Bad news for kitschy photo fans: Hipstamatic, an app focused on photo filters and sharing, has lost many of its developers. This comes right on the heels of Instagram 3.0’s release, and this couldn’t look sadder.
TechCrunch understands that Synthetic, makers of the app, has recently had to let go of much of its engineering staff, among others, as part of a wider restructuring as it looks for cash. A number of public tweets […] also point to people leaving. The news comes as a surprise, given that Synthetic says that it has been profitable since the second week after it launched. It is projected to make $22 million this year (from $10 million in 2011). Contacted for a response to the news, a spokesperson confirmed that [Hipstamatic] is restructuring but nothing more: ”Business is moving forward as usual, and we’re heads down focused on making beautiful, creative and fun products for our community and the world.” The company to date has never had VC backing.
While the app will continue to be sold, this news is worrisome. Not only have some great devs lost their jobs, but this could mean slow-to-no updates for the app itself in the coming months. Even worse, this could mean that the company might close its doors in the future if they aren’t able to make this work. Being as the Instagram/Facebook juggernaut is so popular, it would be a real shame if Hipstamatic died. Well, maybe Yahoo! can jump into the mix.
So, are you still using Hipstamatic? Are you incredibly bummed to hear about this, or have you moved on to greener pastures for your filtered images? Let us know what you think by tweeting us: @Macgasm.
Source: TC
Image Credit: Sunset Parkerpix
