Updated: TripAdvisor Denies Buying Facebook App

http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-where-ive-been-facebook-app-sold-for-3-million-to-tripadvisor-report/

by horatio05 • 19 years ago

13 10 19 years ago

eposts3• 19 years ago

Yup. I posted it in this thread a while back, but looks like it got buried under earlier posts: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43352

nickb• 19 years ago

When I heard the $3mm figure, I immediately started questioning it. That much money for something that can't be monetized that easily is just silly. Sure, that app owner has amassed all these users but these users are not his! He has no relationship with them so the value that he's trying to sell is heavily discounted.

far33d• 19 years ago

This is so weird... To whose advantage is it to lie about this so blatantly?

palish3• 19 years ago

Some possibilities (Edited):

- Facebook lied, which would benefit them if the lie wasn't exposed since it would give people more incentive to develop Facebook applications. Except it would be silly for Facebook to start random applications like "Where I've Been" and hope that one catches on so that they can lie. So, as the comment below says, this possibility is out.

- Someone else lied hoping it would catch on and make Facebook look bad.

- Someone for no reason started the rumor that Craig was bought when in reality he wasn't, and insideFB picked up the story.

- insideFB lied about it for the sole purpose of gaining traffic to its site.

I hope Craig settles the issue soon.

eposts3• 19 years ago

How is FBSecrets the same as FB? To me it just seems to be some blog that is cashing in on the FB brand. I don't think Mark or Facebook has anything to do with this.

toffer2• 19 years ago

It looks to me like the (alleged) TripAdvisor purchase was first discussed at AppDevCon (a gathering of Facebook developers, entrepreneurs, and investors hosted by SocialMedia) on 8/15. This discussion took place before Inside Facebook wrote up the "Biggest Facebook App Acquisition Yet" post.

Inside Facebook live-blogged the AppDevCon (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/08/15/live-from-appdevcon...) and @ 3:23 PM, they quote Naval Ravikant from Hitforge as saying "The value of a Facebook user is going up - at first users were being sold for $0.10, now it's $0.60-$0.70. TripAdvisor just bought Where I've Been for $1.50/user."

There's no indication that anyone who was there was shocked or surprised at this statement. Instead, it seemed like it was presented rather matter-of-factly, like it was common knowledge.

toffer2• 19 years ago

Just found this statement from Craig Ulliott (creator of the Where I've Been app) on news.com (http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9761584-7.html):

"There have been some rumors in the market that we have sold our business. These rumors are not true. Our future development plans, combined with our robust community of users, current growth rates, and the attractiveness of the travel vertical, have led to a number of strategic discussions with potential partners/acquirers, but we have not agreed to any deals and we are committed to building Where I've Been into a sustainable and profitable standalone business."

Updated: TripAdvisor Denies Buying Facebook App

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