juicycampus
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
JuicyCampus was an anonymous gossip website for US college campuses, founded in August 2007 by Duke University alumnus Matt Ivester. It described itself as an enabler of 'online anonymous free speech on college campuses': strict privacy policies let users post gossip, rumors and rants without identification, and readers voted on which posts they found 'juiciest.' It launched on seven campuses (Duke, Loyola Marymount, UNC, USC, Pepperdine, UCLA, College of Charleston) and expanded to over 500 campuses by October 2008, much of the content about fraternities and sororities. It shut down on February 5, 2009.
02 / juicycampus FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
JuicyCampus closed indefinitely due to lack of revenue. Founder and CEO Matt Ivester said in an open letter: 'In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved. JuicyCampus' exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn.' He noted the shutdown was not related to legal trouble, pulled advertising or campus bans, though the site had drawn criticism for enabling abusive anonymous comments and had been banned from some campus networks.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launch
JuicyCampus begins operation as an anonymous college gossip site, launched on seven US campuses.
- Expansion and controversy
The site expands to over 500 college campuses; it draws national criticism for abusive anonymous content and is banned from several campus networks.
- Shutdown
On February 5, 2009 JuicyCampus shuts down due to lack of revenue, blaming plummeted online ad revenue and dissolved venture capital funding in the economic downturn.
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
On February 5, 2009 founder and CEO Matt Ivester announced in an open letter that JuicyCampus would shut down due to financial strains, with no plans to restart.
- 02
The site attributed the closure to plummeted online ad revenue and dissolved venture capital funding, saying exponential growth had outpaced resources.
- 03
The shutdown was not attributed to legal trouble, pulled advertising or campus bans; the company said it would continue rejecting requests for anonymous commenters' IP addresses without a subpoena.