Wal-Mart Buys Social Media Analyst Kosmix

US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores has acquired Kosmix, a technology firm which searches and analyzes social media connections in real-time to deliver customised feedback to users. Terms were not disclosed.

Kosmix, which was founded in 2005 by online shopping pioneers Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman (pictured), has developed a platform called the 'Social Genome', which adds a layer of semantic understanding to social media data. The firm says that by analyzing the huge volume of data produced every day on social media, the platform builds rich profiles of users, topics, products, places and events.

The Kosmix platform also powers TweetBeat, a real-time social media filter for live events with more than five million visits last month.

As part of the acquisition, the founders and their team will now operate as part of the newly formed @WalmartLabs, which will create technologies and businesses around social mobile commerce to support the integration of Walmart's real-time and online e-commerce strategy.

'Our work has focused on developing a social genome platform that captures the connections between people, places, topics, products and events as expressed through social media - be it a feed, a tweet or a post,' said Rajaraman. 'We are thrilled to join one of the world's largest companies and combine our work with Walmart's vast online and offline retail businesses.'

Web sites: www.walmartstores.com and www.kosmix.com .