Tweetmeme’s biggest competetor Retweet.com which gives retweet service for the Twitter users is up for sale. Mesiab Labs, the owner of the site confirmed that Retweet.com has been put on the auction block. it’s a risky domain to buy though, as twitter itself trying to trademark the word retweet as it’s on of their fundamental function to update the status of the users.
You all know Retweet.com was launched six months ago back in August, silently declaring high competition for Tweetmeme which is the king of the space. The service did almost exactly the same things as Tweetmeme : discover the most retweeted and shared stories on Twitter while also providing website buttons for retweeting. Its controversial launch definitely turned heads.
Well part of the reason has to be that Twitter itself is trying to trademark the word “retweet.” Mesiab Labs was also apparently tried to trademark the name, though it’s not clear if that failed or if they are simply moving to sell before that happens. Twitter also tried unsuccessfully to trademark “tweet” last year.
As you can see on this Flippa page, the current bids for Retweet.com stand at $55,555. This is a huge increase from yesterday when the bids hovered around $20k. So far, there are 34 bids. The listing on the site claims the domain gets 12 million uniques a month, and 26 million pageviews. If that’s the case, you have to wonder, why sell?
While the platform itself may not be anything special, both the domain [Retweet & Tweetmeme] and its current traffic are worth acquiring. Last month the site [Retweet.com] was able to garner more than 600,000 unique U.S. visitors, according to Compete.com. Still, that number is nothing compared to Tweetmeme’s 1.25 million U.S. visitors, which is probably why Mesiab Labs is putting the site up for sale in the first place.
Mesiab Labs told Mashable and Tech Crunch:
We have listed Retweet.com on Flippa.com to spark a competitive
bidding process on the Retweet platform ( The Private Media Companies we’ve been
in talks with vs. Public High Profile Buyers ), as we believe it is now time for someone to take full
advantage of its potential considering the below:When we initially conceptualized Retweet.com, we realized the
importance of the new shift that social media sites like Twitter are
making on how we filter and consume news. We developed and fostered
Retweet.com and its resulting network to help explore this concept.
It has been quite exciting to see stories break before some of the
major news media outlets and to watch blogs gain near mainstream
status. It’s also exciting to watch the pulse of the social world
shift and sway. But more than novelty, we are demonstrating
incredible new ways to apply crowd-sourcing to answer the question
“What matters, right now.”There are some truly remarkable things about the term ReTweet. First,
as we all know it was created by the users of Twitter – NOT by the
Twitter itself. Second, like “Googling” something has become
synonymous with using a search engine, “Retweet’ing” has become
synonymous with the act of spreading online content virally.While we aren’t the only ones in this space, we feel privileged to
participate.Now that we’ve grown and scaled the Retweet network and
infrastructure, we’re ready to pass it on to someone who can truly
push it to the next level. We’re excited about the opportunity for a
new passionate owner to foster and grow Retweet.com and continue to
tap the potential of what is undeniably becoming a monumental shift in
news consumption.If a suitable / qualified buyer is not found within our 30 day auction period, our
team of developers will continue to keep retweet.com fully operational
and ad-free.
Source: Mashable, Tech Crunch, Flippa
