Rumors of GPhone….Acquisition of mobile social network Zingku…and now buying out Jaiku, “an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones.” Google’s moves are indicative of its growing mobile ambitions. With a market capitalization of nearly $200 billion, Google has the muscle to buy almost any company right now. So, will Google be the next biggie in the mobile league? Given the ability to execute at large scale with innovative solutions, it may not look impossible. Also looking at its acquisition trend it’s confirmed that Google is very serious about its mobile adventures.
Another surprising aspect is Google buying out Jaiku, instead of Twitter, which works in the same arena. Twitter is a leader in micro-blogging arena and the interesting part is that it is co-founded by Evan Williams, who was the creator of Blogger, which was previously acquired by Google. Now why would Google buy out Jaiku and not Twitter? Some people say because Jaiku is lighter and can be moulded the Google way. Twitter is too big and mature.
Google made an official announcement of the deal: Official Google Blog: Reach out and message someone. Here is Jaiku’s announcement!
Update: Kelley Tedd has an interesting theory about “Why Jaiku?” Although I don’t agree that Google would abandon gPhone (without more data), I agree with what Tedd has written about Google placing mobile ads through Jaiku.
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