Facebook acquires shopping search engine TheFind

HOUSTON: Social networking giant Facebook embraced e-commerce after it acquired shopping search engine TheFind, signalling its aspirations in two of the Internet’s biggest moneymakers: search and e-commerce.

Both Facebook and TheFind cast the acquisition as a way to lift the digital advertising business of Facebook, which with $12.6 billion in annual ad sales last year, is unquestionably a dominant player in the industry.

“Together, we believe we can make the Facebook ads’ experience even more relevant and better for consumers,” Facebook said in a statement about the deal. TheFind echoed those comments, saying its technology would be integrated into Facebook “to make the ads you see on Facebook every day better and more relevant to you.”

In its webpost, TheFind said many of its employees would be joining Facebook and work on improving the relevance of the social network’s advertising. TheFind added that its search engine will go offline “in the next few weeks.” Facebook has been testing a “buy” button since July 2014 that lets users purchase goods directly. Now, with TheFind, it would be able to add additional shopping tools to its service. Facebook did not reveal details of the acquisition, including how much it paid for the company.

TheFind was co-founded in 2006 by CEO Siva Kumar and CTO Shashikant Khandelwal, both native Indians. TheFind previously raised $26 million in three investment rounds, but had not received an influx of cash since 2007.