Visa has struck an agreement to acquire American transactional advertising outfit TrialPay. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Launched in 2006, Mountain View-based TrialPay offers a platform that lets consumers get goods online for 'free' if they agree to buy, trial or just sit through an advert for another product. The firm says that more than 500 million users and 10,000 merchants in 180 countries have used TrialPay, generating hundreds of millions of new transactions.
Having participated in a $40 million funding round for the company in 2012, Visa is now buying it outright in a move the card giant says will help its merchant customers improve their cardholder insight data and send out highly customised, real-time offers.
Ramon Martin, SVP, merchant sales and solutions, Visa, says: "TrialPay will strengthen our loyalty and offers platform, which we expect to become a strategic and competitive differentiator that can help merchants build customer loyalty and increase sales in both the digital and physical retail environments."