Twitter Acquires Niche To Connect Social Media Users With Advertisers In a move to possibly tap a revenue stream for Vine, Twitter buys social marketing startup Niche.

These days, ordinary people can become social media sensations with just a mobile phone, an Internet connection and the touch of a button, possibly even gaining a cult following on their platforms. After a lot of hard work and some viral luck, it's not unusual that digital influencers have sometimes become today's go-to talent of choice for advertisers. Twitter is thinking along the same lines too- for an undisclosed amount, the company has announced its acquisition of social media startup Niche in a blog post. Describing itself as a platform to find "all the world's creators in one place", Niche helps corporations and brands connect to internet celebs (or to be more precise, digital influencers) for their respective target audiences. The platform, dubbed a "talent scouting service and advertising agency" by The New York Times, has received US$3.1 million in two rounds from investors and boasts of more than 8000 social media influencers with over 100 brands and agencies in its database, plus analytics to see what content works and what doesn't (WSJ).

Although the reason behind the move wasn't announced, it's possible that it can now tap a revenue stream for Vine (another platform owned by Twitter). Case in point: New York Magazine featured Viner Nash Grier who made $4,166 a second with branded videos for Virgin mobile and MTV, a number as close to the $5,827 per second that Robert Downey Jr. got paid for his role on The Avengers.