Like.com

About Like.com

The story of Like.com starts with a different company, Riya. Founded by Munjal Shah and Burak Göktürk, Riya was created to be a facial recognition search engine for photos. However, the founders found it difficult to monetize a service that organized photo libraries. Shah and Göktürk, an image recognition expert from Stanford, realized the same underlying technology could be used for a different, more lucrative purpose: finding similar-looking products online. This pivot led to the launch of Like.com at the Web 2.0 Conference on November 8, 2006. The platform billed itself as a "visual search engine for products," initially focusing on fashion items like shoes, handbags, and jewelry. Instead of searching with text, users could find an item they liked and then see visually similar products from various retailers. The business model was straightforward: Like.com earned an affiliate commission of around 10% for every sale it referred to a partner merchant. The company raised $19.5 million from investors and grew quickly. The real validation of their technology and market position came in August 2010. Google acquired Like.com for a sum reported to be around $100 million. CEO Munjal Shah stated the deal was a way to "supersize our vision." The acquisition allowed Google to integrate Like.com's visual search technology and expertise into its own e-commerce and shopping search efforts.