Anonymous chat app Yik Yak is shutting down

Barely four years after its inception, anonymous chat app, Yik Yak is shutting down. Yik Yak co-founders, Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington in a blog post didn't explain their reasons for shutting down, but did confirm earlier reports that a "few members" will join Square.

According to an SEC filing issued on April 16th, Square, has agreed to hire several of Yik Yak’s employees and acquire a non-exclusive license to some of the company’s intellectual property for $1 million.

The once popular app had been facing many issues in past couple of years including cyber-bullying and bans from various schools. Apparently, by the end of 2016, user downloads had declined 76 percent versus the same period in 2015, and the company began laying off most of its employees.

Yik Yak is not the first anonymous chat app to hit the road-end. Secret also went out of business in 2015.

According to Business Insider Yik Yak raised more than $73 million in venture capital, but struggled to keep its users as students migrated to other apps like Snapchat.