Gawker: valleywag, kris tate

Is Zooomr, Kris Tate's Flickr copycat, on...

Owen Thomas — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:35:52 EDT

Is Zooomr, Kris Tate's Flickr copycat, on the rocks? Tate seems to think so: "I'm working my ass off like you can't believe in Japan. If Japan doesn't go anywhere, you can kiss Zooomr good-bye. Americans don't care about photos like the Japanese — by embracing Japan's economy, we can save Zooomr financially." [Zooomr]

Photo site shares NSFW images

Owen Thomas — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:57:44 EDT

I've always wondered what kind of people use Zooomr, the also-ran photo-sharing site run by underaged and reportedly credit-deprived developer Kris Tate. Apparently, people who feel they've got something to share with the rest of the world. Something very personal, and something they're attached to. Intimately. Recent visitors to the site's "Discover" page were greeted by a collage of images that included some unpleasant and definitely not safe for work contributions. If you're easily shocked, move along now. But if you're curious to see what Tate apparently considers acceptable on his "No Limits Photo Sharing" site, click through to the jump.

(Photo of Kris Tate by geodog)

Who's going to chow down on Zooomr?

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:38:31 EDT

Word around town is that Zooomr, the photo-sharing website run by bitchy photographer Thomas Hawk and underage entrepreneur Kris Tate, is getting acquisition offers — but Hawk and Tate don't like the cut-rate prices their cut-rate Flickr knockoff is commanding. Getty Images, Yahoo, and AOL are among the companies that have lowballed the startup, according to a source. One sign that Zooomr may, indeed, be entertaining offers: Tate's fantasies, aired in line at the Palo Alto Apple Store, that he's worth $3 million. Anyone else hear what Zooomr's trying to get — and what it's actually going for? (Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

That and $500 will get you an iPhone

Owen Thomas — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:51:00 EDT

Ah, Silicon Valley: One moment, you're worth $3 million; the next, you can't even afford an iPhone. That's the situation Zooomr founder Kris Tate found himself in last week. A tipster who was on the scene expands on our earlier report that Tate's credit card was declined at the Palo Alto Apple Store as he tried to buy the must-have geek toy. Moments before, the tipster says, Tate was bragging about his net worth. The eyewitness account, after the jump.

On the day of the iPhone launch, Zooomr founder Kris Tate was waiting in line with everybody else. A cute young girl was talking to the guys there and asked Kris what he did. He said he was a successful entrepreneur who ran a popular photo website (pointing to the Zooomr stickers that were stuck everywhere). Jokingly, she asked him how much he was worth and he told her that he is worth "around $3M". Very ironic considering what happened next.

(Photo of Kris Tate by geodog)

Rich kid gets declined at the iPhone counter

Nick Douglas — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:51:53 EDT

What happens if you've stayed in line all night and day for an iPhone, and your credit gets declined? What if you also happen to be Kris Tate, 20-year-old founder of the startup Zooomr and one of the Internet webtard crowd constantly updating the world about waiting to buy the $500 surrogate vagina (have you seen how you enlarge photos on that thing?). What if it all happens on live video? A fellow nerd relays the scene.

"So Kristopher Tate walks in, just after [giddy geek-boy Robert] Scoble, streaming live over Ustream, asks for 2 iPhones, puts them on the counter, gives them his credit card and goes through all the formality, tense waiting, then BANG, credit card declined. He then tried to buy just one phone, then tries another card — they are all franticly checking and double-checking his address, details, etc. to no avail.

[Paternal Zooomr CEO Andy Peterson, also known as] Thomas Hawk steps in to save Kris, but then one Apple staffer says that they can't do it because the limit is two. The other guy eventually lets them get away with it and Kris walks out with an iPhone after 15 very tense minutes (and holding everybody else up). I couldn't have hoped for a better climax to all the shit that was going on down there and 48 hours of listening to those guys."

Almost as good as getting thrown out of line for public drunkenness (TV said it happened in Burlingame — who's got video?).

~~Photo of Kris and the Scobles: Thomas Hawk~~

Update: Photo removed because Thomas, according to an e-mail, would "prefer not to have my imagery associated with your publication." Plus he left that one copyrighted and I hadn't noticed. But to make up for this content loss, see Thomas's comments below about my failed video show!

Also: I like Kris, Thomas is a good guy who sometimes does things that seem dumb to me, and puppies and rainbows and happy!

And: Just realized that the "blockquote" formatting element is broken or something, so it wasn't obvious that this story is quoted from a tipster. Added quotes. OKAY I THINK THIS STORY IS OVER NOW.