OREANDA-NEWS. June 20, 2017. Meltwater, a global leader in media intelligence, today announces the acquisition of Klarity, a social media analytics platform that delivers highly-localized content for the Asian market. Meltwater’s proprietary software allows businesses to harness data from online and social media, including WeChat and Weibo, helping them to better understand their brands and competitive landscape and providing them with reliable and actionable insights. By joining forces with Klarity, Meltwater will enhance its social media intelligence capabilities in Asia and deepen the services that have fueled the company’s growth in the region.

The acquisition will provide customers on both sides with a competitive edge, boosting Meltwater's growing "Outside Insight" platform through access to highly localized social intelligence and data sources in the Asian market. Klarity's customers will gain access to the wealth of additional data offered by Meltwater's core platform, together with the localized service from Meltwater’s professional team.

Meltwater was founded in 2001 by CEO Jorn Lyseggen who bootstrapped the company with $15,000. Today it counts more than 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies as clients. Meltwater has more than 1,500 employees worldwide with over 60 offices across six continents, including offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore.  

"Meltwater has been in the Hong Kong market for over 11 years, and we have been looking for opportunities to enhance our offering in Asia over the last 24 months. We believe Klarity is the strongest social media analytics company in Asia. We are impressed with their technical sophistication, localized content, and the entrepreneurial team that has proven they can build state of the art products," says Jorn Lyseggen, Meltwater’s Founder & CEO. "We are excited to welcome the Klarity team to Meltwater and continue to deepen our offering in the Asian market."

“Greater China has constantly been a region where we have seen rapid growth and massive potential. We are dedicated to providing our customers with a best-in-class service globally while meeting the needs of our customer's locally. Our partnership with Klarity allows Meltwater to take another step forward with access to key platforms such as WeChat and Weibo,” says John Box, Meltwater’s Executive Director in APAC.

Launched in 2013, Klarity enables marketers, researchers and analysts to access social monitoring and listening analytics to benchmark performance, identify market trends and gain in-depth insights into social behavior. The company's technologies provide data discovery from multiple social and online sources, particularly Chinese-specific platforms, transforming granular data into reliable social intelligence.  

"We see social intelligence redefining business strategies and success, which is completely in line with Meltwater's 'Outside Insight' philosophy," explains Christopher Wong, CEO and co-Founder of Klarity. "Our two companies have already been working together for a while, and it has been a great experience for us and value-added for customers. Joining the Meltwater family simply cements our ability to offer customers the most reliable and actionable insights through localized content and innovative media intelligence technology."

Klarity’s acquisition follows Meltwater’s purchase of Oxford University’s artificial intelligence spinout, Wrapidity, earlier this year. Meltwater is actively seeking investment opportunities and partnerships to continue expanding its media intelligence services globally.