E-commerce and online payments firm eBayhas
announced it will acquire online recommendation technology firm Hunch for an undisclosed
amount.
Hunch’s online platform was launched in 2009 to make product recommendations using information
from social networking sites and questionnaires to build a ‘taste graph’ of users. eBay said
Hunch’s expertise in data mining and predictive modelling will help the company expand its online
shopping experience.
Mark Carges, CTO of global products and marketplaces at eBay, said: “We are engaging consumers in
innovative ways and attracting top technologists to shape the future of commerce.”
Carges said Hunch will move beyond traditional online retail approaches and item-to-item
recommendations, using customers’ online tastes and interests to suggest meaningful items to buy on
eBay.
“With Hunch, we’re adding new capabilities to personalise the shopping experience on eBay to the
individual relevant tastes and interests of our customers,” he said.
eBay plans to apply Hunch’s technology to its search, advertising and marketing businesses.
Reuters
suggested eBay is positioning itself to better compete with Amazon, which uses an inventory of
products to recommend to customers. In comparison, eBay’s wealth of unstructured data has made it
more difficult to offer a similar service to customers.
eBay increased
its third quarter profits and sales year-on-year after continued growth
in its PayPal business and mobile commerce channels.
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