Crashlytics

Crashlytics

Industry	Software industry
Founded	May 13, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-05-13)
Founders	Wayne Chang, Jeff Seibert
Fate	Acquired by Twitter, Inc.
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts, San Francisco, California
Products	Crashlytics for iOS, Crashlytics for Android, Crashlytics for OSX, Crashlytics for Apple tvOS, Crashlytics for Unity, Beta by Crashlytics, Answers, Fabric, SecureUDID
Members	2+ billion devices, 1+ million apps
Parent	Google (previously Twitter, Inc.)
Website	firebase.google.com/products/crashlytics

Crashlytics was a Boston, Massachusetts-based software company founded in May 2011 by entrepreneurs Wayne Chang and Jeff Seibert. Crashlytics helps collecting, analyzing and organizing app crash reports.

Its main product is a software development kit for crash reporting, application logging, online review and statistical analysis of application logs. It supports iOS, Android and Unity.

In January 2013, Twitter acquired Crashlytics for over $100 million. Most of the package was in stock vesting over four years with an upfront payment of $38.2 million in common Twitter stock.^[1]

In January 2017, Google announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Crashlytics and its offspring creations including Fabric and Answers. The acquisition would bolster its existing efforts in mobile by becoming part of the Firebase platform and known as Firebase Crashlytics.^[2][3][4]

History

Wayne Chang and Jeff Seibert co-founded Crashlytics in 2011. The company raised $1 million from venture capitalists Flybridge Capital Partners and Baseline Ventures as well as individual angel investors.^[5] In April 2012, Crashlytics raised an additional $5 million.^[6][7][8]

In March 2012, under privacy pressure, Apple began to deprecate the UDID – the unique identifier that ties a user to a specific phone.^[9] In response, the Crashlytics team built and released SecureUDID, an open-source alternative to UDID.^[10]

In June 2012, Crashlytics acquired FireTower.app, a tool used to detect JavaScript errors in websites. This acquisition was to help expand Crashlytics beyond mobile apps and into the mobile web. FireTower.app was a Boston-based company. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Crashlytics co-founder Wayne Chang says the other side is “very happy.”^[11]

In January 2013, about a year after Crashlytics launched, Twitter announced it had acquired the company. The acquisition price was pegged at over $100 million (valued at about $259 million when Twitter IPO'd), which was Twitter's largest acquisition at the time.^[12]

In May 2015, SourceDNA released a report that showed Crashlytics as #1 in terms of adoption and usage by apps.^[13] The data also showed that Crashlytics was more than #2–6 combined.

In August 2016, MightySignal shows Crashlytics as in 42% of the top 200, which included apps like Twitter, Uber, Amazon, Spotify, Pinterest and many others.^[14]

In January 2017, four years after Twitter made the acquisition, Google announced it had signed an agreement to acquire Crashlytics.^[15]

Fabric

In October 2014, Crashlytics announced Fabric, an expansion of functionality into mobile app analytics, beta distribution, and user identity and authentication.^[16] Fabric represented the first introduction of a modular SDK platform, which allowed developers to pick and choose which features they needed while guaranteeing ease of installation and compatibility across all. By further tying distribution of MoPub (mobile advertising) and TwitterKit (login with Twitter and Tweet display functionality) to Fabric/Crashlytics, Twitter was able to take advantage of Crashlytics' large adoption and device footprint to rapidly scale usage of its own mobile developer products. Because of the decision to build on top of Crashlytics, Fabric reached active distribution across 1 Billion mobile devices just 8 months after its launch.^[17]

Fabric launched its mobile app in early 2016.^[18]

By the end of 2016, Fabric was serving more than 2 billion active devices and processing 310 billion app sessions a month. Through Crashlytics and its mobile analytics service (called Answers by Crashlytics), Fabric was ranked #1 by MightySignal as the most implemented crash reporting and mobile analytics solution among the top 200 iOS apps.^[19][20]

In January 2017, Google acquired Crashlytics and Fabric.^[15]

In October 2019, the Fabric team announced that all Fabric features including Crashlytics had been migrated to Firebase and that Fabric would shut down on March 31, 2020.^[21]

Timeline

In October 2011, Crashlytics raised $1 million from Flybridge Capital Partners and Baseline Ventures, along with individual investors David Chang, Lars Albright, Jennifer Lum, Peter Wernau, Roy Rodenstein, Chris Sheehan, Ty Danco, Joe Caruso, and others.^{[22] [23] [24]}

In April 2012, Crashlytics raised another $5 million from Flybridge Capital Partners and Baseline Ventures.^[6]

In June 2012, Crashlytics acquires FireTower.app to expand into the mobile web.^[11]

In June 2012, Crashlytics wins the MITX Innovation Award from Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange.^[25]

In January 2013, Twitter acquires Crashlytics for over $100 million (later valued at $259.5 million at Twitter's IPO).^[12]

In February 2013, Crashlytics announced all Enterprise features were free to all developers.^[26]

In March 2013, Crashlytics wins the 50 on Fire award.^[27]

In May 2013, Crashlytics announces support for Android.^[28]

In February 2014, Crashlytics announces "Beta by Crashlytics", its mobile app beta distribution tool.^[29][30]

In October 2014, Crashlytics announces Fabric, a modular mobile platform to build apps.^[31]

In May 2015, a third-party site, SourceDNA, ranked Crashlytics as #1 in mobile performance.^[14]

In May 2015, Crashlytics announces native (NDK) support for Android was announced.^[32]

