Mobli
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Mobli was an Israeli social mobile photo and video-sharing company founded in 2010 by brothers Moshe and Oded Hogeg. Its apps let users share photos and videos from their phones and browse content feeds in real time by location, subject or uploader; CEO Moshe Hogeg described the goal as making it possible to see what is happening in the world through other people's eyes, positioning Mobli as a rival to Instagram and Vine. Backed by investors including billionaire Carlos Slim and Kazakh billionaire Kenges Rakishev, it raised about $86 million in its first three years and employed over 70 people at its peak. The service was shut down in mid-2016 and the company was placed into bankruptcy.
02 / Mobli FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Mobli's downfall came from failing to build a reliable user base against entrenched rivals. It aimed to compete with Instagram and Vine but never attained the user loyalty those networks had; after Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 the competitive gap widened further. The company faded: dozens of employees were laid off in 2016 and its activity terminated completely in 2017, with Snapchat buying its patent for $7 million in April 2017 — a sum its own investors' lawsuits called tiny compared with the amounts invested.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Mobli was founded.
- Bankruptcy
Mobli entered bankruptcy.
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
Mobli reported raising about $86 million from investors in its first three years, including billionaire backers Carlos Slim and Kenges Rakishev.
- 02
Snapchat bought Mobli's patent for $7 million in April 2017. No realized loss figure with disclosed subject, period and basis was found; the $86 million is capital raised, not loss.