Facebook Buys Gowalla: Social Network Acquires Location-Based Service's Employees

Facebook has acquired location-based social service Gowalla for an undisclosed sum.

Both companies announced the deal on December 5.

"We're excited to confirm that Gowalla co-founders Josh Williams and Scott Raymond, along with other members of the Gowalla team, are moving to Facebook in January to join our design and engineering teams," a Facebook rep said in a statement emailed to The Huffington Post.

According to a post on the Gowalla Blog, at least part of the startup's staff will relocate from Austin, Texas, to Palo Alto, California. Gowalla services will be shuttered in January 2012.

Facebook won't acquire any of Gowalla's technology or user data, and the Gowalla Blog explains that the service will give its two million users a chance to extract their data before the service shuts its doors for good.

CNN Money published an unconfirmed report on December 2 that Facebook would buy Gowalla. According to CNN's sources, Gowalla talent will join Facebook's Timeline development team, which is currently finalizing Facebook's new profile design that debuted at the company's recent f8 conference and is expected to begin rolling out to users soon.

Since launching in 2009, Gowalla had faced steep competition from check-in service Foursquare and daily deals giant Groupon, as well as a host of other location-based check-in and rewards services. In September, Gowalla announced that it had redesigned its mobile app and planned to shift focus away from check-ins and toward user-generated reviews of local places. Those plans are now kaput.

Facebook also found itself struggling to keep up in the local mobile space. The social network's location-based deals feature, Places, which launched in August 2010, failed to take off. Almost exactly a year later, Facebook said it would shutter certain aspects of the project.

Comments

[Jane Anybeat]

04:45 PM on 12/19/2011

I feel that Facebook has become a popularity contest instead of a safe place to share intimate informatio¬n or discussion¬. Anybeat.co¬m aspires to once again modernize the digital third place, and build a well lit, friendly, global community where people can be free to gather, meet each other, and have unrestrict¬ed, open conversati¬ons. In a world where everything that we say is logged, archived, and indexed by search engines, Pseudonyms are critically important. Without pseudonyms¬, which are explicitly prohibited by Facebook and at this time Google +, we are forced to watch what we say and stay away from conversati¬ons about sensitive topics. Anybeat supports and encourages the use of pseudonyms¬, and therefore has conversati¬ons that you wouldn't typically find on Facebook or G+. visit www.anybea¬t.com for a new social experience

[I think therefore I am]

09:24 AM on 12/06/2011

That awkward moment when Facebook takes over the world!!! Is there anyone alive without a Facebook account? Although too many people post way too much information for all to see, it is still very addictive thus the reason behind it's huge success. I keep it simple and post my status update and that's it. Btw, anyone looking for great "that awkward moment when quotes for Facebook" check out this great compilation here.. http://tips21.com/that-awkward-moment-when-quotes-for-facebook-status.html

[globaltrekkie]

01:09 AM on 12/06/2011

Facebook is Mark's giant social experiment/practical joke on the rest of the world.

[markinmissouri]

01:36 AM on 12/06/2011

i was SOOOOOO hoping he would buy my "FACEFUCKWHY.cum" until he saw he could NOT challenge the regular IT USER. ME! i have 10s of potential users lined up. dammit get in line!!! see how i have the leadership? HE IS NO MATCH, for this chic i was thinking of.

[Amock]

09:27 PM on 12/05/2011

I just do not get this whole FACEBOOK thing. Waste of time.

[Jovanvaldeze]

01:09 AM on 12/07/2011

Agree with you, Facebook is a waste of time, but people are earning millions through this social networking site :)

http://www.socialcubix.com

[catalyst1219]

07:50 PM on 12/05/2011

As a facebook user I'm happy to see more talented people added to their team. I appreciate that they are always trying to improve their services even if that means they miss sometimes.

I never understand all the hate that is directed at facebook in the HuffPo comments sections. Either you don't use facebook so why do you hate on something that you don't even use or you do use it but I don't understand why someone would use something that they hate.

