Skip to main content

Twitter acquires startup TapCommerce to enhance ad strategy

Twitter’s been making quite a few acquisitions lately as it works on trying to improve its user experience and explores different ways of generating more ad revenue.

The latest startup to come under its ownership is TapCommerce, a mobile ad technology firm based in New York.

Both companies announced the deal Monday, though declined to say how much money had changed hands. A Re/code report earlier in the day said “sources familiar with the situation” put the value of the deal at around $100 million.

TapCommerce’s work with marketers involves helping them to retarget mobile users with ads in an effort to get them to re-engage with apps already installed on their handsets or tablets.

“Advertisers spend aggressively to get new users, but reactivating existing or previous users can provide just as attractive a return on investment,” Twitter said in a post announcing its latest acquisition.

Companies with apps offering goods or services in areas such as travel or retail are believed to find TapCommerce’s service particularly useful.

Twitter said the acquisition will enable it to “offer mobile app marketers more robust capabilities for app re-engagement, tools and managed service solutions for real-time programmatic buying, and better measurement capabilities.”

The move is part of a wider revenue-generating strategy that also involves the inclusion of direct paid-for links in the Twitter timeline to app installs. Twitter can make money from marketers paying to post these links, and again if a user clicks on the link and downloads an app.

The San Francisco-based company is looking for ways to increase revenue through mobile ads at a time of frustratingly slow user-base growth.

The site has been buying up a range of startups to support its service and generate ad revenue, building relationships with brands and organizations in the process. Just last week it announced it’d acquired SnappyTV in a move designed to increase user engagement with the microblogging site and ultimately bring in more TV-related ad revenue.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to view Instagram without an account
An iPhone 15 Pro Max showing Instagram via a web browser.

Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms on the planet. Whether you want to share a family photo, what you had for lunch at your favorite cafe, or a silly video of your cat, Instagram is the place to do it.

Read more
Something odd is happening with Samsung’s two new budget phones
A person holding the Samsung Galaxy A35 and Galaxy A55.

The Samsung Galaxy A35 (left) and Galaxy A55 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy A55 for almost two weeks and have now swapped my SIM card over to the Samsung Galaxy A35. These are the latest entries in Samsung's budget-minded Galaxy-A series. In all honestly, I can barely tell the difference between them.

Read more
Learn 14 languages: Get $449 off a lifetime subscription to Babbel
A person using the Babbel app on their smartphone.

Learning a new language no longer requires you to make time for formal classes because there are now several language learning apps that you can tap. One of them is Babbel, and you can currently get a lifetime subscription to the online learning platform for only $150 from StackSocial. That's $449 off its original price of $599, but we don't know how much time is remaining before the offer expires. If you want to take advantage of the 74% discount, it's highly recommended that you complete the transaction immediately.

Why you should buy the Babbel lifetime subscription
A lifetime subscription to Babbel not only unlocks the possibility of learning one or two new languages, as the platform encompasses a total of 14 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Indonesia, Norwegian, Danish, and Russian. You'll be learning your new language of choice with lessons that only take 10 minutes to 15 minutes each to complete, so unlike classes with a rigid schedule, you can learn at your own pace and at any time you're free through Babbel. The lessons cover real-life topics, and they use speech recognition technology to help you master pronunciation. You'll then test yourself through personalized review sessions that will help make sure that you retain all the information that's being taught to you.

Read more