HootSuite, the popular Twitter and Facebook client for power users and social media managers, has acquired Seesmic, a consumer-focused Twitter and Facebook app company.
It's a good move for Seesmic, which after changing its focus several times, has struggled with finding a business model that works. And now that Twitter has laid out its plans to limitcopycat Twitter clients, apps like Seesmic have a target on their back. For HootSuite, which is safe from Twitter's API crackdown, the acquisition is a chance to add more customers. Neither company has revealed a purchase price.
HootSuite and Seesmic both allow users to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts and post updates with desktop and mobile apps. When it comes to attracting business customers, HootSuite has been more successful. The company has 4.5 million enterprise customers, though it hasn't said how many are paying for either the $10 per month pro service or have signed up for HootSuite's corporate-level custom offering.
Seesmic's CEO Loïc Le Meur has said that Seesmic has hundreds of thousands of active users, we don't know how many actually pay for Seesmic's pro app, which runs $2.99 on Google Play and $4.99 in the Apple App Store. After purchasing Ping.fm, Seesmic also launched Seesmic Ping, a free, consumer app that can send updates to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumblr, and WordPress simultaneously.
Seesmic has struggled to attract the same attention as HootSuite among businesses. In March Seesmic laid off 18 employees in an attempt to focus the business on enterprise customers. With the layoff, Seesmic's only enterprise apps, Seesmic CRM, was "passed over" to enterprise mobile app developer DoubleDutch. Still, Seesmic's free social media client app attracted more than 1 million downloads on Android phones and 300,000 active Android users. Seesmic Pro has only between 10,000 and 50,000 downloads according to the Google Play store.
Even though it seems Seesmic has gained only a fraction of the users that HootSuite has, HootSuite sees those users as the most valuable asset. HootSuite hardly needs any new or better technology, but it wants more people using its service. When Seesmic disappears into HootSuite, it won't be hard to coax Seesmic fans into signing up for HootSuite's free desktop and mobile apps since both services have very similar features. But for the acquisition to really pay off for HootSuite, it wants more paying customers. And it's going to be hard to convince non-paying Seesmic users to pony up the money for HootSuite Pro.
