Mountain View, California — In a fresh move to counter its social-networking rival Facebook, the search engine leader Google is pushing its social media presence a little further, as it snaps up the four-year-old startup called Wildfire, which is making huge strides in online marketing sphere, has just been snapped up by Google for an undisclosed price, the company announced today.
As the social networking is gaining momentum, businesses around the world–from neighborhood cafeteria to major retailers–all are embracing social media to exchange information and forge stronger relationships with their fans and customers.
In order to cater to this emerging sector, the search giant acquired Wildfire team, led by co-founders Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard, are joining the Mountain View company, and bringing with it an expertise in managing content, ads, and promotions across Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Founded four years ago, the company helps brands manage their social campaigns across sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. However, the company has managed to grow to 400 employees and roughly 16,000 customers. Its social media brand management services have been utilized by firms like Virgin, Cirque du Soleil, Gilt Group, Spotify, Amazon and Unilever.
The company noted, “With Wildfire, we are hoping to creating new opportunities for our clients to engage with people across all social services,” Jason Miller, a Google product management director said on the company’s blog post on Tuesday. “We believe that better content and more consistent solutions will help unlock the full potential of the Web for people and businesses.”
“We truly could not think of a more perfect home for Wildfire,” Ransom and Chuard wrote on the platform’s blog.
The company further noted on its blog, “We believe that over time the combined efforts of Wildfire and Google can lead to a better platform for managing all digital media marketing,” Wildfire’s founders, Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard, said in the joint blog post. “For now, we remain focused on helping brands run and measure their social engagement and ad campaigns across the entire Web and across all social service.”
In fact, the ultimate goal, according to Google’s Miller, is better and fresher content, with more meaningful interactions. “People today can make their voices heard in ways that were previously impossible,” Miller said. “Wildfire helps businesses uphold their end of the conversation (or spark a new one).”
This latest deal for Wildfire comes as many brands are vying to build and manage their footprints on social networks. Start-ups like Wildfire help corporations engage their consumers and track the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. The addition of Wildfire may bolster Google’s own social network, Google Plus, and provide insights about rival platforms, such as Facebook.
According to a blog post on Wildfire’s Web site, the company will continue to operate as usual, the founders said, with no service or support interruptions to its customers, despite its new ownership.
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.