bakedjake
msg:3276578 | 2:35 pm on Mar 9, 2007 (gmt 0) |
I got the email this morning. A big congrats to Randy and FlyerTalk. Funny enough, there are a couple of long time WebmasterWorld members that I knew on FlyerTalk before I came over to WebmasterWorld. I agree Brett - it is pretty big news. Forum community acquisitions are still rare. FT is much different in two ways from traditional communities (like the social networking sites) you see bought and sold these days: 1) The userbase is ridiculously loyal. You have people who've been on FT for almost a decade. 2) The demographic of its membership is unbelievably rich - a marketers dream.
|
bakedjake
msg:3276595 | 2:57 pm on Mar 9, 2007 (gmt 0) |
You know, one other thing I just thought of... FlyerTalk is the most used forum on mobile phones on the Internet. They have a very good wap interface and a userbase who knows technology well. I wonder if that has anything to do with the acquisition. A lot of people are betting that travel is going to be the industry that makes mobile tip.
|
lazerzubb
msg:3276611 | 3:09 pm on Mar 9, 2007 (gmt 0) |
Yes big congrats, very helpful forum for travellers, especially frequent one's.
|
walkman
msg:3276777 | 5:14 pm on Mar 9, 2007 (gmt 0) |
OK, speculation time: the founder is saying that it wasn't much $$...maybe since "all" they seem to have is a forum with loyal people that barely broke even last year. Care to guess?
|
rogerd
msg:3277166 | 12:41 am on Mar 10, 2007 (gmt 0) |
A good sign, perhaps, for forum owners... Forums offer a lot of advantages to companies that can leverage the high traffic and pageviews, devoted user base, massive content generation, etc.
|
MyNewPC
msg:3277193 | 1:25 am on Mar 10, 2007 (gmt 0) |
I've been a FlyerTalk regular for about 8 years. Yes, they have a large loyal userbase but without some significant changes which will likely be poorly received by their users, it will never be much of an income generator. I'm sure the reason why they became profitable last year is because that's when they implemented AdSense on their site. Those crappy run-of-network ads from Tribalfusion certainly weren't generating much revenue. I really don't see how this acquisition makes business sense for Internet Brands.
|
eljefe3
msg:3277205 | 1:58 am on Mar 10, 2007 (gmt 0) |
I also post and use the info at flyertalk. Good for Randy on this deal.
|
tictoc
msg:3277938 | 10:46 pm on Mar 10, 2007 (gmt 0) |
Congrats to Randy! I guess Internet brands is a private company so we can't own stock in them :( Flyertalk is a great forum for those of us who love to travel... I guess that is everyone.
|
|
