The social network “Punch”, created with the support of Sberbank’s subsidiary SberIntertainment, ceased to exist. Previously, the site announced the freezing of the project due to a slowdown in audience growth. Sberinteraction told RBC that the company withdrew from the Unified Social Tax (the structure that participated in the development) in mid-2022.
Since January 31, social media users cannot publish content on the site. Two weeks earlier, the service announced that it was no longer possible to continue operating.
“In today’s video platform market, it is very difficult to remain an independent project. Despite the constant growth of authors and the amount of content, it was not easy for us to increase the audience. Growth slowed and this predetermined the fate of the project,” the notice said.
The site recommended users download the videos while possible.
The Punch social network has been tested since 2022 by Sber as an analogue of TikTok, which left Russia. At the same time, another platform was created: Chipz.
The development of both projects was carried out by the ESN company (ESN LLC), which then belonged to SberIntertertainment. According to a company representative, the structure left ESN in mid-2022.
One of the founders of ESN, Galina Degtyareva, said that the project is being carried out by people from Yandex (Vitaly Grigorash and Dmitry Ushanov) and representatives of Gazprom-Media Alexander Samborsky and Boris Maleev.
In “Punch” it was possible to create musical compositions, the service offered to combine ready-made rhythms and use audio effects. And with the help of a neural network it was possible to write texts.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
