La industria tecnológica está acostumbrada al talonario. Operaciones en las que un pez grande se zampa al chico. Una empresa con mucho músculo financiero que acaba comiéndose hasta dejar las raspas de cualquier 'startup' con el fin de apuntalar su liderazgo o entrar en un nuevo mercado con algo entre las manos. Pero hay veces, las menos, que ocurre justo lo contrario: el segundo se compra al primero. Esto es lo que le ha ocurrido a 21Buttons, una red social montada en Barcelona dedicada al mundo de la moda que ha llegado a estar en 30 países diferentes. Ahora ha sido adquirida por Peoople, otra compañía de bandera española que competía, aunque con matices, en el mismo mercado: el del 'social commerce'.

Take advantage of the power of social networks to recommend, teach and promote products.Thus you could summarize the objective of these two platforms that now converge in one.But with an important nuance: who comes from the message."The 'Social Commerce' is created because many of the buying decisions on the Internet are based on social networks information," explains David Pena, founder of Peoople."Everything with the addition that many times we are guided by someone of trusted as a friend or an 'influencer'."

The difference between the two is that 21buts was focused on a single activity (fashion) while Peoople opened to a larger fan of recommendations, being able to show from trips, books, electronics, toys or restaurants, among other things.The operation was similar.The 'influencers' created different galleries in their user profile or sections with the products they want to recommend and that can be accessed at all times.When one of those products is sold, the platforms receive a percentage per affiliation."That is the business model that we had both brands, which we are going to develop and that we are going to enhance, since we have a broader community"

"We were condemned to understand ourselves as who says," says Pena, in whose company Marc Soler and Jaime Farres, creators of 21buts will now be integrated."In the end we competed for the same business, which is created when social networks are mixed with online trade. They had done it more vertically and we in a more horizontal way, without limiting ourselves only to talking about clothes, onlyof restaurants or only books. "

Now one of the largest platforms in the sector is created that will have a total of 28 million users, 10,000 recommenders that have generated 16 million reviews.According to the data offered by the company, between both platforms 35 million "purchase intentions" were generated only last year.Although both had a presence in Spain, People was more present in Latin American markets, while 21Buttons had greater implementation in European countries and others in the environment such as Turkey.

An atypical operation

21buts is the reference company in the 'Social Commerce' guild in Spain.It was founded in 2015, two years before the rival of which it is already part.But there are other reasons, beyond the age of each of the protagonists, which attract attention to this operation.

Pena explained in some interviews at the end of 2020, which Peoople drove 7 million users.If that figure is taken as a reference, it is necessary to collect that 21buttons come.Although the figures have been able to vary at this start of the year and there may be nuances in the final proportion, but the majority of members of the new parish of the platform, therefore, the acquired company.

The balance is also inclined to the same side when it comes to investment rounds.Peoople raised a financing round in mid -2020. It was going to be launched in the final stretch of the year and the objective was to get 2.5 million euros."We decided to pause it when the opportunity arose to carry out the 21buttons operation. It made much more sense to do it afterwards, when the two companies were integrated after the purchase," he adds pain.The purchase figure has not transcended, for confidentiality matters.

21buts: History of lights and shadows

The Catalan 'startup', on the other hand, had managed to lift 8.5 million in a last round last summer.It was led by Kibo Ventures, Jme Venture Capital and Samaipata.This last fund had also contributed part of the 3 million they had managed to lift Soler and Farres in February.Therefore, only in 2020, they had achieved 11.5 million euros, which joined as many raised in the previous years.

Despite these figures, the 21buttons trajectory had not been exempt from problems.Despite the acceptance and initial pull of its platform, in 2019 it had to fire 57 employees in an ERE for results below expected, delaying expansion to markets such as Russian or Brazilian and focusing on Europe.The figure was practically half of a template that came to have 130 members.

In an attempt to monetize their audience, they created a subscription in which the influencers chose a series of products that were sent to users, for 48 euros per month.However, the project generated quite a few complaints from unsatisfied customers and the company had to recreate, apologize publicly and reintegrate the money from buyers.The situation was redirected and until the end of 2020 they remained away from the spotlights.At that time, an investigation carried out by the VPNmentor researchers claimed to have discovered a security failure that left the influencers data that worked with the company.

"They have burned a lot of money in marketing. Not only in advertising, but in campaigns to attract influencers tops and make noise around them, without barely returns," sources close to the investors of companies to this newspaper explain."There are people who from the beginning did not see that business model clear. Among other things, because of their 'engadgement' ratios were a tenth of Instagram," they say about 21Buttons.These same voices also point out that they were unrealistic when they talked about "purchase opportunities."

"If someone click on a 100 -euro mango coat that came out in a photo, they already talked about the fact that they had generated one hundred euros of purchase opportunity. They had generated a click and talk about one hundred euros of purchase opportunity was something oversized,"They add pointing out that "all that" had left them in a position in which they could be "acquired" without great efforts.

Although both companies share the affiliation model, these sources believe that Peoople is a more possible and realistic model, because it does not go to large brands, but "to proximity trade.""Paint better";They comment."It is more laborious from the point of view that you have to do more collection process with each place, restaurant or store, but it has more possibilities."