A few months ago developer Craig Ulliott was panicking because he had 400,000 users bombarding his little Facebook application - Where I've been. Not only are there now 2.3 million people with the Application but Craig and the rest of the group (if there is a group) now find themselves rich and members of the Barry Diller travel empire due to a sale to TripAdvisor for $3million (according to TechCrunch). UPDATE - TechCrunch is now saying that this deal is not yet done - just under discussion. UPDATE 2 - Here is TripAdvisor on News.com calling the acquisition untrue and Ulliott saying that there is no deal (yet) but that he is "exploring all avenues to maximize the value and usefulness of our product". Sounds like discussions have stated but note finished.
The application lets you share with your Facebook buddies where you have lived, worked, travel and (obviously) been in world. It is simple but effective. It has none of the stickiness and addictiveness of Traveller IQ test from (now stable mate) Travelpod. But its fun to work with.
Provides further evidence of TripAdvisor's plans to expand into different brands and expand their traffic base beyond the core review site.
If you are on Facebook and want the App, you can find it here.
5 comments:
I was wondering when people were going to start reporting on this one after reading it on the insidefacebook blog yesterday; it's fantastic news for Craig. 2 months = 3 million dollars. Not a bad bit of work by any standards!
By the way, you might like to change the title of your post. I thought for a second there FB was buying their own apps :)
Shouldn't the title read "TRIPADVISOR finds $3million dollars to buy Facebook App - Where I've Been"?
Sam and Peter - thanks, post title now fixed. This is what happens when you try and post in the last few minutes before leaving work on a Friday :)
Just saw on Techcrunch that this deal has in fact not happened and is only in discussion stage.
Thanks Peter - another change in the title needed...
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