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The "I Have 250,000 Users, Now What?" guy just sold his Facebook app for $3 million
- pg 19y agoI'm dubious about this. There's no source. The Mashable and Techcrunch articles about this simply derive from this one. And yet Inside Facebook isn't claiming an exclusive, despite apparently having one. It may be true, but there are a lot of fishy signs.
- ph0rque 19y agoAccording to the app developer's website (http://www.bigsight.org/craigulliott http://www.bigsight.org/craigulliott): "Craig Ulliott is a freelance web developer and the guy behind the "Where I've Been" Facebook application that has reached more than 2.3 million users in its first two months since launch. Craig recently sold the application and user base to TripAdvisor for $3mm, which marks the first major sale of a Facebook application since the company opened up their API and development platform."
- acgourley 19y agoYeah, I'd like to have some proof myself. And details. Is this cash we're talking about?
- aston 19y agoMy gut tells me TripAdvisor can't expect to make back that money on the users themselves over the next few years. If they shift the app to include advertising to achieve that level of revenue, it's going to lose out to whatever copy cat is still ad-free.
- mariorz 19y agowhy? they wouldn't have to put ads on user profiles just put them on canvas pages in an unobtrusive way, you can potentially target them A LOT better than google does no?
- bilbo0s 19y agoThis young man aggregated a very valuable demographic in one place. Over 2 Million prime "hosteling" candidates, and travelers all accessible through his user list. As to the question of whether this is real, I am uncertain. It would be understandable however if it were. What many entrepreneurs realize too late is that acquiring a lot of heterogeneous users quickly is of little value. Acquiring HOMOGENEOUS users is of great value. When all of a sites users are homogeneous, ie travelers, or runners, or 30 year old single women, the number of methods of monetizing them are legion. Monetization of an audience of less than 5 million is more difficult where there is no commonality. This young man chose the simplest monetization method, sell the names.
- acgourley 19y agoThat's uh... well I'm happy for him.
- zach 19y agoWow, and this is one of those ideas at least two different people have suggested to me in conversations. I guess it was just waiting for the right platform. And no, none of them are mentioned in this article. That's a good argument for keeping ideas like this in a journal or outliner or something so you can review them when a new-platform gold rush like this comes around. And, as anomalous as this deal seems, I have to say it: it's also more support for the "get popular first and worry about profitability later" school of thought.
- zach 19y agoOr maybe this deal is so anomalous because it's fictitious. I guess I was being too naive.
- run4yourlives 19y agoNote to self: avoid management team of trip advisor at all costs.
- ashu 19y ago<evil> Or _maybe_ somebody who's investing in facebook is also somehow involved with the acquisition. get one of the apps an exit => facebook's value shoots through the roof again. </evil>
- run4yourlives 19y agoEither way, I'm safe if I avoid them altogether.
- acgourley 19y agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30042 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30042 for reference
- eposts 19y agoHere is some juicy stuff - Tripadvisor says the report is not true: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9761584-7.html http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9761584-7.html
- acgourley 19y agoSounds like there is a kernel of truth that got passed around the rumor mill.
- ashu 19y agoTripadvisor's ambiguous statement actually fuels the rumour even more.
- toffer 19y agoNews.com now has a statement from Craig Ulliot confirming that the report is not true: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43676 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43676