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Path was once touted as the next Facebook: a social network built from its inception for mobile phones, with a focus on smaller groups. While those ambitions were long vanquished, today the company revealed that it will soon be gone forever.
The app will be removed from Apple’s App Store and Google Play on October 1, and the service will no longer be accessible from October 18, according to a blog post that was first spotted by TechCrunch. All Path-related customer service channels will be shuttered on November 15.
image: fotolia.com
Rise of Path
Founded out of San Francisco in 2010 by former Facebook exec Dave Morin and Napster creator Shawn Fanning, Path raised nearly $70 million in funding from big-name investors, including Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Greylock Partners.
Path originally differentiated itself from other social networks by limiting interactions to just 50 contacts, though this was later expanded to 150 and then 500. At its peak, Path claimed more than 10 million registered users, though its growth in its home market had stalled, which led South Korean messaging company Daum Kakao to snap up the servince in 2015, thanks in large part to Path’s stronghold in Indonesia, where more than half of its user base was situated.
Path’s downfall was already more or less complete, but today’s news confirms the inevitable. Earlier this year, Dave Morin responded to the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal by revealing that he was considering rebuilding “a better Path,” though nothing has yet come to fruition.
A number of legacy social internet brands have fallen by the wayside this year, including StumbleUpon, which revealed it was closing down after 16 years, and social influence platform klout.
Meanwhile, Path users who want to retrieve a copy of their data can do so by visiting this link and logging in with their Path credentials before October 18.
Author: Paul Sawers
Source: https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/17/social-networking-app-path-will-close-down-october-18/