Snapchat's quest to become something bigger than just a photo messaging app is in full swing as the app now wishes to become the go to place for any kind of mobile search that one can think of. However, instead of developing their own mobile search app, the company have decided to buyout mobile search start up Vurb for a fee of $110 million, according to latest reports in the tech press.
According to a report in the publication TechCrunch, "Snapchat could help you organize a night out with friends or get a digest of the day's news thanks to its acquisition of mobile search startup Vurb. TechCrunch caught wind of the impending deal over the weekend and now The Informationreports Snapchat is in the closing stages of talks to pay $110 million for Vurb (75 percent stock, 25 percent cash). Snapchat is also said to offer $75 million in retention bonuses to keep Vurb founder and CEO Bobby Lo around. Unfortunately, rewiring people's behavior patterns around search proved too difficult, even if Google wasn't built for mobile. Vurb struggled for mass traction, and now it's selling. Snapchat tells me it's not commenting on the news. Lo said he was bound by legal restrictions, so he couldn't talk about it - which points to a deal."
The report went on to explain how Vurb could help Snapchat find a foothold in the mobile search niche,"Vurb won TechCrunch's Disrupt NY 2014 Startup Battlefield competition with its take on mobile search focused around browsing rather than endless results pages. Vurb could help you check out movies, find a theater to watch one and restaurants nearby where you might want to eat. Then you could bundle these options and share them with friends. Vurb made mobile decision-making collaborative. Traditional search engines didn't understand how those things would connect. Vurb's card-based interface pulls in information from partners like Yelp and Rotten Tomatoes, and can deep-link you out to Uber and Google Maps. It later aimed to become a monolithic WeChat-style app that built utilities from third-parties onto its new instant messaging feature to help you arrange plans. And just last week it added more personalized recommendations."
