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Perplexity Acquired Read.cv—but the Professional Social Network Was Shut Down

Perplexity acquired Read.cv in January 2025, but Read.cv did not continue as a Perplexity-owned social network. Here’s what former users need to know about the shutdown, data exports, and .cv domains.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read

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Perplexity acquired Read.cv on January 17, 2025, but Read.cv did not continue as a Perplexity-owned professional network. The service began winding down, and users were reportedly given until May 16, 2025, to export profiles, posts, and messages. The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed.

For former users, the practical issues are data recovery, profile replacement, and the separate status of any .cv domain. For Perplexity watchers, the transaction looks less like a conventional social-network acquisition and more like a team and product-capability acquisition.

The short version

  • Buyer: Perplexity
  • Target: Read.cv, a professional profile and networking platform
  • Announcement: January 17, 2025
  • Deal terms: Not disclosed
  • Read.cv status: It began winding down as an independent service
  • Reported export deadline: May 16, 2025
  • .cv domains: Migration to Hello.cv was planned to begin January 31, 2025

The important distinction is that Perplexity acquired Read.cv and its team, but Read.cv itself was not announced as an ongoing Perplexity social network.

What was Read.cv?

Founded in 2021 by product designer Andy Chung, Read.cv was designed around professional identity and presentation. It was aimed particularly at designers, independent professionals, and people who wanted more control over how their work and experience appeared online.

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Its features included:

  • Professional profiles and résumé-style pages
  • Posts and profile sharing
  • Messaging and professional conversations
  • Team and organization profiles
  • Job listings and candidate search
  • Personal websites through its Sites feature
  • Optional .cv domains connected to profiles

That made Read.cv different from a conventional employment database. LinkedIn emphasizes scale, recruiter reach, and standardized career histories; Read.cv put more emphasis on professional presentation, community, and personal-brand design.

What happened after the acquisition?

Read.cv announced that it was joining Perplexity, while Perplexity confirmed that the Read.cv team would join the company. Read.cv simultaneously began winding down its standalone product.

Users were reportedly given until May 16, 2025, to export profiles, posts, and messages. That deadline has passed as of September 2026. There is no reliable basis for promising that old account data remains available or recoverable.

The original reporting did not establish whether exports included every attachment, image, follower relationship, notification, analytics record, or domain setting. A data export should not automatically be treated as a complete account archive.

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For the acquisition announcement and reported shutdown timeline, see TechCrunch’s report.

What former Read.cv users should check

  1. Look for an existing export. Search email accounts, cloud storage, downloads folders, and backups for exported profiles, posts, or messages.
  2. Check your old links. Do not assume a Read.cv URL still works or redirects to a preserved profile.
  3. Separate hosting from domain ownership. A .cv domain and the Read.cv-hosted profile were different assets.
  4. Check the registrar account. Confirm the recovery email, renewal date, DNS records, redirects, and email forwarding.
  5. Try recovery sources carefully. Archived emails, browser caches, Internet Archive snapshots, or a support contact may help, but none guarantees restoration.

Anyone rebuilding a profile should preserve a local copy of résumé text, portfolio images, contact information, and important links rather than relying on one hosted service.

What happened to .cv domains?

Read.cv reportedly planned to migrate .cv domains to Hello.cv, with the migration scheduled to begin January 31, 2025. This does not mean that every former Read.cv profile, personal site, DNS setting, or piece of hosted content was automatically preserved.

Domain registration, website hosting, and profile data should be treated as separate questions:

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  • Domain registration: Whether you still control and can renew the domain.
  • DNS: Where the domain points and whether records such as redirects or email forwarding survived.
  • Hosted content: Whether the old profile or Sites page remains available.
  • Account access: Whether the registrar account and recovery email still work.

Hello.cv’s pricing page displayed standard .cv domains at $5 for registration and $10 for annual renewal on August 18, 2026. Prices can change, and those figures are not evidence of the original Read.cv migration terms. Premium names may cost substantially more.

Check Hello.cv’s current pricing page and verify ownership directly through the relevant registrar. Hello.cv should not be treated as officially endorsing or preserving every Read.cv account beyond the reported domain-migration arrangement.

Why did Perplexity want Read.cv?

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said the Read.cv team had experience building consumer and social products, and that Perplexity looked forward to working with the team on new directions. That is the clearest public rationale for the deal.

The likely strategic value is therefore the team’s experience with:

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  • Professional identity and structured profiles
  • Social interaction and messaging
  • Community-oriented consumer products
  • Personal presentation and discovery

It is reasonable to infer that these capabilities could help Perplexity expand beyond an answer engine into broader consumer, work, or enterprise experiences. Read.cv’s structured professional information may also have been relevant to work-oriented products.

But no public announcement established that Perplexity bought Read.cv to build a LinkedIn competitor, a recruiting product, or a social-search product. Nor has the available evidence established that specific Read.cv features or code were incorporated into a named Perplexity product.

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How the deal fits Perplexity’s acquisition pattern

Read.cv was described as Perplexity’s third acquisition, following Spellwise in 2023 and Carbon in 2024. Perplexity said Carbon would help connect external data sources such as Notion and Google Docs to its answer engine; the company described that deal in its official announcement.

The pattern suggests a preference for acquiring specialized teams and capabilities that can accelerate product expansion. That is an interpretation, not a complete officially published acquisition strategy. Later Perplexity products should not automatically be attributed to Read.cv unless Perplexity explicitly makes that connection.

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  • ✅【Sturdy & Protective】 :Made of sturdy metal, it can support up to 17.6 lbs (8kg) weight on top; With 2 rubber mats on the hook and anti-skid silicone pads on top & bottom, it can secure your laptop in place and maximum protect your device from scratches and sliding. Moreover, smooth edges will never hurt your hands.
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What remains unknown

The public reporting did not establish:

  • The purchase price or full deal structure
  • Read.cv’s number of users, revenue, or valuation
  • Which employees joined Perplexity
  • Whether all investors participated in the transaction
  • Exactly what technology, data, or intellectual property transferred
  • How long Read.cv data was retained after the export deadline
  • Whether every attachment, message, or site asset was included in exports

Those gaps matter because “acquired” can describe a transaction without proving that a consumer product, user community, or complete database continued under the buyer.

Replacement options for former users

Option Best for Main trade-off
LinkedIn Recruiter reach, employment history, jobs, and large-scale networking Less control over profile presentation and greater dependence on a large platform
Hello.cv A digital résumé, career profile, or .cv domain Not necessarily a replacement for Read.cv’s social feed, messaging, or community
Contra Freelancers, portfolios, services, and client-facing work More focused on independent work than on a general professional social graph
Independent portfolio website Maximum control over content, design, domain, and portability Requires setup and does not provide a built-in professional network

Choose based on the asset you actually need: recruiter visibility, a personal brand, freelance lead generation, community, or ownership of your content. No replacement reproduces every part of Read.cv.

Bottom line

Perplexity acquired Read.cv on January 17, 2025, primarily presenting the transaction as a way to bring in a team experienced in consumer and social products. Read.cv then wound down as an independent professional network, with a reported May 16, 2025 deadline for exporting profiles, posts, and messages.

Former users should not assume that Read.cv profiles remain online or that all account data was preserved. Check any transferred .cv domain separately, verify renewal and DNS settings, and rebuild important professional information on a platform or website whose portability and ownership arrangements suit your needs.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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