13 Reasons Why Quora As A Company Will Fail

Before you get tempted to assume Quora cannot and will not fail, I want you to see if you can remember these names…

• MySpace?
• Orkut?
• Google Plus?
• Hi5?
• Friendster?

These were big names with big budgets and a massive user base.
What happened to them?

I am sure you will say “But Loy, they are not content based website”….

Oh so you mean like….

1. Stack Overflow
2. Yahoo Answers
3. Ask me Help Desk
4. Google Answers
5. Experts Exchange
6. Reddit
7. Stack Exchange
8. Answers.Com
9. JustAnswers.Com
10. Ask Ubuntu
11. Blurtit
12. Super User
13. Fluther
14. Answerbag
15. My Reply Is
16. Ask.Fm
17. Blurtit
18. Snippets

Then what would you say?

“But Loy, the user experience is NOT like Quora”

Oh yes… User Experience where you get the following:

• FAKE & Unverifiable view numbers to make you feel millions of people are reading your content
• FAKE & Unreliable upvote numbers to make you feel special that you are VIRAL content writer
• And now QUORA WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD which er….. I wonder what does it even mean? I mean seriously, it is like giving the
  - Oscar Award For Best Movie Of The Year to 200 random movies,
  - Oscar Award for Best Director Of The Year to 200 new directors to encourage them to direct more movies
  - Oscar Award for Best Actor Of The Year to 2,000 actors whom you have never heard off.
  Would it have any value?

So what would happen if this strategy would be adopted by the Oscar Awards?

ANSWER:
People would stop tuning into the channel because it would be meaningless, worthless and pointless. Everyone would know this is useless and has no merit. More like winning a “Miss World” award from your local Church Committee Sponsored event. And to add insult to injury — they gave 100 of them to all the girls who participated in the event.

Imagine that….

So now, why do I say Quora will fail?

