Klout is shutting down, and your Klout Score is disappearing with it. For those of you who know what Klout is/was this is probably a reminder of a simpler time. And the rest of you will be scratching your heads wondering what this is all about.
A Brief History of Klout
Klout was launched in 2008 as a way for social media users to gauge their popularity. You would link your various social media accounts, and Klout would then use a number of parameters to determine your Klout Score between 1 and 100.
The official line was that this score represented how much influence you had. But it was really just one big popularity contest, with Canadian pop twerp Justin Bieber scoring 100/100. Klout never lived up to its early hype, and was eventually sold off.
Klout Loses All Its Clout
Now, Lithium Technologies, which acquired Klout in 2014, has decided to “sunset the Klout service, effective May 25, 2018”. After that, you’ll no longer be able to check your Klout Score or see what subjects you’re considered an expert in. If any.
May 25 is, perhaps coincidentally, the date by which companies need to comply with the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, if that does have anything to do with either the decision or the timing, Lithium isn’t saying.
To all of our fans: after careful consideration we have decided to shut down the Klout website & the Klout Score. This will happen on May 25, 2018. It has been a pleasure serving you, and thank you for your ongoing support over the years. Details here: https://t.co/xCNdYachxF
— Klout (@klout) May 10, 2018
In a post on the Lithium Community, CEO Pete Hess states that while the acquisition of Klout “provided Lithium with valuable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities,” “Klout as a standalone service is not aligned with our long-term strategy”.
However, it should be noted that at the end of the post, Hess states that Lithium is “planning the launch of a new social impact scoring methodology based on Twitter”. Which not only sounds slightly ominous but could signal some kind of Klout v2. Watch this space.
Crowned the King of Klout
We doubt many people will be bothered by the news that Klout is shutting down. Because while Klout was a thing for a time, the internet moved on years ago. It’s been so long since I checked my Klout Score I might have been crowned King of Klout for all I know.
Even though Klout is no more you may be interested to read our previous coverage on the social scoring site. In 2012 I wrote an overview of Klout as it was at the time, but by 2015 we were explaining why no one should pay any attention to Klout scores.
