Extensive SWOT Analysis of Quora – A Social Question & Answer Website

In our previous article, we had done an in-depth SWOT Analysis of one of the leading brands in the media, and entertainment sector, Yahoo. In this article, we will see the SWOT analysis of Quora.

One of the best question and answer websites – Quora is a large people-oriented company, enlisting the services of a large number of people; asking and answering various questions concerning society. It relies on people for content and development. The website has topics and information on over 5 lakhs of different subjects. It is very successful and popular in India and places outside the US.

The company is a market leader all around the world due to its efficient services and strong visibility. In today’s world digital marketing is very important to create a brand image, if you want to learn more about digital marketing and its different attributes do check out Free Digital Marketing Masterclass by Karan Shah the founder and CEO of IIDE.

In this blog, we will learn about the SWOT analysis of Quora, but before that let’s know about the company.

Aditya Shastri - Trainer at IIDE

Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Updated on: Oct 21, 2022

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About Quora

SWOT Analysis of Quora - Quora

Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever, the two Facebook employees in 2009 founded Quora. The purpose to create Quora was to give a platform to the public where they can put their queries related to some research, information and general research. The answers to those questions were submitted by the people who were experts in those fields. When Quora was made available to the public it gathered much praise. The answers submitted by the people or its users were highly appreciated by the experts of the fields. Some users use Quora to add and build their social networks.

By December 2010 the load on the website of Quora was increasing 5 to 10 times its usual load. With passing time the traffic on the website of Quora kept on increasing heavily. By 2018 the website decided to show ads. Till 2018 ads were not shown as it would bring a negative impact on the audience for the people visiting the website. The website kept on growing and evolving. It kept on growing and evolving over the available sites like Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia or Reddit.

Quick Stats on Quora
FounderAdam D’Angelo & Charlie Cheever
Year Founded2009
OriginUnited States
No. of Employees300+
Company TypePrivate
Market CapN/A
Annual Revenue$ 20 Million (2018)
Net Income/ ProfitN/A

SWOT Analysis of Quora - Quora Desktop Website & Mobile Interface
(Quora Desktop Website & Mobile Interface) 


Services by Quora

  • Question & Answer Platform


Competitors of Quora

  • Yahoo!
  • Meta
  • Reddit


SWOT Analysis of
Quora

SWOT Analysis is a useful technique for developing business strategies for both new and current businesses. This simplified methodology is used to assess a company’s competitive standing. SWOT analysis of Quora can help the organization develop effective and efficient business strategies.

To better understand the SWOT analysis of Quora, refer to the infographics below:

SWOT Analysis of Quora - SWOT Infographics of Quora

Below is an extensive guide to the SWOT analysis of Quora.

Strengths of Quora

  • People Friendly Platform: Quora is a company based on people working with people. The greatest strength of the company is its people. It attracts a large audience from around the globe with different languages, cultures and traditions. It is an interesting site that gives a search engine and social network feel to its users.
  • Strong Purpose: The purpose of the site is to give both answers to its users and expand the knowledge about different subjects or how to get proper information on the queries.
  • Equal Rights & Opportunities: Quora is an extremely useful site and it is user friendly providing many opportunities. Every user of Quora has the same rights, equal opportunities, the same privileges from the platform.
  • Powerful User Base: Like the other different competitor apps Quora doesn’t force anybody to download its app to get further information or the answers that are needed by its users. It has a very powerful user base across the globe providing information on topics over 5,00,000.


Weaknesses of Quora

  • No Blogging Platform: Quora is missing out huge on the blogging side. Quora’s user base can contribute a lot of quality content.  All Quora needs to do is revamp its blog publishing platform, separate it a bit from the question and answer platform, and monetise it. 
  • Not Profit Centric: Quora annual revenue is relatively low which is $20 Million only. Quora does run out of money before it becomes profitable and if it is unable to raise more funds. 
  • Relevancy of Answers: Quora has this disadvantage where no one can justify whether the answer to the particular question is correct or not. This led to the circulation of irrelevant information on social platforms. Furthermore, the most popular answers on Quora are not necessarily the most correct answers.
  • Duplication of Questions & Answers: Most of the questions are repeated on Quora through sentence formatting which creates confusion among users.


Opportunities for Quora

  • Revenue Generation: Quora can increase ads and pay users for authorized answers to questions. Users would also love sharing their content and getting paid, while Quora can also make some good money by taking a cut out of the revenue just like Google does.  
  • Decide the Path to Walk On: It should stop being directionless. Quora should decide if it wants to become a knowledge-base-content sharing platform, a dedicated question and answer platform, or a social media platform. It should scale with a pace. It has got a chance to build up its monopoly here, which should not be missed by Quora.
  • Grow with Businesses: Quora provides a high business promotion platform for its users across the globe. After 2018 it has stepped in advertisements, therefore, creating opportunities for different business houses to promote and grow their business. It has an account as, Create Ad account for promotional purposes. This account also allows the user to follow its relevant interests account.
  • Tapping Gaps: Quora could continue growing to become the leading site for Q&A and the main source to get authoritative answers. There are vast topic areas that have not yet been trapped.


Threats to Quora

  • Irrelevant Lawsuits: Recently, Quora got a lawsuit filed from one of the users of Quora regarding Quora banning that users from posting hate speech content on the platform. Quora did right but these kinds of actions are always damaging to an organisation.  
  • Threats to System & Networks: Quora makes no great effort to ensure the verification of the answers or the information available. It makes no effort to check the trustworthiness of the answers and information. Sometimes Quora gets warnings from its users stating threats to their systems and networks. 
  • Fear of Acquisition: Quora could be acquired by some strong body like LinkedIn who already experimented with LinkedIn Answers, to strengthen the reputation and publishing aspects of their business.
  • Strong Competitors: Users prefer Google, Wikipedia, Siri and Cortana above Quora to find relevant and authorized answers to their queries and these platforms are more popular ways to ask and answer questions.

This ends our extensive SWOT analysis of Quora. Let us conclude our learning below.

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To Conclude

Since its origin, Quora has been one of the best internet platforms to get answers to any of your queries. Even after Wikipedia’s & Google’s rise, Quora has kept its position intact and updated its users with quality answers from experts of the field. Because of the dedication and hard work of Quora’s crew, it will be one of the most popular Q&A platforms in the world. 

Talking about the competition where marketing plays a crucial role, taking advantage of technology not merely in this industry in which every other company is focusing on digital marketing to rise ahead of each other. If you have the curiosity to learn you may check out IIDE’s 3 Month Advanced Online Digital Marketing Course to know more.

We hope this blog on the SWOT analysis of Quora has given you a good insight into the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

If you enjoy in-depth company research just like the SWOT analysis of Quora, check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and do share your thoughts on this case study of the SWOT analysis of Quora in the comments section below.

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Author's Note:

My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India.

Practical assignments, case studies & simulations helped the students from this course present this analysis.

Building on this practical approach, we are now introducing a new dimension for our online digital marketing course learners - the Campus Immersion Experience.

If you found this case study helpful, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Aditya Shastri - Trainer at IIDE

Aditya Shastri

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Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Aditya Shastri leads the Business Development segment at IIDE and is a seasoned Content Marketing expert. With over a decade of experience, Aditya has trained more than 20,000 students and professionals in digital marketing, collaborating with prestigious institutions and corporations such as Jet Airways, Godrej Professionals, Pfizer, Mahindra Group, Publicis Worldwide, and many others. His ability to simplify complex marketing concepts, combined with his engaging teaching style, has earned him widespread admiration from students and professionals alike.