Apple reportedly in talks to buy Pinterest competitor The Fancy
According to Business Insider sources, Apple is in talks to acquire social commerce site The Fancy in a move meant to kickstart the tech giant's nascent general e-commerce business.
Apple has long been a leader in e-commerce since the Apple online store opened in 1997, followed by iTunes and the company's iOS and Mac App Stores, but it has yet to enter the general e-commerce category. The rumored acquisition would allow Apple to leverage its formidable number of existing active iTunes accounts with credit cards on file, now numbered at over 400 million, in the arena.
The iPhone maker's new PassBook app, which will be included in the upcoming iOS 6, is a step toward bridging the gap between iTunes and general e-commerce, but the software won't allow users to make credit card purchases. This could change if the rumored Fancy acquisition goes through as users would have the ability to make purchases directly and easily from their iDevices. It should be noted, however, that the system as well as the acquisition remains firmly planted in the realm of speculation.
Kanye West visiting The Fancy CEO Jim Einhorn at the company's headquarters in New York.
Source: Kanye West/Twitter
Backed by cofounders of Twitter and Facebook, The Fancy recently gained some notoriety as high-profile figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Kanye West created accounts, the latter even posted a tweet of his visit to the company's headquarters in New York.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is also rumored to have joined the growing network and supposedly met with The Fancy's CEO Jim Einhorn at this year's Allen & Co. Sun Valley retreat which attracts heavyweights from the entertainment, tech and media industries. Cook reportedly lined up a number of meetings during the event, hinting at possible digital media partnerships for Apple TV content and other secret projects.
While The Fancy may not boast as large a following as rival Pinterest, the 20-person startup is "much farther along" in leading users to transactions and currently takes a ten percent cut of each purchase. The site managed to snag a $10 million investment round at a reported $100 million valuation last year which added to the $6 million it raised in 2010.
Apple is no stranger to making strategic acquisitions of smaller tech companies on their way up, evidenced by its recent purchase of app search engine Chomp and Israel-based flash memory maker Anobit. The Siri virtual assistant, widely-advertised as the standout feature of the iPhone 4S was a direct result of a 2011 Apple acquisition. Most recently, the company bought AuthenTec, a biometric security firm well known for its work in fingerprint sensing technologies.
Apple has long been a leader in e-commerce since the Apple online store opened in 1997, followed by iTunes and the company's iOS and Mac App Stores, but it has yet to enter the general e-commerce category. The rumored acquisition would allow Apple to leverage its formidable number of existing active iTunes accounts with credit cards on file, now numbered at over 400 million, in the arena.
The iPhone maker's new PassBook app, which will be included in the upcoming iOS 6, is a step toward bridging the gap between iTunes and general e-commerce, but the software won't allow users to make credit card purchases. This could change if the rumored Fancy acquisition goes through as users would have the ability to make purchases directly and easily from their iDevices. It should be noted, however, that the system as well as the acquisition remains firmly planted in the realm of speculation.
Kanye West visiting The Fancy CEO Jim Einhorn at the company's headquarters in New York.
Source: Kanye West/Twitter
Backed by cofounders of Twitter and Facebook, The Fancy recently gained some notoriety as high-profile figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Kanye West created accounts, the latter even posted a tweet of his visit to the company's headquarters in New York.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is also rumored to have joined the growing network and supposedly met with The Fancy's CEO Jim Einhorn at this year's Allen & Co. Sun Valley retreat which attracts heavyweights from the entertainment, tech and media industries. Cook reportedly lined up a number of meetings during the event, hinting at possible digital media partnerships for Apple TV content and other secret projects.
While The Fancy may not boast as large a following as rival Pinterest, the 20-person startup is "much farther along" in leading users to transactions and currently takes a ten percent cut of each purchase. The site managed to snag a $10 million investment round at a reported $100 million valuation last year which added to the $6 million it raised in 2010.
Apple is no stranger to making strategic acquisitions of smaller tech companies on their way up, evidenced by its recent purchase of app search engine Chomp and Israel-based flash memory maker Anobit. The Siri virtual assistant, widely-advertised as the standout feature of the iPhone 4S was a direct result of a 2011 Apple acquisition. Most recently, the company bought AuthenTec, a biometric security firm well known for its work in fingerprint sensing technologies.
