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News aggregator appSmartNewshad a tough 2023 , beginning withwidespread layoff in Januaryand wrap up with aleadership changethat see co - father Kaisei Hamamoto assume the role of CEO after the abrupt departure of former CEO Ken Suzuki last month . More alarming , as the landscape painting persist in to shift dramatically , and sometimes erratically , for the news industry , the inauguration ’s app is tanking in terms of both downloads and active exploiter , according to recent figures from app intelligence providers Sensor Tower and Appfigures .
constitute in 2012 in Japan , the company arrived in the U.S. in 2014 andexpanded its local news footprintin early 2020 to cover thousands of U.S. city .
The formula paid off with a tidy sum ofbuzz . It became the first news startup to achieve a billion - dollar valuation since 2015 , asBloombergreported in 2019 , and then in 2021 — a high - water Deutschmark for tech funding , as well as for consumers relying more than ever on online channel for news , entertainment , shopping , workplace and more — its evaluation dart up to$2 billion .
But it was not to last : The intelligence app ’s numbers game have been falling over the past year .
The tide have turned dramatically for newsworthiness . Some of the most important channel for tidings traffic — Google Search , social platforms like Facebook — changed how they focus on and surface news links , and that ’s had an overall bang on dealings and advertising sales . And consumer tastes have changed , too , and it appears that the app is also struggle to attract and keep on users .
Over a year ago , the company reportedly had10 million monthly active users in the U.S. , as it began building out an advertizement sales team under the leaders of a former Google exec .
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But per estimate fromAppfigures , SmartNews ’ daily downloads have leave out by half since January of this class and less than a fourth of the number of daily downloads it had in 2022 . The firm ’s analysis show that since 2020 , SmartNews has see a total of close to 45 million total installs . Given the declension in downloads , Apptopia said a number of 10 million active users today would now be “ a stint . ”
Another firm , Sensor Tower , added more brainwave , noting that SmartNews had , on average , roughly 1.7 million worldwide daily participating substance abuser between Q1 2023 and Q3 2023 . This represents a “ material ” declination in user , the firm said , down an average of 28 % year - over - year per quarter during this time physical body . A former employee for SmartNews also estimate that monthly actives are now likely in the 5 million to 6 million user range , we ’re told , which was confirm by the third - party data . Sensor Tower ’s estimates indicate the SmartNews app has roughly 5 million worldwide monthly active users from Q1 – Q3 2023 , down an average of 30 % year - over - class , per quarter , it said .
SmartNews refuse to comment on any of the figures provided by the analytics house and slump to let out any numbers itself .
Numbers do distinguish story , though . During SmartNews ’s hypergrowth period , it raise nearly $ 500 million in speculation backing , perPitchBook information . But notably , its last equity round was back in September 2021,$230 millionthat valued it at $ 2 billion . Just this week , PitchBook notes that it raised a debt round close of just under $ 70 million .
A late analysis of what went incorrect at SmartNews by news siteRest of Worldpinned the app ’s downturn on Suzuki ’s “ unconventional leaders . ”
Specifically , it described how , in the key market of the U.S. , he resisted product updates and was preoccupy more with the U.S. political climate than with consultation metrics .
But another aspect of his leadership might have also been about communicating . When the company announced that Suzuki was stepping down and hand over the reins to his co - founder Kaisei Hamamoto , it also mention that SmartNews was picking up a Modern CTO out of the U.S. The company had recruited Cory Ondrejka — a far-famed old hand of Facebook and Second Life who was form at Google at the prison term — to link up SmartNews . He told TechCrunch that he was recruited directly by Suzuki for the role . Then , on the day he join , he had no thought that he ’d be working with a unlike chief executive officer .
“ It was news to me , ” he say in an interview last month with TechCrunch .
Ondrejka admitted he might not have been win over to skip from Google to SmartNews if it had n’t been Suzuki doing the recruiting forthwith — the two had met antecedently , year before — but insisted things were okay despite that unexpected first - twenty-four hour period surprise .
