Smashing App Closes its Doors Amidst Industry Challenges
In a recent development, Smashing, an app designed to aggregate and personalize news, articles, and social media content, has announced its closure due to difficulties in scaling. Founded by Otis Chandler, known for launching GoodReads, Smashing aimed to leverage artificial intelligence and community input to curate relevant content for users.
Reasons for Closure
According to an email sent to its users, the company stated, “We simply didn’t grow fast enough to keep going. We weren’t able to scale it into a sustainable product.” This statement highlights the critical challenge that Smashing faced: achieving rapid growth in a competitive market, which ultimately led to its demise.
Funding and Team Structure
Launched in June of the previous year, Smashing had made strides in the area of news aggregation by allowing users to follow their specific interests, submit content, and participate in polling to determine relevancy. The app featured AI-generated summaries and included a bot designed to answer user inquiries. Despite these innovative features, the company struggled to find a sustainable business model with a lean team of seven employees and had raised $3.4 million in funding from several notable investors, including True Ventures and Blockchange.
Shifting Landscape of News Aggregation
The exit of Smashing follows a broader trend in the industry, as evidenced by the closure of Artifact, an AI-centric news app founded by Instagram’s co-founders, which was eventually sold to Yahoo. The challenge of scaling an AI-powered news aggregator appears to be a significant hurdle, despite the potential benefit such services offer in curating and personalizing content.
Future of News Aggregation Apps
Even with the departure of Smashing, the market hosts several alternatives for users seeking similar functionalities. Startups like Bulletin and Particle offer AI-driven news reading experiences, while apps such as Feeeed, Tapestry, and Reeder serve as robust feed aggregators. These platforms continue to innovate in the realms of personalized news delivery, reflecting an ongoing demand for efficient ways to consume content.
The challenges faced by Smashing may serve as a lesson for other startups in the news aggregation landscape, emphasizing the need for not only advanced technology but also a viable growth strategy to thrive in a competitive environment.
