“Apple Inc has acquired social media search and analytics startup Topsy [for $200 million], an unusual purchase for a hardware-focused company that has made few forays into social networking,” Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters. “Apple confirmed the acquisition but would not say why it bought the company, which specializes in analyzing Twitter data and providing insights into current sentiment on a variety of topics.”
“The California gadget maker has been increasingly making it easier for people to share photos, videos and news through its devices and directly to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter,” Gupta reports. “It also operates iTunes Radio, an online streaming music service that competes with Pandora and could benefit from Topsy’s data on consumer sentiment.”
“Speculation on Apple’s motives ran the gamut on Monday, but some industry experts thought it likely that the company – which continually tries to enhance its iPhones, iPads and Macintosh computers in the face of ever-strengthening competition from the likes of Samsung Electronics – is looking to beef up customer-facing software,” Gupta reports. “‘From an usage perspective, they can use it for the app store and iTunes,’ said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi, who added that Topsy could be used, for instance, to better serve app recommendations to users.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple buys Twitter analytics startup Topsy Labs for $200 million – December 2, 2013
Hopefully the team at topsy are really good analysing data and fix the utterly useless App Store search
And here I thought Apple was a software company, go figure.
Does the author really think it is appropriate to describe Apple, Inc. as a gadget maker?
The article was published by Reuters. When you consider their long track record for publishing anti-Apple pieces, calling Apple a gadget maker is amongst the least of their sins.
Reuters is correctly called a London-based employer of clerk-typists.
I would think this would be a slam duck when combined with Siri.
@Heard Instinct
That’s going to hurt if you are the duck ….
Poor duck would need a chiroquackter.
When the game is tens of billions – $200M isn’t that much for the right tools.
Apples purchase is no more than acquiring a tool in its arsenal to understand the consumer, it’s trends and where it’s headed.
Tested Topsy. Looked up The Big Lebowski, Forrest Gump and other subjects. Topsy doesn’t just return Twitter and other social media items. There are Youtube and non-social website links. Topsy is a fairly wide search engine, it seems.
“in the face of ever-strengthening competition”
Show it to me.
“rich Twitter data”
hilarious. Amazing how unsubstantiated opinion is now considered valuable data.