YouTube creators offer student opportunity of a lifetime

Media release
For immediate release, November 10

YouTube creators offer student opportunity of a lifetime

The creators of YouTube have given Otago Polytechnic student, Alex Dong, the biggest break of his life, acquiring his online social network tool developed with business partner, Tim Bull.

Trunk.ly is an online tool devised by Mr. Dong and Mr. Bull, which keeps track of the increasing amount of content users are exposed to through social networks. It automatically collects links that users share, and stores them in one place so they can be easily found again.

Overnight the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, through their new company Avos announced they had acquired Trunk.ly.

Mr. Hurley and Mr. Chen are technology superstars, conceiving and building YouTube before selling it to Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Having recently left Google, Mr. Hurley and Mr. Chen purchased Delicious from Yahoo and will use Trunk.ly to power the backend of Delicious with their new generation service.

“We are thrilled for Alex,” says the Head of Information Technology at Otago Polytechnic, Lesley Smith. “This is a remarkable achievement, testament to his vision, talent and innovation.

"It has been a delight to have Alex in the Bachelor of Information Technology programme this year. Not only has he built upon his own impressive skill set, he has also found the time to mentor and share his skills with other project students. We are delighted to hear the news of this great outcome for his project."

Alex is currently completing his degree in Information Technology at Otago Polytechnic and will be showcasing his product tonight at the School of Information Technology Industry Showcase.

The Trunk.ly creation was recently announced as one of the finalists in the National Business Review’s Online Audacious Entrepreneur Readers’ Choice Awards.

“This is exactly the innovation that Dunedin needs,” says David Quinn from Audacious in Dunedin; an organisation that encourages and supports student entrepreneurs.

“With almost 30,000 smart individuals in our city studying every year, we have the human capital to realise many more opportunities like Trunk.ly.”

It is likely that Mr. Dong and Mr. Bull will be encouraged to join the Avos team in San Francisco.

To view the formal announcement released by Avos, visit: http://www.avos.com/avos-acquires-trunkly/

-ENDS-