Twitter acquires BackType for improved analytics

Twitter has acquired social media analytics startup BackType, according to a blog post published by BackType today. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the post.

BackType lets users aggregate and search comments across most blogging platforms and social sites. Its BackTweets product, which helps publishers understand the reach of their Tweets, is likely a big reason for Twitter’s interest in the company.

BackType will offer BackTweets to current users for free, but the company isn’t accepting any new registrations. Both the BackType product and its API services will be discontinued as the BackType team begins focusing on Twitter projects, according to the company.

“Joining Twitter gives us the opportunity to bring insight to tens of millions of publishers around the world that are using Twitter to communicate and connect with their audience,” Backtype stated in the blog post. “We’re also excited to bring our technology (especially Storm) to Twitter where it can have a big impact across the company.”

BackType is one of many companies acquired by the microblogging social network to help build an advertising platform. In June, Twitter bought advertising platform AdGrok and a month prior to that it purchased TweetDeck.

Founded in 2008, BackType’s client base consists of over 100 companies, including The New York Times, AOL, Microsoft, Bitly, HubSpot and SlideShare. The San Francisco-based company has raised a total of $1.32 million to date from investors that include Y Combinator, True Ventures, Freestyle Capital, K9 Ventures, Lowercase Capital and 500 Startups.