[wollstonecraft]

08:28 AM on 12/06/2011

catalyst1219, I see your point, but here's my story with FB: They've frozen me out of my account and won't give me access to it, even to deactivate it, until I surrender to them a mobile phone number. Hard as it may be to believe, not all of us have mobile phones. And I sure as heck wouldn't get one or remit it to FB as ransom for my account. I was a responsible member. I didn't troll, spam, cyber-stalk, or harass. I used my real name and my real email address. I don't hate FB. And I know people who use it for a professional online presence and for networking. But some segments of upper FB management need to get their heads on straight, and stop tyrannizing responsible, courteous members. I guess this is what you get when a megalomaniac has about 800 million people over a barrel.

[agro23]

05:19 PM on 12/05/2011

What happens to the Gowalla technology?

[Jill Kennedy]

05:02 PM on 12/05/2011

Facebook must be stopped. Social media's version of China...

http://mankabros.com/blogs/onmedea/2011/09/01/facebook-must-be-stopped/

[caland]

03:46 PM on 12/05/2011

When are they going to acquire the rights to 1984

[US Patent 7089319]

03:37 PM on 12/05/2011

So FB did not buy any of Gowala's technology or even existing user data. (Because there was no case for intellectual property there.) FB only "bought" employees? How does this work? Are they FB s laves now?

[Alvin Jackson]

02:20 PM on 12/05/2011

The truth is this, coming from an entrepreneur: Facebook is going to freak gowalla and in a way connect it to its social platform that will change the industry and create new opportunities, my bet.

By the way be looking out for www.uappit.com in 2012! The name says it all! I am going to freak out the app industry and businesses and people are going to love me! - I luv you too!

[strawberry shortcake]

02:07 PM on 12/05/2011

FACEBOOK SUCKS, if u ask me. there's "no" privacy AT ALL, i know because of what FB got me twice already and there won't be a third time.. i hope sooner rather than later that FB gets "shut down"!!!! and Zuckerberg loses a fortune he's an idioit..WHO in their right mind would build something and leave out the necessary works to protect peoples privacy? That's a sign of someone who doesn't care about other peoples privacy.. the controls he just put in place aren't worth a damn if u ask me..they don't even help. he's so freaking inconsiderate and incompetent!!!!! oh, and YOUNG AND DUMB!!!!

[clearthinker2008]

02:52 PM on 12/05/2011

A sign that he doesn't care about others started when he stole the idea in the first place.

[JasonWS]

03:23 PM on 12/05/2011

More than a little heavy handed. Who is the real originator of an idea, the one who works to shape it and build it, or the person who claimed to have invented the idea when MySpace and even LiveJournal already existed? Zuckerberg was not a thief as much as a doer, who followed through.

[DVF211]

05:37 PM on 12/05/2011

if you would want privacy, is it wise to have a facebook page? just sayin.

[karen lyons kalmenson]

02:01 PM on 12/05/2011

welcome to planet facebook...
anonymity be gone
myspace is your space
our privacy trod upon
OMG gotta go
new FB friends
i want to know;-D

[SHIRLEY CARR]

01:56 PM on 12/05/2011

Who be Gowalla? A chant for a Texas Team...GO WALLA...

[karen lyons kalmenson]

01:59 PM on 12/05/2011

maybe a marsupial that eats eucalyptus and lives in the land way down under:-D

[SDLee]

01:51 PM on 12/05/2011

These kind of commercial services are total nonsense. They are nothing but platforms for commercial advertisers Just keep Craigslist growing because that's the kind of service people really need.

[WilliamWalton]

03:24 PM on 12/05/2011

Agree, but 90% of the responders on CraigsList to a posting are SPAM or SCAM.

[SDLee]

04:16 PM on 12/05/2011

I've never had much trouble disposing of or acquiring stuff on Craigslist but there is a cost in time to use the service, to weed out the browsers from the shoppers.

[orbs]

01:48 PM on 12/05/2011

orbs announces...a complete lack of interest of anything to do with fb.

Well, condemning it and its ignorant users aside that is.