In October 2015, Crashlytics announces support for Unity, the most popular mobile game engine.^[33]

In December 2015, Crashlytics announces support for Apple's tvOS.^[34]

In August 2016, Crashlytics was ranked #1 most adopted crash reporting SDK among the top 200 iOS apps by MightySignal.^[35]

In December 2016, Answers was ranked #1 most adopted mobile analytics SDK by MightSignal.^[19]

In January 2017, Crashlytics and Fabric were acquired by Google.^[15]

In September 2018, Google announces that Fabric will be deprecated and developers should use Crashlytics via Firebase.^[36]

In October 2019, Google announces that Fabric will be deprecated on March 31, 2020. Crashlytics and other Fabric products will continue as part of Firebase.^[37]

References

1. "Form S-1 Registration Statement Twitter Inc". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. October 3, 2013.
2. Paret, Rich (January 18, 2017). "Fabric is Joining Google". Fabric Blog. Archived from the original on January 19, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
3. Ma, Francis (January 18, 2017). "Welcoming Fabric to Google". Retrieved January 18, 2017.
4. "Firebase Crashlytics". Firebase Website. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
5. Gregory Gomer (October 13, 2011). "Crashlytics Raises $1 Million Led by Flybridge & Boston's Top Angels". BostInnovation.^{[permanent dead link]}
6. Sarah Perez (April 10, 2012). "Crashlytics, A Startup For Crash Reporting on Mobile Apps, Raises $5M From Flybridge, Baseline". TechCrunch.
7. Sarah Perez (October 13, 2011). "Crashlytics, A Crash-Reporting Solution For Mobile Developers, Raises $1 Million". TechCrunch.
8. Rodney H. Brown (October 13, 2011). "Crashlytics details backers in recent $1M round". Mass High Tech. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
9. Micah Gantman (May 25, 2013). "Apple Actually Deprecates UDID This Time". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
10. Sarah Perez (March 27, 2012). "SecureUDID Is An Open Source Solution To The Apple UDID Problem". TechCrunch.
11. Sarah Perez (June 6, 2012). "Mobile Crash Reporting Solution Crashlytics Acquires FireTower.app To Expand Into Mobile Web". TechCrunch.
12. Gregory Huang (February 5, 2013). "Twitter's Boston Acquisitions: Crashlytics Tops $100M, Bluefin Labs Close Behind". Xconomy.
13. Wayne Chang (May 20, 2015). "Fabric Leading the SDK Market in Performance and Mobile Analytics". Twitter.
14. "Just in: Crashlytics #1 in Performance, Answers #2 in Mobile Analytics". Crashlytics. May 20, 2015.
15. Wagner, Kurt; Townsend, Tess (January 18, 2017). "Google has acquired most of Twitter's developer products, including Fabric and Crashlytics". Recode. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
16. Honan, Mat. "Twitter's Audacious Plan to Infiltrate All Your Apps". WIRED. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
17. "Milestone Achieved: Over 1 Billion Devices!". Fabric Blog. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
18. Swanner, Nate (February 23, 2016). "Meet Fabric, Twitter's new mobile app built specifically for developers". The Next Web. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
19. Lew, Jason (December 15, 2016). "The State of Mobile SDKs in 2016". MightySignal Mobile Trends. Archived from the original on March 4, 2023. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
20. "Fabric lands top spots for app analytics, stability, and monetization". Fabric Blog. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
21. "Fabric Roadmap". Fabric. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
22. Sarah Perez (October 13, 2011). "Crashlytics, A Crash-Reporting Solution For Mobile Developers, Raises $1 Million". TechCrunch.
23. Rodney H. Brown (October 13, 2011). "Crashlytics details backers in recent $1M round". Mass High Tech. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
24. Gregory Gomer (October 13, 2011). "Crashlytics Raises $1 Million Led by Flybridge & Boston's Top Angels". BostInnovation.^{[permanent dead link]}
25. "Crashlytics Wins MITX Innovation Award". Crashlytics. June 14, 2012.
26. Drew Olanoff (February 13, 2013). "Twitter's Crashlytics Enterprise Features Are Now Available To All Developers For Free". TechCrunch.
27. "Crashlytics Wins 50 on Fire Award". Crashlytics. March 28, 2013.
28. Sarah Perez (May 30, 2013). "Twitter's Mobile Crash Reporting Tool Crashlytics Arrives On Android". TechCrunch.
29. "From Crashlytics Labs: Announcing Our Beta Distribution Tool". Crashlytics. February 26, 2014.
30. Matthew Panzarino (May 29, 2014). "Twitter's Crashlytics Launches Cross-Platform App Beta Testing Service". TechCrunch.
31. "Introducing Fabric". Crashlytics. October 21, 2014.
32. "The Wait is Over: Launching Crashlytics for Android NDK". Crashlytics. May 27, 2015.
33. "From Crashlytics Labs: Unity and tvOS Support, Logged Errors for iOS". Crashlytics. October 21, 2015.
34. "Introducing Crashlytics for tvOS". Crashlytics. December 2, 2015.
35. Lew, Jason (December 15, 2016). "The State of Mobile SDKs in 2016". MightySignal Mobile Trends. Archived from the original on March 4, 2023. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
36. Protalinski, Emil (September 14, 2018). "Google is killing Fabric in mid-2019, pushes developers to Firebase". VentureBeat. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
37. "Fabric Roadmap". Fabric. Retrieved October 9, 2019.

Further reading

• The Boston Globe
• TechCrunch
• Mashable
• TechCrunch
• FitGenius
• Business Insider