Quora, established in 2009 and launched publicly in 2010, is a popular social question-and-answer platform. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Quora allows users to pose questions, provide answers, and engage in collaborative editing. By 2020, the website garnered a monthly user base of 300 million.
June 2009: Co-founders Establish Quora
Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever, former Facebook employees, co-founded Quora in June 2009.
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2009: Quora's Public Debut and Early Praise
Quora was first made available to the public in 2009 and quickly garnered praise for its intuitive interface and the high quality of answers provided by its users.
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March 2010: Quora Valued at $86 Million
In March 2010, Quora, Inc. was valued at $86 million.
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June 21, 2010: Quora's Public Launch
Quora was made available to the public on June 21, 2010.
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December 2010: Quora Experiences Traffic Spikes Due to Rapid Growth
By late December 2010, Quora's user base had grown so rapidly that the website experienced spikes in visitors five to ten times its usual load, leading to initial difficulties in handling the increased traffic.
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2010: Quora Reviewed by Media
In 2010, Quora was extensively reviewed by media, with Robert Scoble noting its combination of Twitter and Facebook attributes.
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June 2011: Quora Revamps Website Navigation and Usability
Quora implemented a significant redesign in June 2011, focusing on improving navigation and overall usability. Co-founder Adam D'Angelo drew comparisons to Wikipedia, highlighting that the changes were based on lessons learned during the website's period of remarkable growth six months prior.
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2011: Quora Community Includes Prominent Figures
As of 2011, the Quora community included answers from well-known individuals such as Jimmy Wales, Richard A. Muller, Clayton C. Anderson, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Adrián Lamo, along with various experts in their fields.
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2011: Quora Criticized by Robert Scoble
In 2011, Robert Scoble criticized Quora, calling it a "horrid service for blogging" and not substantially better than other Q&A websites.
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August 2012: Quora Stops Showing Question Views in Feeds
In August 2012, Quora ceased showing question views in user feeds after blogger Ivan Kirigin highlighted privacy concerns about followers seeing his activity, including viewed questions.
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September 2012: Charlie Cheever Steps Down as Co-operator
Charlie Cheever, co-founder of Quora, transitioned to an advisory role in September 2012. Adam D'Angelo assumed a higher degree of control over the company.
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November 2012: Quora Introduces Top Writers Program
In November 2012, Quora launched the Top Writers Program to recognize and incentivize valuable content contributions from users. About 150 writers were chosen annually, receiving gifts and exclusive event invitations.
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January 2013: Quora Introduces Blogging Platform
Quora launched a dedicated blogging platform in January 2013, empowering users to share content beyond answering questions.
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March 2013: Quora Implements Full-Text Search
In March 2013, Quora rolled out a full-text search feature for questions and answers on its website, making it easier for users to find relevant information.
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May 2013: Quora's Usage Metrics Triple
Quora experienced significant growth, reporting that its usage metrics had tripled year-over-year in May 2013. The full-text search functionality was also extended to mobile devices later that month.
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November 2013: Quora Launches "Stats" Feature
In November 2013, Quora introduced a new feature called "Stats," allowing users to track detailed statistics related to their content. Users could see how many people viewed, upvoted, and shared their questions and answers.
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April 2014: Quora Raises $80 Million in Funding
Quora secured $80 million in funding from Tiger Global in April 2014 at a valuation of $900 million. The company also participated in the Summer 2014 Y Combinator batch, despite being referred to as "the oldest Y-Combinator ever."
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2014: Inconsistency in Moderation Criticized
In 2014, Quora was criticized for inconsistent moderation, which allowed the proliferation of harmful prejudices and harassment, particularly against female users.
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December 2015: Quora Introduces and Later Removes Question Details
Quora initially allowed users to add descriptions to questions, starting in December 2015. However, this feature was later discontinued in August 2017 and replaced with an optional field for source URLs to provide context.
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March 2016: Quora Acquires Parlio
Quora acquired Parlio, an online community website, in March 2016.
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April 2016: Quora Begins Limited Advertising Rollout
Quora initiated a limited rollout of advertising on its platform in April 2016, with Uber being the first company to place an ad.
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October 2016: Quora Launches Spanish Version
Quora expanded its reach by launching a Spanish language version of its website in October 2016.
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2016: Quora's Decision to Initially Avoid Ads
Until 2016, Quora chose not to display ads on its platform, believing that advertisements could negatively impact user experience.
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February 2017: Quora Announces Changes to Anonymity Feature
On February 9, 2017, Quora announced revisions to its anonymity feature, decoupling anonymous questions and edits from user accounts. This change, which took effect on March 20, 2017, aimed to enhance accountability and address concerns related to anonymous contributions.
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March 2017: Quora Implements New Anonymity Policy
Quora's updated anonymity policy went into effect on March 20, 2017. The new policy introduced anonymous edit links, providing a dedicated channel for editing anonymously posted questions and answers.
