It's again, folks, it's time to say goodbye to a social networking service from days gone by.
After the shuttering of Klout earlier this year, now Path, Facebook's rival, is closing its doors, according to an announcement made today. (Yes, you may be surprised to learn that Path was still alive).
The eight-year service will close in a month, on October 18, but it will be removed from the App Store and Google Play on October 1. The remaining users have until October 18 to download a copy of their data, which can be done here.
Path was founded by former Facebook product manager Dave Morin, and former Napster duo Dustin Mierau and Shawn Fanning . The company burst onto the scene in 2010 with a mobile social network application that was visually pleasing and, most importantly, limited to only 50 friends per user. That positioned him as a more private alternative to Facebook with some additional design bells and whistles, although the restriction of friends was lifted and then eliminated altogether.
At its highest point, the service had around 15 million users and once raised money at a valuation of $ 500 million. In fact, Google tried to buy it for $ 100 million when it was only a few months old. In total, the startup raised $ 55 million from investors that included important Silicon Valley names like Index, Kleiner Perkins and Redpoint.
Facebook finally defeated Path, but it stole several features from its smaller rival
But it seems to have faded away, and social networks are a difficult place when you're not Facebook, which today has more than 1.5 billion users assets and elements aggressively "borrowed" from Path's design in his day.
The Path Path got worse and the much publicized start lost staff, users and momentum (and user data). The company tried to launch a separate application for businesses and connected users – Path Talk – but that did not work and finally was sold to Korea's Kakao, a messaging and Internet giant, in an undisclosed deal in 2015 . Kakao bought the application because it was popular in Indonesia the fourth largest population in the world where Path had four million users, and the Korean company was making an important move for that market, which is the largest economy in the Southeast Asian and a growing market for Internet users.
However, Path has not started in the last three years and now Kakao discards it completely.
"It is with deep regret that we announce that we will stop providing our beloved service, Path, we started Path in 2010 as a small team of passionate and experienced designers and engineers. Over the years we have tried to design our mission: through of technology and design we intend to be a source of happiness, meaning and connection with our users, "the company said in a statement.
Thanks Aulia [19659012]