9gag YC Application

Summer 2012Active

9gag went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2012 batch as a Consumer company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2012
Industry: ConsumerSocial
Team size: 36
Status: Active
Launched: 2012

Founders

Ray ChanFounder/CEO
Chris ChanFounder
Derek ChanFounder/Head of Engineer
Marco FungFounder
Brian YuFounder

What 9gag does

9GAG is the global cross-platform entertainment media network. It is a place for fun, conversation, and engagement. Founded in 2008, 9GAG’s mission is to make the world happier. 9GAG has a total of 150 million global audience with 39 million followers on Facebook, 44 million on Instagram and 15 million on Twitter. Being #1 ranked global social media platform in entertainment & gaming, #1 ranked US's cross-platform video creators, we distribute 2.2 billion social video views on a monthly basis (source: tubular labs). 9GAG.com is #6 most followed brand on Instagram and is a top 200 website globally. 9GAG is backed by: Freestyle Capital, True Ventures, First Round Capital, Greycroft Partners, 500 Startups, Y Combinator and a group of great angel investors in the United States. eg Anthony Soohoo, Benjamin Ling, BoxGroup, Gary Vaynerchuk, James Hong, Kevin Rose, Karl Jacob, Lowercase Capital, Maneesh Arora, Naval Ravikant, Othman Laraki, Philip Kaplan, Rich Chen, Rich Lefurgy, Scott and Cyan Banister, Tim Ferriss.

9gag's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

9gag, Summer 2012 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

9gag

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Make the world happier.

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built 9GAG as a global social media platform where people share and engage with meme culture, entertainment, and fun content. It's a place for conversation and laughter, accessed across multiple platforms, with a large global audience.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We are primarily based in Hong Kong and operate remotely as well. After YC, we intend to keep our base in Hong Kong while expanding our remote team.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Hong Kong is our home and where we started 9gag. Being in Asia connects us to a broad user base and content creators, but our remote setup lets us tap talent worldwide.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real 9gag YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from 9gag's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like 9gag would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.