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Meetup

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For a social gathering, see Meeting. For Wikipedia meetups, see Wikipedia:Meetup.
MeetUp, Inc.
Screenshot
Type of site
Social media, membership software
Available inEnglish-default, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Dutch, Thai, Russian and Turkish
FoundedJune 2002; 23 years ago (2002-06)
OwnerBending Spoons
IndustrySocial media
URLwww.meetup.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired to join a group
Users60 million+[1]
LaunchedJune 12, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-06-12)[2]

Meetup, headquartered in New York City, is a social media platform and social networking service for hosting and organizing in-person and virtual activities, gatherings, and events for people and communities of similar interests, hobbies, and professions. It was founded in 2002 by Scott Heiferman and four others. It was acquired by WeWork in November 2017, AlleyCorp in March 2020, and Bending Spoons in January 2024. The company has both free tiers and paid tiers.

The service has 60 million users. Popular interests include hiking, photography, book clubs, singles meetings, soccer, tennis, yoga, and badminton.[1]

History

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Meetup was founded in June 2002[3] by Scott Heiferman and four co-founders.[4][5] The idea for Meetup came from Heiferman meeting his neighbors in New York City for the first time after the September 11 attacks.[6][7] Heiferman was also influenced by the book Bowling Alone,[8] which is about the deterioration of community in American culture.[9] Some initial funding for the venture was raised from friends and family, which was followed by a funding round with angel investors.[2]

The early version of Meetup generated revenues by charging a fee to venues in exchange for bringing Meetup users to their business. Once enough users added themselves to a group, Meetup sent the group members an email, asking them to vote on one of three sponsoring venues for the group to meet.[10]

In 2003, Meetup won the "Community Websites and Mobile Site" Webby Award.[11]

Meetup was originally intended to focus on hobbies and interests,[3] but it was popularized by Presidential hopeful Howard Dean in 2004.[3] Meetup developed paid services to help the Dean campaign to meet with Meetup users. Dean also publicized Meetup groups of supporters in his speeches and on his website; at the peak of Dean's campaign, 143,000 users had joined Meetup groups for Dean supporters.[3]

In early 2005, Meetup began to charge a fee for group organizers.[12] Initially, changes to the website had to be approved by two committees.[13]

In 2008, Union Square Ventures invested in the company.[14]

In 2009, Meetup started running hackathons, where employees came up with new features that would be implemented if their coworkers supported it.[13] In July 2009, the company was profitable and had $9 million in annualized revenues.[15]

Meetup had 8 million users in 2010.[16]

The website was redesigned in September 2013.[17] Meetup had 25.5 million users by 2013.[18]

In October 2013, Meetup acquired Dispatch, a struggling email collaboration company.[19][20]

In March 2014, a hacker shut down Meetup with a DDoS attack, the hacker claimed to be funded by a competitor.[21] The hackers asked for a ransom of $300.[22]

In February 2017, Meetup created 1,000 #resist Meetup groups with the intention of coordinating protests in response to the Trump travel ban.[23] This caused some supporters of Donald Trump to leave the site[23] or call for a boycott.[24] Meetup also partnered with a labor group to organize anti-Trump protests.[23]

Meetup was acquired by WeWork in November 2017 for about $156 million.[25][26][27][28] By that time, Meetup had raised $18.3 million over 11 years.[29] Some former employees said there was a 10% layoff after the acquisition.[30]

In 2018, Scott Heiferman resigned as CEO and former Investopedia CEO David Siegel took his place after a convincing interview with WeWork CEO Adam Neumann.[31] Heiferman became Chairman of the company.[32][33]

In October 2019, Meetup began to test a different pricing model in two US states, reducing the costs that must be paid by organizers of $23.99/month or $98.94/six months, but requiring users to pay a $2 fee in order to RSVP for events, leaving several users angry.[34][35]

In March 2020, WeWork sold Meetup to AlleyCorp and other investors, reportedly at a substantial loss, and Kevin P. Ryan of AlleyCorp was added to the board of directors of Meetup.[36][37][38]

In January 2024, Bending Spoons acquired Meetup.[39][40][41]

See also

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  • Mobilizon – Open source event planning software

