfiring. As a result of the customers don’t know who’s operating Sidechat or what their values are, they’re hesitant to even present the corporate with their e mail, it appears.

Sarah Perez is obtainable through e mail sarahp@techcrunch.com and Sign ‪(415) 234-3994.‬