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Where, Inc. was a location-based media company in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. Their main products were the WHERE consumer application and WHERE Ads, a hyper-local ad network that connected merchants with local audiences.
PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...
announced its acquisition of Where, Inc. in 2011 for $135 million.


History

Where, Inc. was founded in 2004 under the name Communications, Inc. by partners, Geoff Palmer, Frank Schroth, and Alan Phillips. spent its early days creating family tracking services as well as building location-based applications for companies such as MapQuest and Helio. In 2007, WHERE launched as a location-based mobile service for consumers. WHERE provides hyper-local information and user generated content about weather, news, movies, restaurant and business reviews, cheap gas, coupons and offers, traffic, etc. Brands such as
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...
,
Yellow Pages The yellow pages are Telephone directory, telephone directories of business, businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, ...
and
Zipcar Zipcar is an American car sharing, car-sharing company and a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. Zipcar provides vehicle reservations to its members, billable by the minute, hour or day; members may have to pay a monthly or annual membership fee i ...
use WHERE to reach local audiences by providing data for various features within WHERE. For example, a Starbucks feature lets users search for and find directions to the Starbucks nearest their current location. In 2010, the company grew to over 50 people, moving into larger facilities in Boston. During this year, it launched the Placebook feature, which
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
contested due to its last syllable of "book". The company was venture-backed by Kodiak Venture Partners, Grand Banks Capital and
Venrock Venrock (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is an American venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, ...
and based in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. Prior to its acquisition by
eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
in 2011, several industry experts sat on its board including
Craig Forman Craig Forman is an American entrepreneur, media executive, and former foreign correspondent who served as chief executive officer of The McClatchy Company. He previously worked at ''The Wall Street Journal''. He is currently a partner at NextNews ...
and
Jim Bankoff James Philip Bankoff (born December 23, 1969) is an American media executive who is the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Vox Media. He previously worked for AOL and joined Vox Media's predecessor, ''SB Nation'', in 200 ...
, CEO of
Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company founded in Washington, D.C. with operational headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by CEO Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''S ...
.


Products


Where.com

The consumer site Where.com launched in March 2010. The Website is a local search and recommendation portal that allows people to find local events, read reviews and other business information, and write their own reviews. On Where.com, people can also create their own user accounts or use their current WHERE mobile application account information to build a personal profile.


WHERE Ads

WHERE Ads is a hyper-local ad network that localizes traditional
advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
techniques with improved performance for better results. Ads engage consumers through location relevance, design optimizing, and delivery format flexibility. In May 2012, WHERE Ads became PayPal Media Network (PPMN).


Patents

The firm possesses several patents including one for geo-fencing location technology and one for auto-snap location technology.


Availability

WHERE is available in North America and can be downloaded for a monthly fee from the
Android Market Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifi ...
,
BlackBerry App World BlackBerry World was an Digital distribution, application distribution service (app marketplace) by BlackBerry Limited. The service provided BlackBerry users with an environment to browse, download, and update mobile apps, including third-party ap ...
, iOS
App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...
, and
Palm App Catalog webOS, also known as LG webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices, such as smart TVs, that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially developed by Palm, Inc. (which was acquired by Hewlett- ...
. WHERE is also available from the AT&T MEdia Mall, T-Mobile web2go, and VZW V Cast Apps. Wireless carriers —
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
,
Boost Mobile DISH Wireless L.L.C., doing business as Boost Mobile, is an American telecommunications company and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. Boost Mobile is the List of mobile network operators in the United States, fourth largest wirele ...
, Helio,
MetroPCS Metro by T-Mobile, formerly known as MetroPCS, and simply known as Metro, is an American prepaid mobile phone, prepaid Wireless, wireless service provider and brand owned by T-Mobile US. It previously operated the fifth largest mobile telecommun ...
,
Sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...
,
Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...
,
Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...
Mobile smartphone devices —
Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...
,
BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...
,
iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
,
Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...
,
Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel. It serves as the successo ...


PayPal/eBay acquisition


Management team

PayPal acquired Where.com in 2011. At the time, the management consisted of the following: * Walt Doyle, CEO * Jerry King, COO * Ivan Mitrovic, CTO * Mok Oh, Chief Innovation Officer * David Chang, VP, Product * Dan Gilmartin, VP, Marketing * Joshua Summers, VP, Ad Operations *
Nataly Kogan Nataly Kogan is a Russian-born American author, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, expert on emotional fitness, and artist. She has written three books: ''Happier Now'', ''Gratitude Daily'', and ''The Awesome Human Project''; hosts The Awesome Human ...
, VP, Consumer Experience * Ron Braunfeld, VP of Business Development * Doug Hurd, VP of Business Development, Carrier & OEM * Niall Hawkins, VP of Finance * Arik Keller, Senior Director, Merchant Services * Jim Caralis, Director, Consumer Product * Craig Forman, Executive Chairman


