Neeva will shut down June 2. The ad-free search engine launched lower than two years in the past.
Neeva’s failure was resulting from its lack of ability to draw sufficient customers, the rise of generative AI and LLMs and the present financial atmosphere, in keeping with the corporate’s founders, Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan.
Sridhar Ramaswamy assertion. Ramaswamy tweeted the next:
“This was a really robust determination that took into consideration numerous issues: our enterprise progress thus far, the present funding atmosphere and our capability to proceed to develop rapidly on this vastly modified search atmosphere. We’re extremely pleased with what now we have achieved: constructing a search engine from scratch with a tiny crew of fifty individuals and releasing the world’s first LLM powered reply engine that produced dependable citations.”
Why we care. Neeva’s search market share was tiny, however it provided a substitute for Google, which is at all times an excellent factor. Sadly, as has been the case with most Google alternate options – together with Microsoft’s Bing – it’s almost not possible to get individuals to interrupt freed from their Google behavior.
Historical past of Neeva. The search engine was based in 2019, however it wouldn’t be till June 2020 we first reported on the new search engine. Neeva can be 100% freed from promoting and subscription-supported. Neeva additionally stated it wouldn’t observe customers, with personalization being achieved with out knowledge mining.
Ramaswamy believed the standard and usefulness of Google’s search outcomes had been compromised by the deal with advert income. Their mission was to “take search again to its customers.”
Neeva launched within the U.S. in June 2021, charging customers $4.95 a month. In an try and develop its person base in 2022, Neeva started providing a free basic subscription.
In January of this 12 months, the corporate introduced NeevaAI, a generative AI search product that answered queries with summaries and citations – beating each Microsoft’s New Bing launch (introduced Feb. 7) and Google’s Search Generative Experience (nonetheless hasn’t launched publicly).
Learn the announcement. Next Steps for Neeva.