Neeva, once touted as a competitor to Google Search, is closing its search engine neeva.com, co-founders Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan have announced.
Neeva.com will shut down on June 2, says a message on the website's homepage.
Why is neeva.com being closed?
Ramaswamy and Raghunathan announced the decision on Saturday, doing so in an official company blog post. The two former Google executives attributed the move to a combination of ‘difficulty in acquiring users,’ and the ‘different economic environment.’
“Throughout this journey, we've discovered that it is one thing to build a search engine, and an entirely different thing to convince users of the need to switch to a better choice. Contrary to popular belief, convincing users to pay for a better experience was actually a less difficult problem compared to getting them to try a new search engine in the first place,” they said.
{{/usCountry}}“Throughout this journey, we've discovered that it is one thing to build a search engine, and an entirely different thing to convince users of the need to switch to a better choice. Contrary to popular belief, convincing users to pay for a better experience was actually a less difficult problem compared to getting them to try a new search engine in the first place,” they said.
{{/usCountry}}“These headwinds have made it clear that there is no longer a path towards creating a sustainable business in consumer search,” the co-founders added.
Neeva was founded in 2019 as an ad-free, privacy-focused search engine.
What next?
According to Ramaswamy and Raghunathan, there will now be a shift to a ‘new area of focus.’ For those who have subscribed to Neeva Premium, its $4.95 ( ₹410) monthly plan, a refund will be issued for the unsued portion of the subscription. Also, all user data is being deleted; Apple users must click here for their refund.
People can get more information from these FAQs on the closure.