Twitter has confirmed it has acquired social media client TweetDeck and that it will invest in “the TweetDeck that users know and love.”
Reports emerged yesterday that Twitter bought Tweetdeck for US$40m, though Twitter did not disclose a figure.
In its blog, Twitter praised TweetDeck for creating a third-party client aimed at “Twitter power-users” and the social media giant implied it they will not change TweetDeck majorly from what has made it so popular.
“This acquisition is an important step forward for us. TweetDeck provides brands, publishers, marketers and others with a powerful platform to track all the real-time conversations they care about. In order to support this important constituency, we will continue to invest in the TweetDeck that users know and love,” said Twitter.
Iain Dodsworth, founder of Tweetdeck, said that TweetDeck was acquired by Twitter because it targeted its most active and influential userbase.
“The mainstream Twitter user-base is well catered for by twitter.com and the official mobile clients. And by becoming part of the official platform, TweetDeck will now fill that role for brands, influencers, the highly active and anyone that just needs ‘more power’.”
Dodsworth said that while “change may well be inevitable,” the people behind the service will “remain the same team, staying in London, with the same focus and products, and now with the support and resources to allow us to grow and take on even bigger challenges.”
TweetDeck has been downloaded 20m times since its creation three years ago. Its column-based interface is designed for customisation and management of different feeds. While it is primarily used for Twitter, it also supports other social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
