Last summer, HQ Trivia was one of the hottest new apps around. The live mobile game show thrilled players by giving them the chance to earn real money by answering trivia questions, and drew in massive crowds thanks to celebrity guest hosts like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Unfortunately, HQ Trivia has struggled to maintain its audience, recently laying off around 20 percent of its staff following a failed “mutiny” of CEO Rus Yusupov back in April.
After the death of HQ Trivia co-founder Colin Kroll, Yusupov took control of the company. According to a report by TechCrunch, HQ Trivia staff members didn’t like working for Yusupov, as he let the app “stagnate,” leading to its steep decline in popularity.
At the time, there were 35 HQ Trivia staff members, and 20 of them signed a petition to remove Yusupov from his position as CEO. The petition was never formally presented to the HQ Trivia board, and when Yusupov found out about it, he fired the leaders behind it. This in turn saw more people quit working for the app. The HQ Trivia board was reportedly looking for a new CEO, but it’s unclear if they were successful in their efforts.
This failed “mutiny” and the subsequent staff departures came before the most recent round of layoffs. The HQ Trivia app is now being run by less than 30 people, as its popularity continues to decline. But instead of trying to grow its audience again, it seems HQ Trivia is looking to further monetize those who are still playing.
HQ Trivia has announced a new $10 per month subscription plan that would allow users to play the HQ Words game every day of the week (it was recently changed to Tuesdays and Thursdays only), with potentially larger prize pools. This subscription plan joins the app’s other attempts at monetization, like selling extra lives for players to use in games.
Whether or not HQ Trivia’s attempts to further monetize itself will be successful remains to be seen. The live mobile game show has been hit with a series of setbacks, even losing its original host Scott Rogowsky, and it’s unclear if it will ever be able to bounce back.
HQ Trivia is out now for iOS and Android mobile devices.
Source: TechCrunch
