The action at Facebook continues. Just yesterday, Facebook made a major announcement unveiling a radically new redesigned News Feed. Well, today Facebook also just acquired Storylane, a relatively new social network focused around telling stories, for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition makes sense given Facebook’s desire to be in the storytelling business themselves.
As reported by Mashable, Storylane announced the acquisition in a blog post Friday, noting that their service will wind down and the team will look to join Facebook. “After a lot of discussions with Facebook about how our teams might work together to have even greater impact, we are announcing today that the Storylane team will be joining Facebook,” Storylane’s founder and CEO Jonathan Gheller, wrote in the post.
Facebook also confirmed the acquisition of the 5-man Storylane team:
The team from Storylane will be an incredible addition to Facebook. Their previous work showcasing real identity through sincere and meaningful content will make them a perfect fit at Facebook.”
Storylane launched in October with the vision of collecting meaningful stories from the lives of users. Gheller summed up the site by saying they were looking to “build a library of human experiences by crafting a community where people can share things that really matter.” For anyone who did use the service, Storylane will be rolling out some tools to help people export their posts to other sites. Storylane also mentioned that Facebook will not be getting any of the company’s data or operations as part of the agreement, in case any of you current Storylane users are worried about privacy issues.
Here is the full announcement made by Gheller addressed to the Storylane community:
Two years ago the team behind Storylane began working to help people connect in more fruitful and meaningful ways. We took on a mission – trying to help people better communicate who they are and what they care about, improve the way we do business with each other, find love and make new friendships. And at the heart of this work has always been our drive to build a more genuine online identity.
After a lot of discussions with Facebook about how our teams might work together to have even greater impact, we are announcing today that the Storylane team will be joining Facebook.
This is an exciting opportunity. Facebook’s mission of connecting the world has always been at the center of our work, and like our friends at Facebook, meaningful connections are what our team is most passionate about.
The beautiful stories you have decided to share with us are yours to keep and share in however way you want. We are building tools that will help you migrate the content to other services if you so desire. I will be in touch with you about those specific tools later, but I can confirm that Facebook is not acquiring any of your data; and we’re working to make sure you can migrate your content in a manageable way.
We want to give special thanks to our investors who supported us and encouraged us to dream big. It has been an absolute honor to work alongside such an outstanding group of people. Our journey as a young company was made possible by their commitment and patience. Without their guidance we would not be in a position to further our mission through Facebook.
Most of all, I want to thank our users. Your passion, sincerity and willingness to share, has made Storylane the incredible experience that exists today. We have learned so much from you. Your ideas and creativity will stay with us and inspire us on the next stage of our journey.”
Have you ever used Storylane? Are you sad to see it go?
Great article – thanks!