档案库 · 消费应用 · 市场决策 · 2019–2023
IRL 的 2 亿美元活动聊天独角兽在 95% 的用户被证明是机器人后倒闭
活动和群聊应用 IRL 融资超 2 亿美元，估值约 11 亿美元（软银领投），但在 2023 年 6 月因调查发现 95% 的用户是机器人而关闭。
IRL
做的是什么生意
IRL was a US social network combining group messaging, event discovery and calendars for the under-18s and young adults who had left Facebook, carrying no revenue when it raised its 2021 unicorn round.
起因
Founded around 2019 by Abraham Shafi, IRL ("in real life") bet that young people still wanted to do things together, just not inside Facebook. By mid-2021 the two-year-old startup said it was finding early traction mainly with under-18s in the US and had facilitated over 1 billion messages in barely a year, growing inside Snapchat, Roblox and TikTok rather than through paid marketing. "We're building Facebook groups and events for the generation that doesn't use Facebook," Shafi told The Verge.
经过
In June 2021 SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $170M Series C that put IRL past a $1.1B valuation on roughly 12M monthly users and no revenue, taking total funding beyond $200M. Shafi told The Verge the goal was a "super messaging social network" with the opportunity to "build WeChat for the rest of the world," and the round set up a creator fund paying up to $100,000 per city for people to organize real-life events. "The pressure is to become a global phenomena as quickly as possible," he said. Doubt surfaced in 2022, when employees questioned Shafi's claim of 20M monthly active users; in early 2023 a former employee said he had been fired after voicing concerns that many users were bots, and in April 2023 Shafi resigned as CEO. The SEC had already opened an investigation into whether the company violated securities laws in portraying its business performance to investors.
结果
A board investigation concluded that 95% of IRL's users were "automated or from bots," and a majority of shareholders judged the company's prospects unsustainable. IRL announced its shutdown in June 2023; by then it had shrunk from a peak of about 100 employees a year earlier, with Founders Fund, Goodyear Capital and Floodgate among the burned investors.
背景
IRL 是一家美国社交网络，结合群聊、活动发现和日历功能，明确瞄准那些已停止使用 Facebook 的青少年和年轻人。它由 Abraham Shafi 于 2019 年左右创立，声称在不到一年时间里促成了超过 10 亿条消息，并表示其用户群主要集中在美国未成年人，他们通过 Snapchat、Roblox 和 TikTok 而非付费广告发现该应用。
2021 年 6 月，软银愿景基金 2 领投 1.7 亿美元 C 轮融资，使 IRL 估值超过 11 亿美元，月活跃用户约 1200 万，无收入，总融资额超过 2 亿美元。Shafi 公开表示目标是"超级消息社交网络"——"为世界其他地方打造微信"——该轮融资还资助了一个创作者计划，为每个城市组织真实活动的组织者支付最高 10 万美元。他告诉 The Verge："压力在于尽快成为全球现象。"
崩盘始于指标本身。2022 年，员工开始怀疑 Shafi 声称的月活 2000 万；2023 年初，一名前员工表示自己因提出许多用户可能是机器人的担忧而被解雇，2023 年 4 月 Shafi 在 SEC 调查是否向投资者歪曲业务表现之际辞去 CEO 职务。随后董事会调查发现 95% 的用户是"自动化或机器人"，多数股东认为公司前景不可持续。
IRL 于 2023 年 6 月宣布关闭，此前已从一年前约 100 名员工的峰值缩减。2023 年 8 月，Fortune 报道软银起诉 IRL 索赔 1.5 亿美元，创业公司创始人公开表示，建立在虚假增长基础上的隔夜独角兽是 2020-22 年融资热潮的后遗症。IRL 从未成为微信；它成了增长数字无人审计直至为时已晚的警示故事。
这件事要成立，得有什么
- 切入点看起来真实：面向后 Facebook 一代的活动加群聊确实有早期吸引力，在不到一年时间里超过 10 亿条消息，美国青少年用户自发加入。
- 该轮融资自身逻辑要求不可能的速度——在没有收入的情况下获得独角兽估值，产生了"尽快成为全球现象"的压力，奖励任何看起来像增长的数字。
- 月活 2000 万的说法没有区分人类和机器人的控制措施；提出质疑的员工被解雇，因此谎言不断累积，直到 SEC 调查迫使董事会调查。
- 董事会发现 95% 的用户是自动化，一夜之间将融资故事变成欺诈故事：股东认为前景不可持续，公司几天内关闭。
可借鉴之处
当增长说法承载九位数估值时，对这些说法的核算最终会成为公司本身：没有人能审计的指标会把融资故事变成欺诈调查，然后关门大吉。
后续进展
IRL 在董事会发现 95% 的用户是自动化或机器人后，于 2023 年 6 月停止运营。Shafi 已于 2023 年 4 月因用户数量膨胀的指控辞去 CEO 职务，SEC 正在调查该公司如何向投资者描述其表现。大约一年前高峰期，IRL 约有 100 名员工；除软银外，投资者还包括 Founders Fund、Goodyear Capital 和 Floodgate。2023 年 8 月，Fortune 报道软银起诉 IRL 索赔 1.5 亿美元。截至 2026-09-05 爬取，资料中没有记录后续运营。
资料来源
- A messaging app startup that raised $200M from SoftBank and others is shutting down because 95% of its users were fake
- IRL is a new social network taking on Facebook groups
- A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
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