“ I ’m very glad with where [ the party ] is right now and where we ’re going , ” he order . “ We have we all have lots of work to do . . . But I feel very supported . ” ( SmartNews reject a asking to question unexampled chief operating officer Kaisei Hamamoto . )
Sensor Tower also suggested that lapsed product iterations and feature launch likely contributed to fall consumer interest group and fundamental interaction with the SmartNews app .
For example , SmartNews ’ attempt at launch a more uplifting surgical incision to its app , SmartTake , didn’t live up to the job in our former review of the feature this fall , finding that the plane section still let in the form of stories that would promote “ doomscrolling ” — like tales of assassination and murder , a writer ’s work stoppage , dementedness , and more .
A focus on more favorableness is still a windmill that SmartNews is chasing .
“ I think that you ca n’t work up a product that leaves citizenry feeling infelicitous and angry all the clock time and then wait to be building something that retentive term is accomplish your goals and candidly ordinate with what the great unwashed need and what the mission of the ship’s company is , ” Ondrejka said . “ Around word , you need people to be able to understand what ’s go on in the world . You desire to be able to do that in a means that does n’t bequeath [ users ] feeling like they ’ve been just hammered by the operation . ”
He declined to talk about the particular of what the company ’s next steps would be . Yet some of those have been long in total so far . From what we empathise from a informant , an overhaul of the app dubbed “ Project Atlas ” — which had been be after to launch by twelvemonth - conclusion 2023 — has yet to chance . A spokesperson for the party has said that there will be news come up in the coming month , which could finally be this launch .
SmartNews ’ challenges have had other , more public leg . critique of the company on Glassdoor have dropped its military rank to under 3 stars , with many say the SmartNews ’ future in the U.S. is incertain , while others complained about how this yr ’s layoffs were palm .
Those personnel displacement have also impacted working through iteration , too .
“ Whenever you have a company that ’s go through , delivering something new , conjunction is a challenge by itself , even when you have full freedom , ” he say . “ There are no magic wands to just cause everybody to instantly know what to do . ”
Whichever direction SmartNews goes next , it seems that competition will remain tight .
Although some societal platforms have move away from the costly efforts of building and operating news machines , a horde of Twitter / X alternatives — like Instagram Threads , Mastodon , Bluesky , and others — have been positioning themselves as places to get breaking news . Instagram ’s Colorado - founders have also launched a news aggregator appof their own this class withArtifact . The app was nearing 407,000 installs as of earlier this fall , according to data.ai .
And TikTok ’s vast clout with young users specially continues to keep it in the admixture for newsworthiness dispersal . A recentreport from Pewfound that the identification number of grownup who said they gravel their news from ByteDance ’s exploiter - generate video app make a motion up to 14 % from just 3 % in 2020 .
Other apps , include Flipboard and Substack , have launched features of their own to ameliorate news discovery and conversation , includingFlipboard ’s newspaper column desksfor the fediverse andSubstack ’s Twitter - same bank bill . The latter alsoredesigned its app in September to advance discoveryand troth .
One area that seems to be up for word is whether “ news show ” will be the only affair longer terminus that SmartNews will aggregate .
“ Aggregation is this delightfully across-the-board Logos that has pick up a very specific set of set of definitions , base on what we ’ve view over the last decade , ” Ondrejka said . “ For this feeling of delivering character information , aggregation is a perfectly good word to describe that . [ But ] I would be pretty surprised if the mathematical product we are transport at some period of time in the time to come is precisely the product you ’re discover now because the reality is the chance . As engineering changes — and what stimulate technological changes so both exciting and sometimes terrify — what people ’s expectations are exchange . What ’s worthful to them changes . And can you combine that [ with your ] vision ? I suppose there ’s a path through here . [ Users ] are expire to distinguish us something every second along the way of life . I remember our class will believably continue to be assembling because it ’s a good give-and-take . ”
