Inside Facebook

Update: TripAdvisor’s Brian Payea has responded: “This is untrue. Beyond that, we do not have any comment.” Payea would not specifically comment on whether acquisition hasn’t happened or simply that the reported price was inaccurate. Take it for what you will…but for now, though this is not a ridiculous price given the canvas page views and CPMs I would expect Where I’ve Been to be generating, it seems like the first big Facebook app acquisition is still yet to happen.

Just two months after asking, “I Have 250,000 Users, Now What?”, Craig Ulliott has an answer.

In what is by far the largest Facebook application acquisition to date, travel company TripAdvisor has reportedly acquired Where I’ve Been from Craig Ulliott for $3 million.

The acquisition marks the first major successful exit of a Facebook application since the Platform launched just under three months ago.

With 2.3 million users, Where I’ve Been established itself as by far the biggest travel application on Facebook, leading #2 Cities I’ve Visited (also TripAdvisor owned) by over 1 million users.

The $3 million price tag values Where I’ve Been users at about $1.30, or almost 30 times the 4.6 cents per user Slide paid for Favorite Peeps two months ago.

If confirmed, this acquisition marks a major step toward validating the value rapidly being created by Facebook platform developers. Many have questioned the liquidity of the Facebook application market beyond the $60k range that Slide paid to acquire Favorite Peeps.

“This means Facebook is a real platform,” said Naval Ravikant, founder of Hitforge, an investor in the Facebook platform.

“I do think he sold too early, but $3M is a great return for the amount of time he invested.”

Certainly! For a developer once unable to afford a server to handle his bustling app traffic, a $3M sale is sure to inspire additional development and investment in the Platform. Congratulations to Craig for hanging on and leading Where I’ve Been to a successful exit!

Technorati Tags: facebook, app, acquisition, whereivebeen, tripadvisor

I am excited to announce that InsideFacebook will now be accepting FREE listings for Facebook applications for sale by developers!

With Facebook application acquisitions already happening at a rapid pace (many more have not been announced), my intention with this service is to enable a broader marketplace that will help the hundreds (now thousands) of Facebook application developers gain access to a larger community of investors and entrepreneurs, and help investors gain access to a larger group of developers and opportunities.

By listing their applications for sale using the instructions on our Sell Your App page, developers will be able to solicit offers from interested parties.

To list your application for sale on InsideFacebook FREE, email sales at insidefacebook dot com or send me a Facebook message and include the following information about your application:

• Name and URL of application
• Name and contact information of developer
• Description of application
• Description of technology used
• Number of users
• Historical data on user growth and usage statistics (optional)
• Reserve price and “buy it now” price (optional)

We will respond to all listing requests as soon as possible. However, we cannot guarantee that we will list every request we receive — we will do our best to publish as many listings as frequently as we possibly can.

Thanks and look forward to hearing from you!