The company behind the Path social networking app might be looking for a new name. That’s because Dave Morin and crew have sold their social networking app of the same name to Korean messaging heavyweight Daum Kakao.
In a blog post this evening, Path Inc. CEO Morin the confirmed sale of the Path and Path Talk apps to Daum Kakao. Terms of the deal, which had first been reported by Re/code, were not disclosed. Path has set up a transitional team who will handle the transition, but no Path employees will move over to Daum Kakao.
Path was founded five years ago by former Facebook exec Morin, who sought to create a more intimate place for users to share with the people closest to them. The result was an app that provided a mobile-first social sharing experience, but also limited the number of contacts people could share with.
After a period of early adoption in tech-heavy markets like San Francisco, the app struggled to find widespread usage among consumers in the U.S. That said, Path became very popular in some Asian markets — most notably Indonesia, where most of its current active users are today.
Selling to a messaging company with strong ties to Asian markets makes total sense, but it also calls into question what the remaining folks at Path will do next.
Morin had previously signaled that the company would pursue a multi-app studio strategy, where it would build what it saw as interesting social apps and hope that one finds product market fit. That strategy led to the GIF creation app Kong, which is the company’s first attempt into new apps that don’t use the Path name.
We’ve reached out to Path for more information and will be updating this post when we hear back!
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