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Threewords.me is up for private auction

sale.threewords.me

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Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#41

Post by dolinsky »

jacquesm wrote: post #9

Very smart move this, rather than to figure out how to monetize it monetize it by selling it while the growth curve is still exponential. Also, looking at alexa it seems as though the period of hyper fast growth is already a bit past: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/threewords.me Still, it should fetch a pretty penny and to the right party it might be worth quite a lot of money.

I'm genuinely curious why you suggest the growth curve on this is exponential at this point? I saw this thread on HN when he originally posted it, and while it wasn't something I would personally be interested in I imagined it might fit a certain demographic. The question for me was always the staying power with a quick hit site like this.

Now having seen a wider window of stats on the site from quantcast, all arrows are pointing down and to the right. I agree that he's smart to try to sell it, but only because the longer he holds onto it the less opportunity there will be to capitalize on the original spike.

Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#44

Post by melvinram »

Have you considered going to a larger company/brand like Dove and getting them to buy it? Your audience seems right in line with their audience and they probably already have a budget for "social media marketing". A good way to reach them might be a big-brand social media consultant like VaynerMedia.com. They could facilitate the sale and make a commission on the amount. I know someone who knows Gary over at Vayner so if you're interested, I could try to make the connection.

Alternatively, I can connect you with an investment banker who specializes in selling internet based businesses, though I'm not sure if he'll be interested since he typically deals in the 7-figures range... but I could run it by him if you want.

I just think having a simple private auction without attracting the right parties to the table might not get you the maximum the site could get. Just my thought.

Anyway, congrats on the success so far and good luck with things. My email is in my profile.

Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#45

Post by socialmediaking »

I understand you have time constraints and other things on your plate, but it seems to me that you created an entirely new form of social interaction. I think your site is in the same league as http://formspring.me (which has $24m in funding).

I would hate for you to sell for 5 figures only to see a much higher valuation in only a couple of years.

Your concept is well executed and if you have traffic, you should be able to monetize without being too innovative. I like the idea of surveys or branded pages.

Good luck though, with whatever you decide!

Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#46

Post by healthyhippo »

jacquesm wrote: post #14
sahillavingia wrote: post #5

Making the bids public would definitely be a good idea (one person bids x, person 2 bids x+500, etc).

No, it would not be a good idea at all. Let's just for a second pretend that I'd be an interested party (I won't be bidding). I would assume that most of the people bidding are not 'players', I'd assume that they would just try to get it for a song and a bit, the equivalent of buying Manhattan from the Indians because they're not aware of what it's worth. Mark is a smart guy so he won't be going for that. The second…

Sure, he could just run it like Swoopo.com and charge people for each bid they make

Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#47

Post by PostOnce »

citricsquid wrote: post #19
roschdal wrote: post #16

How much revenue is generated from Threewords.me? Is it even profitable? Also, I'm wondering how the process of transferring the actual website would go? Will the buyer usually take over the servers which the seller has setup?

Haha, hey everyone this guy thinks profitability with this matters! Everyone point and laugh! I highly doubt even Mark thinks this product has legs with monetisation, it's a fad at best. He's clever for cashing in now, it'll be dead soon unless the new owner works out how to expand.

Twitter is a pretty silly concept, and their valuation is non-comical.

Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#48

Post by markbao »

socialmediaking wrote: post #45

I understand you have time constraints and other things on your plate, but it seems to me that you created an entirely new form of social interaction. I think your site is in the same league as http://formspring.me (which has $24m in funding). I would hate for you to sell for 5 figures only to see a much higher valuation in only a couple of years. Your concept is well executed and if you have traffic, you should be a…

Thanks for your thoughts! I can't really say I'm having second thoughts, but more like 1.5nd thoughts... I just don't know where to expand from here. The concept is great and the virality is really cool, but... something just isn't there.

Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#49

Post by geekfactor »

sahillavingia wrote: post #5

Making the bids public would definitely be a good idea (one person bids x, person 2 bids x+500, etc).

Disagree with public bids in this case. Perhaps the right approach for something that will be priced based on fundamentals or intrinsic value, but in this case the value will come from finding a visionary/strategic buyer. By definition these will be outliers thus public bids would put downward pressure on perceived value.

Re: Threewords.me is up for private auction

#50

Post by BrandonWatson »

If anyone ever questions the value of the idea versus the value of execution, use this as a cuationary tale. Here's my post outlining this very idea from 2 years ago:

http://www.manyniches.com/n00b-notes/my3words/

2 years. I even registered the domain my3words.com.

What did I do with it? Not much. I have no idea if Mark saw my post or not. I kind of hope he did, so that I can feel a little better about not executing. That maybe I inspired him.

However, that doesn't change the bottom line. He executed. Worth-ful. I had the idea, but didn't execute. Worthless.

Hats off to Mark.

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