#Fail:Rdio
Rdio 2008–2015
California — USA
Founders — Janus Friis, Niklas Zennstorm and Carter Adamson
Raised $127.7 M
Rdio was a digital music service provider that tried to reinvent the way people discover, listen to and share music.
Main reasons for failure
Competition: Rdio was not as successful to market and distribute their service like competitors like Spotify
User Acquisition: Rdio only had a paid subscription while the competitors used a freemium model with advertising that attracted more users. They tried a freemium model in 2013, but it was already too late
Talent: Rdio suffered from talent retention. One example was that it did not have a dedicated CMO for more than a couple months at a time.
Competitive Advantage: Their differentiating features were not differentiating enough.
Design: Rdio was the forefront of the streaming services and had an incredible UX/UI, but this, unfortunately, led them to focus on smaller details and that got in the way of the bigger picture.
Nowadays
Janus Friis is Co-Founder at Starship Technologies a company that aims to revolutionize the delivering market by using drones.
Niklas Zennstorm is the CEO and Partners of Atomico, a venture capital firm
Carter Adamson was the CEO and co-founder of Sum and now he is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atomico.
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