TECH CRUNCH - Gowalla, one of the original location-based social apps is relaunching at SXSW -- 14 years after its debut. The app is a social network that uses a map as its primary interface, allowing users to "check in" to share their location with trusted contacts and to see the locations where others in their friends' list have also checked in.
10 posts categorized "Gowalla"
Gowalla Returns to See if Location-based Networking Is Ready for Its Mainstream Moment
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Gowalla Raises $4M for Its AR Social App
TECH CRUNCH - Jan 29 - The newly resurrected Gowalla wants to realize its mobile dreams from the early-aughts in an AR world, and they've raised $4M in seed funding co-led by Google's venture arm GV and Spark Capital. Other investors include Niantic, Upside Partnership, Otherwise Fund, Capital Factory, Form Capital, and a host of angels like April Underwood, Leah Culver, Jason Calacanis, John Lilly, Scott Belsky, Dennis Crowley, and Dave and Brit Morin at Offline Ventures. Gowalla was originally founded back in 2009 as a Foursquare competitor, it gathered some early traction and excitement from investors, raising just ~$10M before things petered out a couple of years later and the team was acquired by Facebook for $3M.
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Key Members From Gowalla And Instagram Leave Facebook
INSIDE FACEBOOK - July 15 - Josh Williams, the co-founder of location app Gowalla, which Facebook acquired in 2011, as well as an Instagram designer Tim Van Damme are leaving Facebook to pursue other ventures.
by Justin Lafferty
See full article at Inside Facebook
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Gowalla Has Officially Shut Down
MASHABLE - Mar 12 - Three months after its acquisition by Facebook, Gowalla has officially shut down. Gowalla was a location-based check-in service that directly rivaled foursquare. Both Gowalla and foursquare launched at SXSW in 2009. Three years later during SXSW 2012, the plug has officially been pulled on Gowalla’s service. After Gowalla’s acquisition by Facebook, former CEO of Gowalla Josh Williams has been working on an API for Facebook that would allow developers to further integrate location services with shared content. Facebook aims to use its acquisition of Gowalla to further integrate itself in its users’ daily lives.
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Facebook’s Plans For Gowalla Revealed
MASHABLE - Mar 8 - Josh Williams, the former CEO of Gowalla, has been working on a project since Facebook bought his company back in December. He is part of a team that has been developing an API that lets app developers integrate actions like status updates, photo and video-sharing, friend-tagging and checkins at various locations. Such data will ultimately fill out a user’s Timeline with “more detailed moments". Facebook describes a Foodspotting-like app that would let all your friends know what you’re eating. But, with the new functionality, you might also be able to tag Facebook friends sharing your meal.
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Facebook Has Acquired Gowalla
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 2 - Facebook has acquired location-based startup Gowalla. The terms of the deal haven’t been reported, and Gowalla declined to comment. Facebook says it doesn’t comment on rumor and speculation. According to CNN’s report, the Gowalla team will be working on Facebook Timeline, with most of the team moving to Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters and some remaining in Gowalla’s hometown of Austin, where Facebook has an office as well. Gowalla, which has raised $10.4M to date, first launched at SXSW 2009 — going head-to-head against Foursquare, with a stronger emphasis on virtual goods than their competitor.
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Virtual Goods & Place Annotation Abandoned by Gowalla
READ WRITE WEB - Aug 25 - Gowalla, the location-based social network, is shutting down two defining features to refocus on what seems to be working. "Items," the well-designed virtual goods that users collected and dropped for each other at the various places they checked-in at, will be eliminated due to insufficient adoption. Virtual goods are expected, by many other people at least, to be a bonkers giant and lucrative part of the future of the mobile web.
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Facebook Partnering With Gowalla And Foursquare For Places
TECH CRUNCH - Aug 18 - Facebook has unveiled its new Places product - the check-in utility. Facebook is partnering with Foursquare and Gowalla. Both will allow you to check-in and publish the data to your Facebook feed. Your badges and pins from each of those apps will transfer over as well. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
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Is Geo-location The Future Of Social Media?
FAST COMPANY - July 29 - Despite research showing location based services are little-used and largely unknown, Foursquare's head of development sees big growth and innovation on the horizon. According to a report on location-based apps by Forrester Research 4% of online adults in the U.S. have ever used services like Foursquare and Gowalla, and that 84% of respondents were not even familiar with geo-location apps. Forrester recommends that major marketers should hold off on "check-in" services until they become more popular. Tristan Walker, head of business development for Foursquare, disagrees. More than 2.3M users now check-in roughly ~1M times per day. Moreover, while the report claimed 80% of location-based service users were male, Walker said Foursquare's male-female ratio was approaching 60-40, and moving "closer and closer toward parity." FULL ARTICLE @ FAST COMPANY
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Foursquare Is Five Times Larger Than Gowalla
TECH CRUNCH - July 7 - Location-based social networks Foursquare and Gowalla are accumulating users with impressive momentum. Foursquare is not only bigger in terms of both users and venues, but it also is growing at a faster clip than Gowalla. Foursquare has ~1.9M users. Gowalla has ~340,000. At its current pace, Foursquare will surpass 2M users within a week. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
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