If you want to understand the early 10s app bubble you really just have to read about Yo
Initially, the application's only function was to send the user's friends the word "yo" as a text and audio notification
Following a wide range of interest from investors, the app received US$1 million in investment, including from Hogeg himself.[4]
In July 2014 the app was also released for Windows Phone.[5] The app was valued at between $5 and $10 million in the same month and received a further $1.5 million in funding.[6]
Arbel stated interest in expanding the app to include more functionality, including a possible feature which could be used by bloggers to send their followers a "yo" with a link to the blog attached whenever they post an update
...
In 2016 the Yo company shut down.
I'm no techie but I feel like Yo came from the same kind of "goofy tech" mindset that gave us CupHolder.exe (the 90s program that just ejected your CD-ROM drive), iBeer (the iphone app that simulated drinking a cold one when you tipped your phone), and Bump (the app that theoretically let you exchange contact info by "fist bumping" two phones together). But Yo debuted in 2014, a few months after Bump shut down -- because nobody was interested in gimmicky software with limited use cases anymore. Yo was a 2006-7 idea trying to make it in the mid 2010s and everyone at the time could immediately tell.
