Apple acquires social search startup Spotsetter focusing on place, restaurant recommendations
Spotsetter, a Silicon Valley startup that analyzes a user's social circle to surface more relevant recommendations for things like places to visit or new restaurants to try, is said to have been acquired by Apple for an unknown sum.
Apple is believed to have made the deal in order to get access to Spotsetter's recommendation technology, which could be added to Apple's Maps. The acquisition was first reported by TechCrunch.
Though many of Spotsetter's employees -- including cofounders and former Google Maps engineers Stephen Tse and Johnny Lee -- have moved to Cupertino, it was not strictly a so-called "acquihire." The company is said to have filed patents related to its recommendation algorithms, which may have been of interest to Apple.
Spotsetter raised less than $1.5 million in venture financing, likely making the acquisition price in the mid-tens of millions of dollars. That represents a relatively standard acquisition for Apple, despite the company's recent spate of high-profile purchases including the recently-finished $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics.
In a blog post announcing Spotsetter's shuttering six days ago, Lee said that they were closing down the app but "still have big dreams for personalized search for places and look forward to seeing great progress in this area."
Apple is believed to have made the deal in order to get access to Spotsetter's recommendation technology, which could be added to Apple's Maps. The acquisition was first reported by TechCrunch.
Though many of Spotsetter's employees -- including cofounders and former Google Maps engineers Stephen Tse and Johnny Lee -- have moved to Cupertino, it was not strictly a so-called "acquihire." The company is said to have filed patents related to its recommendation algorithms, which may have been of interest to Apple.
Spotsetter raised less than $1.5 million in venture financing, likely making the acquisition price in the mid-tens of millions of dollars. That represents a relatively standard acquisition for Apple, despite the company's recent spate of high-profile purchases including the recently-finished $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics.
In a blog post announcing Spotsetter's shuttering six days ago, Lee said that they were closing down the app but "still have big dreams for personalized search for places and look forward to seeing great progress in this area."
Comments
Looking forward to the announced new features and the unannounced new features coming to iOS 8! Apple just might be able to change mobile again!! :-)))
That's because none of the owners got on twitter to make a drunken brag about how much he sold his company for...
Let me clear a few things you nerds keep spewing over and over again.
1. Dr. Dre did not leak the 3.2B rumor.
2. You guys obviously don't know who Dre is.
In the video he's the more modest and reserved guy in the back. The obnoxious guy handling the camera and bragging about something(never mentions what) is actually Tyrese NOT DR. DRE.
Dre shouldn't have let this happen I agree there and Tyrese is stupid for filming and uploading the video.
When I initially heard about the Beats purchase and watched the condemned video, I was outraged that co-owner of the company allowed a video to be created and uploaded announcing the purchase. I was equally outraged over being in a drunken stupor off of Heineken!!!!!!!
When a Pennsylvania state agency considered purchasing 350 copies of my iPhone app, I got drunk celebrating just from the consideration. No, I did not create and upload a drunken video, but I did get drunk. There is no way to compare a few thousand to a few billion, but the pure fact of being considered pushed me up so high I had to later reconsider my thoughts about the drunken video. When a friend mentioned he had never seen me so drunk, I had to explain again what had been going on.
Now I see that the video was pure euphoria. Becoming or getting close to becoming a billionaire is a heady experience. Possibly selling more software in ONE shot than ever being sold by me on the App Store is a heady experience. I found I had to forgive myself for being so outraged by the reasoning behind the video. Judge not and be not judged.
And, after seeing Dr. Dre at WWDC and after seeing the Beats World Cup video, I had to realize stuff happens that do not truly reflect who people are immediately after something outrageously good happens in their lives. I am not talking about hurting people, I am talking about celebrating in a safe environment before, during and after the celebrations.
I never considered Beats before the Apple purchase. I have not bought headphones nor have I listened to Beats' streaming service, but the 5-minute plus World Cup video has me thinking Apple is most definitely has seen something I had and have not seen. I did buy the "Jungle" song by the X Ambassadors after watching the World Cup video. Amazingly, I had already downloaded the song for free from Apple and had never listened to it!!!!!!! Go figure.
I ask everyone being snarky or plain negative to step back for a moment and attempt to put themselves in the shoes of any company that Apple has purchased and attempt to see how they might respond. No, Twitter might not be the way, but I am certain there will be something done that you later think was not the smartest thing you could have done.
So it analyzes your friends' social activity? Does seem like there is a potential privacy concern with that. Wouldn't that entail the friend to explicitly allow for their social feeds (be it Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare,...) to be analyzed? Surely the application can't just with only your agreement analyze other people's feeds right?
That's because none of the owners got on twitter to make a drunken brag about how much he sold his company for...
LOL- from your mouth to Slurpy's ears.
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