The announcement came today that Walmart is set to buy Kosmix, a social media company operating from Mountain View, CA. Kosmix’s price tag upon being taken over by the massive discount chain store has yet to be peeked.
Walmart sees the buy as a way to increase its sales through having a greater presence among online and mobile-device shoppers. As quoted in today’s L.A. Times, Walmart’s vice chairman, Eduardo Castro-Wright, had the following to say about the purchase: “We are expanding our capabilities in today’s rapidly growing social commerce environment.”
Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman are Kosmix’s founders and it’s not the first time they sell big — in 1998 the pair sold Amazon.com Junglee, their first start-up. In its current state, Kosmix makes apps to organize social media content online and owns Kosmix.com, RightHealth, and Tweetbeat. Walmart’s purchase of Kosmix is also a way to prove itself more competitive against Amazon.com. In addition to the Kosmix deal, Walmart has also come out with @WalmartLabs, a new tech department.
As we couldn’t have said much it better ourselves, we’ll concede parting remarks to Castro-Wright: “Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers’ day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores.”
Read More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/walmart-social-media-kosmix_n_850678.html
