Israeli media readership engagement platform OpenWeb (formerly SpotIM has announced it has acquired its rival Jeeng for $100 million. Jeeng has over 60 employees in its Tel Aviv and New York offices who will be integrated into OpenWeb's offices in those cities.
OpenWeb already supports over 1,000 publishers including The New York Times, Hearst, Yahoo!, Penske Media Corporation, and News Corp, while Jeeng supports over 650 publishers, including VICE Media, The Atlantic, Crain’s, HarperCollins, and Vox Media. Using AI technology, Jeeng leverages first-party data to deliver highly effective content tailored to users’ interests across email, push, and other channels.
OpenWeb enables news websites to place a responses component at the bottom of news items and places advertisements for articles and marketing content, on a model similar to that of Outbrain and Taboola. The company has added further services for news websites, such as a live blogging system, surveys, and questionnaires, information management tools, and an advertising management network.
OpenWeb cofounder and CEO Nadav Shoval said, "This acquisition brings us closer to our goal of ‘OpenWeb Everywhere,’ giving brands and publishers the ability to communicate with hundreds of millions of users across every online platform they encounter - messaging, email, notifications, newsreaders, interactive conversations and more. With the demise of third-party cookies, collapsing trust in social media, and the segmentation of online audiences, publishers and advertisers need to talk to their users one-on-one, in a personalized way. With Jeeng’s capabilities, we can continue to build and strengthen those individual relationships."
OpenWeb CFO Haim Sasson added, "Users are bombarded with messages directed at them online every day, and publishers need a way to break through that noise and deliver curated content. This unified company will be the definitive partner for publishers and advertisers to move away from the walled gardens of social media and establish more thoughtful, more secure connections with audiences."
"OpenWeb and Jeeng are the perfect fit as we share the same vision," said Jeff Kupietzky, CEO of Jeeng. "OpenWeb is leading the industry in cultivating innovative, safe, and Web3-ready decentralized social experiences. Jeeng has excelled at providing personalized, automated communications with built-in monetization. Together, we’re forming a hyper-targeted and first-party data-rich 360 degree experience."
This is OpenWeb's third acquisition over the past year. In January 2022, the Israeli company purchased Hive Media for $60 million, to enhance its ability to build new, innovative products to empower publishers’ relationships with their audiences. In April 2022, it acquired ADYOULIKE, a global advertising platform, for $100 million. In October 2022, OpenWeb raised $150 million in Series F funding, at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 29, 2023.
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