To spur more content on its platform, Twitter has acquired a start-up that builds tools to help social media stars
Twitter has acquired New York start-up Niche, which links internet stars with big brand advertisers. The terms of the deal were largely kept under wraps, but a report from Re/code pegs the price at between $30 million and $60 million, while Business Insider is backing a price tag of around $50 million.
Twitter aims to add more content to platform
The new deal will help Twitter in positioning itself strongly in front of Madison Avenue advertisers, who are eager to make a place in the World of Internet talent but are finding it difficult to do so.
“As we continue to invest in the growing media ecosystem, it’s important to provide a wide variety of tools for content creators to distribute and ultimately manage all of their content,” Twitter said in a blog post.
Twitter’s recent acquisition can be viewed as another strategy to create more content on its platform, allowing advertisers a better scope for spreading their marketing messages, thus ensuring a greater influx of revenue.
Opportunities from growing popularity of social platforms
Social media stardom has been gaining over the past few years as ordinary people with a camera and internet connection amass followers by showing their weird talents. Advertisers are looking forward to monetizing these talents on Facebook’s Instagram app, Google’s YouTube and Twitter’s own Vine video service, according to a report from Facebook.
Niche will allow Twitter to zero in on the right internet celebrity or “influencer” and target the celebrity’s specific audience. Vine is another similar service that has produced a slew of web celebrities with millions of followers. Formed in 2013, Niche has worked with Twitter and Vine in the past and played a role in creating an ad for Hewlett-Packard on Vine which was exclusively for high-profile users, according to a report from The WSJ. Twitter recently enabled users to shoot, edit and post their own videos through its app.
At present, Niche has more than 6,000 social media influencers in its database, offering internet stars analytics and helping them to make connections with more than 100 brands and agencies, according to a company blog post. Co-founder Rob Fishman was the supervisor of social media at Huffington Post and AOL, and another founder, Darren Lachtman, is a former senior director of business development for Bedrocket Media Ventures.
Niche mentioned in its blog post that around the world, comedic personalities, aesthetic photographers, visual artists, foodies and fashionistas have taken benefit of new mobile platforms.
