In recent years, Instapaper has become, together with Pocket, the two main services for store links so that you can read them offline to the Internet whenever we want. In addition, it allows us to create folders to classify articles in a very simple and fast way. But, since the GDPR came into force, Instapaper stopped serving in Europe.
The company announced that it stopped providing services in Europe, without clarifying what the reason was, beyond having to comply with this new regulation. A decision that Instapaper users in Europe did not like and that seemed like a pointless move. Since yesterday, we already know what the reasons seem to be: Instapaper becomes independent from Pinterest.
A couple of years ago, the Pinterest service bought the read-it-later Instapaper service and eliminated the payment plans offered by the company in order to make the service profitable, in a decision that drew special attention since in some countries Instapaper was much more popular, being paid, than Pocket, which is completely free (although it also offers paid functions).
In the statement that the company has sent, we can read.
Today we announce that Pinterest has signed an agreement to transfer ownership of Instapaper to Instant Paper, Inc, a new company owned and operated by the same people who have been working at Instapaper since it was sold to Betaworks by Marco Arment in 2013. The transfer ownership will occur after a 21-day waiting period designed to give our users fair notice of the change in control over their personal information.
If you still haven't thrown in the towel and have been looking for an alternative to Instapaper since it stopped working at the end of May, maybe with a bit of luck, we can use this excellent article storage service again, although the most probable thing is that it will be paid again, as in its origins.