TEN! - Season 7 - Day 5
Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2021 8:15 pm
TEN! - Season 7 - Day 5
November 5, 2021 (open all weekend)
Spectacular Failures
Below is a list of TEN! companies/products/sites that were once spectacular successes, but eventually became spectacular failures for a variety of reasons.
1- A web browser first released in 1994 was once the dominant browser in terms of usage share. The parent company won an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, but eventually lost the browser war — although not before selling itself off to AOL.
Name the browser.
2- From 2005 to 2008, it was the largest social networking site in the world. Then along came The Facebook.
Name this site.
3- Once the most popular (or a close #2) beer in the US, this brand changed its brewing process in the early 1970s with disastrous results. Next came a failed advertising campaign, followed by a nearly four-month strike, which forced the brand to close the doors to its Milwaukee brewery. The classic formula is still produced today by Pabst Brewing Company.
Name the beer.
4- Their fast-fashion business model, which was based on quick-turnaround designs that could be inexpensively mass produced, proved wildly popular with young customers who didn’t have much money to spend but wanted the latest looks. By 2015, global sales peaked at $4.4 billion, with 480 stores occupying enormous spaces in malls across America. By 2019, the so-called "retail apocalypse" took its toll and the company experienced a 32% drop in global sales, forcing it into bankruptcy protection.
Name the fashion store chain.
5- An airline was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for much of the 20th century. After a tragedy over Scotland, they struggled to survive in the rapidly expanding market and permanently grounded the fleet in 1991.
Name the airline.
6- These personal digital assistants with monochrome screens were launched 1996, but couldn't survive the onslaught of the Blackberry and eventually, smart phones.
Name the product.
7- Although a company developed and patented the first handheld digital camera in 1975, they commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of (film) camera sales in the U.S. As technology progressed, they didn't fully pursue the digital market and the use of films and printing sheets gradually came to a halt. The ignorance of new technology and not adapting to the changing market dynamics initiated their downfall.
Name the company.
8- A theater-subscription service, founded in 2011, played the middleman by buying movie tickets at list price, then giving them to subscribers. The initial hope was that most subscribers wouldn’t actually use the service regularly — like gyms, which use no-show subscribers to financially offset their heavy users. But as it turns out, people like movies more than they like going to the gym. Many of their subscribers who were attracted to the new service by the lower price began using it frequently. When they started losing money on virtually every subscriber, the service then went bankrupt in 2019.
Name the service.
9- Released in the mid-2010s, a company's optical head-mounted display raised concerns regarding the intrusion on privacy, and the etiquette and ethics of using the device in public and recording people without their permission. In spite of all that, its failure was a result of bad marketing.
Name the product.
10- Originally called “DiscoVision”, this product became a popular home video format in the 1980s and 90s. Some 16.8 million of these players were sold worldwide, but by 2001, it had been completely replaced by DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as media was no longer being produced.
Name the product.
No points bonus: In the movie The Aviator, which actor played the president of the company in question 5?
November 5, 2021 (open all weekend)
Spectacular Failures
Below is a list of TEN! companies/products/sites that were once spectacular successes, but eventually became spectacular failures for a variety of reasons.
1- A web browser first released in 1994 was once the dominant browser in terms of usage share. The parent company won an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, but eventually lost the browser war — although not before selling itself off to AOL.
Name the browser.
2- From 2005 to 2008, it was the largest social networking site in the world. Then along came The Facebook.
Name this site.
3- Once the most popular (or a close #2) beer in the US, this brand changed its brewing process in the early 1970s with disastrous results. Next came a failed advertising campaign, followed by a nearly four-month strike, which forced the brand to close the doors to its Milwaukee brewery. The classic formula is still produced today by Pabst Brewing Company.
Name the beer.
4- Their fast-fashion business model, which was based on quick-turnaround designs that could be inexpensively mass produced, proved wildly popular with young customers who didn’t have much money to spend but wanted the latest looks. By 2015, global sales peaked at $4.4 billion, with 480 stores occupying enormous spaces in malls across America. By 2019, the so-called "retail apocalypse" took its toll and the company experienced a 32% drop in global sales, forcing it into bankruptcy protection.
Name the fashion store chain.
5- An airline was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for much of the 20th century. After a tragedy over Scotland, they struggled to survive in the rapidly expanding market and permanently grounded the fleet in 1991.
Name the airline.
6- These personal digital assistants with monochrome screens were launched 1996, but couldn't survive the onslaught of the Blackberry and eventually, smart phones.
Name the product.
7- Although a company developed and patented the first handheld digital camera in 1975, they commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of (film) camera sales in the U.S. As technology progressed, they didn't fully pursue the digital market and the use of films and printing sheets gradually came to a halt. The ignorance of new technology and not adapting to the changing market dynamics initiated their downfall.
Name the company.
8- A theater-subscription service, founded in 2011, played the middleman by buying movie tickets at list price, then giving them to subscribers. The initial hope was that most subscribers wouldn’t actually use the service regularly — like gyms, which use no-show subscribers to financially offset their heavy users. But as it turns out, people like movies more than they like going to the gym. Many of their subscribers who were attracted to the new service by the lower price began using it frequently. When they started losing money on virtually every subscriber, the service then went bankrupt in 2019.
Name the service.
9- Released in the mid-2010s, a company's optical head-mounted display raised concerns regarding the intrusion on privacy, and the etiquette and ethics of using the device in public and recording people without their permission. In spite of all that, its failure was a result of bad marketing.
Name the product.
10- Originally called “DiscoVision”, this product became a popular home video format in the 1980s and 90s. Some 16.8 million of these players were sold worldwide, but by 2001, it had been completely replaced by DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as media was no longer being produced.
Name the product.
No points bonus: In the movie The Aviator, which actor played the president of the company in question 5?
