EBay has announced plans to acquire mobile location-based service Where. Why? To beef up the e-commerce giant's mobile and location tools as it angles to bring big brand and retailers into e-commerce.
EBay is looking to better connect retailers with customers through mobile and location-services, the company said in a statement. This builds on the company's announcement last month to acquire e-commerce technology company GSI for $2.4 billion to better serve big brands and retailers. Terms of the deal for Where were not disclosed.
Boston-based Where includes both a mobile app for discovering businesses in close proximity and a mobile network for hyper-local ads and deals from more than 120,000 retailers and brands. In addition to running those local ads within its own app, Where also syndicates ads to other apps.
Where was recently awarded a "geo-fence" patent for technology that can serve customers deals or promotions when they're within a certain radius of a retail location to drive instant traffic.
Where has 4 million active users and millions more in downloads. Its ad networks has 3 billion ad requests per month for local merchants and big brands such as McDonald's, the Gap and Dunkin' Donuts.
The firm will also synch well with eBay's PayPal, which has been a big revenue driver in recent years. To connect payment and Where deals, shoppers could pay for deals through a mobile payment system, eBay said in a statement.
