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    German Media Giant Burda Puts $5.6M In Twitter Application Developer UberMedia

    Leena Rao

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    Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

    Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
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    Bill Gross’ UberMedia has announced a $5.6 million investment from German media giant Burda Digital through its investment arm, DLD Ventures. This brings UberMedia’s total funding to $26.6 million.

    UberMedia actually just raised a healthy $17.5 million earlier this year, so Burda’s cash is also a strategic investment. The company has made investments in Xing, Etsy, Glam and other well-known technology companies. UberMedia says the investment will be used to further the growth of UberMedia’s user base both in the U.S. and internationally.

    Bill Gross’ strategy to monetize Twitter has led UberMedia to become the largest owner of Twitter clients besides Twitter itself. The company bought a number of clients over the past year, including Echofon, UberTwitter and others. Unfortunately, UberMedia was trying to buy popular Twitter client TweetDeck, but Twitter snatched up TweetDeck to keep it out of Gross’s hands. UberMedia’s says its user base has grown to more than 5,000,000 users in just over a year. Users of the company’s Twitter apps currently Tweet more than 200 times per second, representing approximately 13% of all traffic on the Twitter platform.

    Besides over the TweetDeck deal, Twitter and UberMedia have also been at odds over another issue Twitter temporarily shut UberMedia’s Twitter apps down after claiming that UberMedia was violating its Terms of Service — a move that Gross said took UberMedia by surprise.

    TweetDeck and Terms of Service aside, UberMedia clearly has a plan. The company has partnered with a variety of celebs, including Ashton Kutcher and 50 Cent, to offer customer Twitter apps and skins. Gross says that we can expect similar partnerships with celebrities in the future.

    Crunchbase

    Company: UberMedia
    Website: ubermedia.com
    Launch Date: March 2010
    Funding: $26.6M

    UberMedia (formerly postup) is the leading independent developer of applications and web-based services that make it easier for users to find, follow and communicate with others on Twitter and other social media platforms. The company is focused on driving innovation in user experiences across a range of online and mobile platforms. UberMedia also provides advertisers and brands with new ways to engage and communicate with consumers via Twitter through its family of apps. Located in Pasadena, California, UberMedia is...

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