Everyone knows the story of Facebook’s meteoric success, but not every company that tried to make a name for itself in social media managed to do so. Cue Friendster, which actually launched before Facebook in 2002. It allowed users to meet, stay in touch, upload videos and learn about events in their area. This is starting to sound familiar.
Friendster may have had a solid idea, but their technology was unable to deliver on the promise. They had slow loading times on their page and were not ready to meet the demand when their user base grew. Facebook offered a better user experience and led Friendster to change its focus to gaming in the Asian market. Surprisingly, they only officially stopped offering services in 2015.
EZ Squirt
Many of you may remember this product growing up, ketchup in all kinds of crazy colors. The ads made it look really cool, but the reality was just a little bit gross. Green goo on your burgers and fries is not all that appetizing. That, in a nutshell, is the story of EZ Squirt, released by Heinz in 2000. The company decided to cater to one of its core audiences, kids, and produce ketchup, which is typically red, in purple, green and blue.
EZ Squirt was sold in colorful squeeze bottles and was a huge success for the company at first. It didn’t take too long until the novelty wore off and sales began to decline. It took a while, but in January of 2006, Heinz finally called the whole thing off and the colorful condiment was removed from the shelves.
United States Football League
The USFL, which kicked off in 1982, was invented for those who couldn’t live without their football fix during the offseason. The league started off with 12 teams, one of which, the New Jersey Generals, was owned by current President of the United States, Donald Trump.
The league faced many problems including finding stadiums to play in and failed completely when they decided to compete head to head with the NFL by scheduling games in the fall. This caused six teams to quit and made the end of the league in 1985 inevitable.
Google+
Tech giant Google also tried to launch its own take on social media and give Facebook a run for their money with Google+. They launched the service in 2011, with an enormous and expensive marketing campaign. Things seemed to be going well at first with many people signing up, but less than a year after launch, Google+ had experienced a 98% decline in user engagement.
The problem was that Facebook was already well established and Google+ didn’t really offer anything new. Although it was a failure as a product, Google+ was around until 2019, when it was shut down due to privacy concerns.
Hot Wheels and Barbie computers
Toy manufacturer Mattel announced in 1999 that it had acquired the rights to sell Barbie and Hot Wheels computers. They teamed up with the Patriot Computer corporation in an attempt to deal with the decline in the sale of Barbie dolls and the rise in the sale of software and hardware for kids.
Unfortunately, the computers suffered from multiple manufacturing flaws, and the costs of fixing and replacing the computers eventually drove Patriot out of business. In 2000, only a year after the products launched, Patriot filed for bankruptcy and Barbie and Hot Wheels computers were seen no more.