Another Meta shutdown? Huh, how is it that we’re not that surprised? You shouldn’t be either, at least not by now. Meta just announced the shutdown of another one of its minor apps, though it’s unlikely to have any major impacts for many. So, what’s Meta culling now? It’s the Cameo-like ‘Super’. Through Super, fans were able to pay for celebrity shout-outs in video chats. Well, there go the celeb collabs.
A Super Short Life
Like Cameo, though more focused on streamers and online influencers, Super hosts meet-and-greets and even allows users to pay for one-on-one chats and other add-ons to essentially improve the experience. Basically, if you were looking to more easily connect or at least get the attention of celebrities, Super was the app for the job.
It was another element in Meta’s broader push to provide more monetization opportunities for creators. Clearly, however, it hasn’t really caught on, with Super now informing those who’d signed up for the app that it’ll soon be closing the curtains:
“We are sad to say that Super is shutting down, and will no longer be available on February 15, 2023. When we started Super in 2020, we had hoped to create a virtual meet-and-greet experience that came close to what you’d expect from a real-life event like VidCon or Comic-Con. What we found we’d created, however, was a much greater opportunity for creators and fans to connect in fun and exciting ways. We saw creators and fans raise funds for good causes, launch a new set of books, test-drive new jokes for standup routines, and even play trivia against one another. It was amazing to see the joy and creativity in each new Super event.”
It would seem that Super’s time has passed as it has moved onto the great digital shelf, at the same time that Meta is cutting costs to better rationalize its investment in areas not related to the Metaverse. Super was one of Meta’s theory projects by its experimental NPE group. Virtually all of the NPE apps (14 in number) have been shut down, with the company focusing all of its resources on Metaverse development. With the coming of the VR shift, it seems that many of Meta’s social app tests simply aren’t as relevant to the platform as they once were.
Meta said that Facebook and Instagram remain its focus, which they should, seeing as how they were the ones bringing in the money. But, as is obvious to almost anybody, the Metaverse is where everything is ultimately headed. And while creator monetization is important for both the current and future stages. Evidently, Super wasn’t achieving its goals.
The Wrap
It could be that Meta also simply learned what it needed from the Super experiment, and it’ll now roll any effective elements from the app into its other creator monetization features. Either way, soon, Super will join its siblings in the app graveyard, marking the end of the last of the NPE team’s experimental apps.
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