Twitter acquires GNIP and changes the social data game

Twitter is acquiring GNIP. This is important because it could have dramatic effects on your social media data access. Here’s why…

You might not have heard of GNIP, but if you’re in social media, you really ought to. Along with DataSift, it’s one of the leading providers of social data. GNIP works behind the scenes, aggregating the APIs of many of the top social networks, including Twitter and its main competitors, Facebook and Google, and provides access to other platforms, marketing agencies and anyone who’s willing to pay for their data pipe.

Twitter’s acquisition raises lots of questions:

Will Facebook and Google continue to allow GNIP to access their data?

Will GNIP continue to offer their data?

Will Twitter continue to allow DataSift and other GNIP competitors access to its data?

If you’re using one of the many social media monitoring or engagement tools that uses GNIP as its primary data source, you should be thinking about these questions. At the very least, ask your provider to what extent they rely on GNIP for Facebook and Google data. There are, of course, other data options and your monitoring tool provider will be exploring these, but don’t get caught out.

This is an interesting acquisition which, as Nathan Gilliatt has drawn out nicely, changes the social data landscape. Expect imminent fallout.