Facebook will give gifts

On May 18, news about the long-awaited Facebook IPO almost completely replaced another, also very interesting event from the media space. Internet giant bought a small startup Karma. For the company, which has only 16 employees, and which began selling its smartphone application in February this year, Facebook, according to information from sources , posted 80 million. If the number is correct, then this is the second largest acquisition of the company after the shocking purchase of Instagram for 1 billion. Since the beginning of the year, this is the fifth company operating in the mobile market that Facebook acquired. In addition to Instagram, this list includes Glancee , lightbox and Tagtile . Why did Karma attract Facebook so much?

Karma- This is an application for iPhone and Android, which allows you to send gifts to friends without even knowing their physical address. Once you have selected and paid for the gift, you notify the recipient via SMS, mail or Facebook. He can indicate the address at which it is most convenient for him to receive a gift, choose a more suitable gift option or even refuse it by sending money to charity. In addition, the application reminds you of upcoming birthdays and gives recommendations based on the preferences and plans of the recipient. In fact, this is an online gift store that actively uses information from social networks to raise the quality of service to a new level.

Gift shops are a profitable business, this market is valued at tens of billions of dollars, and most of the sales are made in ordinary shops, and not through the Internet.

Karma will benefit significantly from tighter integration with a social network with nearly a billion users. And for Facebook, this is a new way of monetizing. The corporation has long been blamed for the fact that the bulk of its revenue comes from advertising, and its profit from each of 900 million customers is very small . This acquisition suggests that Facebook is diversifying its sources of profit by seriously deciding to do e-commerce.