Twitpic Shutting Down Over Trademark Dispute 81
First time accepted submitter exiguus writes As of September 25th Twitpic will be no more. Twitter, allegedly, has threatened to deny them access to their API. Noah Everett said "Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours. Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic." Resources will be made available to users to download their videos and photos, but a date when that function will be available has not been made available. "We'll let everyone know when this feature is live in the next few days."
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Funny)
Twatpic?
Re:Wait, what? (Score:0, Funny)
mod parent's parent up, parent is right
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Funny)
The scene happens in the office of Twitpic.
The CEO comes back from a bathroom break and sees the light flashing on his phone. He checks his voicemail. There is a message from someone at Twitter asking him to call back.
The CEO instantly slams down a big red button that has been sitting on his desk since Day 1. Immediately, his closest collaborator, the COO, receives a cryptic Tweet: "it's happening!". So the COO runs to the cupboard, moves around a few boxes of microwave popcorn and poptarts, then finds a bottle of champagne that has been gathering dust for the last 5 years. He puts the bottle in the fridge, then runs around the office to ask everyone to immediately proceed to the conference room.
The whole team is sitting around the speakerphone. Most are running numbers in their head. 1 billion? 200 millions? 10 millions? Just like they do every night before falling asleep, they think about the house they will buy for their mom and how good they will feel about it. They think about the pool parties in Vegas. The orgies with rockstars and supermodels. Fast cars. Loose women.
Then the lawyer picks up. The team hold their breath. At first there is some confusion because the lawyer does not remember why he left a message, he has to go check his dayplanner. Everybody in the team is amazed about this. Some think that since buying a company is something so common that the lawyer can't keep track of potential acquisitions then it's a done deal and maybe they will get the money quickly. Maybe before Christmas. Maybe before the rent is due on October 1st.
Then the lawyer comes back on the line, and within 2 minutes the hopes and dreams of the team are crushed. They did not win the startup lottery. They failed.
Then one by one the team members leave the room, and the office. The CEO and the COO are alone in the room. But they refuse to give up. They open their laptop and go to www.whois.net. They try FacePic.com, GooglePic.com, and many other names. And when they finally get one, they decide it's time to "pivot". Fire everyone, create a new logo, spend a week to revamp the GUI. And then try to win the startup lottery again.
Re:Wait, what? (Score:4, Funny)
So, uh, the basic business plan would be:
- Create small upstart service
- Grow it to be wildly popular with a huge user base
- Gradually figure out how to turn that into money
- Say "screw that shit", give up control and get rid of users as fast as possible
- Go into the soft drink industry instead?