Twitter Purchases Tap Commerce for $100M

Monetizing a social media platform is not easy to do, but Twitter is committed to doing it.  The company has confirmed the purchase of TapCommerce, and though the Twitter did not confirm the amount in its blog post about the acquisition, sources close to the deal report the purchase price was around $100 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.  The small start-up specializes in targeting consumers who download apps in an attempt to keep them coming back for more.

The importance of return users is especially important for mobile retailers who sell goods and services through their apps. It is also particularly a priority in an environment where smart phone owners download lots of apps, but only actually use a precious few.

The deal comes as part of an official roll out by Twitter to move mobile-app install ads out into the wider platform community.  During the testing phases over the last few months, Twitter enthusiasts began seeing ads that guided them to download apps from either the Google Play or Apple store.

If successful, the targeted mobile app arena might be a significant profit center for Twitter. Facebook has made extensive use of mobile-app install ads, and has seen  the business make up 59 percent of its total revenue in Q1 2014, up 30 percent from the same time in 2013.  Twitter has seen its ad revenue double during Q1 to quarter to $250.5 million, but the company still has not turned a profit.

 

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