HootSuite CEO: We're Buying Seesmic For The Users, Not The Tech [Interview]
TechCrunch first reported earlier today that enterprise social media platform HootSuite is buying another social media platform, Seesmic. That fact has now been confirmed by HootSuite itself.
Context & Ripple Effects
Seesmic had already moved through repeated product pivots and earlier acquisitions, including its purchase of Ping.fm to broaden multi-network posting. Its sale ends that independent path with HootSuite explicitly valuing the audience over Seesmic's technology.
HootSuite had been building an enterprise-oriented service through integrations with Zendesk, Storify and Evernote, while its Twitter ad cross-selling arrangement tied its distribution to a major social platform's commercial ambitions. Adding Seesmic users extends that distribution logic.
First-order effects
- HootSuite gains access to Seesmic's users, making customer reach—not Seesmic's product stack—the immediate asset transferred in the deal.
- Seesmic users move from an independent social-media-management provider into HootSuite's larger service footprint.
Second-order effects
- HootSuite's expanded audience gives its Twitter ad cross-selling partnership a larger pool of potential customers, reinforcing the value of HootSuite as a distribution channel.
- Seesmic's standalone product strategy loses its independent route to market, while HootSuite can concentrate adoption around its integrations and enterprise offering.
Third-order effects
- The deal points to consolidation in social-media-management software around user relationships and platform distribution, rather than each client application's proprietary features.
- If this pattern persists, social platforms such as Twitter gain more leverage because management-tool vendors need their commercial and integration relationships to monetize consolidated user bases.
The trend: Social-media-management vendors are shifting from standalone client competition toward consolidation built on user distribution, enterprise integrations and platform partnerships.