References

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  1. ^ a b "State of Friendships: The 2023 Meetup Measurement Report" (PDF). Meetup.com.
  2. ^ a b Jeffries, Adrianne (January 21, 2011). "The Long and Curious History of Meetup.com". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d Sifry, Micah (November 7, 2011). "From Howard Dean to the tea party: The power of Meetup.com". CNN.
  4. ^ Heiferman, Scott (September 6, 2009). "The Pursuit of Community". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Evans, Teri (June 7, 2011). "Meetup's Scott Heiferman on Connecting Communities". Entrepreneur.
  6. ^ Benz, Kate (January 23, 2014). "Pittsburgh Meetup members use the Internet to get off the Internet". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
  7. ^ Ramanathan, Lavanya (October 13, 2011). "One week of Meetups". The Washington Post.
  8. ^ Jeffries, Adrianne (February 6, 2012). "Interview With Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup [FULL TRANSCRIPT]". Observer Media.
  9. ^ Gordinier, J. (2008). X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft But Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking. Viking. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-670-01858-1.
  10. ^ Gilbert, Sarah (December 8, 2002). "I'm on the List: Virtual Communities: Not Just for Loners Anymore". New York Post.
  11. ^ "Meetup". Webby Awards. 2003.
  12. ^ Troise, Damian J. (February 6, 2015). "Meetup Starts Charging Fee in Effort to Keep Users Involved". Inc.com.
  13. ^ a b Taylor, Chris (May 6, 2009). "Meetup: An office where group anarchy works". CNN.
  14. ^ Kaplan, Dan (July 24, 2008). "Meetup.com raises undisclosed sum from Union Square Ventures". VentureBeat.
  15. ^ "Leaked Shareholder Docs: Meetup Hits Profitability And $9 Million In Revenues". TechCrunch. September 15, 2009.
  16. ^ Haupt, Angela (December 13, 2010). "Meetup.com Helps Connect Like-minded People". U.S. News & World Report.
  17. ^ Ong, Josh (September 12, 2013). "Meetup Simplifies Its Member Homepage As It Pursues A Unified Design". The Next Web.
  18. ^ Lai, Chih-Hui; Katz, James E. (May 31, 2016). "Volunteer associations in the Internet age: Ecological approach to understanding collective action". The Information Society. 32 (4): 241–255. doi:10.1080/01972243.2016.1177761. hdl:10356/104397. ISSN 0197-2243. S2CID 45348475.
  19. ^ Farr, Christina (October 9, 2013). "How meta! Meetup just acquired Dispatch, which got its start at a meetup". VentureBeat.
  20. ^ Perez, Sarah (October 9, 2013). "Meetup Makes Its First Acquisition With Dispatch, Will Roll Out Improved Messaging & Communications In Early 2014". TechCrunch.
  21. ^ "Meetup recovers from hacker attack". Calgary Herald. March 6, 2014.
  22. ^ "Digi-Ransoms: Meetup.com Latest in Long History of Cyber Hostages". NBC News. March 4, 2014.
  23. ^ a b c "Meetup.com takes risky leap into the Trump resistance". Associated Press. March 19, 2017.
  24. ^ Perez, Sarah (February 16, 2017). "Trump supporters boycott Meetup after company creates #Resist groups, makes its politics known". TechCrunch.
  25. ^ Neumann, Adam (November 28, 2017). "WeWork acquires Meetup" (Press release). WeWork.
  26. ^ Sawers, Paul (November 28, 2017). "WeWork acquires Meetup to host more face-to-face gatherings". VentureBeat.
  27. ^ Hempel, Jessi (November 28, 2017). "WeWork is Buying Meetup Amid an Increasingly Disconnected World". WIRED.
  28. ^ Vynck, Gerrit De (November 28, 2017). "WeWork Buys Meetup to Bring People Together Outside of Work". Bloomberg News.
  29. ^ Newcomb, Alyssa (December 26, 2019). "Meetup was a darling of the tech industry. But can it survive WeWork?". NBC News.
  30. ^ Conger, Kate (February 16, 2018). "The Mess at Meetup". Gizmodo.
  31. ^ Siegel, David (June 28, 2022). "I was overly aggressive when I interviewed with WeWork's Adam Neumann for the Meetup CEO role — and it paid off. Here's why I recommend all leaders negotiate every detail". Business Insider.
  32. ^ "Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman moves into chairman role". TechCrunch. July 17, 2018.
  33. ^ Crook, Jordan (October 30, 2018). "WeWork-owned Meetup brings on David Siegel as CEO". TechCrunch.
  34. ^ Deahl, Dani (October 15, 2019). "Meetup wants to charge users $2 just to RSVP for events – and some are furious". The Verge.
  35. ^ Sandler, Rachel (October 15, 2019). "Meetup Users Revolt Against $2 Event Fee—And Blame WeWork". Forbes.
  36. ^ Perez, Sarah (March 30, 2020). "WeWork sells off social network Meetup to AlleyCorp and other investors". TechCrunch.
  37. ^ Hussain, Noor Zainab (March 30, 2020). D'Silva, Anil (ed.). "WeWork sells social network Meetup to AlleyCorp, private investors". Reuters.
  38. ^ Newcomb, Alyssa (March 30, 2020). "Exclusive: WeWork is selling Meetup to AlleyCorp for a fraction of its 2017 price". Fortune.
  39. ^ Roth, Emma (January 11, 2024). "Meetup got acquired by Bending Spoons". The Verge.
  40. ^ "Bending Spoons finalizes acquisition of U.S.-based community-building platform, Meetup, and announces $50,000 Community Fund" (Press release). Business Wire. January 24, 2024.
  41. ^ "Deal Wrap: AlleyCorp. sells Meetup; CapitalSpring invests in Primetime Fitness". S&P Global. January 12, 2024.
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