BeMyEye, the startup that lets companies crowdsource in-store data, acquires rival Task360

Image Credits:

In a move that represents further consolidation in the crowdsourced in-store data gathering space, London-headquartered BeMyEye has acquired U.K. rival Task360. Similar to BeMyEye, the company offers an app that pays users to collect data for its corporate clients, but with a greater emphasis on time-sensitive tasks.

Financial terms of the acquisition remain undisclosed, though I understand that it was a mixture of cash and stock, and that Task360’s founders are sticking around. The deal follows a similar buyout by BeMyEye of French competitor LocalEyes in May 2016.

Founded in 2011, BeMyEye offers a platform to enable companies and brands to crowdsource in-store data. This can include checking availability (i.e. stock levels) of a particular product, how prominently an item is displayed, or whether or not it is being marketed or sold in the way retailers and staff have been instructed.

Tasks are sent out to paid members of the public via the BeMyEye app, which could include taking a photo and ‘checking in’ using geolocation as proof that it has been carried out, with the results anonymised and passed on to BeMyEye’s clients. One way to think about the proposition is as a much more scalable version of employing ‘secret shoppers’.

Crucially, insights are designed to be “actionable,” so that the course of a campaign can be corrected before it is too late (see the video below on how Samsung employed BeMyEye). The data collected can also be used for business intelligence on how well competitors are executing.

BeMyEye says the acquisition of Task360 will make it the “de facto reference point in the U.K.,” which it says is arguably the most advanced market in Europe for data-driven field marketing.

The acquisition will also give BeMyEye access to an additional crowd of 10,000 active “Taskers,” bringing a combined total crowd of 520,000 on-demand workers across Europe. It also brings total number of customers to 460. These include large blue-chip brands such as Mattel, Nestlé, Samsung, Heineken, Reckitt Benkiser, Lavazza and Ferrero.

“Ultimately, we want to offer as many people as possible a new way to earn money and we want to improve the way they perceive work by making it fun, rewarding and on their terms. We are doing this by building Europe’s largest crowd of real world data gatherers, who earn money by completing gamified challenges set by businesses in their local area,” BeMyEye CEO Luca Pagano explained when the company acquired LocalEyes.

Latest Stories