Like.com team shuts down visual search site Riya

August 14, 2009 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

riya-logoRiya, the visual search engine whose team later built shopping site Like.com, is shutting down later this month.

The closure only finalizes a shift that started happening years ago — although the San Mateo, Calif. company is still called Riya, it has been focusing on Like.com for a while now. It doesn’t look like too many users will miss the site either, according to data from Compete. In an email sent to users (and published on TechCrunch), chief executive Munjal Shah writes:

After three years of keeping Riya.com up and running, we have finally decided to shut it down as of Aug. 21, 2009. Though we transitioned to Like.com years ago, we left Riya running until there was an alternative all of you could use. Today there is. You can use Picasa or iPhoto 9 and get similar face recognition capabilities for your personal photos.

Meanwhile, Shah says Like.com, which uses visual search technology to help shoppers find the purchases they’re looking for, is now seeing more than $100 million a year in sales of clothing, shoes, handbags, and other “aesthetic soft goods.” The company has raised $49.5 million in venture funding.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • Make sense...focusing on what is bringing them money.
  • welads
    two down for shah - andale, then riya now
  • Abhi
    That was expected. After fucking up Andale, when he was planning to start a second company - there were many voices - of ex-andale employees, competition, peers, etc - that this 2nd company - whatever it would be - is not gonna last for long. After all, that's how munjal works. He raises money through VC funding, pockets it, closes shop and hunts for his next victim.
  • Bex
    In the future when a startup fizzles out, we'll get to say "they've got a case of the Riya".