StumbleUpon has acquired video discovery company 5by. This is the first acquisition StumbleUpon has made in its decade of existence.
StumbleUpon’s Mike Mayzel tells us that 5by’s team of six people will move from Montreal to work in StumbleUpon’s San Francisco office.
“We’re really excited about bringing their talent, expertise and technology to the company,” he says.
To use 5by, users sign in with their Facebook accounts, then are greeted with a screen presenting them with video types:
From there, you can go into sub-categories, and eventually start going through random videos, much like you would with StumbleUpon. It’s easy to see where this acquisition would be a perfect fit. Still, Mayzel tells us that 5by will continue to build and operate a standalone product (mobile and desktop).
“In the future we will explore integration possibilities such as how 5by can leverage our recommendation technology and index and how we can enhance our own video recommendation experience with 5by,” he says.
When asked if StumbleUpon would use 5by to deliver videos to users regardless of whether the videos were submitted by users, he said, ” A majority of our videos in SU are user curated while a very small percentage are ingested.”
Last week, the company revealed some revenue numbers publicly for the first time, along with the news that it is now profitable. We had a conversation with CEO Mark Bartels about the company’s strategy and direction.
This includes increased efforts in video discovery, and plans for a bigger presence across devices like connected televisions and gaming consoles.
“We continue to invest in moving beyond desktop – and our mobile-first approach is focused on smartphones and tablets, but also interactive TVs and gaming consoles,” Bartels told WebProNews. “As we invest in these platforms our revenue continues to increase and this year our mobile share of revenue is 20%, and we expect that number to climb.”
StumbleUpon expects to grow revenue to $35 – 40 million this year.
As mentioned, 5by is the company’s first acquisition, but from the sound of it, we can probably expect more.
“We are in a position now as a profitable company to make more acquisitions in the future but nothing specific to announce at this time,” Mayzel says.
StumbleUpon would not share any specific plans regarding its TV/gaming console presence, but said “it’s on the roadmap.”
