YouTube founders buy social media tracker

May 9, 2011

Co-founders of YouTube Steve Chen (L) and Chad Hurley (R), shown here at the 2007 Webby Awards, have bought Tap11.com, a startup that specializes in tracking what campaigns at Twitter or Facebook are doing for companies' bottom lines. The two did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

The founders of YouTube on Monday announced they bought a startup that specializes in tracking what campaigns at Twitter or Facebook are doing for companies' bottom lines.

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen did not disclose financial terms of the deal to purchase Tap11.com, which came on the heels of the pair buying popular social bookmarking website Delicious from Yahoo! for an undisclosed sum.

Hurley and Chen, who sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, said they planned to integrate Tap11 and Delicious with their new San Mateo, California-based Internet company AVOS.

"Our vision is to create the world's best platform for users to save, share, and discover new content," Hurley said in a release.

"With the acquisition of Tap11, we will be able to provide consumer and enterprise users with powerful tools to publish and analyze their links' impact in real-time."

Tap11 bills itself as a real-time platform for companies to monitor and measure how well their media campaigns are playing out at microblogging service Twitter and online social networking community Facebook.

"We plan to leverage our Volume algorithm to fully measure the impact of content consumed and shared across the social ecosystem," said Tap11 chief technology officer Braxton Woodham.

"In combination with Delicious.com, we will be able to provide consumers and publishers with deep, relevant insights and recommendations."

Financial details of the Tap11 acquisition were not disclosed.