Local Tech Company Is Lone Provider Of "Visual Analytics" For Social Media
By Melony Roy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It used to be difficult to track what images were being posted to social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, but a Philly startup is helping brands use visual analytics to understand and engage customers.
Curalate helps companies use visual analytics to "identify trends, track visual conversations and engage consumers" through social media.
"People today love to communicate using pictures rather than words," says co-founder Apu Gupta, "and so Curalate built a social media marking platform that enables brands to communicate with their fans."
Gupta says Curalate is like a giant game of memory.
"We actually memorize every single pixel in every single image we see," he says, "and we determine which of those images belong to a brand and we report back to the brand these are the products that matter most to your consumers and here's how they want to see them."
Curalate works with over 400 brands and it's recent partnership with Tumblr makes it the only provider of visual analytics data for many of the major social media platforms.
But Gupta, who's a California native, calls Philadelphia his secret weapon.
"Philadelphia is an amazing town to build a startup," he says. "It's got great lifestyle, fantastic talent, low cost and you have the benefits of being close to New York with the advantages of being in Philadelphia"
Curalate plans to expand its footprint in Philadelphia and has just launched an Instagram scheduler.