Yahoo Snaps Up Mobile Messaging App ‘Blink’, Plans To Shut It Down

Another mobile start-up snapped up Yahoo, to fell the competition, or to gain talent?

Web giant Yahoo has recently acquired the mobile messaging app, Blink.

Blink allows users to send texts, images and videos, while simultaneously controlling the visibility of these messages. So in essence, with Blink, one can manually set a timer for how long a message can be viewed after it is viewed, or at-least, could.

Post-acquisition, Yahoo plans to shut down the app on both Apple’s iOS as well as Google’s Android.

According to a Yahoo spokesperson, Blink’s entire 7-member team would now be working at Yahoo in order to develop ‘smart’ communication products. Terms of the deal have not been made public.

In an increasingly competitive market, a major rival being Snapchat, Blink’s total number of downloads are just over 100,000, since it arrived in the Play Store earlier this year. This probably hints that the acquisition has more to do with the talent behind the app, than the app itself.

As is also evident from others in Yahoo’s recent string of acquisitions, this too, is perhaps an attempt by Yahoo to create their own mobile products, rather than competing against bit players.

Since Marissa Mayer took over as Yahoo’s CEO in 2012, over 20 small mobile start-ups have been snapped up by the company, most of which have been shut down with the exception of Tumblr and Astrid.

This throws light on a recently emerging trend, wherein large Internet titans are seeking to capitalize on the mobile app market, especially since the free services offered by these apps attract, build and service a large customer base. For instance, just before Yahoo acquired Blink, Snapchat received an offer worth USD 3 billion from Facebook, which it rejected. Facebook then went on to buy WhatsApp for a whopping USD 19 billion.

Also, a Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc. bought Viber, a mobile app that enables users to make free calls over the Internet, for USD 900 million.

Lets wait and watch what Yahoo has up their sleeves.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.