Tag Tile: Another App in Facebook's Shopping Bag

A few days after the acquisition of Instagram, another San Francisco start up was acquired by Facebook. Last April 12, just 3 days after the announcement of Instagram being part of Facebook, Tag Tile announced on their site that the social networking giant has acquired substantial amount of their assets. According to their statement it would be a better opportunity for them to materialize their goal, which is to help businesses grow. However, up to date the two men behind Tag Tile, Abheek Anand and Zoham Mazumdar, both graduates of IIT, kept mum about the price that sealed the deal.

Coincidentally, Facebook launched its Facebook Offers the next day. They surely know what perfect timing is. But, the recent acquisition overshadowed the launch.

Just to give you an idea, Tag Tile helps businesses to build and foster customer loyalty. How? Merchant would need to have the Tag Tile Kit which contains the Tag Tile Cube. They need to plug in the cube into a power outlet, no need for an internet connection.

On the other hand, customers need to download the app which will enable them to earn tags every time they visit the store. All they have to do is to tap their phones on the cube and they'd be able to get loyalty points and offers. This works through Facebook or Twitter integration.

This would then help merchants to monitor the different type of customers they have and the frequency of their visits. Tag Tile could also help them to link purchase history with customer's identity, thus, merchants would be able to devise effective strategies to enhance customer relationship and later on, sales. What makes merchants happy about it is its cost effectiveness. As mentioned earlier, it doesn't need an internet connection or a dedicated staff.

This didn't make noise as loud as what happened with Instagram and I haven't heard or read any negative reactions yet. Probably because of the undisclosed price tag about the deal and because it would be crazy to cry for privacy issues when originally the business has already been geared towards marketing but then again, let's wait and see.