UPDATE 2/18: CEO Rus Yusupov on Tuesday that he "spent the weekend on the phone finding a new buyer and do right by everyone.
We have found a new home for HQ, with a company that wants to keep it running.
All employees, contractors and players are top priority.
Severance will be paid and you will be able to cash out.
"Not a done deal yet, but I’m optimistic.
In its new home, we should expect HQ to go through some changes, especially to cover expenses, and be less buggy."
He did not elaborate on the buyer; saying only that there is "more to come."
Original Story:
HQ Trivia is shuttering its live gaming platform as a deal to inject the business with cash fell through.
It will cease operations and lay off all employees, CNN reports.
Arriving in late 2017, HQ Trivia achieved global success quickly thanks to cash payouts to winners.
Yet its community soon started to shrink, leaving parent company HQ to test different strategies.
HQ tried to regain momentum by rolling out spin-offs, but most users didn't return to the platform.
Behind the scenes, leadership struggled to chart a path toward profitability.
Prizes are needed to reward players, and HQ depended on sponsors to supply either cash or items.
In-app purchases also weren't generating enough sales revenue to cover HQ's expenses.
Finally, its leadership decided to explore an acquisition.
The deal between HQ and "an established business" could've closed over the weekend, but an internal email revealed the potential acquisition collapsed at the last minute and existing investors didn't step forward with additional funding.
Without any outside support, HQ couldn't afford to stay online any longer.
Effective immediately, HQ Trivia and its related spin-offs are offline.
HQ will now dissolve after less than three years of serving mobile-based contests to users around the world.
Co-founder and CEO Rus Yusupov reflected on HQ's run in a tweet.
"With HQ we showed the world the future of TV.
We didn't get to where we hoped but we did stretch the world's imagination for what's possible on our smartphones," .
"Thanks to everyone who helped build this and thanks for playing."
Yusupov designed HQ Trivia with Colin Kroll, who died of a drug overdose in December 2018.
Both also co-founded Vine.
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In the final contest, co-hosts Matt Richards and Anna Roisman celebrated HQ Trivia's existence by showering each other with champagne.
Players, meanwhile, didn't compete for large prizes.
Hundreds of HQ Trivia players split $5 as the jackpot prize, and Richards gave HQ After Dark's winner $5 out of his own pocket.
So clearly HQ got into a disastrous financial situation leading to its demise.
As for , he left HQ in 2019 to co-host DAZN's ChangeUp.
Both the iOS and Android apps are still available, but they're likely to disappear soon.
It's unclear what will be done with HQ's assets next.
