

Updated: TripAdvisor Denies Buying Facebook App - horatio05
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-where-ive-been-facebook-app-sold-for-3-million-to-tripadvisor-report/

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toffer
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."

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eposts
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>

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toffer
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...](http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/08/15/live-from-appdevcon-in-
san-francisco)) 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.

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nickb
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.

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far33d
This is so weird... To whose advantage is it to lie about this so blatantly?

~~~
palish
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.

~~~
eposts
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.

~~~
palish
You've confused issues :) There was the Facebook source code leak, which is
what you're talking about, then this.

~~~
eposts
You are right :)... Too many blogs about FB! I meant to say insideFB, but
typed FBsecrets instead... but its the same argument. Neither of these is
owned by FB so its not Mark or FB lying.

~~~
palish
I totally agree. I was just examining one possibility, however remote, so it
could be discounted. So it's not Facebook.

I don't understand why someone would make something popular and then lie about
its acquisition though.. Which means I've spun a big old circle back to
far33d's original question.

