# Pondr (2014 – 2018)

- URL: https://girisimcikafasi.com/en/startup-graveyard/pondr/
- Sector: Social media
- Country: Turkey
- Total funding: $1 million
- Cause of closure: Lost to competitors

## What did it do?

Pondr was a social networking app founded by Aziz Akgül, who had worked at a technology-focused investment fund abroad. It had an Instagram-like design. Its key feature was that users could place two images side by side and ask people in their network which one was better.

## Why did it shut down?

According to a Digital Age report citing the Turkish daily Hürriyet, Pondr's distinctive feature, the visual poll, gradually appeared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the form of similar polling features. Once the giant platforms where users already spent their time offered the same function, there was no reason left to go to Pondr. The app's traffic steadily declined. In the end it was removed from the app stores, and its closure was announced in 2018. It appears that a product built on a single feature is defenceless once that feature is copied by big rivals (interpretation).

## The story

Before stepping into entrepreneurship, Aziz Akgül worked at a technology-focused investment fund abroad. In 2014 he drew on that experience to build his own product: Pondr. Taking its name from the English word for thinking deeply, the app came with an Instagram-like design. On Sosyal Garaj, a programme published by Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, in February 2014, Akgül talked about his move from fund management to entrepreneurship and about Pondr.

What Pondr promised was simple. Users placed two images side by side and asked others in their network which one was better. In this way an everyday choice could turn into a small vote involving their followers.

The start-up's most prominent backer was the Turkish actor Halit Ergenç, a relative of Akgül's. According to a report in Hürriyet, Ergenç invested $1 million in the app. At the 2014 launch event, Ergenç listed the shortcomings of networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, said that Pondr filled those gaps and predicted that it would soon become a network used all over the world. Ergenç's claim was clear: “It will compete with the global giants.”

But the global giants did not wait. Over time, similar polling features were added to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The feature that set Pondr apart had found its way into the apps users already opened every day. According to Digital Age, Pondr's traffic then steadily declined and the app was removed from the app stores. In April 2018 came the news that the app had closed.

Pondr's four-year story shows the fragility of social networks built on a single clever feature. When the big platforms like an idea, they can add it to their own products within a few months and deliver it to millions of users with a single update.

## Lessons

- If your product amounts to a single feature, it is only a matter of time before the giant platforms copy it.
- Backing from a famous investor brings attention, but what keeps users is the product itself.
- Before setting out to compete with global giants, ask yourself why they would leave room for you.

## Sources

- [The social networking app Halit Ergenç invested in has closed (in Turkish)](https://digitalage.com.tr/halit-ergencin-yatirim-yaptigi-sosyal-ag-uygulamasi-kapandi/)
- [This week's guest on Sosyal Garaj: Aziz Akgül, who moved from investment fund management to entrepreneurship (in Turkish)](https://webrazzi.com/2014/02/04/sosyal-garaj-aziz-akgul-pondr/)