Dopplr

URL	http://www.dopplr.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	social network
Registration	required
Available language(s)	English
Launched	2007

Dopplr is a free social networking service, launched in 2007,^[1] that allows users to create itineraries of their travel plans and spot correlations with their contacts’ travel plans in order to arrange meetings at any point on their journey. Additional features include allowing the user to calculate the carbon footprint their journeys have produced. The site is named after Christian Doppler, discoverer of the Doppler effect. The company is based in the Old Street area of London.

On September 28, 2009 Dopplr announced that they had been acquired by Nokia.^[2] Within a year many were questioning the future of the site, noting that Dopplr's blog had not been updated since two days after the acquisition and its unique monthly users had plummeted from 39,000 to 29,000. In a statement issued in September 2010 a Nokia spokesperson reported "we have decided to bring it into a maintenance mode … but will not develop it further at this stage." ^[3]

Key staff

• Marko Ahtisaari - CEO
• Matt Biddulph - CTO
• Dan Gillmor - Founding Traveller
• Matt Jones - Design Director
• Saul Klein - Board
• Lisa Sounio - Chairman of the Board
• Tom Insam - Architect & Developer
• Boris Anthony - UI Designer, later Design Director

In the press

In 2007, Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, described it in an interview with The New York Times as his favorite non-wiki website.^[4]

The Evening Standard named Matt Biddulph and Matt Jones, two of the site’s founders, among the thousand most influential people in London in 2007 ^[5] and again in 2008.^[6]

A survey carried out in early 2008 on influential technology figures by the Guardian Media Group named Dopplr as a company to watch out for.^[7]

News of the acquisition by Nokia had been in the air earlier, mostly to a news report by TechCrunch.^[8] Rumours were officially confirmed on September 28.

Investors in Dopplr

First angel round investors in it include Martin Varsavsky, Joichi Ito, Reid Hoffman, Saul Klein and Marko Ahtisaari. Second-round investors in fall 2008 were: Tom Glocer, Esther Dyson, Tyler Brule, Joshua Schachter, Brian Behlendorf, Ami Hasan, Daniel Sachs, Kim Weckström and Azeem Azhar.^[9]

External links

• Dopplr
• Company profile on CrunchBase
• “Let’s do Lunch in London”. Vivienne Walt, Time Magazine, February 2008.

References

1. ^ Bobbie Johnson (2007-07-30). "Dopplr.com". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/30/dopplr. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
2. ^ Marko Ahtisaari (28 sep. 2009). "Nokia Acquires Dopplr". http://blog.dopplr.com/2009/09/28/nokia-acquires-dopplr/. Retrieved 28 sep. 2009. 
3. ^ Kiss, Jemima (2010-09-10). "The slow death of Dopplr". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2010/sep/10/slow-death-of-dopplr. 
4. ^ Edward Lewine (2007-11-18). "The Encyclopedist’s Lair". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-domains-t.html. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
5. ^ "The 1000: London’s Most Influential People 2007". Evening Standard. 2007-11-29. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23415149-details/New+Media/article.do. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
6. ^ "The 1000: London’s Most Influential People 2008". Evening Standard. 2008-10-08. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23563066-details/New+Media/article.do. Retrieved 2008-10-11. 
7. ^ Jemima Kiss (2008-01-30). "James Murdoch joint top in exec poll". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/30/digitalmedia.googlethemedia. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
8. ^ "Nokia To Acquire UK Startup Dopplr". 2009-09-23. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/23/nokia-to-acqure-uk-startup-dopplr/. Retrieved 2009-09-25. 
9. ^ Matt Marshall (2007-09-04). "Dopplr, a trip-sharing site for the jet set". VentureBeat.com. http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/04/dopplr-a-trip-sharing-site-for-the-jet-set/. Retrieved 2008-07-31.