Posterous shuttering for good on April 30th to focus on Twitter, offering data downloads until then
Blogging platform Posterous has announced via its company blog that it will be shutting down as of April 30th. The company was acquired by Twitter just under a year ago.
Context & Ripple Effects
Posterous entered Twitter through its 2012 acquisition by Twitter, making the standalone blogging service part of a larger social platform rather than an independent destination. Twitter's search and mobile-product updates earlier in February 2013 provide the immediate product-focus backdrop for retiring the acquired service.
First-order effects
- Posterous users have until April 30 to retrieve their content before the hosted blogging service closes.
- Twitter ends the standalone Posterous product and concentrates the acquired operation on Twitter.
Second-order effects
- Posterous users must choose new homes for exported posts and media, making data portability an immediate requirement rather than a feature of the service.
Third-order effects
- The closure illustrates how an acquired social product can be absorbed into the buyer's core platform instead of preserved as a separate brand, narrowing the durability of standalone hosted publishing services.
The trend: Social platforms are consolidating around core engagement products, with acquired adjacent services increasingly judged by their fit with that central strategy.