Gowalla Closes its Doors Mere Months After Purchase by Facebook

By Rob Scott
March 13, 2012

Only three months after its acquisition by Facebook, location-based app Gowalla is closing its doors.
According to Gowalla’s landing page: “Thank you for going out with Gowalla. It was a pleasure to journey with you around the world. Download your check-ins, photos and lists here soon.”
“This leaves Foursquare to prove that its pivot will keep its location-based services relevant for users,” reports Digital Trends, adding that “Foursquare stands as the lone giant lumbering in location-based check-ins, despite the fact that the majority of its users aren’t in fact using Foursquare for checking-in.”
“There are a lot of people using Foursquare who aren’t checking in. People use the app to consume data. That’s a really important and interesting trend,” says Dennis Crowley, Foursquare’s CEO.
Digital Trends suggests the Gowalla purchase for $3 million in Facebook shares was a talent acquisition: “With plans to expand Facebook’s location-based API for statuses and updates detailing user’s visits on their Timelines, the majority of Gowalla’s team settled in Facebook’s Palo Alto, while the remainder stayed in Austin to work in Facebook’s Austin office.”

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