Bought out

Once the default Q&A layer for programmers; the community-built corpus now mostly feeds AI tools, and new questions have all but stopped.

API paywalls, algorithmic feeds, verification products, and ad load shift surplus toward the operator and advertisers—classic extraction on a still-central public square.

Popular fitness trackers now owned by Google, which made moving your health data into a Google account mandatory.

Default forge for open source: Copilot, Actions minutes, and enterprise tiers monetize workflow lock-in.

Expedia-owned OTA: rewards stamps and merchandising follow the same commission-and-upsell playbook as sister brands.

Photo sharing turned short-video storefront: Reels, ads, and shopping crowd out the people you follow, while Meta's AI and ad systems mine every interaction.

The default résumé graph for many industries, increasingly monetized via feed ads, recruiter tools, and upsells—users are the inventory.

Where local groups find members, but organizers pay more each year and can’t take their member list with them.

Team chat that became the default layer for work comms; switching means migrating channels, bots, and ritualized workflows.

Live-streaming hub owned by Amazon: real community value, but shifting payout rules, storage caps, and ad pressure keep moving the goalposts on streamers.

Default chat for much of the world; phone-number identity and network effects make leaving socially costly, while Meta monetizes the ecosystem around it.

Legacy free mail: heavy ads, pay-to-remove-ad tiers, and brand decay; still used as a durable address by many.

Unmatched library and creator economy, but ad load, Shorts push, and policy swings steadily tilt the experience toward Google’s revenue priorities.

Pro design, photo and layout apps that were famous for one-off pricing; now free under Canva, with AI tools behind Canva’s subscription.

Self-serve events and ticketing—easy for organizers until fees, feature tiers, and payout rules become the product.

The original everything-notebook, now owned by Bending Spoons, with its free plan capped at 50 notes.

A photographers’ community owned by SmugMug, funded by Pro subscriptions; free accounts have been capped at 1,000 photos since 2019.

Designed-to-be-deleted marketing meets roses, boosts, and subscription gates—dating app economics in a nicer skin.

Canonical film/TV metadata within Amazon—indispensable lookups with ads, Prime nudges, and data leverage across commerce and streaming.

The question-driven dating site, now one of Match Group’s brands, with a regulator record on how it handled users’ data.

Social P2P app folded into PayPal: instant transfer fees, crypto and card upsells, and default public feed history (since reined in).

Crowd-sourced traffic navigation, now folded into Google’s maps and ads organisation.

Bing-powered results with a new ad-supported AI answer engine, owned by private equity.

A DRM-free PC game store: you download offline installers and keep them, no launcher required.