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Artifact, the news aggregator and social network developed by Instagram co-founders is set to shut down. In a blog post, co-founder Kevin Systrom stated that the market opportunity for the app wasn’t significant enough to justify ongoing investment.
The startup had transitioned from a news-reading app to a curation platform, allowing users to discover and share interesting content. However, the changes may have diluted the original value proposition, increasing competition in the Twitter rival landscape.
Rapid Iterations and Market Realities:
Artifact had iterated rapidly on its product, incorporating AI tools for news summarization, headline rewriting, and content discovery.
The evolution transformed the app into a Twitter replacement, competing with established players like Meta’s Instagram Threads.
Systrom acknowledged the challenge of recognizing market realities and emphasized the importance of making tough calls early in a startup’s journey.
Transition Period for Users:
Artifact will gradually shut down features like commenting and posting to ease the transition. Existing posts will remain visible for a period, and the app’s core news capability will continue to operate until the end of February.
The decision comes amidst increased competition in the Twitter rival landscape and a slowdown in the usage of other news aggregators like SmartNews.
Changing Landscape of News Consumption:
The news aggregator landscape is evolving, with changing user behaviors, increased AI-driven content discovery, and legal challenges for publishers whose content becomes part of AI training data.
Despite Artifact’s closure, Systrom believes that news and information remain critical for startup investment, expressing confidence in other innovators working on ideas in this space.
