Susan Mernit posits the question:
Why did they buy upcoming and not meetup?
I am sure that upcoming was a whole lot cheaper. Plus, meetup's growth is constrained by the topics they start. There are a whole lot more random (un-topicced) events out there happening than meetup can categorize. With a few more additions to upcoming.org's functionality and integration into yahoo's sites and services, meetup becomes irrelevant. The tools that meetup has built are great. But, they need to be unhinged from the "everybody meets on the same day" constraint. Central control of topics are limiting too.
Om Malik's got thoughts too. (via the Bay Area's News Station)
Funny, when I was reading this news today, I was thinking: "Why not WhizSpark?" :-)
Posted by: Dossy Shiobara | October 05, 2005 at 05:14 PM
A while ago Meetup changed the "same day" constraint. You can add new events and make the date(s) whatever you want. I like Meetup for topic-oriented events (like the Wi-Fi Meetup I organize) and Upcoming.org for social events (like the game night I organize).
Posted by: Sooz | October 06, 2005 at 11:44 AM
Other important things to consider are location (Upcoming was in LA, I think, and Meetup in NY) and size (integrating 3 people vs. 20 is a lot easier).
Posted by: Greg Gershman | October 06, 2005 at 12:25 PM
Thanks for the update, Sooz.
Good points, Greg and Sooz.
Posted by: Peter Caputa | October 06, 2005 at 01:48 PM