
Facebook buys Karma - pitdesi
http://blog.getkarma.com/
======
kalvin
FYI, Karma's best mechanic is that you send a gift to a recipient without
entering cc info; then when the recipient accepts, you become socially
obligated to complete the payment process. It also asks the recipient for
their address, so you only need to pick the item and enter their email (or FB
select). It's generally a beautifully designed app.

~~~
ceol
I found their website to be beautifully designed as well. I had no idea what
Karma was, but a single click and scroll told me exactly what it was and how
it works. It's also pretty neat.

Good on these folks for making something awesome!

~~~
waterlesscloud
It looks like an interesting idea, but the thing that throws up a bit of a
flag is that it seems susceptible to becoming SkyMall-ish.

I.E. limited and overpriced selections of mixed quality. I don't know that it
gives me the precision and control I want with gift selection...

------
joncooper
Congratulations to the Karma team. I was the founding CTO of a competitor,
Giftly, have thought about/worked on the space a great deal, and have been
really impressed with what y'all have built. You deserve it.

~~~
mlev555
What are you doing now? Would you be interested in working for a new social
commerce startup?

------
nostrademons
I saw the headline and thought it would be about how Morgan Stanley was
propping up the Facebook IPO price.

~~~
mmaunder
Ditto. There was a concrete floor at $38 today.

~~~
f45s8g2
Greenshoe.

------
rsuttongee
Great acquisition for Facebook. People are wondering what kind of monetization
strategies Facebook will use to make them worth their post-IPO valuation, and
Karma is now one good example.

People spend a LOT of money on gifts.

------
dm8
Looks like FB is on acquisition spree. Instagram, Glancee and now Karma. Just
in the space of one month. Are these (Glancee and Karma) people acquisitions?

~~~
lusr
This feels like the Microsoft strategy: sit on a pile of cash and watch others
innovate, then buy the guys that succeed (or clone them if you can't buy
them). It's a good formula for success because you don't take the risks of
introducing an unwanted product into the market, and it's not a bad deal for
the acquired besides.

~~~
dennisgorelik
Microsoft developed core products (Word, Windows) mostly in-house (after
purchasing seed programs).

I would expect that success of FaceBook would be always defined by the core
FaceBook product - social network, not by acquisitions.

~~~
pyoung
Why would you expect that? By many metrics, Facebook's current valuation
cannot be justified by their advertising revenue potential, so why shouldn't
we expect Facebook to look to other products for revenue. Amazon, Google, and
Apple all have very diverse revenue streams outside of their original core
products (online retail, AdSense, and Macs), and in many ways it is the reason
that these companies are so successful. If anything I would assume that
Facebook is looking long and hard at opportunities to generate revenue from
other products.

------
adhipg
Congratulations to Karma but is Facebook on a race with Google for the number
of startups acquired this year?

~~~
debacle
This acquisition smells more like Yahoo than Google.

I guess Facebook is going to make a bit to consolidate as many services as
possible into their social network. I wonder how that's going to impact
usability.

~~~
natrius
Which purchased startups has Facebook actually integrated into their product?
I can't think of any. Friendfeed and Instagram have kept running as standalone
projects. The rest have been shut down without any Facebook features that are
clear successors.

~~~
Steko
Facebook has made it pretty clear that the majority of their acquisitions have
been for talent not technology.

------
ispivey
I hope they're getting a mandate to build gifting / ecommerce transactions
into a revenue stream for Facebook whatever way they can. Bring back Free
Gifts / FB Gifts with a vengeance. One-click purchase of products advertised
in the sidebar!

And congrats again Ben, Lee, and the whole Karma team. They're going to do
great things with the resources of FB.

------
dlevine
Lee is a really nice guy, and has multiple successful companies behind him.
Seems like a great move on Facebook's part.

------
dpearce
Big time pick up for Facebook. If they can manage to bring Facebook Credits
mainstream then everyone watch out.

------
krosaen
Ben & Lee are a great team, from parlaying the winnings of a business plan
competition into a hit app (tap defense), to building a successful company
around app marketing using their app to gain traction (tapjoy) and now karma.
Can't wait to see what they do with Karma and what comes next!

------
eapen
Zuck seems keen to the Wallstreet fellows on the edge with Facebook's
unpredictability.

------
stevenj
How do you guys find out about new products and companies?

I had never heard of Glancee or Karma (among many others) before I read the
news that they had both been acquired by Facebook.

~~~
frankdenbow
Karma had a few Techcrunch articles

------
sparknlaunch12
Pretty interesting app and can see how Facebook could utilize the product. I
wonder if we will see more of this consolidation in the market place as the
big players buy up smaller ones.

~~~
adhipg
But how many such acquisitions actually become 'usable' features in the parent
product and how many just end up being talent acquisitions?

I don't imagine it's easy to integrate something into core Facebook than
essentially just being a part of the product that uses the API - which can
just be done by being an independent entity?

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Unsure of the terms of the deal, but maybe this was simply a talent
acquisition plus strategic purchase? Maybe the cost wasn't that high. I am
sure an offer to work at Facebook and integrate your product into the FB
platform has some intangible appeal.

------
thesis
When does facebook have to disclose how much they paid for it?

------
twodayslate
Looks like Facebook is using their new IPO money wisely.

------
2pasc
This is interesting as it shows how Facebook may move away from pure
advertising as a revenue stream on the mobile and more towards transactions.

------
minikomi
Nice. I'm reminded of how often Facebook is how I know someone's birthday is
coming up..,

------
38f0ia
Now this is a smart buy.

~~~
dennisgorelik
How do you know that without knowing the price?

------
swasheck
They had to do SOMETHING with that $16B

------
InclinedPlane
So. Facebook is ostensibly a "public" company except it's still more than 50%
controlled by one man and now it has 18 billion dollars of cash to buy up
potential competitors before they get big. Zuck has to be feeling pretty
damned pleased with himself right about now.

~~~
joshu
A hiding startup is a potential competitor?

You seem angry.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Not angry, more bemused. This has been one of the most unusual IPOs in
history, and all the usual suspects (news media, tech blogs, etc.) can find to
talk about are the most mundane and least substantive details.

------
1234the1234
wow... this is how out of touch the wealthy are. No one at all in real life
would ever use this idea. I don't want to say like 1%, but honestly this is a
tool of a very very small portion of society. The scary part is that a very
small portion of society decides if it gets the money to exist.

------
guptaneil
Anybody else read this headline and wish they could buy karma too?

