The mobile social software site Gahbunga is apparently up for auction on EBay. Looks like the auction is very new as of this writing. Starting bid is set at $2,500 and there are no offers yet.
So how much do we think it’s going to end up going for? Jeff Clavier had a pretty kick ass bit of commentary in his first ZDNet article about companies reaching escape velocity by attracting millions of users with an effectively zero acquisition cost. That lays down the model we’ve seen so far pretty well. Gahbunga definitely isn’t at that stage, but it might be in a position to grow that way in the right hands. The folks selling it are starting out pretty cheap, and they seem to be really flexible. I like the idea (I’ve written about it before), but the problems faced in taking the service on could be pretty drastic. The website is up, the technology problems seem to have been solved. However there are the ongoing issues of dealing with carrier networks, messaging, and trying to monetize in the mobile arena. Tough problems, but for the person who’s able to crack them mobile is currently a goldmine. Hot or Not is a cash cow online, raking in money. If Gahbunga could pull together something even vaguely like that it could be quite a profitable site. I’m gonna be keeping my eye on this one. Good luck to the Weblogs Work team, I hope this goes well for you!
