Tag Archives: Gowalla
Some Of Gowalla’s Investors Did Not Know About The Facebook Acquisition
“Most of the investors I spoke with had no idea what was going on, and what if anything they’d be receiving back for their dollars in,” stated CrunchFund founder Michael Arrington when talking about Facebook’s acquisition of Gowalla. Gowalla CEO Josh Williams confirmed yesterday that Facebook had acquired them. Gowalla is shutting down their service and their team is spreading between Facebook’s offices in Austin and Palo Alto.
(more…)
Categories Gowalla
Leave a comment
Gowalla Confirms Facebook Acquisition
Gowalla CEO Josh Williams has confirmed that Facebook has acquired them. Williams said that he came up with the idea for Gowalla when he took a photograph of Lake Tahoe on his iPhone and he just finished a phone call with his dad. He wanted to share more than just the photo and the place with him.
(more…)
Categories Facebook, Gowalla, Josh Williams
2 Comments
Gowalla CEO Does Not Confirm Or Deny Facebook Deal [UPDATE: CONFIRMED]
A couple of days ago, I wrote about how Gowalla was reportedly by Facebook. CNN broke the news based on a source that was close to Gowalla. Now Gowalla CEO Josh Williams has not denied or confirmed the deal. Below is an e-mail that Williams sent out after the CNN story was released this past Friday:
(more…)
Categories Facebook, Gowalla, Josh Williams
Leave a comment
Facebook Acquires Geolocation Check-In Service Gowalla
Facebook has acquired location sharing company Gowalla for an undisclosed amount according to sources with CNN. “We don’t comment on rumor and speculation,” responded a Gowalla spokesperson. Gowalla employees including the founder Josh Williams would relocate to Facebook’s offices in Palo Alto to work on the Facebook Timeline feature.
(more…)
Categories Facebook, Gowalla
Leave a comment
Facebook Receives Broad Patent On Location-Based Social Networks And Check-Ins
Facebook was late to the geo-location social networking space, but they plan to grow and reign supreme in the race. This past week Facebook was given a patent for “Systems and methods for automatically locating web-based social network members.” Facebook can determine the location using a GPS identifier. It will also combine a status update with the member’s current location. Below is the abstract of the patent:
Categories Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla
Leave a comment
Twitter Launches Places Feature With Gowalla and Foursquare Support
Twitter has launched a new feature called Places on Twitter.com and Mobile.Twitter.com. This means you can tag tweets with specific places. You will also be able to click a Twitter Place within a tweet. If you want to see recent tweets from that specific location, just click on the link to the Twitter Place. Foursquare and Gowalla will be integrated with theses features. APIs are being released for Twitter Places for third party apps.
(more…)
Categories Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, Twitter Places
Leave a comment
InterContinental Hotels Group Signs Discount Deals With Gowalla
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a deal with Gowalla that will allow people that use the mobile check-in service to receive discounts at participating IHG Hotels including Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza chains. “As our guests increasingly turn toward mobile applications, we want to connect with them in a relevant way and ensure they discover how they can get rewarded for staying with us,” stated U.S. Sales and Marketing VP of IHG Del Ross. “We’re excited to be the first hotel company to use Gowalla’s location-based service to market at the intersection of mobile and physical check-ins.” This whole promotion is called Hit It Big. Hit It Big offers guests with rewards such as Priority Club points, double air miles, or up to $500 in prepaid gift cards. So if you are using Foursquare to check in to Holiday Inn or Crowne Plaza, I’d highly recommend switching to Gowalla in this case. You must register for the promotion at: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/hititbig?src_code=88.
Categories Del Ross, Gowalla, InterContinental Hotels Group
Leave a comment
Gowalla App Now Available For Android
Gowalla has launched on the Android Market. Gowalla is Foursquare’s primary competitor. Some of the features that Gowalla has includes details about specific locations, trip completion progress, and the ability to view friends’ activities. Gowalla also recently redesigned their website in preparation for SXSW. [Android and Me via Mashable]
Categories Android, Google, Google Android, Google Android Market, Gowalla
Leave a comment
Gowalla Raises $8.4 Million From Greylock and Several Angel Investors
Gowalla is a location based social networking website that has raised $8.4 million in funding. Greylock Partners was the lead investor and the company plans to use the funding to strengthen their development capabilities. Thus far Gowalla has raised over $10 million since they started in 2007.
“Gowalla has rapidly attracted a passionate user base by creating an innovative, useful service that is also a lot of fun,” stated Greylock’s David Thacker. “It’s exciting to discover new places and earn stamps for your passport from places as diverse as Buckingham Palace and the Sydney Opera House to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the coffee shop down the street. Gowalla also connects you with your friends, letting you share your travels and meet up with others in real time.” Thacker has joined the Gowalla Board of Directors as part of the investment.
LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman also joined Gowalla’s board of directors as an observer.
Other investors in Gowalla include Jason Calacanis, Kevin Rose, Maples Investments, Shasta Ventures, Ron Conway, Gary Vaynerchuk, Shervin Pishevar, and Chris Sacca. Previous investors Alsop-Louie Partners and Founders Fund also participated in this round.