Apple buys social media analytics firm Topsy for over $200M

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 52
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    Hopefully this is the start of a more effective PR campaign that will allow Apple to connect directly to the consumer, instead of being drug through the mud by the technocrati and paid anti apple shills. This also happens to be an area where Apple's new head of retail made a lot of improvements as CEO of Burberry. Very much looking forward to seeing what comes of this.

    Kinda hard to take you seriously when you use 'drug' for 'dragged'.
  • Reply 22 of 52

    With hundreds of millions of iOS and Mac users, Apple must be drowning in data and needs to throw some money at the problem. There's quite a bit on the backend of their services offerings that Apple could use the underlying algorithms and human talent for, including:

     

    iTunes

    iCloud

    iAd

    iTunes Radio

    iOS and Mac App Stores

    Apple Online Retail Stores

    Apple TV

    Maps

    [In my dreams: Apple Search]

  • Reply 23 of 52
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    Hopefully this is the start of a more effective PR campaign that will allow Apple to connect directly to the consumer, instead of being drug through the mud by the technocrati and paid anti apple shills. This also happens to be an area where Apple's new head of retail made a lot of improvements as CEO of Burberry. Very much looking forward to seeing what comes of this.

    Kinda hard to take you seriously when you use 'drug' for 'dragged'.

    Kinda?
  • Reply 24 of 52
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    quinney wrote: »
    Kinda?

    Yes kinda, it is an accepted version of 'kind of', whereas 'drug' is in not accepted alternative to 'dragged'
  • Reply 25 of 52
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    carthusia wrote: »
    With hundreds of millions of iOS and Mac users, Apple must be drowning in data and needs to throw some money at the problem. There's quite a bit on the backend of their services offerings that Apple could use the underlying algorithms and human talent for, including:

    iTunes
    iCloud
    iAd
    iTunes Radio
    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">iOS and Mac App Stores</span>

    Apple Online Retail Stores
    Apple TV
    Maps
    [In my dreams: Apple Search]

    A good list, plus Siri, and soon indoor mapping and augmented reality.

    We are headed toward real time global awareness and responsiveness. I think they have a plan.
  • Reply 26 of 52
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    Yes kinda, it is an accepted version of 'kind of', whereas 'drug' is in not accepted alternative to 'dragged'

    Though I prefer being drugged to being dragged.
  • Reply 27 of 52
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    Kinda hard to take you seriously when you use 'drug' for 'dragged'.

    Whoops.. I guess I slipped up there.
  • Reply 28 of 52

    This was such a surprise that even the Wikipedia list of mergers and acquisitions still has not yet been updated.  I had not heard of this company before but if Apple bought them, they can't be all bad.  

     

    Topsy's technology may be applicable to more than Tweeter leading to more advanced search capabilities for Spotlight, Siri and Apple Maps.

     

    Apple bought PlaceBase in 2009, remember the Policy Maps Demo, the decision engine was based on PlaceBase...

    http://www.policymap.com/demo.html

     

    OK.  That's it.  Next year, Google Search is toast. :) 

     

    Seriously, I took a look at the website and it is very cool stuff.

    Apple can enter into agreements to mine a wide variety of databases.

    (Twitter, FaceBook, Yelp, Wolfram Alpha, WikiPedia etc...)

  • Reply 29 of 52
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

     

    Media analytics suggests this might supplement their iAd or advertising efforts?

     

    I can't imagine Apple buying something like Twitter at this stage. They're not going to pay $1+ Billion for a social media platform


     

    Twitter's market cap is $22+ Billion.

  • Reply 30 of 52
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by leavingthebigG View Post



    All Things D posted the following...



    "...recently unveiled a search engine capable of searching through 425 billion or so tweets..."



    What caught my attention was "search engine"!



    This is just a WAG, but could Apple be looking at entering the search arena?

     

    'entering' ?

     

    They'd want to be doing more than entering to complete with Google.  My gut feeling tells me even if they wanted to enter the search engine market they'd have to concede that they wouldn't have a hope of doing something anywhere near as good as Google search. Besides, they have so much more to get right with their existing services search would be a huge distraction for them.

  • Reply 31 of 52
    jonorom wrote: »
    They can search 425 billion tweets? That is an incredible data mine! Market research on Apple and competitor products, monetization of the data like Google does with search, the possibilities are endless.

