Intuit plans to close personal finance app Mint, acquired in 2009 for $170M, on January 1, 2024, and pushes users to Credit Karma, acquired in 2020 for $7.1B
https://lnkd.in/djtFkne8 Ryan Pollock : Aww man, does Intuit really need to pull a Google? — I've been using Mint ever since Noah Kagan gave me a pre-launch demo over lunch at the 'plex back in '06 or '07. … Brody Ford : RIP Mint — Intuit is shutting down the personal finance app it bought in 2009. — Back then it was seen as a cool, young startup which could one day be a competitor. … Forums: Hacker News : Mint is shutting down, and it's pushing users toward Credit Karma
The decision also fits a portfolio-management pattern: Intuit has previously sold Quicken and discontinued acquired products, while Mailchimp later moved to end TinyLetter and concentrate on its core product.
First-order effects
Mint users must leave the app and are steered toward Credit Karma, giving Credit Karma the immediate opportunity to absorb Mint's consumer audience.
Intuit retires a separate personal-finance product and concentrates its consumer-facing finance experience in Credit Karma rather than maintaining parallel brands.
Second-order effects
Budgeting and account-aggregation rivals gain an opening to target Mint users who do not want to move into Credit Karma's product experience.
The migration makes Credit Karma a more important gateway for Intuit's consumer relationships, increasing the value of retaining users across its broader financial-product portfolio.
Third-order effects
If this consolidation pattern continues, acquired consumer apps may be valued less as enduring standalone brands and more as channels whose audiences and data can be folded into a larger platform.
The closure underscores a durable trade-off in consumer fintech: consolidation can simplify a company's product portfolio, but it can also reduce choice for users attached to a distinct, independent tool.
The trend: Consumer-finance platforms are increasingly consolidating overlapping acquired products around a smaller number of higher-priority customer entry points.
Intuit shutting down Mint and telling users to switch to Credit Karma is like Microsoft shutting down PowerPoint and telling users to switch to Excel. I've been using Mint to track my finances for over a decade but always wondered how their business model made sense. I guess it…
In a world that requires financial discipline, you can't keep funding money losing businesses. Even more true for incumbents that a) report to public investors who are v fickle b) need to be ruthless in what they devote resources to. The fact is personal financial management is..…
We're seeing all OG freemium products die bc companies have realized they're never gonna convert the majority of users into paying customers. Also since Credit Karma is just an ad network for credit cards it shows what they're thinking: fuck budgeting, get credit cards lol
Intuit is shutting down Mint, one of their personal finance apps with 3.6mm active users 🤯 Lauren was just saying earlier this week that it wasn't working well. I guess we now know why. Also, Credit Karma is a terrible name... [image]
Brutal! I've loved @mint since 2014 and would gladly pay $$$ for it. Feels like a mistake by @Intuit. It's one of the core apps in my personal stack. Credit Karma does nothing similar...
Not totally surprised to see this move to kill @Mint by @Intuit. @CreditKarma had plans to compete directly with Mint while independent & it makes sense to have a single consumer portal. Very worried about the execution. 😬 https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Somehow I find Intuit's abject failure to do anything with Mint after buying it to be a personal disappointment in a way I usually don't with messed-up acquisitions. RIP. https://www.bloomberg.com/...