GasBuddy is a tech company based in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

that operates apps and websites based on finding real-time fuel prices at more than 140,000 gas stations in the United States and Canada. They also sell software products to

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

owners via their B2B initiatives (formerly known OpenStore). The GasBuddy app is a

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

-based

application program Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

for

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s and tablets which provides prices of nearby gas stations from user-submitted data, as well as through partnerships with other companies and directly from station operators. The app has Android, BlackBerry 10, and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

versions. The app also includes GasBuddy's partnerships with

Wex Wex is a collaboratively-edited legal dictionary and encyclopaedia, intended for broad use by "practically everyone, even law students and lawyers entering new areas of law". It is sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute ("LII ...

(called "Pay with Gasbuddy") and

ParkWhiz ParkWhiz is an e-parking service that allows users to book parking spaces before reaching their destinations. ParkWhiz headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. Origins ParkWhiz was founded in 2006 by Aashish Dalal and Jon Thornton. The com ...

for parking.

History

Childhood friends Dustin Coupal (an ophthalmologist) and Jason Toews (a computer programmer from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

) founded GasBuddy in June 2000 in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. Toews and Coupal launched the collection of GasBuddy websites as a way for consumers to share gas-pricing information. They filed as a Minnesota for-profit corporation in April 2004 as GasBuddy Organization Inc. In 2009, GasBuddy launched OpenStore with its first convenience store partner,

Rutter's Rutter's is a chain of convenience stores and gas stations with 82 locations in Central and Western Pennsylvania, the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and central Maryland. Stores are open 24 hours a day and have a made-to-order food counte ...

, by building the Rutter's app and supporting digital marketing efforts through its custom platform. Towards the end of 2010, GasBuddy launched its own set of apps that allowed users to input prices via their smartphones. In March 2013, UCG, a

privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: * A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...

company headquartered in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...

, announced that

Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) is a price-reporting agency which provides information that is used for commercial contracts and trade settlement related to petroleum, gasoline, diesel, ethanol, biodiesel, LP-gas, jet fuel, crude, natural g ...

had acquired GasBuddy. OPIS is a UCG subsidiary established in 1977 as the ''Oil Express Newsletter'' and specializing in worldwide petroleum pricing and news for businesses. On February 10, 2016,

IHS IHS may refer to: Religious * Christogram IHS or ΙΗΣ, a monogram symbolizing Jesus Christ * ''In hoc signo'', used by Roman emperor Constantine the Great Organizations * Indian Health Service, an operating division of the US Department of Hea ...

acquired OPIS, separating from GasBuddy, which remained with UCG as a subsidiary company. This was also the point that several key features were removed, reducing the "sense of community". These were the awards given for challenges to reach certain milestones, and the "whiteboards" - a chat room only for registered users. Initially only available in the United States and Canada, GasBuddy launched in Australia in March 2016. On September 12, 2016, GasBuddy released a completely redesigned app available for iOS and Android devices, the first major redesign of the app since its release in 2010. GasBuddy also unveiled a new logo and launched GasBuddy Business Pages. On August 28, 2017, GasBuddy launched a gas savings program, Pay with GasBuddy, that lets consumers save at gas stations in the United States.

Overview

GasBuddy operates an app and websites for the public to report and see prices of motor fuel in the United States, Canada, and Australia.Hamilton, Anita (2008)
50 Best Websites 2008: GasBuddy
, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. Retrieved October 10, 2012. Users report motor fuel prices in their area, which is made available to other visitors. Each entry is timestamped. Data on the website and in app is provided by spotters, stations, and relationships with credit card companies. Its website offers additional features such as a fuel log book, which allows users to record fuel purchases, odometer miles, and fuel usage.

References

External links

* {{official Comparison shopping websites Petroleum economics Application software American companies established in 2000 Privately held companies based in Massachusetts