Smashing, an AI-Powered News Aggregator App, Shuts Down Due to Scaling Issues
Building an app dedicated to helping people aggregate and read news, articles, and social media posts in one place is no easy task in today’s competitive market. Unfortunately, Smashing, an innovative AI-powered app that allowed users to curate their news and posts, is now shutting down due to its inability to scale rapidly enough.
According to an email sent to customers, the company stated, “We simply didn’t grow fast enough to keep going. We weren’t able to scale it into a sustainable product.”
Founded by Otis Chandler, the creator of GoodReads, Smashing aimed to revolutionize the way people consume news by utilizing AI technology and community input to curate news articles, blog posts, podcasts, and social media content from across the web. Users could follow their interests, submit content, and vote on suggested articles to indicate relevance. The app also featured AI-powered summaries and a helpful bot that could answer questions.
Despite having seven employees dedicated to the project, Smashing failed to reach the necessary growth and sustainability levels. The company had previously raised $3.4 million in funding from investors such as True Ventures, Blockchange, and Offline Ventures.
While Smashing may be closing its doors, there are still plenty of startups tackling the same problem. AI-powered news readers like Bulletin and Particle, along with feed aggregator apps such as Feeeed, Tapestry, and Reeder, continue to provide solutions for users seeking a streamlined news consumption experience.
This closure follows the shutdown of Artifact, an AI-powered news app created by Instagram’s co-founders last year. The technology was eventually sold to Yahoo.