    And I bet Topsy said "And boy have we patented it!"

    My, my... That IS interesting.
  • Reply 32 of 52
    enzosenzos Posts: 344member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    Yes kinda, it is an accepted version of 'kind of', whereas 'drug' is in not accepted alternative to 'dragged'
    It's listed in the OED as a dialect variant of dragged. In American usage it's a redneck variant!
  • Reply 33 of 52
    From a NY Times article:

    "Topsy makes its money from more sophisticated tools — aimed at marketers, media companies, political operations, and hedge funds — that require a subscription fee that starts at $12,000 a year. Those allow searches that compare different terms, narrow down results by geography and surface the specific tweets with the most influence on the social conversation."

    And

    "Mr. Prakash acknowledged that most of Topsy’s users work for businesses that need to mine Twitter for valuable information, such as Visa and USA Today. Competitors like DataSift and Gnip also offer access to the Twitter archive, he said, although their ability to deliver real-time information is more limited."

    Both intriguing paragraphs.

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2013/09/04/if-google-could-search-twitter-it-would-find-topsy/?_r=0
  • Reply 34 of 52
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post



    From a NY Times article:



    "Topsy makes its money from more sophisticated tools — aimed at marketers, media companies, political operations, and hedge funds — that require a subscription fee that starts at $12,000 a year. Those allow searches that compare different terms, narrow down results by geography and surface the specific tweets with the most influence on the social conversation."



    And



    "Mr. Prakash acknowledged that most of Topsy’s users work for businesses that need to mine Twitter for valuable information, such as Visa and USA Today. Competitors like DataSift and Gnip also offer access to the Twitter archive, he said, although their ability to deliver real-time information is more limited."



    Both intriguing paragraphs.



    http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2013/09/04/if-google-could-search-twitter-it-would-find-topsy/?_r=0

     

    What the hell is Apple up to?

  • Reply 35 of 52
    Just in what?

    That reminds me of something one of my friends told me long back. She was working on developing software for hospitals and needed a database of dummy Staff details. So rather than settling for standard names like 'John Smith' or 'Joe Bloggs', they went creative. A couple of the names were 'Justin Foracheck' and 'Anurin Faraday'.
  • Reply 36 of 52
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    quinney wrote: »
    Kinda?

    Yes kinda, it is an accepted version of 'kind of', whereas 'drug' is in not accepted alternative to 'dragged'

    is in not accepted?
  • Reply 37 of 52
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    jungmark wrote: »
    Don't be embarrassed by your Justin Bieber collection.

    Just in what?

    Time
    Just in what?

    That reminds me of something one of my friends told me long back. She was working on developing software for hospitals and needed a database of dummy Staff details. So rather than settling for standard names like 'John Smith' or 'Joe Bloggs', they went creative. A couple of the names were 'Justin Foracheck' and 'Anurin Faraday'.

    lol

    Bit like 'Miss Understood'.
  • Reply 38 of 52
    200 million to compile & analyze tweets & trends for marketing or iTunes music taste, seems like this could be done by Apple without buying Topsy.
    They must have bigger plans for this buy.

    Yeah I'm clearly in the wrong game. No money in science or disaster impact assessment (in Australia anyway).

    Must try to think of a startup and monetise it.
  • Reply 39 of 52
    jonoromjonorom Posts: 293member
    carthusia wrote: »
    With hundreds of millions of iOS and Mac users, Apple must be drowning in data and needs to throw some money at the problem. There's quite a bit on the backend of their services offerings that Apple could use the underlying algorithms and human talent for, including:

    iTunes
    iCloud
    iAd
    iTunes Radio
    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">iOS and Mac App Stores</span>

    Apple Online Retail Stores
    Apple TV
    Maps
    [In my dreams: Apple Search]

    Your list is mostly services where the customer has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Apple is NOT Google.

    Tweets, however, are public, and there is no expectation of privacy. I think this is a very deliberate move by Apple, to find the one area where they can monetize services without violating privacy.
  • Reply 40 of 52
    jonoromjonorom Posts: 293member
    I can imagine the sales presentation:

    "...and here are the 1.3 million negative Tweets about Maps that occurred before Apple even knew there was a problem. So, for only $10,000 a month...."

    Do Google, Microsoft and Samsung use your services?"

    "Yes."

    "We'll take it."

    "The $10,000 service?"

    "No, the company."
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