Of course nobody used it; it was marketed poorly, and funding for marketing was cut early on, as indicated in the article. I have no idea if the service would

Of course nobody used it; it was marketed poorly, and funding for marketing was cut early on, as indicated in the article. I have no idea if the service would have succeeded under different circumstances, but as OP stated, this was the rushed pet project of outgoing executives during a merger. Any outcome other than DOA was highly unlikely.