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Lithium Technologies to Acquire Klout

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Re: Lithium Technologies to Acquire Klout

#2

Post by AznHisoka »

Klout is a perfect example of great marketing trumping great product. Klout scores influencers, but in reality it's not that much superior to tools like Followerwonk, BuzzSumo, or Twtrland. But they came up with a score that ppl could digest, they had a memorable brand, and they created PR with the gamification of these social scores.

I might be wrong, but the real value if any in Klout is that they have a bunch of data aggregating social media profiles for a bunch of influencers, but only some of it is public like Twitter - stuff like Instagram/FB is opt-in (I might be wrong). But all in all, it's not something you can't gather on your own with a year worth of development.

Re: Lithium Technologies to Acquire Klout

#5

Post by minimaxir »

AznHisoka wrote: post #2

Klout is a perfect example of great marketing trumping great product. Klout scores influencers, but in reality it's not that much superior to tools like Followerwonk, BuzzSumo, or Twtrland. But they came up with a score that ppl could digest, they had a memorable brand, and they created PR with the gamification of these social scores. I might be wrong, but the real value if any in Klout is that they have a bunch of d…

Klout was the first modern "love-to-hate" startup. It's the proto-RapGenius.

Re: Lithium Technologies to Acquire Klout

#6

Post by minimaxir »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #4

Ugh. Klout is the worst sort of horoscope scammy bullshit out there, it sucks that the industry is so broken that worthless companies like this can make profitable exits.

The last valuation for Klout was $200M, and they are being acquired for "low nine figures" ($100M-$200M). This is far from a profitable exit.

Re: Lithium Technologies to Acquire Klout

#9

Post by danso »

I hate to jump on the Klout-trashing bandwagon...but it definitely was floundering around. Its new redesign made it look like another generic social aggregator, contained significantly less data and insights (hard to believe, but yes), and was unreadable, to boot. But the randomness of the "Klout Perks" initiative seemed to be a sign of real meandering..."Use Klout and get a deal on Chicken McNuggets!" (http://www.publicrelationsprincess.com/2014/02/mcdonalds-chi...)

Yeah, hard to say what their pivot was going to be, so this acquisition is a better outcome than where things seemed to be heading.

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