LivingSocial launches social review site, raises funding
LivingSocial started life as a set of applications on Facebook and other social networks that let users review movies, books, music, games, restaurants and varieties of beer (pictured). Now, the company has formed a set of free-standing web sites based on these users and reviews.
When a user posts a review on any of its social networking applications, or on one of its sites, that review is shared across all related social networking applications. So if I go to the beer site, BrewSocial, and review one of my favorites, Mirror Pond Pale Ale, a user with the beer application installed on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, hi5 and Orkut would be able to access and read that review without leaving their social network.
The company says it has 6.4 million members, although this counts anyone who has installed any of its applications. So this number should not be interpreted to mean 6.4 million monthly active users (that number is likely far lower, since typically only a fraction of users who install who install social network applications actually using them). So far, it has gathered nearly 80 million reviews.
LivingSocial, based in Washington, D.C., has raised more than $5 million from Grotech Ventures and AOL-seller Steve Case.
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About the Author, Eric Eldon
Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.
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Mike