MingleNow, the nightlife-focused social network that launched last October, is closing down on 7 January according to a statement on their blog. No reason was given, but Read/WriteWeb has learned that Yahoo may be behind the closure. Yahoo bought BlueLithium, an ad network, in September this year – and BlueLithium owns MingleNow.com. So our source tells us that Yahoo probably asked MingleNow to close down.
Interestingly the MingleNow blog post is telling users: “Feel free to take your photos and friends with you to other communities such as Flickr, post your events on Upcoming or find your favorite bars and clubs on 123out.com”. Both Flickr and Upcoming are Yahoo! properties. As for 123out.com, it was a nightlife photography website but the URL re-directs to MingleNow currently. A July ’07 blog post by MingleNow noted that they had merged with 123out.com – perhaps the latter will reappear as a standalone site after 7 January.
There’s nothing untoward about all this, but if Yahoo has pushed for the closure – why isn’t it being revealed publicly? One wonders what the MingleNow users think of having to move all their content to other (preferably Yahoo) sites?
