Singtel acquires leading personalised social photo aggregation service Pixable
Singapore 20 September 2012 – Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Pixable Inc. for US$26.5 million. The company is known for its smartphone app that prioritises photos on social networks for consumers.
Pixable provides social web users with a personalised photo experience, using next generation predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to analyse users' interactions and consumption habits to prioritise photos from close friends and family. Users are presented with the most interesting photos through feeds such as "Top of the Day" and "New Profile Pics". This has led to Pixable winning multiple awards and significant recognition.
More than 4 million users have installed Pixable's "mobile photo inbox" service via the web, iOS devices and Android devices. Due to its highly engaging user interface, the Pixable service is seeing rapid growth in daily downloads.
Founded in 2009, Pixable has firmly established itself in the market in a short time, with its talented and creative team, market insights and expertise in building outstanding algorithmic modeling in mobile, media and big data. Singtel is pleased to welcome them into the Singtel Group.
The increasing penetration of smart devices and rise of social networks have led to an explosive growth of web photos, with the average person now having access to hundreds of thousands of photos in their network. For many, it is an ongoing struggle to keep up so they do not miss the important photos and moments in the lives of their family and friends.
Mr Allen Lew, CEO Group Digital L!fe, Singtel said: "One of the goals of Singtel Group Digital L!fe team is to develop next generation mobile services that make life easier for our mobile customers.
"We have developed two significant points of view based on customer insights. Firstly, people are increasingly using photos to share experiences with their friends and relatives. Secondly, our customers want assistance from service providers to prioritise and organise the multiple contacts and content that happen daily in their lives.
"Pixable's expertise and customer engagement give us a foundation to go beyond viewing photos to using photos as a way to stimulate simple immersive communication. We will be able to provide a distinctive value-added service to all mobile customers, allowing them to discover and store content, images and their communication history – essentially what matters most from those that are really important to them."
Singtel plans to introduce compelling and differentiated digital services to its 462 million mobile customers in Asia and Africa. In Singapore and Australia, customers can already store and share photos safely using Singtel's cloud services. With Pixable and other rich technology platforms acquired through recent investments, Singtel will be able to further enrich the content and connections for customers in today's digital world.
Mr Inaki Berenguer, CEO of Pixable said: "Communications in the 21st century go beyond text and voice, and more and more, people are sharing mobile photos to communicate: what I ate last night, which concert I went to, who was with me at a party. The worlds of social and photo are converging and that's why we developed our social photo discovery solution. The size and global reach of the Singtel Group will allow us to expand and bring our solution to more people especially in emerging markets."
The transaction is subject to certain conditions precedent, including the receipt of applicable third party contractual consents.