Start-ups are businesses. They make money for their investors and founders. Handing off the code sounds like hippie poppycock to me. I suppose they can do it if they want to, but they don't have to.
Sure, but it reinforces the notion that you can't put too much faith in a startup sticking it out.
Normally that's because people think they might go bust and you'll lose that thing you got used to having. It also applies to when a startup gets acquired and the service is then shut down. Folks who've been stung by this once might think twice before using/buying stuff from a small company in future.
So far, I haven't heard a PEEP from anyone paying backtype. If what you say is true, where is all the press about how horrible this is for their customers?
We're using the BackType API and it is frustrating that they're discontinuing the API. They've also just announced the discontinuation of the service with no word about timescales that this entails. For all we know they could discontinue it tomorrow.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyone offering a real alternative to the BackType APIs. There is Topsy which doesn't seem to have as much data coverage. Other alternatives require handling live streams of considerably more data.
I'm making a general point about why people don't always like to use products from startups and how this particular case reinforces their views. I wasn't suggesting that backtype had paying customers.
Also, a lack of press coverage does not mean there aren't unhappy users out there.
Seems like it's a valuable asset and they are wasting it. If twitter just cares about the team, why not sell the product to another team who can keep building and extending it.
Similar thing happened when facebook bought the mac developer Sofa. They sold off their products to another developer.
