And just this week, Smashing—which Goodreads’ founder Otis Chandler launched just last June as an AI-powered, social reading curation app—has gone dark for good. The app aimed to aggregate news articles, blog posts, podcasts, and social media content in one location, utilizing both artificial intelligence and community contributions to keep users informed. Smashing had big plans and raised $3.4 million in funding from a number of high-profile investors. It was unable to find a way to make its operations grow more profitable.
The new app’s successful development was largely due to the work of seven passionate change-makers. They’re up against other AI driven news readers, such as Bulletin and Particle. It was competing against feed aggregator apps that were worse in many ways but more popular like Feeeed, Tapestry and Reeder. Smashing sought to address a growing demand for a platform that streamlined the consumption of diverse content, making it easier for users to stay up-to-date with the latest news and information.
Chandler’s vision for Smashing was inspired by the increasing need for curated information amidst the overwhelming volume of content available online. As developers of AI-powered news aggregation have found, the landscape has become a challenging one. Last year, Artifact, an app built by the original creators of Instagram — the same folks who’ve brought us Threads — ran into similar challenges and shut its doors. Looking to the future, back in 2007 when the technology that powered Artifact was eventually sold to Yahoo! changing priorities on the inside of the industry.
In responding to news of the shutdown, the company took responsibility for its troubles. Overall, they concluded that, “we just weren’t able to scale it into a sustainable product. Both the recognition and the accompanying award seek to illuminate the competitive struggles that most startups face. They struggle to find a space in the step-level tech race.
Smashing was backed by leading investors such as True Ventures, Blockchange, Offline Ventures, Advancit Capital and Power of N Ventures. Even at peak success, the platform was hard pressed to drive enough growth to cover its high operational costs. The closure is symptomatic of larger issues in the tech landscape, especially among companies utilizing AI to curate content through a superhighway of new technologies.
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