Twitter finally decided to acquire social data analytics firm Gnip after four years of partnership. Twitter hopes closer access to Gnip's massive data stores will help drive up its revenue, while Gnip believes working directly with Twitter will help it expand its databases and reach.
Twitter will use Gnip data to "offer more sophisticated data sets and better enrichments" for developers and businesses. Gnip became Twtter's first data partner back in 2008. Gnip also collects data from WordPress, Facebook, Google+, Tumblur, Foursquare and YouTube. Once it has all the raw user data, Gnip distills the information within into a comprehensible report for each specific company.
Gnip's data sets help Twitter target specific businesses and improve the overall experience for companies and developers on the micro-blogging site. After all, more money for businesses on Twitter means more money for Twitter.
Twitter will now be able to sell data straight to businesses without a middle man, which also means that Twitter can target businesses and potential customers more accurately swiftly.
In four years, Gnip has sent 2.3 trillion tweets containing relevant data in 42 different countries. The tweets contain interesting insights into the use of Twitter for businesses, public relations, marketing and other sectors. Twitter sends approximately 500 million tweets each day to optimize its offerings to businesses and developers, but it needs Gnip to figure out which messages to send where.
"This acquisition signals clear recognition that investments in social data are healthier than ever," Gnip CEO Chris Moody wrote in a company blog post.
Although Gnip will undoubtedly be working much more closely with Twitter now, it is unknown if it will have to relinquish some of its other big clients, especially competitors like Google+ and Facebook, now that Gnip is owned by Twitter. Gnip did say that it expects to offer new services now that it belongs to Twitter.
Although Twitter didn't comment on Gnip's client list, it did state it believes the two companies will work even better together than ever before.
"We believe Gnip has only begun to scratch the surface," Twitter VP of Global Business Development Jana Messerschmidt wrote in a company blog post. "Together we plan to offer more sophisticated data sets and better data enrichments, so that even more developers and businesses big and small around the world can drive innovation using the unique content that is shared on Twitter."
