Snapchat to acquire search app to help increase advertising revenues

Snapchat will acquire Vurb, a search app, that will help generate adverts for users based on object recognition, thus increasing advert revenues. This acquisition will help Snapchat capture more eyeballs and ad dollars from Google and Facebook by improving third-party content and personalisation.

Snapchat is continuing on its quest to redefine mobile.

The mobile storytelling app is acquiring Vurb(opens in a new tab), a search and discovery app, for $100 million in a cash and stock deal, according to (opens in a new tab)The Information(opens in a new tab).

First, it was disappearing messages. Then, it was vertical video. Next, Snapchat could bring more to search.

Founded in 2011, Vurb attempted to make search more mobile-friendly, digestible and shareable by converting results into mobile cards. All within one app, users could search for a place, see the related information and save it for later or send it to a friend. Other categories included movies, TV, video and music.

The ambitions were clearly to take on search giant Google. Vurb is “very different than traditional search with 10 blue links," founder Bobby Lo told (opens in a new tab)TechCrunch(opens in a new tab) last year.

For Snapchat, Vurb's technology could align with its own ambitions to capture more eyeballs and ad dollars from Google, Facebook and other apps through improving third-party content and personalization. The news comes shortly after Facebook's Instagram released a nearly identical copy of Snapchat's core feature, Stories.

"I don't think this is about any old mobile search engine," Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of ad agency DeepFocus, told Mashable in an email. "The experience / place nature of Vurb seems to fit nicely into the technological direction Snapchat is heading toward."

"I don't think this is about any old mobile search engine"

That includes deep-linking to other apps and sites, as demonstrated by Snapchat's ticket purchasing ad for X-Men: Apocalypse. Vurb is connected to Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Google Maps, Netflix and Uber, for example.

Snapchat is also interested in selling and showing ads based on object recognition, as revealed in a recent patent application.

"A search engine geared around place-based intent like Vurb would help take Snapchat closer to that vision when paired with their already impressive visual recognition technology," Schafer said.

Not unlike Foursquare's pitch, Vurb recommends services that are "personalized for you in one simple app," according to its website(opens in a new tab). Those recommendations are based on interests, trending topics, time, weather and locations, the website reads. That idea could soon be matched with Snapchat's abundance of photos and videos.

Snapchat hasn't been shy about acquisitions. Earlier this year, the company acquired Bitmoji for $100 million, which it recently integrated into the app. Snapchat spent $150 million on facial recognition app Looksery to support its lenses technology last year, TechCrunch(opens in a new tab) reported(opens in a new tab).

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