Cohost, the X rival founded with an anti-Big Tech manifesto, is running out of money and will shut down
Cohost, a would-be X rival launched to the public in June 2022, is shutting down, the company announced via the social network's staff account earlier
Cohost, a would-be X rival launched to the public in June 2022, is shutting down, the company announced via the social network’s staff account earlier this week. The service had operated much like Twitter, offering users the ability to follow others, view posts in a feed, and like and repost content shared by others. However, Cohost differentiated itself by focusing on a chronological feed without trending topics, support for long-form posts, and pursuing a business model that didn’t rely on advertising.
The startup’s premium subscription, Cohost Plus, offered advanced features like an increased file size limit on uploads, with plans to add support for creator tools like tips and the ability to sell subscriptions, among other things.
Founded by a not-for-profit software company, Anti Software Software Club, with a small handful of developers, Cohost’s manifesto had anti-capitalist and anti-Big Tech leanings.
“[We] have watched the world buy into the lies of people who ‘believe in the disruptive potential of technology,’ and who think the best way to realize that potential is to build for-profit businesses that enable a creative-class petit bourgeois to make it through their day without acknowledging another human being,” the founders, Colin Bayer and Jae Kaplan, stated back in 2020. “We think we can do better, by building tools that focus on fair dealing and sustainable growth rather than market dominance,” their manifesto read.
Despite Cohost’s ambition to d
Despite Cohost’s ambition to disrupt the tech giants, it faced increased competition not only from X (formerly Twitter) but soon Meta as well, which launched its Twitter-like service Threads. Users who favored decentralized social networking on an open social web had various options, too, including Mastodon and Bluesky, among others.
As a result, Cohost will no longer be able to continue.
The company cited “lack of funding and burnout” as reasons for the shutdown, currently planned for the end of 2024.
“As of today, none of us are being paid for our labor,” the company shared in a post on its staff account, possibly an attempt to dispel rumors that staff salaries had eaten up the funds. “All of our money in the bank, and any money coming in from people who buy our merch or don’t cancel cohost plus, is going towards servers and operations — paying the bills so we can turn the lights off with as little disruption as possible.”
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