Invest in Finland

Google acquires social networking platform Jaiku

12/10/2007

According to an article published in the Taloussanomat on 9th October world-leading internet search engine company, Google, has acquired Jaiku, an activity stream and presence sharing service from Finland. Petri Kokko, Google’s Country Manager for Finland, says that the acquisition demonstrates Google's desire to invest in Finland and to operate locally there. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

The acquisition is being seen as one of a series of moves by Google to establish the same dominance over mobile services that it enjoys on the internet. Tony Hsieh, Product Manager at Google, says that the company was aware that, while technology has theoretically made staying in touch with people much easier, it is difficult to keep track of them when they are always on the move.  Jaiku is a pioneer in solving this problem. ’We plan to use the ideas and technology behind Jaiku to make compelling and useful products’, says Mr Hsieh.

Jaiku Oy was established in February 2006 by Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen, and the service was launched in July of that year. The idea of Jaiku is for users to inform each other of their movements and activities either on the internet or from mobile devices. This information is then passed on to friends, colleagues and acquaintances belonging to the same social network.  One of the most common questions asked when calling somebody on a mobile phone is ’where are you?’, but with Jaiku, the question becomes redundant, as Jaiku automatically keeps everyone in your network fully informed of your whereabouts in real time. The  main advantages that the service has over similar internet services like Facebook and MySpace is its accessibility from mobile phones, and the fact that the user’s information is automatically updated, whilst in Facebook, for example, such work must be done manually.

Further information:                                                                                        

http://www.jaiku.com/

http://jaiku.com/help/google