Does YouTube Shorts need a Bitmoji-like?
Google may be ailing in ad revenue right now and pushing harder on hardware, but it’s also seemingly not against spending nine digits to buy an AI-powered imaging company focused on making avatars. That’s reportedly what’s just happened, according to a source familiar with the matter.
That source tells TechCrunch the firm is called Alter and the cost was $100 million. Google did later confirm the acquisition, but did not disclose further details. The deal closed “about two months ago” and is supposedly meant to shore up the company’s efforts to compete with TikTok. Former Alter COO Jonathan Slimak announced in September on LinkedIn that he was starting at a new position at Google without directly acknowledging the acquisition.
Alter began life in 2020 as Facemoji, specializing as a plug-and-play avatar vendor for social and gaming platforms. Twitter was among several firms that provided $3 million in seed money.
In addition to face-mapped filters and avatars, Snapchat has dedicated full-body avatars called Bitmoji while Facebook and Instagram have their alternatives. Given that TikTok is being thumbed as a target, Google may be setting up its YouTube Shorts platform for avatars as well, though it’s not clear if Google is only interested in playing catch-up with such a move.
With Alter, Alphabet has made its eighth major acquisition of the year — we also reported on Google’s takeover of micro-LED producer Raxium back in February.
