April 21, 2011 – WalMart Stores has acquired Kosmix, a technology firm which searches and analyzes social media connections in real-time to deliver customized feedback to users.
Mr. Web brought this to our attention in their article, “Wal-Mart Buys Social Media Analyst Kosmix.” Kosmix was founded in 2005 by online shopping pioneers Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman.
Their claim to fame was a platform called the ‘Social Genome’, which adds a layer of semantic understanding to social media data. By analyzing the huge volume of data produced every day on social media, the platform builds rich profiles of users, topics, products, places and events. The Kosmix platform also powers TweetBeat, a real-time social media filter for live events with more than five million visits last month.
The founders and their team will now operate as part of the newly formed @WalmartLabs, which will create technologies and businesses around social mobile commerce to support the integration of Walmart’s real-time and online e-commerce strategy.
Melody K. Smith
