Pinterest Pins Instapaper to its Acquisition Board
Instapaper announced on its blog on Tuesday that it had been acquired by Pinterest. Launched in 2008, Instapaper is a service where users can save articles and links from websites so they can be read later. It was developed by Marco Arment, who also co-founded Tumblr. Arment sold Instapaper to Betaworks in 2013, and now it has been sold again.
Pinterest’s main claim to fame is a social network based on the idea of "pinning" and curating images from websites, but now it appears that the startup is looking to broaden its userbase.
And according to Instapaper, the acquisition will not result in disruptions to its service:
Instapaper provides a compelling source for news-based content, and we’re excited to take those learnings to Pinterest’s discovery products. We’ll also be experimenting with using our parsing technology for certain Rich Pin types.
For you, the Instapaper end user and customer, nothing changes. The Instapaper team will be moving from betaworks in New York City to Pinterest’s headquarters in San Francisco, and we’ll continue to make Instapaper a great place to save and read articles.
Instapaper has also announced that it is shutting down Instaparser, its developer product. It is closed to new signups, and will be turned off in November 2016.
No specific details were released on how Pinterest will use Instapaper, but the latter’s CEO did hint at integration and new projects. "The Pinterest team is working on unique technical challenges, and their collective skill will add tremendous value to Instapaper," said Brian Donohue, Instapaper’s CEO, in a statement. "Additionally, I’m personally looking forward to working on new projects and integrations within Pinterest."
The announcement also mentions that Instapaper will be involved with Pinterest’s discovery products, and that it will be experimenting with using its parsing technology for certain Rich Pin types.
image by Johan Larsson
Comments
poiboy August 23, 2016 um 7:35 pm
a website that grew immensely from wedding ideas for brides, etsy promotions and digital inspiration boards acquiring instapaper. wow.. interesting move.