Groupon Acquires Pelago, Makers of Whrrl
by Toni McQuilken
Apr 20, 2011 2:49 PM –
Groupon, the now-famous group coupon sharing company, acquired Pelagro behind the Whrrl, a site that specialized in discovering new places in your area.
“You might think at first that this is strange… But it actually makes a ton of sense. Many people think of Groupon as one thing: the inventor of the daily deal. But as it often is in such cases, there is an amazing vision behind the company that goes far beyond what is visible on the surface today,” Jeff Holden, CEO and founder of Pelagro said in a statement on the company’s Web page. ” Whrrl’s mission has always been to increase the possibility of adventure in our daily real-world lives, and to that end, we invented an idea economy. It turns out that Groupon has a very similar mission, except they approached it by creating a new kind of deal economy.”
Holden will oversee product development for Groupon going forward, and in a statement announcing the acquisition, Groupon said many Pelagro employees will also be joining its’ ranks. Whrrl itself will be shuttered as of April 30. In his blog post, Holden made clear that user data is not going to disappear. He noted that starting today, users will see a button on their page, along with instructions, on how to download all of their data on the site, including check-ins, photos, lists, etc. He noted that he hopes users “ultimately have the opportunity to use [that data] again,” leaving open the door for several interesting possibilities as to what could come out of this merger.
Check out Whrrl on the Android Market https://market.android.com/details?id=com.pelago.whrrl
Tags:
Groupon,
Pelago,
Whrrl
Categorised in: News
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