1. FLAWED CORE VALUES
   Quora defines itself as a place to share knowledge and better understand the world. Now,
   - Does sharing a biased opinion equate to knowledge?
   -Does sharing a diplomatic & politically correct & crowd pleasing answer sound as ‘place to share knowledge’ to you?
   - Does policing other peoples CORRECT information & collapsing answers sound as a ‘place to share knowledge’?
2. QUORA HAS EXPERTS?
   The ‘experts’ on Quora who have answered 3,000 questions or 6,000 questions — are they actually experts or people suffering from a false sense of security, who are nothing and nobody in the real world but are dying for some recognition?
   Seriously WHICH OTHER PLATFORM do you see someone answering 6,000 answers THAT TOO which are NOT related to their field of expertise?
   For instance answering 120 questions on teenage sex, 270 on cars, 440 on eating out and 45 on Philosophy makes you an expert in what???
   And yes — having a 13 year old sharing tons and tons of answers — so now since he too got over a million views — isn’t he also technically ‘an expert’?
3. SHARING BIASED OPINION IS KNOWLEDGE?
   Lets say I posted an answer stating my experience with crystal healing where I managed to align my chakras and enjoy better health. And I also gave personal anecdotes & examples to strengthen my answer. Is this also considered as ‘knowledge sharing’?
4. TABOLID JUNKIE FORMAT
   What Quora has failed to understand is that its Contributors are kings and it is the reason it exists. However, instead of supporting the real content contributors on its site, they are looking for “Tabloid Junkie Contributors”. I’m pretty sure you know what I mean. Those contributors who submit cute answers, one liners, witty incidents, funny stuff, inspirational or drama-filled answers — they get shot up to heights of popularity & fame. Its like the average user is looking for trashy content instead of intellectual & educative content.
   Want proof?
   Check the answers of the cute & hot writers, those who have dummy positions and claim to be ‘billionaires’ or ‘investors’. Read their answers and see if what I am saying is right or wrong.
5. QUORA — A DANGEROUS PLACE TO DESTROY YOUR REPUTATION
   Let’s assume I asked one of my friends to post this question “Is Loy Machedo a Fraud?” and I asked him to post it anonymous. Then I asked 5 of my other friends from 5 different countries to write carefully planned answers where they had a horrible, miserable and terrible experience where Loy Machedo cheated them, violated their trust and gave them horrible service. And that too, 3 of them answer this question anonymously and 2 of them answer it with their proper identity. So what kind of a website does this make Quora? Do you think global brands would like to advertise on Quora’s platform when these are the kinds of questions & answers they allow?
6. THE BIGGEST REASON WHY QUORA WILL FAIL….INDIA
   Out of the 190 million monthly users, Quora exploded in its growth because they expanded aggressively in India. And because of this, you have 15 million users ONLY from India (as per https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/quora-statistics/).
   Now before you nod your head and say “see I told you”, consider this:
   1) The Internet in India in the last few months has become cheaper thanks to the super cheap internet packages
   2) The users are mostly youngsters who do not have purchasing power
   3) The majority users are simple ordinary folks — so Quora is a place to ‘feel special’ by sharing opinions, receiving likes, big numbers of ‘views’ for your answer (where you can brag “I received 1 million views)
   4) The majority of these active users want everything “for FREE” which is why they keep reading all these opinions
   5) They upvote or make popular the content that “appeals to them” and not what is true.
   So if I had a company where there are millions of users but no one clicks or provides results to my advertisers who advertise on my website — do you think I will survive in the long run?
   INDIA is a totally different market. It has a totally different eco-system, logic & business sense. Most companies that succeed in other parts of the world fail miserably in India. Why? Because India has a style & substance of operation that is very different to so many other economies. And Quora hasn’t understood this. They can take impressive numbers of NEW users to its advertisers. But after the advertisers spend money once, twice, three times and finally see no results — Quora will lose its hype.
7. QUORA IS A MARKET LEADER — NO WHERE
   When Yahoo Answers was launched in 2005, the Q&A Hype started. However, after a few years, all this hype was no more. Google Answers tried. It failed. So many other website tried but failed miserably. And now Quora is trying to do the same.
   However, what people do not seem to use their head and think is:
   - YAHOO ANSWERS gains more traffic by Search Engines followed by Wikipedia.
   - REDDIT is the Godzilla for User engagement, user loyalty & information authenticity.
   - WIKIPEDIA is the Gold Standard by which Authentic Information is accessed.
   So then what is Quora?
8. WHAT IS QUORA ACTUALLY?
   - Quora DOESN’T tell you the truth.
   - Quora DOESN’T verify the information provided.
   - Quora DOESN’T support correct information BUT which is unpopular
   So what does that make Quora?
   ANSWER — Subjective & popular opinions voted by its limited community of hyperactive users who are teens, trolls & trouble-makers.
9. POLICING, DIGITAL BULLYING & DOUBLE STANDARDS AT ITS WORST
   I want you to try this incredible experiment.
   Get 1,000 people in your group who are willing to do whatever you want. And then target one person you do not like on Quora.
   But this person should be a dedicated contributor of Quora — someone who spends 8 to 14 hours a day contributing content on Quora.
   What you do next is ensure every answer the person puts up, you do the following:
   1) Downvote every answer of his
   2) Put negative statements about this person’s answer in the comments section
   3) Keep reporting every possible answer that is not perfect by choosing the options on Quora ranging from ‘not a good answer’ to ‘incomplete answer’ to ‘joke answer’
   You will be shocked to know — very soon the following will take place:
   1) The content creator will keep having many of his answers collapsed
   2) The content creator will constantly receive emails that he has violated the Quora policies — everything from having bad formatting to his answer not being good enough
   3) The content creator will keep getting a policy violation until the person’s account get blocked & terminated.
   How do I know this?
   Because this has happened not only to me but so many other Quora users. And today they are on Medium.
10. BIGGEST QUESTION AMONG THEM ALL….
    I was a content creator on Quora but who received 1 policy violation per week. Funny thing is that, I am a content creator here on Medium — I haven’t received any policy violation.
    Same guy — same content — why such a different experience?
11. BRAND CATEGORY LEADER
    Let’s use Marketing & Branding Logic Here.
    - Facebook = Social Networking Site
    - Instagram = Photograph Sharing Site
    - Youtube = Videos Sharing Site
    - Spotify = Music Steaming Site
    So now Information….
    Wikipedia = Trust-worthy Information
    Reddit =Information Engagement
    So now where does Quora come in — which category?
    I gave you the list of names in the beginning from Yahoo Answers to Google Answers. Where does Quora come in?
12. WHICH ONE SOUNDS REAL TO YOU?
    My name is Loy Machedo & I am a Content writer for Quora & Medium.
    SAME WRITER + SAME CONTENT BUT….
    - VIEWS
    Medium — 1,000 views per month.
    Youtube — 1,000 views per month.
    Website — 1,000 views per month
    Quora — 6 Million views per month
    - FANS & FOLLOWERS
    Medium — 100 new followers per month.
    Youtube — 100 new followers per month.
    Website — 100 new followers per month
    Quora — 10,000 new followers per month
    So which one sounds real to you my friend?
13. THE WALTER LEWIN INCIDENT
    MIT professor Walter Hendrik Gustav Lewin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin) is a Dutch astrophysicist and former professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lewin earned his doctorate in nuclear physics in 1965 at the Delft University of Technology and was a member of MIT’s physics faculty for 43 years beginning in 1966 until his retirement in 2009.

