Google Takes on Facebook with Acquisition of Marketing Start-Up Wildfire

By Karla Robinson
August 1, 2012

Google is taking a step toward a full-fledged ad management platform with its purchase of Wildfire Interactive, a social media marketing start-up that has been working closely with Facebook.
“The Google party line is that the company wants to own (and eventually integrate) the online marketing experience, full stop,” reports VentureBeat. “It wants to have a single destination where a brand marketing manager can go to create and control all online campaigns, from search marketing to Twitter CRM to Facebook campaigns, the whole shebang.”
The acquisition also likely provides some insight into Facebook’s marketing platform, which beats Google in its total share of display advertising.
Wildfire will continue business as usual for now — although the company’s largest focus may no longer be Facebook.
However, if Google really is looking to redesign online marketing, the start-up may help create such a platform in the next six to twelve months, the post suggests.
According to the official Google blog: “With Wildfire, we’re looking forward to creating new opportunities for our clients to engage with people across all social services. We believe that better content and more seamless solutions will help unlock the full potential of the Web for people and businesses.”

No Comments Yet