A correction was made to this post: Fotolog's projected revenue is $2.3 million, not $2.3 billion. Dr. Evil would be proud.
Fotolog, a photo-sharing social network founded by Meetup co-founder and CEO Scott Heiferman, has been acquired. After several days of rumors that the company was up for sale, the French company Hi-Media Group announced on Monday that it had acquired Fotolog for $90 million in cash and stock.
As the Silicon Alley Insider notes, most of the New York-based Fotolog's 10 million-plus members are in Europe and Latin America. The company's 2007 projected revenue is estimated at $2.3 million, expected to come from sponsored ad links (thanks to a deal with Google), banner ads and premium membership packages. A release from the publicly traded Hi-Media stated that Fotolog's membership has doubled this year and that the site is raking in 3.3 billion page views per month.
CEO John Borthwick will apparently stay with the company, at least for the time being.
The site is named Photorgy, and its tagline is "Do it with your friends," but the photo-sharing site isn't as risque it sounds like it might be.
Photorgy's photo-sharing site
(Credit: Photorgy)Photorgy enables members to upload images using AOL Instant Messenger's file transfer abilities, sending the images to the "photorgy" bot. The site houses pictures organized by AIM screen name; multiple people can share the same folder of photos for group image-sharing purposes.
"Photorgy isn't a porn site!" the site takes pains to explain. "Photorgy makes photo sharing a group activity that you and your close friends can all participate in and enjoy."
I couldn't get Photorgy to work, though, either through AIM or Trillian. The site spurned me as "user not activated," though I tried to activate by sending the Photorgy bot a message.
Three University of California students--Jason Su, Andy Chen and Aaron Tung--launched Photorgy in March. It now has 686 users who are sharing 99,658 photos.
Zooomr Mark III Take 2 will arrive in three weeks, but at the same time, the photo-sharing site may enter a "hiatus."
A screenshot of Zooomr's redesigned site
(Credit: Zooomr)In March, glitches forced the photo-sharing site to back off a redesign that would permit Zooomr users to sell their own photos and would lift storage limits, among other changes. The new version now is scheduled to arrive in three weeks--May 21--said lead programmer Kristopher Tate on his blog Monday.
Tate also said the company is looking for new investors.
"I have some breaking news to share that may create a period of hiatus for Zooomr: Our initial investor heard we were cash-positive and has decided to pull their money out of our accounts," Tate said.
The lack of funds will "hinder" the purchase of storage systems, he said, but Mark III will be launched nonetheless.
"In the above interests, we've started to look for fresh investment," Tate said. "We know there are angels, VCs and other investors reading our blog--so if you think you can help, please let us know!"
Tate also posted a screenshot of the redesigned Zooomr.
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