Pinterest plans to shut down Punchfork. Another niche hub bites the dust.

Originally published on Kapuno in the Technology community

🔗 Punchfork - The best new recipes from top food sites (Article)

🔗 Pinterest acquires year-old recipe sharer Punchfork to beef up foodie appeal, will shutter site (Article)

Pinterest completed its first acquisition and has decided to shut down the two and a half year old recipe sharing product. The move demonstrates that Pinterest acquired Punchfork as a potential threat.

CEO Jeff Miller released this announcement:

Initially, support for Punchfork will continue, but we will soon be retiring the Punchfork site, API and mobile apps. We believe that a unified destination benefits our users in the long run, and the Punchfork team will focus on contributing to Pinterest as the premier platform for discovering and sharing new recipes and other interests on the web.

The move towards aggregation, and Miller’s agreement that the vertical cooking hub isn’t the best solution is telling.

Would you rather have separate hubs for each of your interests or an integrated hub that, in the end, isn’t designed for any single interest?