It's one thing to watch a social media tool slowly decline into irrelevance; it's quite another to see one crash and burn as spectacularly as Blip. For five years, Blip was one of the top hosts for video content, and it provided a place for video reviews and lessons to be posted without triggering Youtube's time limits and overzealous copyright claims.
The source of Blip's downfall isn't hard to spot. They were bought by a company called Maker, which in turn angled for a buyout from Disney. A drive for profits forced many users to include distracting ads in the middle. This in turn led to a collective use of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and especially Patreon, which allows for micro-crowdfunding at the price of only a few dollars per video. This crash also affected the overall community of Blip users, with major video producer networks imploding after years of problems.
Blip's shutdown is a reminder that there's never certainty about a social media tool's longevity. Many producers are stuck uploading hundreds of videos and altering even more links. It's important to have back-ups, and even more important to keep tabs on your hosting sites to avert difficulty in an emergency.
I think this is a great point! They seemed to take he focus off the user and more on the company/moneymaking. On a side note it is sometimes interesting seeing website that have been untouched for years as well. On my search a few week back for online running community I came across a runner's lounge that hadn't been touched since 2013.. very weird to look at in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Blimp before this post. Unfortunately , it seems to have fallen to greed. It seems so many companies that were really awesome seem to spiral downward real quick when a larger company takes over and only focuses on the money aspect and not customer service.
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