Google Acquires Channel Intelligence For $125M To Boost Product Referrals And E-Commerce With Users

Screen Shot 2013-02-06 at 13.56.31Google continues to enhance its business in e-commerce and providing a portal for users to search and find things to buy alongside ads for those products. Today it was announced that Google has bought Channel Intelligence, a provider of technology to companies to enable customers to buy their products online, for $125 million in an all-cash deal.

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Referly Gets More Social, Launches API: Now Any Site Can Have A Referral Program

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Some more developments for Referly, the Y-Combinator/500 Startups company co-founded by Twilio’s ex-head of marketing, Danielle Morrill. In what may be a hat-tip to the adept use of APIs at her former employer Twilio, today Referly is launching an API program that will let any online merchant create a referrals program powered by Referly’s pay-per-action marketplace. At the same time, the company is launching a service that will drive more traffic to its own retail operation: a new shopping directory for people to browse products being recommended by users of Referly’s referral program.

Referly describes the new API scheme as “customer acquisition as a service.” Free to use while the product is in beta, it is constructed loosely around a Google AdWords-style business model: businesses decide how much they are willing to pay to get a new customer (represented by a signup, or upgrade or whatever else is chosen). The businesses “fund their account with a pre-paid deposit,” the company says. Referly subsequently takes from that account with each reward that is paid out: users get cash rewards when they generate actions like sign-ups or sales.

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YC Alum Curebit Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

curebit-logo-200x200Y Combinator alum Curebit, an online customer referral platform that leverages social media for “word-of-mouth” advertising, has just raised $1.2 million in funding. The investors include 500 Startups, Karl Jacob, Auren Hoffman, Dharmesh Shah, Gordon Tucker, Alex Lloyd of Accelerator Ventures, and others.

The funding will be used for continued product development and a slight expansion to the team involving three new hires (two developers, one designer) to the company’s now five-person outfit.

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