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Death of Peach: An eerie echo of Meerkat’s collapse[0] > A messaging app called Peach triggered a media maelstrom on Friday afternoon, peaked at No. 85 on the

Death of Peach: An eerie echo of Meerkat’s collapse[0] > A messaging app called Peach triggered a media maelstrom on Friday afternoon, peaked at No. 85 on the U.S. iPhone downloads chart on Saturday, and started declining on Sunday, slipping to No. 129 by Sunday at 1:00 p.m. The tepid peak performance and an early decline are vastly significant considering the heavy tech media coverage surrounding the app. > Because modern tech media is a headless beast, you will no doubt be exposed to dozens of stories about how “hot” Peach is in coming days and weeks. Many tech reporters believe that if other tech reporters claim something is hot, it must be — regardless of whether there is any consumer interest. > By now, it’s clear that Peach is a turkey, much as it was obvious that Meerkat was dead a month after its late February 2015 launch. 0: http://bgr.com/2016/01/11/peach-messaging-app-iphone-collapse/ http://bgr.com/2016/01/11/peach-messaging-app-iphone-collaps...

minimaxir 11y ago
BGR linkbait aside, the amount of positive attention Peach has been receiving is suspicious, even for a startup from a founder of a successful startup. Meerkat is a surprisingly good comparison.
- w1ntermute 11y ago
  Consumer tech is stuffed to the gills with astroturfing. It's best to take anything written by tech bloggers with numerous grains of salt.
pbreit 11y ago
If you're gonna read stuff like that, understand that it probably makes you dumber. At least, posting it makes you look dumber. Calling something a "turkey" after a day is as dumb as calling it an "x killer". Things like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc take years to become successful.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- numair 11y ago
  Your response is incredibly off-base. The author of the BGR article is pretty spot-on in his analysis. If you look at the author's previous articles, he has been critical, but accurate. In any case, even if his 16 years of experience in the mobile industry (I looked him up) don't allow him to make accurate one-day analyses, a different viewpoint is beneficial to everyone's thought process. There is absolutely nothing "dumb" about bringing up critical viewpoints. Shooting them down without giving them any thought, however...
  - dang 11y ago
    pbreit has a point. Dismissing something as a "turkey" after just one day is unduly harsh, and to call that "bringing up critical viewpoints" is euphemistic.
    - numair 11y ago
      If that were the only comment the author made, sure. He did a pretty good job of defending his view, I think, with lots of citations etc. It is a viewpoint -- it's the opposite of looking at something and saying, "ooh, this is new and cool!" Now, it's probably more productive in most circumstances to have an open mind, but that is a matter of preference. Personally, I like to have my childlike enthusiasm for new things balanced out by the voices of other, more cynical people.
- CPLX 11y ago
  WhatsApp and Instagram actually blew up and were obvious hits in a matter of months at most.
skciva 11y ago
Wasn't Meerkat done in by the fact that Twitter launched Periscope around the same time? Twitter cut Meerkat's access to the API at SXSW (mid March), and published Periscope to the iOS App Store in late March. On top of this, I've noticed some celebrities I follow on Twitter using Periscope and advertising it to their feeds, which I wouldn't be surprised to find out is fueled by some form of payment from Twitter. I can't comment on Peach, but I get the feeling Meerkat's demise was because they were out muscled by Twitter.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
  Why does anyone follow celebrities on Twitter? Does it add any value to your life?
  - adrusi 11y ago
    Following celebrities on Twitter is the newest form of celebrity gossip, which itself is just a modern rendition of one of the most human of habits, gossip. Gossip is the human version of the grooming seen in other apes, and it is as much a part of the human condition as war. When everyone was uneducated and lived in small villages, as was the case for the majority of people until only a few hundred years ago, there was nothing to talk about except for gossip. Just because we now have more to talk about doesn't mean that the need for gossip has gone away completely. Just because you and I don't get any value out of it doesn't mean that nobody else can.
  - calbear81 11y ago
    Because it's entertaining, especially if they live more interesting lives.
  - minimaxir 11y ago
    Outside of the tech-sphere, following celebrities is the primary use case of many Twitter users.
  - Apocryphon 11y ago
    We are posting on a forum community created by Paul Graham.

minimaxir 11y ago

BGR linkbait aside, the amount of positive attention Peach has been receiving is suspicious, even for a startup from a founder of a successful startup. Meerkat is a surprisingly good comparison.

w1ntermute 11y ago
Consumer tech is stuffed to the gills with astroturfing. It's best to take anything written by tech bloggers with numerous grains of salt.

pbreit 11y ago

If you're gonna read stuff like that, understand that it probably makes you dumber. At least, posting it makes you look dumber. Calling something a "turkey" after a day is as dumb as calling it an "x killer". Things like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc take years to become successful.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
numair 11y ago
Your response is incredibly off-base. The author of the BGR article is pretty spot-on in his analysis. If you look at the author's previous articles, he has been critical, but accurate. In any case, even if his 16 years of experience in the mobile industry (I looked him up) don't allow him to make accurate one-day analyses, a different viewpoint is beneficial to everyone's thought process. There is absolutely nothing "dumb" about bringing up critical viewpoints. Shooting them down without giving them any thought, however...
- dang 11y ago
  pbreit has a point. Dismissing something as a "turkey" after just one day is unduly harsh, and to call that "bringing up critical viewpoints" is euphemistic.
  - numair 11y ago
    If that were the only comment the author made, sure. He did a pretty good job of defending his view, I think, with lots of citations etc. It is a viewpoint -- it's the opposite of looking at something and saying, "ooh, this is new and cool!" Now, it's probably more productive in most circumstances to have an open mind, but that is a matter of preference. Personally, I like to have my childlike enthusiasm for new things balanced out by the voices of other, more cynical people.
CPLX 11y ago
WhatsApp and Instagram actually blew up and were obvious hits in a matter of months at most.

skciva 11y ago

Wasn't Meerkat done in by the fact that Twitter launched Periscope around the same time? Twitter cut Meerkat's access to the API at SXSW (mid March), and published Periscope to the iOS App Store in late March. On top of this, I've noticed some celebrities I follow on Twitter using Periscope and advertising it to their feeds, which I wouldn't be surprised to find out is fueled by some form of payment from Twitter. I can't comment on Peach, but I get the feeling Meerkat's demise was because they were out muscled by Twitter.

kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
Why does anyone follow celebrities on Twitter? Does it add any value to your life?
- adrusi 11y ago
  Following celebrities on Twitter is the newest form of celebrity gossip, which itself is just a modern rendition of one of the most human of habits, gossip. Gossip is the human version of the grooming seen in other apes, and it is as much a part of the human condition as war. When everyone was uneducated and lived in small villages, as was the case for the majority of people until only a few hundred years ago, there was nothing to talk about except for gossip. Just because we now have more to talk about doesn't mean that the need for gossip has gone away completely. Just because you and I don't get any value out of it doesn't mean that nobody else can.
- calbear81 11y ago
  Because it's entertaining, especially if they live more interesting lives.
- minimaxir 11y ago
  Outside of the tech-sphere, following celebrities is the primary use case of many Twitter users.
- Apocryphon 11y ago
  We are posting on a forum community created by Paul Graham.