Twitter Acquires TwitPic Before Shut-Down

Twitpic has had a confusing month, with creator Noah Everett announcing the death of the service, then the revival, then the death again, and now the final acquisition from Twitter.

Just over a month ago, Twitpic announced they would be going offline. Everett cited legal battles with Twitter over the name of the service, alongside diminishing user-count, as major reasons for the closure.

A few weeks after the initial announcement, Twitpic sent an email out to loyal fans of the service, telling them a buyer had acquired the service. This announcement would only last a few days, as Everett sent out a second email to tell users the deal had fell through, and Twitpic would indeed be shutting down.

Sometime after the second email, Twitter contacted and said they would acquire the service. Everett has not disclosed if Twitter was the initial buyer, but it seems likely that they were one of the potential bidders for the service – before Twitpic pulled out.

Twitpic will still go offline, with the iOS and Android apps both taken off the apps store. Twitter will keep it in read-only mode, meaning users can check the archives for their old photos, but will not be able to upload any new photos on the service.

The acquisition is mostly for the naming rights – meaning Twitter is interested in a service or function called Twitpic. Twitter did not announce what will happen to the team at Twitpic, whether they will be picked up by Twitter or sent away to find new jobs.

Twitpic is part of a long line of Twitter third party services that no longer offer function. When Twitter implemented photos to their main-app, Twitpic became a rather redundant way of uploading photos, and users quickly left the service for Twitter’s main client.

There could have been a future for Twitpic if the startup had branched out to other services, or done more with the photos, but sadly it appears the team got lazy as the user count started to drop.