The details are still blurry, but apparently, Google purchased Kifi desperately trying to make its group platform, Spaces, happen, and Kifi users are not amused.
Eddy Kessler, the man behind Google Spaces, announced that Kifi was going to join the Spaces team to build features that improved the platform. He dropped the news on his Google+ account yesterday. Accordingly, Kifi posted an article on its website making it official.
Google launched its group social media based platform on May 16, 2016. However, the app has been a total ghost town making it a huge marketing failure. In fact, the tech monster has tried to make its own social media happen without success for a long time now. In contrast, Kifi has managed to create a group environment where companies can share information in a simple and organized way. It started as an internal app, but it went live 2 years ago, and since then, it has had commercial success. There is a big group of loyal followers that have been with the company since day one, and it seems not all of them are happy with the announcement.
None of the two companies have given details on the agreement
The announcement came out of the blue, and there isn’t a lot of information other than a couple of hints detected in the official statements. For example, Kessler said Kifi’s team was going to join Spaces, and even though he did not specify the nature of the collaboration, he closed the message with a “Welcome aboard” which could be interpreted as a full purchase. But Kifi’s article says something slightly different.
In the article, the company says that Google’s objectives and its own overlap. However, the organization also said Alphabet’s prodigy son would not absorb the service or data. They told its users the service would be available for a couple of weeks. During this time, the company is not going to accept new registrations, and after that, users will be able to export their data out of it. These statements are kind of contradictory, but it really seems like a full corporative absorption.
The Kifi team is excited to be joining @google https://t.co/BtvAhF2D6s
— Kifi (@kifi) July 12, 2016
The final nails in the coffin are the thank you and “so long” message that closes the article. The dedicatory is directed to the users. As a curious fact, in really small letters, the Kifi team also shows their gratitude to the original founders.
“Thanks to Jen Granito Ruffner, Andrew Conner, Cam Hashemi, Carlos Alexander Vializ, Léo Grimaldi, Derek Burch, Eishay Smith, and Ryan Brewster,” reads the announcement at the very end.
Based on all these, it would be safe to assume Kifi is no more, and some of its followers did not really like the news. Or as Jake Wesz, a blogger, said at Kessler’s Google+ post “Another sad case of Google destroying another company.”
Source: Medium