San Francisco — In a stunning move, it seems that social shopping is on the way at Amazon, as the online retailer has reportedly acquired Quorus, a shopping startup focusing on developing social shopping and marketing technologies for retailers and brands, Geekwire reports.
Interestingly, the acquisition, basically appears to be a talent grab, apparently appears to have been finalized in November 2011, brings such mavens as Quorus co-founders Michael Dougherty (pictured below), Sameer Rayachoti, Logan Bowers, a former Zillow and Expedia developer into the Amazon community.
According to GeekWire reporting few weeks back, then stated that Quorus co-founder Bowers had left the upstart to become a senior software engineer at Amazon.com. Well, as it turns out, now all signs appear to indicating a talent acquisition, and currently, all you get when you go to Quorus.com is a placeholder site from directNIC:
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Quorus was handling social shopping application, so it is not too difficult to comprehend where such an acquisition would appropriately fit into Amazon’s plan.
On Twitter, Quorus described itself as follows:
We are a social commerce software company in Seattle focused on delivering compelling social shopping and marketing solutions for retailers and brands.
Originally dubbed as Fridge Door, when the site was operational, Quorus presented a tool-bar that one could use on a site like Zappos to effortlessly connect with your acquaintances via social networks and email. Lauren Dugan at SocialTimes takes readers on a tour through a demo/interview with Dougherty in this piece from last year. The product allowed users to live chat from the toolbar.
Quorus developed social shopping and marketing applications that is utilized by retailers and brands. The technologies were formulated to enable better conversations between merchants, customers and customers’ friends. Interestingly, in a story last year on Social Times, Dougherty explained how the technology was being used by customers at Zappos (an Amazon property) to share deals and opinions about selected products.
Reached via email, on what the Quorus team will be building at the online retailer, Dougherty declined to reveal more details of the new gig or whether the social shopping technology that they created at Quorus was part of the deal.
The Quorus page on LinkedIn described the company’s Engage product as a “post-click marketing platform” that empowered retailers to “message their visitors with unique calls-to-action which personalize the site experience.”
Those could be interesting technologies or ideas to incorporate into Amazon. Or, perhaps, the team is working on an entirely new effort.
Dougherty — who studied electrical engineering at the University of Washington–previously worked at both Zillow and Redfin, the latter of which he co-founded.
Rayachoti is listed on LinkedIn as a Quorus co-founder. He also worked at Redfin and Zillow, but his Silicon Valley career started with a three-and-a-half-year stint at Amazon, where he was a software developer beginning in 2001.
Another team member, Peter Abrahamsen, was a design and engineering grad student and a Quorus senior software engineer–at least until November 2011, when he changed his LinkedIn profile to reflect Amazon as his new employer.
Furthermore, the Quorus product is one of numerous social-shopping products circulating around the web these days. The basic conceptualization is that you would get suggestion and feedback from friends while evaluating countless online purchases–not unlike the premise behind Tara Hunt’s Buyosphere.
Amazon.com, Inc. is an online retailer that provides a wide range of products. The Company’s products include books, music, videotapes, computers, electronics, home and garden, and numerous other products. Amazon offers personalized shopping services, Web-based credit card payment, and direct shipping to customers.
Lastly, all the Quorus employees that have been researched are based in Seattle, Washington, which is also the location of Amazon’s headquarters.