Two of the best-known names in the social media industry are joining forces, with Hootsuite announcing that it’s acquiring social listening platform Talkwalker for an undisclosed sum.

The merger will give Hootsuite’s 200,000 users access advanced data analytics, enabling them to set up keyword alerts to monitor social mentions, beyond the current tools within the Hootsuite dashboard.

As explained by Hootsuite:

“[The acquisition] sparks a game-changing shift from social media management to a category evolution fueled by customer demand: Social media performance. Hootsuite exists to help customers unlock the value of their social media relationships. And by acquiring Talkwalker, Hootsuite takes this mission to the next level. By bringing together two complementary category leaders, businesses will, for the first time, have a social media performance engine to turn insights into action into impact - all fueled by AI.”

Yeah, they had to get the mention of AI in there, though the use of AI in this context is still developing, and may not add a heap to the social listening process.

The merger makes sense, especially in light of rising API costs, at X (formerly Twitter) in particular. Last March, X announced new, more expensive access tiers for its data access, which are designed primarily to limit AI providers from sucking up huge amounts of X post data on the cheap.

That effectively priced many smaller players out of the market, and has also forced the bigger providers to reassess their business models in order to maximize profit and performance.

As such, merging into a single access license makes sense, and will help both companies reduce costs, while also continuing to service their existing audience base.

It’ll also, as noted, provide new opportunities, and it’ll be interesting to see what types of additional functionalities are integrated into the Hootsuite dashboard as a result.

Essentially, you can expect to get access to more social listening options, and more tools that will help you find discussions of value across social apps.

And you can expect more mergers along similar lines, as data access becomes more restricted in the face of rising competition in the AI space.

Hootsuite says that the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024.