Pownce Wasn’t Different Enough

We really appreciate your continued support and understanding. Thanks so much for being part of the Pownce community.

With these words, the Pownce team announced today that the micro-blogging service will be gone by December 15th.

The technology was acquired by Six Apart, the company behind TypePad and Movable Type.
Leah and Mike will be joining the team while Kevin and Daniel will become advisers. Users are given a tool to export their entries in XML and Movable Type format, a nice move.

Consolidation

While this particular news was not expected, the multiplication of micro-blogging tools and the current economic downturn inevitably had to lead to some consolidation of the market.

Rumor has it that Pownce was in the market for another round of financing. The task apparently proved impossible.

The acquisition move by Six Apart is intelligent. It’s not simply because it is adding a micro-blogging tool to an existing portfolio of self-hosted blog software, ready-to-use blog solution and Tumblr-type fast-blogging platform.

It is even very uncertain that Six Apart will create yet another micro-blogging tool. Letting the Pownce userbase go (the Vox move is only optional) is proof enough.

The high potential is in a status updater tool, à la Facebook integrated to their services.

Differentiation

There’s a lesson to be learned by looking at Pownce, though. Pownce wasn’t different enough.

Service wasn’t enough: Pownce did offer more than others, with not only offer text entries, but also embeddable pictures as well as audio and video file-sharing abilities.

Hype wasn’t enough: Pownce was launched with the help of Kevin, the highly respected entrepreneur in the web2.0 world that attracts hordes of early adopters with new ventures he gets out.

In a world where Twitter exists leads the pack, had Pownce a chance? Compete.com shows it actually never did.

The future of micro-blogging

Some argued at the time of the Pownce service launch that Twitter would certainly add some file-sharing abilities rapidly. It never happened.

By sticking with what it knows best, 140 characters of text, Twitter makes it simple for everyone to join and participate. It’s as simple as updating your Facebook status. No distraction.

Twitter knows that mainstream users will sign up and use a
service where they already find most of their friends online.

If one wants to compete, either buy Twitter or be different enough.