Alibaba Buys Chinese App Analytics Firm Umeng

E-commerce business Alibaba Group has acquired Chinese app analytics firm Umeng. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, some media reports have estimated its value at around $80m.

Founded in 2010 by former Google software engineer Jiang Fan (pictured), Beijing-based Umeng provides statistics such as app usage, user engagement, user devices and geographic locations, along with other metrics through which to investigate user behavior. In addition, the platform offers segmentation features to enable companies to group users with similar behavior for analysis and comparison.

The deal gives Alibaba access to Umeng's tools and data, and allows Umeng to tap in to Alibaba's resources for marketing and advertising.

Following the acquisition, Umeng will continue to operate as an independent entity.

Web sites: www.alibaba.com and www.umeng.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.