Twitter buys Niche, a site that connects social media stars with brands, for around $30M

Twitter said today it has bought Niche, a startup that builds tools to help social media stars, and which connects those creatives with brands looking to advertise.

In a blog post, Twitter said, “As we continue to invest in the growing media ecosystem, it’s important to provide a wide variety of tools for content creators to distribute and ultimately manage all of their content.”

Thus, it has added Niche to the “flock,” Twitter’s nickname for its workforce and collection of product teams. Reached by VentureBeat, Twitter declined to disclose the terms of the deal. However, Recode wrote that their sources pegged the price at between $30 million and $60 million, while Business Insider said it was around $50 million. We’re hearing it’s closer to $30 million.

“Niche has been a key partner to both Twitter and Vine over the last year,” Twitter wrote. “The company has helped fuel the creator economy by developing leading technology, consisting of free, cross-platform analytics, as well as connecting the creative community directly with the world’s biggest brands.”

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In its own blog post, Niche wrote that it launched in 2013 and has worked with more than 6,000 content creators, and more than 100 brands and agencies.

“All across the world, comedic personalities, aesthetic photographers, visual artists, foodies and fashionistas have leveraged new mobile platforms,” Niche said in its post, “to build vast and direct fan bases. Individual creators have permeated the public consciousness. Audiences are enraptured; and suddenly, advertisers are, too.”

As with many of Twitter’s acquisitions, this is all about finding new and richer ways for people to create content on Twitter and Vine, and giving advertisers more opportunities for spreading their marketing messages. All of that, of course, means more potential revenue for Twitter.