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Instapaper is going independent

blog.instapaper.com

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Re: Instapaper is going independent

#31

Post by brongondwana »

microtonal wrote: post #28
brad0 wrote: post #4

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. First they spin off the service into its own company then the company shuts down because of a lack of income. Is that what’s happening here? What’s the name of this process?

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. Not always. Fastmail was bought (back) from Opera by employees and they are doing fine.

Yes we are :) It's rare enough to be notable though. We enjoyed our time with Opera (especially me: I got to live in Oslo for 2 years), but there are definitely nice things about being independent and choose your own destiny.

That and Opera was turning more into an advertising company, which wasn't a close fit with our existing user base. It's great to be in a position where we don't have split loyalties and "shadow customers" - leaving us able to focus on what's best for the people paying us for the service we provide.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#32

Post by paxys »

brad0 wrote: post #4

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. First they spin off the service into its own company then the company shuts down because of a lack of income. Is that what’s happening here? What’s the name of this process?

Are there examples of when this happened? In every case I can remember the parent company just shuts the service down.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#33

Post by Analemma_ »

brad0 wrote: post #4

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. First they spin off the service into its own company then the company shuts down because of a lack of income. Is that what’s happening here? What’s the name of this process?

This seems like the exact opposite of that. If Pinterest wanted Instapaper gone they'd just nuke it. I actually give them kudos for spinning it out and giving it a chance to survive, especially considering I was one of the cynical ones on the HN thread of the original announcement taking it as a given that Instapaper would get Incredible Journeyed.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#35

Post by [deleted] »

whalesalad wrote: post #7
brad0 wrote: post #4

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. First they spin off the service into its own company then the company shuts down because of a lack of income. Is that what’s happening here? What’s the name of this process?

Instapaper is an anomaly. It's been passed around like a stepchild since birth. I think there is a perceived-value fallacy around the number of people who use it or the intelligence that can be gleaned from knowing what people are bookmarking... but it looks like no one has been able to crack that nut. Every few years it gets passed to someone else. Nothing really ever changes... it just gets a new owner.

[deleted]

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#36

Post by mbesto »

dfabulich wrote: post #11
bthdonohue wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Brad, Brian from Instapaper here. Just want to reassure you that's not the case here, we intend to operate Instapaper for the foreseeable future. We made this decision because we believe it’s best for both Pinterest and Instapaper.

Why is this better for Pinterest and/or Instapaper? In the 2016 blog post announcing the acquisition: http://blog.instapaper.com/post/149374303661 > All of these features and developments revolved around the core mission of Instapaper, which is allowing our users to discover, save, and experience interesting web content. In that respect, there is a lot of overlap between Pinterest and Instapaper. Joining Pinterest pr…

M&A guy here - despite what finance people will say, a majority of acquisitions do not end up realizing their planned strategy.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#38

Post by scarface74 »

paulcole wrote: post #26
whalesalad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instapaper is an anomaly. It's been passed around like a stepchild since birth. I think there is a perceived-value fallacy around the number of people who use it or the intelligence that can be gleaned from knowing what people are bookmarking... but it looks like no one has been able to crack that nut. Every few years it gets passed to someone else. Nothing really ever changes... it just gets a new owner.

> It's been passed around like a stepchild since birth Didn't Marco create it and run it independently for over 5 years?

He sold it around the time of the tumblr acquisition by Yahoo. Marco was the first employee of Tumblr and even though he didn’t work there at the time of the acquisition he made a few million off of the sale.

I guess that gave him some runway to try new things.

Besides, it seems like the team from Betaworks has been working on Instapaper since then.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#39

Post by m-localhost »

corobo wrote: post #29

Excellent news! Not been able to use it since GDPR came into play, assumed it was down to slow large company -itis. Peeved by it the point I was planning out my own replacement product for Instapaper. Hopefully everything is back on track soon

Self-hosted Wallabag instance is great. I collect article there first, sync them to pocket as a backup. (Wallabag RSS->IFTTT->Pocket)

https://wallabag.org/en

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#40

Post by driverdan »

dejv wrote: post #10

I am glad it happened and I hope they are going to find sustainable model. I've been using alternatives for past two months as Instapaper was blocked in EU and all those alternatives are horrible. Good luck guys.

If you've tried Pocket why do you think it's horrible?
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