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It was hard to share jokes online
Back in 2008, Ray Chan, the co-founder of 9GAG, realized that it was hard for people to share jokes online as they had to mail them to others. Facebook wasn’t popular in Hong Kong and so there was no platform for sharing jokes easily.
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Ray Chan created a personal solution
Ray Chan decided to create a platform to solve his personal problem. According to his words, he and his team never expected 9GAG to be that big.
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9GAG joined the 500 startups program
According to Wikipedia, 9GAG joined the 500 startups program.
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The team worked on different startups
The team behind 9GAG worked on different startups hoping that one of them works.
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9GAG participated in Y Combinator’s incubator
9GAG participated in Y Combinator’s incubator program. Following that, its user base increased to 70 million unique visitors per month. (See How Zappos Started?)
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The founders dumped the other startups
When the founders realized that 9GAG was growing, they stopped working on all other projects and become focused on it.
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In 2012, 9GAG raised $2.8 million
In July 2012, 9GAG raised $2.8 million from Silicon Valley-based venture capital.
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9GAG received another $2.8 million
In August 2012, 9GAG received another $2.8 million of funding from different venture capitalists. (See How Hotmail started?)
