Theneeds

Theneeds
Private
Industry Internet
Consumer internet
Computer software
Genre Content discovery
Personalized discovery
Founded 2013
Headquarters San Francisco, California, US
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Gabriele Pansa
Emanuele Cesena, Phd
Luca Albertalli
Products Web
Mobile web
iPhone app
Website www.theneeds.com

Launched in 2013, Theneeds is an online and mobile content discovery platform that helps its users discover articles, news, videos, social posts, and other media tailored to their specific interests.

Based in San Francisco, California, the company was founded by former Accenture executives Gabriele Pansa and Luca Albertalli, together with former CS researcher and PhD Emanuele Cesena.

In early 2016, Shopkick, the most used real-world shopping app according to Nielsen, acquired the technology and team of Theneeds to support the company personalization efforts as it continues to re-imagine the shopping experience for consumers, retailers and brands.[1]

Service

Theneeds is designed to help users discover Internet content matching their interests. Theneeds collects information from thousands of sources including news sites, blogs, and social networks, and uses an algorithm to match content to users' interests more closely the more they use it. Keith Liles, Editor at KillerStartups wrote, "[Theneeds is] like having a fancy Internet remote control that leaves out all the boring channels."[2]

History

The company was incorporated in the US in 2013 as Theneeds, Inc. Gabriele Pansa, co-founder and CEO, said: “Everything started trying to keep up the topics I’m interested in. I jumped through different websites and just wasted a lot of time. The online experience is fragmented and noisy, so we thought wouldn't it be great to see just the web that matters to us? There were a bunch of solutions out there, but they were technical and boring. We wanted to build something for the average consumer. For everyone who doesn't care about the technology behind it but just wants things that work."[3]

Theneeds’ website launched in Beta late 2013[4] and the company later released also its first mobile application for iPhone in March 2014.[5][6][7][8][9]

In September 2014 the company surpassed 10 million pieces of content delivered by its proprietary discovery engine[10] and in October 2014 announced the release of a major improvement of its content recommendation technology.[11]

Early 2016, Shopkick acquired the technology and team of Theneeds to support the company personalization efforts as it continues to re-imagine the shopping experience for consumers, retailers and brands. “With the addition of Theneeds, we are taking the next step in delivering the most valuable and contextually relevant content to our users, while offering marketers personalized, end-to-end solutions that dramatically differ from what any programmatic offering can support,” said Rask. [12]

Technology

Theneeds’ proprietary technology is built using a mix of artificial intelligence and social signals. Theneeds creates specific thematic channels by collecting and analyzing web content, and employing Theneeds’ content relational graph along with proprietary and public social signals in order to rank and distill content. Through real-time user behavior analysis, Theneeds constantly maps the interests of each user to deliver personalized experiences and simplify content discovery.

In an article published on Inc. Magazine about the future of content discovery, Theneeds is mentioned as an example of innovative companies that are using artificial intelligence to know what users want ahead of time and bring it to them without any effort on their part.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Shopkick Grows Product Portfolio with Mobile Video and Pushes into Greater Shopper Personalization" (PDF). Shopkick.
  2. ↑ Liles, Keith. "Your Web, Your Way – Theneeds Personalized Web Platform". Killer Startups.
  3. ↑ "THENEEDS – JUST THE WEB THAT MATTERS TO US!". Rocket Companies.
  4. ↑ Liles, Keith. "Your Web, Your Way – Theneeds Personalized Web Platform". Killer Startups.
  5. ↑ Perez, Sarah. "Theneeds Brings Its Personalized News Reader To iPhone". TechCrunch.
  6. ↑ Guess, Angela. "Theneeds Personalized News App Now on iPhone". SemanticWeb.
  7. ↑ Lucas, Matthew. "Theneeds Personalized News App Now Available On iPhone". Gizmorati.
  8. ↑ Kokalitcheva, Kia. "Theneeds is more than 'yet another personalized news feed'". VentureBeat.
  9. ↑ "San Francisco's Theneeds offers the answer for information overload". Uncubed.
  10. ↑ "Theneeds Takes Over Content Discovery Market With More Than 10M Delivered Articles". Yahoo! Finance.
  11. ↑ "Theneeds Improves Its Content Recommendation Technology With a Major Release". MarketWatch.
  12. ↑ "Shopkick Grows Product Portfolio with Mobile Video and Pushes into Greater Shopper Personalization" (PDF). Shopkick.
  13. ↑ Boitnott, John. "A.I. Is Helping the Internet Know What You Want Before You Want". Inc. Magazine.
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