Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Multiply BS

In case you have not already seen this, MULTIPLY IS CLOSING THE BLOG/SOCIAL NETWORKING side, leaving all of us bloggers hung out to dry. I will copy the post from the new & brilliant (NOT!) CEO, found here: http://multiply.multiply.com/notes/item/5

Hello. Stefan here, writing you from Multiply HQ in Jakarta, Indonesia.

As most of you are probably aware, Multiply's mission has evolved over the past year and a half to become the biggest and most beloved ecommerce marketplace in two very exciting markets, Indonesia and the Philippines. As our focus has shifted, we have reviewed all of our operations, and made some decisions that will affect everyone here.

From December 1st, we will unfortunately no longer be able to support Multiply in its current form - notably we will be removing the social networking and content sharing part of Multiply (photos, videos, blogs, social messaging, etc.). We have decided to discontinue providing and hosting these services, as we have concluded that other Internet sites who are committed to social networking services will do a better job serving you than we can.

For our existing users of social networking features, we will be providing easy ways for you to either download your stuff (photos, blogs, content, etc), or migrate it to other online services. We'll announce the precise details shortly. It will be your choice whether to download, migrate or just let your content lapse (and get deleted).
For our existing ecommerce users (both buyers and sellers) in Indonesia and the Philippines, there will be no action required.

Regarding any existing Multiply Premium subscriptions we will refund any unused balance, and apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Please contact customer service to request a refund. Note that this is for Multiply Premium, not the ecommerce related Multiply Trust product.

I am aware of how disruptive this news may be, and understand the disappointment that it may cause. Ultimately this was a business decision, critical to our to success moving forward. Instead, we are excited to pursue our own mission to give the 350 million consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines a great way to buy and sell items online. Our singular focus now is for Multiply to retain its status as a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia in the years ahead.

I suspect that many of you will not like this news, and am sorry to have to deliver it now. I hope that you will be able to understand the reasons for our decision and thank you for being a part of the Multiply community over the past eight years.

Stef

SO, if you follow that link to the actual post and read all of the follow-on comments, it seems pretty obvious that even the Indonesian sellers that this is supposed to be FOR are not happy. So while the sellers get to deal with that whole aspect, the rest of us have to find a new home and place to put our posts, photos, journals - and who the hell knows if they will actually HELP us get our stuff from here to there, wherever there happens to be? Since there's no MONEY in it for them, I would say NO. I guess, with the continuing loss of functionality and Customer Service, that the end was obviously coming - but really? Because some bonehead somewhere thinks this is Indonesian ebay? WHICH GOT IT'S START FROM ALL THE PEOPLE WHO SET UP BLOGS???? Wow, now there's the business decision of the century. You're welcome, Stef - I am so happy I could generate the traffic I did for Multiply, and I sure hope all the work I now have to do, AGAIN, is compatible with your finely tuned business plan. It's a good thing that I had a BLOGGER blog before this one, so at least my posts are preserved. Hey, Stef, were you ever in banking, by any chance? This story seems kinda familiar.....

So watch this space for a new address eventually. I have to do some research, and have joined a MULTIPLY GROUP, strangely enough, that will be lots of people who know their way around the WWW better than me, who will hopefully come up with some great options, soon. See The Death Of Multiply group....

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