Facebook could be looking to ramp up its location-sharing features, following the social network's acquisition of the team behind geo-social app Gowalla.
Gowalla launched at the same time as Foursquare in 2009, but struggled to monetise its service. According to TechCrunch, in October, Gowalla said it was trying to differentiate itself from Foursquare by focusing on becoming a social travel guide.
Facebook's own location feature, Places, recently scrapped the check-in model in favour of allowing users to add a location or tag a specific place in their posts. Gowalla reportedly has 10 000 daily active users connected to Facebook, compared to Foursquare's 560 000 daily active users.
Gowalla will, however, be shut down in January as its founders and key members join Facebook.
While it has been speculated that the Gowalla team will work on Facebook's new profile design, Timeline, Facebook has not yet specified which project they will be assigned to.
Co-founder of Gowalla Josh Williams confirmed the acquisition in an official blogpost yesterday: “About two months ago, my co-founder Scott and I attended F8. We were blown away by Facebook's new developments.
Williams specifies that Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla's user data, and adds that as the service closes down: “We plan to provide an easy way to export your passport data, your stamp and PIN data (along with your legacy item data), and your photos as well.
“As we move forward, we hope some of the inspiration behind Gowalla - a fun and beautiful way to share your journey on the go - will live on at Facebook.”
Same goals
In a statement from Facebook, the social network says: “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.
“In talking with the Gowalla team, we realised that we share many of the same goals: building great products that reach millions of people, making a big impact quickly, and creating new ways for people to connect and share what's going on in their lives.”
Facebook recently announced it will hire thousands of new employees over the next year in order to keep up with the company's expected growth as it prepares for its IPO.
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