Introduction to Information Management
IST621 Summer 2014
Research and Reflection on IM Success and Failure
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
Dexi Kong

Success case #1:
Yo, an English slang is now the name of a widely successful app. How it works? Nothing but sending “Yo” to your friends--Stupid but simple. The app, which debuted in April, has been downloaded two million times, according to Or Arbel, the chief executive.

"We Yo with co-workers alerting them that a meeting is starting; I Yo with my wife as a 'hi' during a busy day, I Yo with friends, without any more expectation or need than a Yo back." -- Investor of Yo John Borthwick

As much as $10 million. That is the valuation investors have assigned to the new smartphone app. ere is how it success, from my personal perspective.

Usefulness is the success metric of any technology rather than capabilities. Say, we need alert someone of something. A phone call might be too intrusive or unnecessary, a text message is not noticeable enough, an email may be even more ignorable. Fortunately, now we have Yo, that could help us fill this gap, fill those tiny moments that we don’t want it to be ignored but would rather not bother others by making a phone call.

Technology is meant to simplify people’s life. By using this app, we can save lots of words by simply saying “Yo”. Under certain context, it’s not necessary to “make things so clear”, both the massage deliver and receiver knows what’s going on. Most communication app can do what Yo can do, but Yo really help to simplify our communication and make us realize how easy people can interact with each other. Nobody believes “Yo” can mean that much before this app.

Now, The Yo team are hiring an Android engineer, and a back-end engineer, and has made its API available, with ideas for what other companies could do with the