Microsoft-owned professional networking platform LinkedIn is shutting down its ephemeral stories product within a year of the launch, the company announced.
LinkedIn introduced the stories feature in February last year. The company plans to “remove the current stories experience by the end of September,” according to Ms. Liz Li, senior director of product, LinkedIn.
The professional social network decided to do away with the feature after user feedback. LinkedIn found out that users on the platform didn’t want Snapchat-style disappearing video stories.
Liz Li Senior Director- Product LinkedIn
“In developing Stories, we assumed people wouldn’t want informal videos attached to their profile, and that ephemerality would reduce barriers that people feel about posting. Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise.”
This is not the first time that a social media platform has removed its stories feature. In July this year, Twitter also killed its stories-like feature ‘Fleets’. Same as LinkedIn, Twitter also noticed that users didn’t respond to ephemeral videos in the way it had wanted.
“We hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter. But, in the time since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped,” Twitter said in its blog post.
The two shutdowns could signal a broader pullback from ephemeral video products among social media companies. However, it seems unlikely that Snapchat or Instagram will be giving up on their stories products anytime soon.
Meanwhile, an online report suggests that the professional networking platform is working on a Clubhouse rival, an audio networking feature of its own.
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