On a smaller scale, text-analysis platform Luminoso announced a $10 million Series B, bringing total funding just over $30 million. Luminoso specializes in analyzing customer conversations such as call center transcripts.
B2B data vendor Aberdeen has acquired intent data collector The Big Willow. Once best known for its survey-driven research reports, used primarily for lead generation, Aberdeen now positions itself as an intent data vendor. The acquisition expands the volume of intent signals that Aberdeen can marry with its contact lists.
Facebook, Google, and other “walled gardens” sell advertising based on their own data without sharing it. Amazon is joining the club, switching from a search-driven marketplace to one where brands must pay to be seen. Amazon ad specialist Quartile found the change is happening quickly: the share of Thanksgiving-weekend sales driven by ads grew 54% this year over 2017, reaching 25.1% of the total. Amazon is already the third largest digital ad publisher.
Salesforce kicked off its big Connections conference yesterday, and if you’re surprised the focus was on generative AI, you haven’t been paying attention. Still, the focus this time was on marketing applications that draw on Salesforce CDP data, so it’s right up our alley. They also announced direct access to Google BigQuery data, ticking the “zero-copy” box as well.