Oink
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Oink was a 'rate everything' app from Milk, the startup lab of celebrity entrepreneur Kevin Rose. Launched in November 2011, it helped users review the best things in the places around them — rating specific items and experiences (e.g., a dish at a restaurant) rather than the venue itself — as a kind of 'decision engine' for people out and about, with frequent users gaining reputation points. It was downloaded by over 100,000 people within two and a half weeks, but it struggled to gain traction against Foursquare and Yelp. On March 14, 2012, Milk announced it would shut Oink down on March 31, 2012, to focus on its next project; users could export their ratings and photos. Milk was later acquired by Google. (Note: the Oink name and domain were later bought by Virtual Piggy, a youth payments company founded in 2008 — a different company.)
02 / Oink FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Oink was a pretty but not super useful or differentiated app. Despite 100,000+ downloads in its first weeks, it struggled against established apps like Foursquare and Yelp. Milk's philosophy was to rapidly build and test ideas — Oink was its first test, and the team quickly decided to shut it down to focus efforts on the next experiment.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launched
Kevin Rose's Milk launched Oink, a 'rate everything' app; it was downloaded over 100,000 times within two and a half weeks.
- Shut down
In March 2012, Milk announced Oink would close on March 31, 2012; the app stopped loading data and users exported their ratings and photos.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Milk launched Oink, a 'rate everything' app, in November 2011.
- 02
Over 100,000 people downloaded the app within two and a half weeks, but it struggled against Foursquare and Yelp.
- 03
In March 2012, Milk decided to shut Oink down to focus on its next project.
- 04
The Oink site closed on March 31, 2012, with a tool for users to download their ratings and pictures.