When AppLoop launched its self-service platform for tracking and advertising on mobile applications last July, we were quite impressed. Leveraging the iPhone 3G’s native GPS capabilities, AppLoop’s geo-aware mobile ad network was able to tell when a consumer was close to a specified business address and serve up ads for that business accordingly.
Last October, the startup came out with the App Generator, a nifty tool that turned any online publication with an RSS feed into a separate iPhone application.
Now, we’re hearing rumors that the startup is in trouble, and they appear to hold some truth. For one, the company’s website has been down for the past two days. Worse, a quick glance on Twitter suggests that the service’s downtime is also causing iPhone apps using AppLoop libraries to crash.
We would hate to see the young company fade away, so we’re hoping this is a technical glitch which is simply taking a lot of time to repair. But the two startup’s founders are eerily silent about the downtime on their blogs and Twitter accounts, so it might be idle hope.
We’ve contacted AppLoop and will update this post accordingly as soon as we get some insight on what’s happening.
Update: after an e-mail from co-founder Eric Kerr, we’re putting the company in the deadpool as they effectively had to shut the service down ‘for a variety of financial and legal based reasons’. Kerr claims users have been sent an e-mail several weeks ago and that some might not have received it. I’m not so sure, but I definitely think it’s bad form not to put a message on your website or blog about the demise of your company.
(Hat tip to Philip Roy for the heads up)
No no, we just got sad.
“the company’s website has been for the past two days”
Minor edit: you probably meant has been slow, unresponsive, spotty, intermittent, etc.
Fixed, thanks. (it’s been down for a couple of days)
Their site’s been down for over a week. Oh, and what about that app generator they promised?
If they’re not in the deadpool yet, they might as well be. Crashing apps and not even talking to customers about it?
Dude, I’d go nuts on these guys if I used them in my app.
rename to crapploop? crapppoop?
Very smart! Great idea…
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http://opandego...o.wordpress.com
The AppLoop site now show a simple and desolate blank page…. this is a very bad thing….
The problem is that Techcrunch calls every website that is launched a startup. These early stage sites should have a different classification. I would suggest “project”. It isn’t at startup that has failed it is a “project” that was trying to become a startup then a viable company that has failed.
Robin, you should know that in America, people generally don’t work on New Years or on weekends.
Perhaps they are paranoid and won’t give employees shell access at home.
Then again, perhaps they ran out of money, and are using remote employees that are simply unavailable.
they don’t have employees, genius. it is a 2 man operation without any outside funding
Shoot, that’s even worse. With all the VC available in SF, if they couldn’t get any, that means something.
I myself am developing mobile apps for G1 and Android outside of my day job. If I don’t secure VC, I will not restart a company in Cali. There are too many expenses like the franchise tax, ect… for individual people to bare a without large investment from multiple sources.
I shut my last business down about a month ago before the end of the year.
At any rate, through experience I have learned not to do a 2 man business. If others don’t believe in your business plan neither will customers. It doesn’t matter how good the idea or concept.
sorry, that should have said I’m developing new apps for Android and the iPhone.
Maybe you should cut them a break Robin! Not every startup that doesn’t get funding gives half a shit whether or not you know what happened if they have to shut down. Now, I can’t wait till boot camp!
Their site is not just down, it is serving a blank / empty page. Why not simply put a message that they are experiencing technical difficulties? Poor business sense.
Give me a “D”; give me an “E”; give me and “A”, …
DEADPOOL
As a developer I can say with almost 100% certainty, that it’s not intentional
Nevermind, robin shut down my nobody’s there on sunday theory
Service is effectively deadpooled, see post update.
What are the legal reasons? Let me guess: someone has a patent for “matching a person with GPS coordinates and nearby businesses”
I’m very skeptical about this whole ad-supported revenue model. The idea of displaying ads based on ones location sounds appealing at first glance, but not every time I walk through Times Square am I in the mood – nor have the time – to get myself a fancy new toothbrush. Such technology could be perhaps more effective if the phone was aware that 1. I actually had time to go shopping 2. I actually wanted/needed to spend some money. I think services that are rich in traffic but hard to monetize on should be coupled with some other service that can subsidize the whole thing in exchange for the user base. Think tourism. Think social actions. Think peer pressure. Enough with this behavior-learning location-aware BS.
hmm
I don’t understand why a company would just peace out without waving goodbye
Isn’t this sort of weird to anybody? Just disappearing in the middle of the night? Not posting a message on the website? That takes 3 seconds. They also stated legal problems. anybody know what those might be? or any more detailed information?
I’m doing something similar to them giving to young artists the possibility of publishing and selling backgrounds for iphone, contained in dedicated applications, one for each artists ( http://www.artforiphone.com ).
I wonder what are the legal problems they incurred in, if related so some patent infringement or to the revenue sharing process.
In my experience with them i can only say that i wanted to use their services about a month a go but it was impossible to get in touch with them. they never answered to any of my emails.
Guess San Francisco didn’t work out after all!
We already have a giant in this space called Google DoubleClick, which will simply incorporate new features into its platform as they are proven. A lot of muscle and funding is needed to grow a new company here. Plus, being both the publisher and the ad network is tough.
Is there any other simple rss app generator out there? Or a tutorial?