Topsy, the social media analysis company Apple bought in 2013, has finally shut down. Topsy announced it had shut down in its last Twitter post, which seems appropriate considering the company spent so much time gathering data from social media sites.
Topsy quietly shuts down two years after Apple purchase
Apple never said why it bought the company, although it's clear the move wasn't an effort launch a new social network service. I speculated two years ago Apple wanted Topsy so it could better track trends, news, and more to better target iAd content for app users.
Regardless of why the company was bought, Topsy's last client contracts have most likely expired so they're finally in a position to be able to shut down and focus exclusively on whatever Apple needs. Topsy stopped taking new contracts about the same time as the Apple purchase.
The Topsy website now redirects to Apple's Siri support webpage, which suggests that some of the company's analysis technology is being used for voice-based search.
The official-ish announcement that Topsy's services were done and gone came from the first tweet the company posted in a long time. All it said was, "We've searched out last tweet."
With that, another company Apple purchased has quietly closed its doors to work on in-house projects.