App.net is on life support 5/6/14

Today App.net, the paid¹ alternative to Twitter, announced they are scaling back operations because of poor renewal numbers:

(…) After carefully considering a few different options, we are making the difficult decision to no longer employ any salaried employees, including founders. Dalton and Bryan will continue to be responsible for the operation of App.net, but no longer as employees. Additionally, as part of our efforts to ensure App.net is generating positive cash flow, we are winding down the Developer Incentive Program. We will be reaching out to developers currently enrolled in the program with more information.

App.net will continue to employ contractors for help with support and operations.

I rarely check my App.net account anymore because activity among the people I follow has all but ceased. It might have survived if the initial user base was large enough to create positive buzz, but activity was relatively anemic from the start in 2012. Unfortunately, I can only imagine this announcement will hasten the collapse.