Facebook acquires Gowalla: report

Facebook has reportedly acquired Gowalla, according to a CNNMoney report. The report attributed the development to “a source close to Gowalla” and mentioned that most of Gowalla’s employees will move to Facebook’s offices in Palo Alto. The team will work on Facebook’s Timeline feature.

In September this year, Gowalla revamped its offering into a social tourist guide. The company, which began as a check-in app, chose to push check-ins to a secondary function of its service. Gowalla decided to allow users to create “stories” around their experiences, grouping together photos and comments from different users who are interacting at the same location.

The company believes there is a huge opportunity for the travel industry to inspire people to tell better stories and share them in real-time with their friends and followers.

Opportunity for the travel industry

In an interview with EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta just before the revamp, Andy Ellwood, Director of Business Development, Gowalla, said, “Each piece of digital content that is created tells a story. Each time I use Gowalla (or any other service) to associated myself with a place, I am including that location as a part of the narrative I am sharing with my network. It is the most honest look at how someone really lives their life. I can tweet, like, blog, and +1 things from my couch. But to share real experiences around the places that I go, I have to actually go. This is a huge opportunity for the travel industry to inspire people to tell better stories and share them in real-time with their friends and followers.”

“From day one, Gowalla has set out to answer the question "What if you could use your mobile phone as a passport?" Being able to share, discover, and record the places that you go and the things that you experience have always been core to our company. As we’ve grown in users and use cases, we've found a lot of value in being able to share those stories across additional services as well,” said Ellwood.

“The real currency that all of social media and the digital web trades in is social validation. The real core of why people share is because they are wanting to include others in their story and invite them along. There are so many discounts, deals, and coupons out there that it is no longer a competitive advantage. Flip open any service these days and there is some way for you to buy one and get one free. But what Gowalla is striving to do, and what I think you will see more of in the future, is create real meaningful experiences that have stand alone value whether or not you got 10 percent off.”