Predictify, a prediction market that launched back in 2007, is closing its doors. The service allowed users to vote on potential outcomes for current news stories (it likened itself to a “fantasy sports for everything else”). Users could have their accuracy measured across multiple polls, both on the site’s central hub and on partner sites, and the most clairvoyant of them were featured on the Predictify leaderboard.
Last year, the site seemed like it was starting to pick up steam: by summer 2008, it had forged partnerships with The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and it subsequently got CBS News as well. News sites liked Predictify because it could potentially increase reader engagement. Along with its media partnerships, Predictify also offered “Premium Questions”, which allowed businesses and market researchers to pose questions to the Predictify user base for a fee. The most accurate users would receive a portion of the money generated by the Premium Questions, and marketers were entitled to all of the resulting data (including demographics).
The site has posted the following:
Due to the tough economic climate, we are planning to cease operations and shut down the company in the near future. As such, we are no longer approving or scoring questions and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have an account balance of $20 or more, please visit your account page and enter your withdrawal information by 11:59pm on August 31, 2009 to receive payment.
We sincerely enjoyed building and operating Predictify, and we’re glad that you could be a part of it.
The Predictify Team
Predictify has been added to the Deadpool.
