Will Google’s acquisition of Fitbit unlock advanced Google Ads retargeting? Want to see a Gatorade ad right after your morning workout? Read on for all the details.
Google is buying Fitbit, the fifth biggest wearables player, for 2.1 bill. The wearables space must be very important to them! The acquisition will help them take on Apple, Samsung & Huawei in that area – rivals it also fiercely competes with on mobile handsets.
What it won’t do is quell issues around data use and privacy as many will wonder how their physical movements will be fed into the Google Ad machine.
For the time being, Google is saying it will not use Fitbit data for Google Ads e.g retargeting people based on whether they exercised that day.
Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President, Google Devices & Services said, “Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads. And we will give Fitbit users the choice to review, move, or delete their data”.
Overall, this acquisition will not only instantly make Google one of the leaders in the wearables market, but help Google build more innovative products by collecting more data from the physical world.
Rick Osterloh goes on to say, “We believe technology is at its best when it can fade into the background”.
Read the official Google press release here: https://www.blog.google/products/hardware/agreement-with-fitbit
