Path in its day was way ahead in ux and detail compared to other social networks. Stickers and reactions on facebook came later and even then/now never were as 'finished' compared to what Path had.<p>A great example of how the better product doesn't always win. There are just too many factors (like timing and network effects in this case).
Path was very popular in Indonesia when I visited a few years ago. I guess people just switched to other social networks like Instagram. I wonder whether people will have moved on from Instagram in 10 years.
Path has been used by my girlfriends family for the past six years as their familial social network. They all just follow each other and because they don't use it for anything else it's a perfect little community for sharing memories. It was hard for them to cope with the fact that it's all getting shut down after six years using it.<p>Makes you wonder why smaller family or close-friends type social networks don't work. I guess the value isn't there to build it because it can't sprawl in the same way as other social networks.
Remember Ello? The invite only social network that blew up in 2014. I was on it for a week then I had to say Oodbye as well.<p><a href="https://ello.co/" rel="nofollow">https://ello.co/</a>
<a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-ello-the-social-network-that-wants-to-be-the-anti-facebook/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-ello-the-social-network-that-...</a>
It started as a good idea while social networks hadn't yet reached the level of adoption and engagement that they would later, but getting users to start using anything new is very difficult. The limit on the number of contacts (that one could have) may have further impacted the network effect.<p>It's a bit unfortunate that the first thing that comes to my mind when Path is mentioned is the address book upload by the app without asking users.<p>I don't think there's no space for such an app now, since more people (relatively speaking) are aware of and are concerned about large networks like Facebook and their impact on privacy and society. Coming back with a privacy focused offering that targets those who want more meaningful interactions with a limited number of people might get some traction, even if it remains niche.
Speaking of dead social networks, <a href="http://peach.cool/" rel="nofollow">http://peach.cool/</a> is, somehow, still up.
<p><pre><code> - 9.17.2018 : Notice on Path service discontinuation
- 10.1.2018: Unable to download/update the app in iTunes and Google Play
- 10.18.2018: Termination of the Service (Unable to access to Path)
- 11.15.2018: Path related customer service will be closed
</code></pre>
Seems like a fairly abrupt wrap-up of the service?<p>I remember a friend used it years ago with her partner as a private social network of sorts which I thought was interesting. Then that was the last I ever heard of Path until now.
I’m sure they did lots wrong, including being deceitful with peoples private address books.. but also, wasn’t one of the novelties of Pty that you could only have 20 “friends” or something like that? That seems like a huge gamble and makes it that much harder to build, grow and sustain a network doesn’t it! ;-)
I remember Path back in college. It was not that popular but its mobile app was beautiful, top-notch in terms of UI design and animations back then.<p>Sadly it did not take off, which on the other hand is comprehensible, having other options such as Facebook and Instagram where most of the friends and connections are.