Twitter Inc (TWTR)

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Twitter Meeting With Data Partners Signals Plans for Gnip Future


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It's only been a few months since Twitter acquired data management firm Gnip. The addition of the company appears to have had a positive effect on Twitter's bottom line. However, as Twitter nestles more of its data under its own proprietary wing, the new owner does need to educate clients about what Gnip does, and assuage concerns some of its more sophisticated clients have about the future of their partnerships, and access to the data they're accustomed to getting.

Twitter held a meeting in July in New York City with clients that pay to ingest Twitter data, including its so-called data "firehose." Put simply, it's a giant stream of information reflecting how people use the platform and what they post about each day there. According to people who attended the event, a primary goal was to introduce Twitter's new data team, many of whom had already been working for Gnip. Twitter confirmed the event took place but declined to comment for this story.

"This was really about sort of introducing what [the Gnip acquisition] might mean," said Errol Apostolopoulos, senior VP-product at social analytics firm Crimson Hexagon, who attended the meeting. According to a non-disclosure agreement with Twitter, attendees were unable to share many details on the get-together.

"In general terms, Twitter is trying to let the ecosystem know what the partnership and now inclusion means," said Mr. Apostolopoulos.
Some smaller firms that are heavily reliant on Twitter data to conduct social media analysis for brand clients may have less sway than behemoths like WPP. "We came to the table with specific things we could use," said Nick Nyhan, CEO of WPP's Data Alliance and chief digital officer of its research arm Kantar. Mr. Nyhan didn't attend the meeting but another executive from Data Alliance was there, he said.

One concern is that Twitter eventually could allow access to its data solely through Gnip, rather than via other resellers that currently offer it such as DataSift. Data Alliance plans to "continue to use DataSift and expand on it," he said. "We're also going to tell Twitter what we want to see in the product pipeline and where those additional features are deployable."

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