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April 2017: Quora's User Base Reaches 190 Million, Raises Series D Funding
Quora's monthly unique visitor count grew to 190 million in April 2017, a significant increase from 100 million the previous year. The company also secured Series D funding at a valuation of $1.8 billion.
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May 2017: Quora Introduces German and Italian Beta Versions
Quora continued its international expansion in May 2017 by introducing beta versions of its platform in German and Italian.
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August 2017: Quora Replaces Question Details with Source URLs
In August 2017, Quora discontinued the question details feature, replacing it with an optional field for providing a source URL. This change aimed to encourage users to ask more descriptive questions.
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August 2017: Removal of Question Details Criticized
In August 2017, Quora faced criticism for removing question details, which users claimed limited the ability to submit personal and complex questions.
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September 2017: Quora Launches Japanese Beta Version
Quora launched a beta version of its platform in Japanese in September 2017.
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April 2018: Quora Expands to More Languages
Quora launched beta versions in Hindi, Portuguese, and Indonesian in April 2018.
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September 2018: Quora Announces Plans for Additional Language Versions
In September 2018, Quora shared its plans to further expand its language offerings, with versions in Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch in the pipeline.
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September 2018: Quora Reaches 300 Million Monthly Unique Visitors
Quora reported reaching 300 million monthly unique visitors in September 2018, solidifying its position as a major platform for knowledge sharing. However, the company acknowledged that it hadn't achieved the same level of mainstream cultural impact as platforms like Twitter.
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December 2018: Quora Experiences Data Breach Affecting 100 Million Users
Quora disclosed a significant data breach in December 2018, impacting approximately 100 million user accounts. The compromised data included personal information, such as names, email addresses, and encrypted passwords, as well as content data.
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2018: Quora's Revenue and Profitability Challenges
Despite its growth and valuation, Quora faced challenges in generating revenue and achieving profitability. In 2018, the company generated $20 million in revenue but was not yet profitable, leading some investors to express concerns about its financial performance.
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2018: Quora Hacked
In 2018, Quora experienced a hacking incident that resulted in the loss of user information to hackers.
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2018: Potential for Chinese Influence on Quora
In 2018, the People's Daily reported on the potential for Chinese citizens to use Quora to promote China's image abroad.
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May 2019: Quora Valued at $2 Billion, Secures $60 Million Investment
Quora's valuation reached $2 billion in May 2019. The company also secured a $60 million investment round led by Valor Equity Partners. Despite its substantial valuation, Quora was still in the process of establishing a consistent revenue stream and achieving profitability.
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December 2019: Quora Opens International Engineering Office and Launches Multiple Language Versions
In December 2019, Quora announced the opening of its first international engineering office in Vancouver, focusing on machine learning and other engineering functions. Additionally, Quora launched versions of its platform in Arabic, Gujarati, Hebrew, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu.
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2019: No Top Writers Selected
In 2019, Quora did not select any new English-language Top Writers for its Top Writers Program.
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2019: Quora's Gradual Increase in Advertising
Over the next few years, Quora steadily increased the presence of ads on its site, though Vox noted in 2019 that the ads were "still relatively sparse."
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January 2020: Quora Layoffs
In January 2020, Quora laid off an undisclosed number of employees at its San Francisco Bay Area and New York offices due to financial reasons.
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June 2020: Quora Permits Permanent Remote Working
In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo announced that the company would permanently allow remote working.
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2020: Quora Reaches 300 Million Monthly Users
By 2020, Quora's website was visited by 300 million users each month.
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2020: Quora Used for Disinformation
In 2020, Ben Nimmo noted Quora's popularity for creating fake accounts and planting disinformation.
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2020: No Top Writers Selected
In 2020, Quora once again did not select any new English-language Top Writers for its Top Writers Program.
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April 2021: Quora Retires English-Language Top Writers Program
In April 2021, Quora officially retired its English-language Top Writers Program, which had not selected any new members in 2019 or 2020. The program will continue in other languages.
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April 19, 2021: Quora Rescinds Real Name Policy
On April 19, 2021, Quora rescinded its Real Name Policy, which previously required users to register with their real names rather than pseudonyms. This was initially intended to add credibility to answers.
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December 2022: Poe Announced
In December 2022, Quora announced the development of Poe, a chatbot feature that serves as a web frontend for various large language models.
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February 3, 2023: Poe Chatbot Launched
On February 3, 2023, Quora launched Poe, a chatbot feature serving as a web frontend for various large language models.
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March 4, 2023: Poe Available to Desktop Browsers
On March 4, 2023, Poe, the chatbot feature developed by Quora, was made available to desktop browsers.
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2023: Meta Reports Chinese Influence Operation
In 2023, Meta Platforms reported that Chinese law enforcement's Spamouflage influence operation targeted Quora.
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2024: Negative Review by Jacob Stern in The Atlantic
In 2024, Jacob Stern of The Atlantic criticized Quora as a "state of thriving failure," citing an overabundance of junk questions and uneven answers, along with excessive advertising and clickbait content.
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