GLOBAL, SEPTMBER 2011: Five months after its acquisition of Kosmix and christening it as @WalmartLabs, retail giant Wal-Mart recently bought key assets of mobile ad targeter OneRiot, this time for a more specific mobile reach.
@WalmartLabs is Walmart’s research and development team based in Mountainview, CA, and was established in an effort to integrate e-commerce and social media. Its technology, Social Genome, boasts of a platform that searches, analyzes, and then filters and organizes real-time data, including relevant social media content, making for a more personal insight for users.
OneRiot, on the other hand, is being groomed to guide the production of more consumer-relevant and specific ads. Through OneRiot, Walmart can target its brand advertisements to specific geo-locations, handset devices, demographics and audience interest segments. Walmart will expand OneRiot’s portfolio, which includes mobile ad campaigns for The Gap, Toyota and AT&T.
“The OneRiot technology will enrich the Social Genome, and the OneRiot team adds to the already deep expertise we have around social data analysis,” said Anand Rajaraman, co-founder of Kosmix and now senior vice president for e-commerce at Walmart.
These two recent acquisitions are set to prepare Walmart for more intensive competition with Amazon and eBay as a trusted source for product information and online retail. Walmart is a relative newcomer in acquiring technology companies instead of opting for partnerships, and could possibly spark the trend for fellow national retail rivals Sears, Target and BestBuy.
Source: AdAge
