 | |
Screenshot  Screenshot of TwitPic in November 2009 | |
Type of site | Image and video sharing |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Noah Everett |
| URL | www |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | January 31, 2008; 17 years ago (2008-01-31)[1] |
| Current status | Online (read-only) |
TwitPic was awebsite andapp[2] that allowed users to post pictures to theTwittermicroblogging service,[3] which at the time of TwitPic's creation could not be posted to Twitter directly. TwitPic was often used bycitizen journalists to upload and distribute pictures in near real-time as an event was taking place.[4][5]
TwitPic was launched in 2009 by Noah Everett.[1]In an interview with Mixergy, Everett revealed that he had been offered a price in the range of 10 million US dollars for his company but he declined the offer.[6] In 2011, Everett launchedHeello, a service that also supports text posts and videos but is less dependent onTwitter.TwitPic's first app was released on 7 May 2012.[7][non-primary source needed]
Starting mid-2011, Twitter users could upload Photos directly on Twitter itself, reducing the need to use services like TwitPic.
On September 4, 2014, TwitPic announced that it would shut down on September 25, 2014, following rapidly declining usage andtrademark infringement threats by Twitter (who threatened to revoke access to the service'sAPIs if they did not withdraw their filings to trademark "TwitPic").[8] However, shortly afterward on September 18, 2014, TwitPic announced that it would not shut down, as it had been acquired by an unspecified company.[9] However, the following month, TwitPic announced that the deal had fallen through, and that they would shut down on October 25, 2014.[8] On October 25, 2014, Twitpic announced that they had reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the TwitPic domain and photo archive.[10][2]
TwitPic could be used independently of Twitter as an image hosting website similar toFlickr. However, several characteristics made this site a companion for Twitter:
Anyone with a Twitter account was eligible to post pictures on the site. As of May 2011[update], TwitPic altered their terms of use, allowing them to distribute the photographs people have uploaded to their "Affiliates". However, TwitPic refused to state who these affiliates may be and what they gain by distributing the pictures. This triggered a public inquiry by users over the possibility of TwitPic publishing user content without compensation.[11] As a result, people began boycotting TwitPic and removing all of their images. TwitPic addressed these concerns in a blog post, claiming that the changes in the terms had been misinterpreted.[12]
TweetDeck,Echofon,Tweetie, Twitfile, andTwitterrific areiPhone applications that could upload photos to TwitPic.[13][14]ÜberTwitter, OpenBeak and Twitter for BlackBerry areBlackBerry applications that had the capability of uploading images to TwitPic.WebOS phones could upload images to TwitPic using the Tweed application.Android phones could upload pictures to TwitPic with the Twidroid andSeesmic applications.Windows Phone devices could upload pictures to TwitPic with the TouchTwit application. AllINQ mobile phones had the capability of uploading a picture immediately after it was taken due to thesocial networking nature of the phone.
Both the official Twitter for Android and Twitter for iPhone applications featured TwitPic as an option for sending pictures to Twitter. (Yfrog was another popular picture-sending option offered by both applications.)
According to a report bySysomos, as of 30 May 2011[update], TwitPic was the leading third-party image hosting service for Twitter. Of the nearly 2.25 million daily image shares on Twitter, 45.7% of them came from TwitPic.[15] Twitter announced partnership withPhotobucket to be the default photo sharing application on 1 June 2011, with the potential to significantly affect TwitPic's market share.[16]
In January 2009,US Airways Flight 1549 experienced multiplebird strikes and had to beditched in theHudson River after takeoff fromLaGuardia Airport inNew York City. Janis Krums, a passenger on one of the ferries who rushed to help, took a picture of the downed plane as passengers were still evacuating, and tweeted it via TwitPic before traditional media arrived at the scene.[17][18] The TwitPic service crashed as thousands of people tried to access the photo at the same time.[19]TwitPic also crashed on April 1, 2009, as a result of the large number of photos (and people viewing these photos) being posted from theG20 protests in London.