Comments
[LIST][*]http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/07/apple-can-buy-twitter-rim-and-sprint-and-still-have-billions/55220/ [/LIST]
Quote:
Originally Posted by logandigges
Fancy is actually a pretty cool service.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
This is the kind of purchase I can see Apple making, not those huge and mostly foolish choices given to use last week by The Atlantic Wire.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/07/apple-can-buy-twitter-rim-and-sprint-and-still-have-billions/55220/
I honestly don't see the point in Apple buying a service like the Fancy. How does it help their business model?
They are a computer and electronics company not an Amazon E-Store.
And @SolipsismX actually I think Apple buying Twitter makes more sense than this.
People said the same thing when they announced the iPod. The audience just seemed so uncomfortable. The media could not see what lay ahead for Apple; they only saw that Jobs had fraked up.
I think Fancy's site is fresh and exciting. It also looks like it could have some valuable IP behind it. I think this could work for them. I expected them to buy and make deals with many companies in order to make their move into a secure and easy to use device-based purchases.
Fancy, shmancy... I wonder what they are smoking? Didn't Ping tell them we need no Social crap?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason98
Fancy, shmancy... I wonder what they are smoking? Didn't Ping tell them we need no Social crap?
We DO. All that "social crap" is huge, and not having it can be a real deal-breaker. Just a matter of doing it right, elegantly, simply, accessibly.
I could see this happening. If not an outright purchase, at least an investment in their company or some kind of cross-promotion?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
People said the same thing when they announced the iPod. The audience just seemed so uncomfortable. The media could not see what lay ahead for Apple; they only saw that Jobs had fraked up.
I think Fancy's site is fresh and exciting. It also looks like it could have some valuable IP behind it. I think this could work for them. I expected them to buy and make deals with many companies in order to make their move into a secure and easy to use device-based purchases.
Possibly so but this company seems to niche to me. If they want to be more "social" a twitter buy would be better. But if they want an E-Store, this just seems to niche.
Quote:
Originally Posted by logandigges
And it's "Fancy", not "The Fancy".
Well Fancy that!
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That's the reason I can see them buying Fancy. Well, that plus what I assume is an inexpensive acquisition. It's like all those mapping companyibg they bought. On their own most of them seemed very niche.
Twitter, on the other hand, is full fledged product. It's very "successful" whilst at the same time not being very profitable. I can see Apple giving them a cash infusion and getting a contract for certain Apple-related hashes, APIs, and web-based additions (e.g.: like how YouTube is presented in links). I can't even see them buying a stake in Twitter like they'd done with Imagination Tech.
Quote:
Originally Posted by logandigges
And it's "Fancy", not "The Fancy".
Well, kinda their own fault!:
www.thefancy.com/
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason98
Fancy, shmancy... I wonder what they are smoking? Didn't Ping tell them we need no Social crap?
Who's 'we'? You? Hundreds of millions of people actively use 'social crap'. Thats reality. And its something Apple can't ignore. Deal with it. Ping failed because it was poorly implemented with little motivation to use it. Doesn't mean Apple can never ever do anything with social again.
Although well done the website is built in aspx (.Net) so it is not something Apple would be interested in. Just my opinion. Culture clash.
My problem with Ping falls squarely on how it was to be used. I don't access my iTunes app too often and stay out of iTunes Store as much as possible. I neither write nor read user reviews for anything I buy, even on the App Store.
However, if this was linked to Twitter and it allowed me to see review of someone I followed I might be more inclined to do it myself. I'd surely buy more simply because items that friends, family and whomever else I follow on Twitter are popping up in my lists. I could look for what is popular by search for the #iTunesStore, #iTunes,, #iTS, and/or #AppStore tags in Twitter.
On top of that, also work with Apple to make an API so instead of clicking on the Twitter or FB link to the itunes.apple.com site to get to know the product I can have a Download button on the webpage or within my Twitter client to take me directly to the store within my device, but most importantly let me stream the 1m:30s audio from music without having to leave the Twitter webpage or client app I'm in.
Kanye looks enthralled.
The only companies I think Apple should by that I know of are Yelp and Nuance. They use both their technologies now with Siri.
Nuance for sure, because it's tech that Apple doesn't own and would take way too long to build from the ground up. I can certainly make an argument for a Yelp purchase but I'm not that there is any tech for them to buy. It's just the user based and name and that simply isn't something Apple has a history of doing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by logandigges
And it's "Fancy", not "The Fancy".
But the website is 'theFancy.com"
Kanye: "Oooh, I think I'd fancy a pony."