Quora makes first acquisition in online community Parlio

Parlio was founded as a platform to have more insightful discussions about serious topics

Editor's Note: Our annual Vator Splash Spring 2016 conference is around the corner on May 12, 2016 at the historic Scottish Rite Center in Oakland. Speakers include Nigel Eccles (CEO & Co-founder, FanDuel, Andy Dunn (Founder & CEO, Bonobos), Mitch Kapor (Founder, Kapor Center for Social Impact); Founders of NextDoor, Handy, TubeMogul; Investors from Khosla Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Kapor Capital, Greylock, DFJ, IDG, IVP and more! Join us! REGISTER HERE. 

The Internet is filled with people willing to answer any question, usually with, let's face it, the stupidest advice possible. It takes a long time to find someone who knows what they're talking about, and can actually help.

Q&A website Quora has become one of the best resources for real information. Now those answers will be getting even better, as the company made its first ever acquisition on Wednesday, picking up Parlio, a platform that was built to give its users the power to express their ideas about social change. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Launched in late 2014, Parlio was created "with a mission to create an online space for thoughtful conversations around the world's most critical issues," founders Wael Ghonim and Osman Ahmed Osman wrote in a post on, of course, Quora.

"We were concerned about how today's social media experiences are designed to favor broadcasting over engagement, posts over discussions and shallow comments over deep conversations. So we decided to do something about it."

Ghonim is an Egyptian activist whose Facebook posts are credited with helping to start the Egpytian Revolution in 2011, which caused him to be detained for 11 days. 

Discussions on Parlio have revolved around such topics as race and free speech, the 2016 U.S. elections, the refugee debate, and the relationship between Islam and terrorism. So obviously more serious and grounded topics than you typically see on a social media site.

By joining Quora, the Parlio team will gain access to the company's 100 million users. On top of that, the Parlio founders noted their admiration for Quora, calling it "one of the few online communities that has managed to both focus on quality and successfully appeal to a wide audience."

"The community is meritocratic but inclusive, the content is informative but fun, and the product is powerful but beautifully simple. We couldn't have found a better fit."

Parlio's content will continue to live on. Some of it will be republished on Quora, it was revealed in a note on Parlio's homepage, while the rest of its content will continue to be available. As of Wednesday, however, no new posts are being allowed on the site.

Members are also being given 30 days to download, edit, or remove any content they published on Parlio from their profile page.

It's not clear how many members of the Parlio team will be joining Quora, or what they will be working on when they get there, though it seems likely that their expertise would be used to give better, deeper answers to the questions asked on the site. Ghonim now lists himself as a Group Product Manager at Quora. 

VatorNews reached out to Quora, but the company had no further comment on the acquisition.

Parlio had raised $1.68 million in seed funding from Betaworks, Cherubic Ventures, Founder Collective, Metamorphic Ventures, Newbury Ventures, and multiple angels. 

(Image source: novell.com)