He was asked his question on Quora:
“I am one light years away from Earth what should I do to get back to earth?”
Professor Walter Lewin responded “Pray”

And because of this answer he was slapped with a ban on Quora.
Can you imagine this?
Can you believe AN MIT PROFESSOR was slapped on the wrist BECAUSE he gave an answer?
How does it feel being slapped on your wrists repeatedly by some moderator who reacts to a group of trolls because you refused to dance the dance with them?

If an MIT Professor can be slapped by a BAN on Quora for a one word answer like ‘pray’ and the moderators can disrespect, disregard & dishonor a person’s lifetime of contributions because of its policies —
Do you think such a website, brand and business will survive the test of time?

CONCLUSION

Personally, it is all about using Common Sense, Foresight & Business Intuition.

• Ask.Fm got destroyed for the same reason.
• Yahoo Answers lost its reputation for the same reason.
• Google Answers failed for the same reason
• NONE of the Q&A websites succeeded for the same reason
• And Quora is moving in the same direction for the EXACT SAME REASON.

Q&A websites cannot and will not survive in the long run. And maybe that is why Quora will once again try to raise money from its share holders.

These kinds of websites promise a lot of hope, get launched with great fan fare but eventually bow down to Teenagers, Trolls & Trouble Makers. Because end of the day, that is the only place in the world of Q&A where you get high user engagement.

Because THINK — Just THINK for a minute.

• If you REALLY wanted knowledge,
• If you REALLY wanted to learn,
• If you REALLY wanted to reliable, reputed & ranked content

Would you go to a website where teens, trouble makers & trolls swarm in abundance like Quora?

Or would you go to a websites like Reddit & Wikipedia which have earned, proved & stood the test of time?

The ONLY people who admire Quora are the users who have the so called ‘millions’ of views on Quora, hundreds of thousands of followers on Quora and who are always on Quora. And they are Quora believers.

However, outside the tiny Quora website, there are BILLIONS of users who do not use Quora, do not know about Quora and will never endorse Quora. For them Quora is a place where you just check or read a few answers and log out.

For the statistics that Quora brags about “160 million users”, all you have to do is log in (since Quora makes it mandatory to log in from your FB or Google account) and suddenly you too become another ‘statistic’ or ‘view’ or ‘user’ for Quora. And this data is used to market and promote its website.

But this doesn’t mean anything to where the life-blood of a business is concerned — the money, the revenue & the actual ROI for the investor.

Quora is another website that hyped itself up. But now will fight hard to prove its place in the world.

My logic is simply this.
If so many new websites failed
If Yahoo — a once Billion Dollar Company failed.
If Google — a Multi-Billion Dollar Company failed
You seriously think, a startup like Quora whose actual users are hyperactive teens — will dominate the FREE knowledge sharing economy where Wikipedia & Reddit Dominate?

I leave this logical conclusion in your hands.

Loy Machedo