Twitter paid S$168m for social data provider Gnip

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter has said it paid US$134.1 million (S$168 million) for social data provider Gnip in May.

The price included US$107.3 million in cash, with the rest in stock, the San Francisco-based company said in a regulatory filing.

The acquisition gave Twitter more control over information gleaned from the content flowing through its network. Apple paid more than US$200 million for Topsy, a Gnip competitor, in December, people with knowledge of the matter said at the time.

Twitter also said in the filing that it may be liable for risks related to credit card processing, the latest hint of the company’s interest in becoming a centre for e-commerce. The site does not directly sell products to customers, but Twitter has been building a strategy for the possibility and recently agreed to buy CardSpring, a service that lets users redeem deals and discounts through merchants’ tweets.

Separately, Twitter has revised the data for users who access the micro-blogging service via third-party applications and therefore do not see ads. It reported that 11 per cent of active users accessed its service through outside apps in the latest quarter, a recalculation from an initial 14 per cent.

Mr Jim Prosser, a spokesman for the company, referred to a statement in an updated earnings presentation when asked about the change.

“Twitter previously indicated that, for this period, approximately 14 per cent of all active users used applications that have the capability to automatically contact our servers for regular updates, but later discovered that this number included certain users who accessed Twitter through owned and operated applications.” BLOOMBERG