Six months after its launch, startup Talkshow is shutting down. The mobile app, from former Twitter executive Michael Sippey, let users group text in public, so any number of users could drop in and view the conversation. It was a little bit like Twitter in that respect, but it gave users a lot more control over who could join the chat. This had the effect of making Talkshow a more intimate and personal place to exchange ideas or just goof off with friends and other personalities in your social network circles, minus the harassment running rampant on Twitter.
"While we have enjoyed the conversations that have happened on Talkshow, and are grateful for the community that has formed around the product, we don’t see it getting big enough to have the impact we had hoped for," Sippey wrote in a farewell post on Medium. "We’re sorry, and we’re going to try to handle this transition in the right way." By the end of today, the app will be removed from the App Store. By next week, all active conversations will cease functioning, and Talkshow will release an export tool to save those chats. By December 1st, the app will stop working entirely.
Some news: we are shutting down the Talkshow app and website on December 1. Thank you to all of our Talkshow hosts. medium.com/talkshow/we-ar…
The end of Talkshow is an unfortunate but familiar fate for many emerging social networks and messaging apps. Many of these services sprout up with ample venture capital funding, sleek design, and a collection of talented entrepreneurs and engineers ready to build it out. Yet beyond the initial splash, these startups often fail to continue making waves months after launch. There’s any number of reasons for this, and many of them trace back to Facebook and Snapchat. The two companies, locked in an seemingly never-ending battle to control the attention of young and influential smartphone owners, have vacuumed up much of the social landscape. There’s little oxygen left for anything that isn’t truly revolutionary.
REMEMBER ELLO?
Still, many companies continue to hold on. Remember Ello, the privacy-focused and ad-free Facebook clone? It’s still around, inexplicably sending you emails (and apparently operating as a haven for creatives). So too is Path, the social network from former Facebook executive Dave Morin, and Jelly, the Q&A app and website from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. Napster co-founder Sean Parker is even still trying to make his group video chat app, Airtime, happen.
It seems, after six months, the Talkshow team felt that the resources going toward the mobile app didn’t justify the return.
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