Mergers & acquisition comparables

In the mobile industry, there have been several notable acquisitions of Boston area startups by larger technology companies: *
VeriSign Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the , , and generic top-level d ...
's acquisition of m-Qube for $250M in 2006 *
AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...
's acquisition of Third Screen Media for $107M in 2007 * Nokia's acquisition of
Enpocket Enpocket was an American mobile media company providing mobile marketing and advertising services. It was headquartered in Boston and had operations in a number of countries. The company provided three main advertising products which included Enp ...
in 2007 *
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
's acquisition of Quattro Wireless for $275M in 2010 *
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
's acquisition of
Crashlytics Crashlytics was a Boston, Massachusetts-based software company founded in May 2011 by entrepreneurs Wayne Chang and Jeff Seibert. Crashlytics helps collecting, analyzing and organizing app crash reports. Its main product is a software develo ...
for $100M in 2013 *
Millennial Media One by AOL, formerly known as Millennial Media, was an advertising company that places display ads on mobile devices (mobile marketing Mobile marketing is a multi-channel Online advertising, online marketing technique focused at reaching a sp ...
's acquisition of Jumptap for $225M in 2013 * Millennial Media's acquisition of Nexage for $108M in 2014


Post-acquisition

Unlike many other acquisitions in the mobile industry, WHERE continued to grow its Boston-based presence after its acquisition. In January 2012, PayPal President Scott Thompson, local executives Walt Doyle, and David Chang met with
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
Governor
Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African Americans, African-American Governor of Massachusetts and the first Democratic Pa ...
to discuss an expansion of California-based PayPal into Boston. After exploring nearly a dozen potential new office sites in Boston, PayPal selected One International Place as its new location for its Boston headquarters. In 2013, the eBay Boston office houses several operating entities including PayPal,
StubHub StubHub is an American ticket exchange and resale company. It provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and other live entertainment events. By 2015, it was the world's largest ticket marketplace. While ...
, and Start Tank.


Start Tank

The Start Tank is a
business incubator A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture ...
hosted by PayPal, which offers free co-working space for early-stage startups.


Inception

Start Tank originated in Boston and expanded to Europe and Asia. With 20 startups, representing over 80 people, Start Tank Boston is unique in its size—one of the largest facilities in Massachusetts that has been dedicated to startups by a corporate entity. There are several similar efforts at eBay including Friends of eBay in New York and PayPal Startup Blueprint, and PayPal incubator in Chennai. These are part of a broader growing trend of
business incubators A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with ventu ...
and
seed accelerator Startup accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components, and (sometimes) culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. While traditional business incubato ...
s sponsored by corporate entities and technology companies. The Start Tank was officially unveiled during the PayPal Boston launch event with Boston Mayor
Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three mont ...
and Secretary Greg Bialecki in February 2013. The first class of startups consisted of 15 companies based in the Boston area. The second class started in September 2013 and consisted of 22 startups. A number of these startups gained market traction, raised funds of their own, and soon graduated from the program.


Expansion

The Start Tank gained greater visibility in the Boston area, and by time the third class moved in during March 2014, the program became more selective, accepting only 14 out of 80 applications. It was later named as one of Boston Globe's Game Changers. In summer 2014, the program partnered with
The Ad Club The Ad Club, also known as The Boston Ad Club, more formally The Advertising Club of Greater Boston, originally named the Pilgrim Publicity Association, is the trade association for the marketing, communications, and advertising industry in New En ...
to add events such as the Brand-a-thon to engage with the startup ecosystem and expanded globally to
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
. Later that year, the Start Tank program became more competitive, accepting 11% of its applicants in its fourth class. At this time, Start Tank was nominated as a 50 on Fire finalist. In 2016, the program expanded to
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
.


Founder

The Start Tank was founded by PayPal executive David Chang, who was named to Boston Business Journal's annual Power 50 List of influential Bostonians after its creation. In 2015, as part of the corporate separation of PayPal from eBay, approximately one-third of the staff in the PayPal Boston office was eliminated, leaving the future of Start Tank uncertain. It was later revealed that the Boston-based entity was split off and was acquired by
MassChallenge MassChallenge is a global, zero-equity startup accelerator, founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009. MassChallenge is headquartered in Boston's Seaport District in the MassMutual Building, and has additional U.S. locations in Texas, as well int ...
.


References


External links

*
PayPal Start Tank

iPhone App Store featuring WHEREBlackberry Application Store featuring WHERE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Where.Com BlackBerry software Discontinued iOS software Internet properties established in 2004 Mass media companies of the United States Android (operating system) software PayPal 2011 mergers and acquisitions