In 2021, SoftBank, a prominent Japanese investment firm, propelled IRL, a relatively unknown social media platform, to unicorn status and a total worth of $1.17 billion by injecting more than $170 million. However, it has been revealed that the app fabricated its user figures, with 95 percent of its claimed 20 million user base being non-existent, as initially disclosed by The Information. At the time, SoftBank called the app “an innovative event-based social network” that “allows people to do more together.” However, the company didn’t know there weren’t real people…

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