Twitpic, the service for sharing images on Twitter, will live on. New plans reveal a change in course for the image-sharing startup that feared being crushed by Twitter in a trademark dispute. Earlier this month, Twitpic announced its plans to terminate the service due to sharing an almost identical name as Twitter. The social networking giant threatened to cut off Twitpic's API access if the trademark application for the startup's name wasn't dropped.
Fearful of the circumstances, Twitpic founder Noah Everett decided to put an end to the service, as it entirely depends on Twitter to run its business. Twitpic was expected to pull the this Thursday, Sept. 25, but its operations impressed someone so much that they invested in the firm so it can run operations as usual. In a cryptic message on Twitter, Twitpic shared the news of its acquisition without specific details about the buyer.
"We're happy to announce we've been acquired and Twitpic will live on!" Twitpic wrote. "We will post more details as we can disclose them."
Twitter made it clear that the startup need not stop using Twitpic as the company's name but only wanted it to drop its trademark application.
In a separate statement after the news of Twitpic's demise was announced, a Twitter spokesperson said, "We're sad to see Twitpic is shutting down," Re/Code reported.
Twitpic was started in 2008 with an aim to bring third-party image links on Twitter. The service received a huge response for its newsworthy content, like the Hudson River plane crash involving a U.S. Airways Flight 1549, CNET reports. The incident made the service, which was just a year old at the time, popular because of favorable press coverage.
Twitter, however, has evolved to bring a seamless photo-sharing experience to its users. This has not only challenged Twitpic but other services such as Mobypicture, Yfrog, Img.ly, CloudApp and Droplr .
