I’m a big fan of street style focused-fashion, microblogging sites, like Weardrobe, where anyone can post pictures of their coordinated outfits for others to admire and emulate. Like.com, a visual shopping search engine, has acquired Weardrobe for an undisclosed amount.
Weardrobe is user generated, social platform for personal fashion. It is a place where people can catalog their own clothing and easily browse through the ‘lookbooks’ of other people’s street style. Users can upload photos, tag what they are wearing, and organize these items in a virtual closet to share with others. Weardrobe was also a winner of the 2009 fbFund competition.
Like.com will user its “Likesense” visual search technology to identify the pieces of clothing in a photo on Weardrobe. Like.com will list the items with a link to where visitors can actually purchase the items (with Like.com taking in an affiliate fee from any purchases).
It’s actually a brilliant idea for Like.com to do this and according to Like’s CEO and co-founder Munjal Shah, will only add to the search engine’s growing empire of fashion and shopping related sites. This includes the newly launched Covet.com, which acts a virtual shopper and pseudo stylist. But while the fashion blogging community is a niche space, it is growing quickly. And Weardrobe is an example of high-quality, engaging content that could be attractive to a greater audience.
Like.com, which launched in 2006, is growing steadily both in revenue and networks. The startup raised $32 million in funding during the implosion of the financial industry, with a valuation just north of $100 million. Not too bad for a startup that launched a few years ago.