Another one bites the dust. Path, which was once considered a potential rival for Facebook, has just announced that they will be shutting down the social network in a month’s time. While it was a promising alternative to the other more “public” social networks when it first came out in 2010, it never really took off as expected and now they’re facing the music that no one can come close to bringing down the Facebook juggernaut, at least not yet.
If for some reason, you’re still using Path, don’t panic just yet. Today is just the official announcement that they will be discontinuing the service but you have a month to back up everything that you posted or at least the images, text, video, etc. By October 1, you won’t be able to download the app from the Google Play Store or to update the app that you currently have. Then by October 18, the app will cease to exist and all will be gone.
Before that day though, you will be able to restore retrieve the content of your account. Go to path.com/settings/backups then log in to your Path account. Click the button and enter the email address where you want to receive the backup files. An alternative step would be to open your app and go to the settings. Click the button and enter the email address where you want them to send the backup to you. Just make sure you’re running the latest version and that you update it before October 1.
Path was actually founded by an ex-Facebook product manager as well as former Napster people as well. It had a better visual appeal than Facebook and for those who preferred a more “private network” since it initially limited your contacts to only 50. They later on removed the friend restriction and at its peak, it had 15 million or so users. However, they eventually just fell due to the might of Facebook.
So we say goodbye to another social network who couldn’t live up to its promise to be a sort of Facebook-killer. Maybe that product hasn’t actually been born yet or maybe we just stop trying to “kill” it.
SOURCE: Path
