Updated: TripAdvisor Denies Buying Facebook App • Hacker News Board

Re: Updated: TripAdvisor Denies Buying Facebook App

#11

Post by palish » Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 9:17 PM UTC

eposts wrote: post #9

palish wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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.

Re: Updated: TripAdvisor Denies Buying Facebook App

#12

Post by toffer » Sat, Aug 18, 2007, 12:20 AM UTC

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...) 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.

Re: Updated: TripAdvisor Denies Buying Facebook App

#13

Post by toffer » Sat, Aug 18, 2007, 12:23 AM UTC

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."