California-based social media giant Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has been surprising its users and rivals since its incorporation. It has been catching tremendous eyeball since it first debuted in the market with its IPO in February 2012. Be it the bizarre Facebook data breach or the current Facebook bug, it does not fail to be the hot potato.
On July 2, 2018, Facebook has consigned its three mobile apps to the trash: Moves, Hello, and tbh. Don’t stupefy if you are oblivious of these apps too.
Facebook announced the shutting down of the trio apps which the company acquired in the past four years. The tech giant bade it adieu by stating it made the decision to shutter the apps “due to low usage”.
Facebook originally acquired the movement tracking app Moves in 2014. Moves, being the oldest of the three to get the chopping block. It was specifically designed to allow users to easily keep a track of their exercise and movement. It could be done automatically by using their smartphones. With 4 million users in its lap, it started off with a bang and caught Facebook’s attention.
Facebook finally owned it and things appear to have stalled since. The peak of ignorance came from when the users discovered. It had been more than a year since the Moves app had been updated. If Sensor Tower reports are to be relied on, it witnessed a staggering 13 million installs.
Meanwhile, Facebook is offering an option for Moves users to download their data before the app finally takes an off permanently on July 31.
In 2015, Facebook became associated with a caller identification app “Hello”. The app used Facebook’s data to share pertinent information about the respective callers. Only the United States, Brazil, and Nigeria were privileged enough to have this app in their play store. Meanwhile, only android users could access them.
Quite evidently, Hello also tasted the abandonment by Facebook before the announcement: The Company had not updated the Hello app in over a year.
A social media app for high school, tbh, is all set to hit the chopping block as well. It would be the most surprising one. The app lets you post compliments about friends and classmates. As a matter of fact, the app is heavily moderated and immediately obliterates any negative or hurtful comments. It had a bang on the successful launch for it hit No. 1 on the Apple App Store; Facebook purchased the app in October 2017.
There evidently wasn’t much choice left if you ask Facebook. It was interestingly aware that users “will be disappointed,” but stressed that it had to be focused on its work so that “we don’t spread ourselves too thin.” There were no privacy issues mentioned by The Company.
Zuckerberg chose to avoid the discussion. The potentially sensitive data- address book syncing fills out those “shadow profiles”. It could be absolutely tricky to operate. It has asked its users to download the important data for it would be wiped out within 90 days.
Having to witness this kind of shutdown is unfortunate, keeping in view the popularity, particularly for tbh. Facebook had acquired it less than a year ago.
However, it’s ambiguous that the company stifled the apps in question. Some social apps went on to have notoriously short shelf lives (just ask the Secret or Peach teams). Also, amalgamations and mergers don’t always pan out as expected. Plans change, technical hurdles come in contact and reality rears its ugly head at a different note. While app acquisitions are mostly fortunate enough to lead somewhere, success is far from guaranteed.
