What Role Did Blogging Play in the Hitwise Acquisition?
04.19.07Megacorp Experian has acquired Australia based website traffic analysts Hitwise for $240 million, it was announced today. That announcement really caught my eye because Hitwise has done an incredible job of using blogs and participating in social media to raise the company's profile. I can only assume that this has helped it raise revenues and thus contributed to its acquisition. What other traffic stats company puts out really interesting, timely data for free on a regular basis? What other companies write blog posts that hit the peak of Techmeme? What other traffic companies provide the fodder for thought provoking, informative posts on blogs like TechCrunch, Gigaom, Mashable and many, many more - on a regular basis?
Three cheers for these folks coming down off the "I see the traffic, now here's a quarterly press release" high-horse that their competitors are too often on. Blogger Andy Beal writes similarly this morning. "All of those great charts that Hitwise so freely provide us," he quips, "have paid off big time for the web intelligence company."
A Google search of Techmeme for Hitwise has 2,400 results; only Comscore can come close to that among the major traffic analysts. (The little startup I work at has 3X the number of Techmeme appearances as traffic analyst leader NetRatings, for example.) [Update: The folks at Compete.com just emailed me to point out their extensive engagement in the blogosphere. Plus, I'll add, they advertise on blogs, which is very cool. I think their numbers are funky, but whatever, they are totally raising their profile by leveraging social media. We'll see if they can be as smart about it as Hitwise, though.] Outside numbers tracking is a crap-shoot game, no one really trusts anyone's methods all that much - so the best you can do is to be highly visible in a positive light.
Specifically, three cheers for LeeAnn Prescott and Heather Hopkins - two women whose ability to see what the tech world is interested in and shape the conversation by providing pertinent data, thoughtfully presented early in the conversation. Remember when you didn't give Photobucket a moment's thought? Guess who posted numbers about their huge market share and got tech bloggers talking about them? LeeAnn Prescott. Who blogged about it when Bebo reportedly passed MySpace in traffic in the UK for the first time? Heather Hopkins. Blog posts like this have changed our understanding of the web 2.0 market.
I'm sure the smart blogging strategies Hitwise employed were just some of many factors leading to the company's acquisition for $240 million, but I think company blogging and these bloggers in particular deserve some serious recognition.
April 19th, 2007 at
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April 19th, 2007 at
[…] Update: Marshal Kirkpatrick has a really interesting post highlighting the role of blogosphere in this acquisition. They truly raised their profile by leveraging social media, specially by coming up with important statistics at key junctures, sometimes by telling us that Photobucket rules online photo storage space and others by informing us that Bebo is bigger than MySpace in UK. […]
April 19th, 2007 at
Hitwise acquired by Experian — a great move!
Hitwise, the web reporting company, has been acquired by Experian, the credit reporting company, for $240 million. I think this move makes great sense for Experian. Most consumers know Experian for their credit reporting services. But some know that Exper
April 19th, 2007 at
plus Compete.com came up with the Arrington Bobblehead!
April 20th, 2007 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick » What Role Did Blogging Play in the Hitwise Acquisition? (tags: hitwise money) […]
April 20th, 2007 at
I think this is a great move for Experian. I’m a big fan of Hitwise - they put out some very informative traffic data on a regualr basis as you say… With info about the types of websites people use in certain sectors and demographic, Experian will no doubt be able to enhance its targeting profiles.
November 3rd, 2007 at
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March 19th, 2008 at
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