Shutting down Artifact

Artifact, the news reading app, is being wound down, according to a letter from CEO Kevin Systrom. The company says it concluded the market opportunity is not big enough to justify continued investment, and it has removed the ability to add new comments and posts because that content requires moderation the team will no longer have staff to provide. Core news reading will keep running through the end of February, and existing posts will remain visible to users on their own profiles. Systrom says the team of 8 built a product a core group of users loved, and that the app was named the everyday essential app of the year by the Google Play Store.