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Klout's Score Drops to Zero as It Announces Plans to Close Down (gizmodo.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Klout-is-dead.-Long-live-the-Klout dept.

Once upon a time, Klout had 100 million users, Gizmodo reports. But now... You probably haven't experienced the crippling anxiety of thinking about increasing your Klout score in quite some time. As of May 25, you won't have ever have to do it again. On Thursday, the social ranking company announced to its 708,000 Twitter followers (meh) that it will be shutting down.

Klout was founded in 2008 as a way for social media users to gauge their "influence." Through some algorithmic voodoo the service would snoop through your social media presence and spit out your "Klout Score" -- a number between 1 and 100 that determined how much you are worth as a social human being.
Lithium Technologies (Klout's parent company) annouced that their acquisition "provided Lithium with valuable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities but Klout as a standalone service is not aligned with our long-term strategy."

But Lithium also announced plans to launch "a new social impact scoring methodology based on Twitter" sometime in the future.

44 comments

  1. Funny thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The funny this is this is the first time I've heard of Klout or a Klout Score. So I guess the influence measuring organization did not have a lot of social media influence.

    1. Re: Funny thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn, well said.

    2. Re:Funny thing by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They had 15 minutes of fame when they first came out, as people went to check their score. Then when most people realized they didn't have much clout (as is true of 99% of us), we went back to our lives and ignored them.

      People who have influence know it, and don't need to measure it. People who don't care don't care. The market for Klout was a small sector of people who wanted influence but had no fucking clue how to get it. Almost any activity you can do, including posting on Slashdot, would be more beneficial than the time wasted checking your Klout score.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:Funny thing by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      People who have influence know it, and don't need to measure it.

      It would be more precise to say, "People who have influence have so many good ways to measure it that Klout score is crude and ineffective in comparison." If you can write a tweet and make 30,000 sales, that is information that is far more relevant than a crappy startup can provide.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Funny thing by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      "So I guess the influence measuring organization did not have a lot of social media influence."

      That's how measurement instruments are supposed to work, isn't it?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:Funny thing by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Then when most people realized they didn't have much clout

      Speak for yourself. My Slashdot Karma is huge. *Trump mode engaged* It is like... the biggestttttttttttt .... the besttttttttt *Normal mode engaged*.

    6. Re:Funny thing by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      -- a number between 1 and 100 that determined how much you are worth as a social human being.

      I'm not on any (strictly) Social Media, does that mean my life is worth nothing?

      Now watch someone point out that Slashdot is Social Media... Fine, I'm on a half dozen forums but I use a different name on each and none is my real name.

      The funny this is this is the first time I've heard of Klout or a Klout Score. So I guess the influence measuring organization did not have a lot of social media influence.

      Neither have I, so Klout is thankfully as worthless and pointless as it must consider me to be.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    7. Re:Funny thing by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I nottttice your big toe

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    8. Re:Funny thing by jythie · · Score: 1

      The place I saw Klout getting used the most was in hiring, people wanting to 'verify' that you had influence. I can recall job postings having minimal Klout scores or simply having you input your Klout score as part of your application. So it was seeing some use as an HR tool for cutting down on job applications.

    9. Re:Funny thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The place I saw Klout getting used the most was in hiring, people wanting to 'verify' that you had influence. I can recall job postings having minimal Klout scores or simply having you input your Klout score as part of your application.

      So it was seeing some use as an HR tool for cutting down on job applications.

      Sounds like a good way of identifying tossers one doesn't want to work for.

  2. Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You probably haven't experienced the crippling anxiety of thinking about increasing your Klout score in quite some time.

    Indeed, because is the first time I've heard of it.

  3. Redundant System by dohzer · · Score: 1

    It's so much easier to just use China's ranking system.

  4. Services ... more services... world-domination by sonamchauhan · · Score: 1

    Services ... more services... all aiming for world-domination while us plebs key in their data.

    Public 'social' impact matters little. In fact, let me correct that -- public 'anti-social' impact matters little -- many (maybe most) social posts are vacuous posing. Their net benefit to society is negative.

    How about 'IRL (in real life) public social impact'? Does anything measure it? Also, I'd like to know the impact of my local network. About the unknown barista who makes good coffee (not *says* he makes good coffee). Something like pagerank applied to my local friends, pals, colleagues, their reputation and the reputation and rules of thumb they assign to our local live. And not as an online service. Maybe like diaspora. Running on my phone.

  5. The Chinese do this on an official level by sgage · · Score: 1

    Yes, in China now, you are assigned a social score based on this and that, and you can have a hard time if your social score falls too low.

