Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Digital Transformation
    Marketing Operations
    Data
    Customer & Digital Experience
    Performance Marketing
    Marketing Management
    Special Reports
    MarTech Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech
    Mission
    Staff
    Newsletter
    Search Engine Land
    Third Door Media

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Data » InMarket buys NinthDecimal to compete with Foursquare more effectively

InMarket buys NinthDecimal to compete with Foursquare more effectively

The company is positioning itself as an "omnichannel" rather than "location" marketing platform.

Greg Sterling on September 10, 2020 at 10:17 am

Location analytics and data providers InMarket and NinthDecimal are joining forces. InMarket is buying the latter for an undisclosed sum.

The combined entity, InMarket, says “on day one” it will have revenue of $100 million, 550 partners and serve a large number of brands, agencies and publishers. (The company says to date it has worked with “more than 2,000 brands, agencies, publishers and platforms.”)

Need to better compete with Foursquare. The acquisition was likely motivated by several factors, among them the need to get bigger to better compete with market leader Foursquare. In addition, COVID-19 may have put pressure on the revenues and outlook for both companies.

The location intelligence/analytics segment is consolidating and there will likely be more M&A activity to create fewer companies with more capabilities and scale. Roughly a year ago InMarket bought ThinkNear from navigation provider Telenav. Foursquare recently merged with Factual and earlier bought Placed from Snap.

Omnichannel positioning. The press release promotes the benefits of the InMarket-NinthDecimal combination: “Bringing NinthDecimal’s powerful solutions over to InMarket creates the ultimate marketing platform – audience, activation, attribution, analytics – that will enable marketers to build 360-degree, closed-loop omnichannel marketing programs and track a campaign from impression-to-purchase.”

Note the absence of phrases such as “location” or “location data.” The proposition and pitch describe a more comprehensive and brand-conscious “omnichannel” marketing platform that can tie online and offline performance data together.

Third party validation. InMarket also emphasizes third party validation of its audience targeting and attribution methodology, as well as location-data accuracy. The company asserted, “We are the only platform whose individual offerings from Audiences to visits for Attribution that have been certified and/or validated by independent third parties, including Location Sciences for audiences and Comscore for reach, our visit/data methodology and data accuracy.”

This statement is intended as a counterpoint to Foursquare’s resent announcement of MRC accreditation. In 2017 the MRC issued Location-Based Advertising Measurement Guidelines and just issued its first accreditation to Foursquare. This type of third party validation will be critical to any company hoping to compete going forward.

NinthDecimal’s leadership team will join InMarket. NinthDecimal CEO Mike Fordyce will become Chief Business Officer, President David Staas becomes Chief Product Officer. And InMarket will continue to be lead by current CEO Todd Dipaola.

Why we care. Location data is becoming harder to come by even as brands and retailers are embracing its value. With Apple’s (and Google’s) efforts to give consumers more control over location and limit ad tracking, greater scale will be critical in the future.

Location analytics is a segment that had perhaps 15 or 20 smaller companies competing to educate and capture brand advertising dollars. In the end there will likely be four or perhaps five relatively large providers that can offer competing levels of technological sophistication and reach.

This story first appeared on Search Engine Land.

https://searchengineland.com/inmarket-buys-ninthdecimal-to-compete-with-foursquare-more-effectively-340408


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


New on MarTech

    How clean, organized and actionable is your data?
    Replacement Survey: The top 5 solutions replaced
    What’s the biggest hidden secret in Google Ads?
    Native video tops social media in brand awareness study
    Worsening economy has more shoppers getting online info before making in-store purchases

About The Author

Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

Related Topics

DataMarketing Operations

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS The MarTech Conference logo.

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Training Now: Master Classes

Start Discovering Now: Spring



The SMX Conference logo.

Start Training Now:: SMX Advanced

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes

Webinars

Agencies: Grow Revenue Streams Through Web Accessibility & Compliance

Protect Your Paid Advertising Spend Against Ad Fraud and Invalid Traffic

Build an Integrated Search Strategy Across Google, Amazon and YouTube

See More Webinars
Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports
Featured White Paper

Site Search 101

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.