BuzzFeed Acquires Kingfish Labs, Enhances Facebook Connection
In an effort to better monetize its Facebook connection, social news site BuzzFeed just acquired Kingfish Labs. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
During its short existence as an independent startup, Kingfish developed technology to process natural language on Facebook and used it to characterize the interests of consumers in the
context of a dating application.
“We're going to use that same technology to understand the interests of users on Facebook and show them the Sponsored Stories that are most
relevant to their interests,” Jon Steinberg, president-COO of BuzzFeed, tells Online Media Daily.
The “technology will allow BuzzFeed to expand … in buying
Sponsored Stories to extend the reach of content-driven social advertising,” he explained.
To expand the reach of its client's branded content, BuzzFeed is already a buyer of
Sponsored Stories. The acquisition is expected to enhance this type of targeting -- or “interest matching” -- of BuzzFeed’s social advertising programs.
Going
forward, BuzzFeed also plans to apply interest matching to Twitter.
Kingfish Labs had raised about $500,000 in funding from Lerer Ventures and Softbank Capital -- both of which have
also invested in BuzzFeed. Also of note, BuzzFeed co-founder Jonah Peretti worked with Kingfish co-founders Jeff Revesz and Rob Fishman at Huffington Post.
Revesz has agreed to join
BuzzFeed’s engineering team, while Fishman is reportedly moving on to other unspecified projects.
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