  6. Maybe China will buy it by ScentCone · · Score: 1

    Maybe China will buy it. Or maybe they already did!

    https://news.slashdot.org/stor...

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  7. I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why bother announcing the shutdown of something most people never heard of?

    It seems like /.'s has a weird habit of announcing shutdown of things I've never heard of before.
    Seriously, /. you gave them this much press when they were still a thing, maybe they wouldn't be shutting down.

    1. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Makes about as much sense as Tardchris announcing he's leaving Slashdot!

      https://slashdot.org/comments....

    2. Re:I don't get it by Desler · · Score: 1

      Seriously, /. you gave them this much press when they were still a thing, maybe they wouldn't be shutting down.

      Forget a sarcasm tag? It’s cute that you think Slashdot is even still relevant.

  8. That's some Grade 'A' Marketing Bullshit by Bonker · · Score: 1

    That's some Grade 'A' Marketing Bullshit right there:

    not aligned with our long-term strategy

    That's MBA-ese for 'We be laying some bitches off!'

    Somewhere there is an exasperated coder trying to get his resume in order.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
    1. Re:That's some Grade 'A' Marketing Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I suspect it is more GDPR and not wanting to tell people what they have on them.

    2. Re:That's some Grade 'A' Marketing Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's probably more GDPR and not wanting to spend a lot of money on lawyers and engineering to make the service GDPR-compliant. that shit can get expensive for large data volumes and sophisticated structures, and if you do not have any clear path to revenue, shutting it down is a legit option

  9. I remember Klout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But not for the reasons you're probably thinking.

    It's because I worked at a hosting company where they had a bunch of servers.

    As for the service itself, well I remember thinking that "It's some kind of social media bullshit".

    Anyway, it looks like these guys have decided they'll have to shut down rather than attempt to comply with GDPR, which seems reasonable if you think about it. The implications of GDPR are only just now starting to dawn on most businesses.

    1. Re:I remember Klout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      shut down rather than attempt to comply with GDPR

      Aha! So the GDPR has more clout than klout.

  10. Power of Positive Thinking by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    It's not about the Klout score, it's about the girth.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  11. I realize I was never their demographic by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    But I have never heard of Klout.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:I realize I was never their demographic by scottrocket · · Score: 1

      But I have never heard of Klout.

      Huh...Who?

    2. Re:I realize I was never their demographic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can not mourn that which leaves us that which we never knew about in the first place.

    3. Re:I realize I was never their demographic by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      But I have never heard of Klout.

      Huh...Who?

      9-3 E-S-C-O-R ... oh, wait, were you referring to Klout?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    4. Re:I realize I was never their demographic by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      I have. They usually beat Engrand at football.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re:I realize I was never their demographic by scottrocket · · Score: 1

      Well now, if you had more Klout, I would know your handle! Heh.

    6. Re:I realize I was never their demographic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean footbarr?

  12. Huh? And we should care, because.... by Vranitzky · · Score: 0

    Never heard of it. And if they're going to base it on twitter, even better, as I'm not on twitter :-D

  13. Re: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So you prefer having propaganda only from large corporations, not individual people? (propaganda is sometimes called ads)

  14. Social media score based on twitter? by bobstreo · · Score: 2

    In my case, I hope they have figured out how to handle divide by zero errors...

  15. Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...their acquisition "provided Lithium with valuable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities...

    Translation: "Damn, all that data really was worth sucking up!"

  16. Re: by sonamchauhan · · Score: 1

    No, the opposite actually. How'd you figure that ?

  17. Happy GDPR Day! by ovanklot · · Score: 2

    This happens on the same day as the GDPR goes into effect. Put two and two together and you see what Klout was most likely doing with its users' data.

    --
    "Programming is life, the rest is mere details"
  18. What does Twittet have to do with social humans? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's 100% psychopath PR sock puppets.

    There are no humans on "social media". Only livestock, drones and bots. Mostly psychopathic, so the opposite of social. Pseudohumanoid or not.

  19. Re: NIP CHONG DING DONG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Chinks run all kinds of software youve never heard of, it doesnt make them any less a prison cuntry full of assholes.

  20. Oh the Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    see topic

  21. Black Mirror by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    Wasn't there a Black Mirror episode about this? "Nosedive". My daughter the selfie star found it very upsetting; I found it hilarious -- I've decided all the Black Mirror episodes are really comedies, although some like "USS Callister" and "The National Anthem" are more more obvious about it.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  22. So that XKCD comic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No more fear of punches then?