Tr.im cuts air supply, says no money in tiny Web 2.0 pot

Short-lived URL shortening service choked

Tr.im has shutdown its operations after failing to make money from, or find a buyer for, its URL shortening service.

The company's website carries a glum message confirming that the service is in the process of being discontinued because Tr.im, which was popular among some Twitter users, couldn't raise money from the venture.

"We regret that it came to this, but all of our efforts to avoid it failed. No business we approached wanted to purchase tr.im for even a minor amount," reads a miserable note on the firm's homepage.

It said that statistics could "no longer be considered reliable or reliably available going forward."

Tr.im links will continue to redirect until at least 31 December 2009, it said.

And, for all those idly lazing away on Twitter, tweets with Tr.im URLs in them will live on from beyond the company's grave. Although, it's hard to see how a defunct business will be able to prevent those links from breaking once the firm is no more.

"There is no way for us to monetize URL shortening - users won't pay for it - and we just can't justify further development since Twitter has all but anointed bit.ly the market winner," confessed a down-and-out Tr.im.

Parent company Nambu Network puts the nail in the coffin here. ®