Snap Sells Its User Location Data Company ‘Placed’ To Competitor Foursquare

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, has sold user location data company Placed to one of Placed’s chief competitors: Foursquare.

Snap acquired Placed for $132.5 million cash in 2017, and wrapped its technology into Snapchat. Placed’s tech tracks users’ physical locations after they’re exposed to digital ads to see how many people visit brick-and-mortar stores and purchase items they saw advertised online.

Previously, Placed was a direct competitor to Foursquare, which was a pioneer in the user location space with its flagship feature that enabled people to “check in” to places like restaurants and stores. In recent years, Foursquare has primarily functioned as a data miner, selling information about where users are to advertisers.

Foursquare apparently approached Snap about arranging a deal to acquire Placed. The duo “quickly recognized how the combination of analytics would enhance Placed’s ability to fulfill its mission as a kind of Google Analytics of the offline world,” Jeff Glueck, Foursquare’s CEO, said in a statement to Variety.

Snap and Foursquare didn’t announce financial details of the deal. But, Foursquare did reveal today that it recently raised $150 million in venture funding, and that that money was specifically earmarked for the Placed acquisition.

As a result of the deal, Placed will be rebranded as ‘Placed powered by Foursquare.’ It’ll have about 350 employees, 40% of whom work in engineering and data science positions. David Shim, Placed’s founder and CEO, will become Placed powered by Snap’s president. Under Foursquare, Placed will work with more than 450 media partners, including Twitter, Pandora, and of course Snap itself. More than 1,000 advertisers currently use Placed’s data, Variety reports.

Jeremi Gorman, Snap’s chief business officer, added that Snap, Foursquare, and Placed will continue to work together “in many capacities.”