RIP: Twitpic Closes, For Good This Time
Twitpic, one of the most popular third party Twitter add-ons, is closing following alleged pressure from the social network.
Twitpic, which rose to fame as one of the earliest ways to integrate photos into Twitter, announced today that they will be shutting down in a few weeks. And this time, they’re serious.
The company announced their impending shutdown in September, but reversed course when it looked like they were about to be acquired. Well, that acquisition fell through, and the company has formally announced that Twitpic will be inaccessible after October 25. “Agreeable terms could not be met” was all the company offered by way of explanation for the failure.
According to a public statement released by Twitpic founder Noah Everett, the closure was prompted by Twitter’s demand that the company either withdraw its trademark application for “Twitpic” or lose access to Twitter’s API (which, of course, Twitpic’s whole business is based on). Everett added, “We do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours. Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic.”
Because Twitpic, along with rival services such as ImageShack’s YFrog, was one of the earliest services enabling users to integrate photos into their Twitter feeds, it gained a cult following among the social networking site’s influential early adopters. However, Twitter’s business decision to restrict offering their API to third-party partners and to build their CMS from pure text into a Tumblr or Sina Weibo-like microblogging platform caused a decline in fortunes for Twitpic and similar services.
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