AddThis
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Social bookmarking, web analytics |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Founder | Hooman Radfar, Austin Fath, Dominique Vonarburg |
| Fate | Acquired by Oracle Corporation; service discontinued May 31, 2023 |
| Successor | Oracle Corporation |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Ramsey McGrory (former CEO), Richard Harris (former CEO), Hooman Radfar (co-founder and executive chairman) |
| Products | Social bookmarking widget, Clearspring Audience Platform, sharing and analytics tools |
| Parent | Oracle Corporation (from January 5, 2016) |
AddThis functioned as a complimentary social bookmarking tool implemented on websites through a web widget, allowing users to easily share or save content on platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Pinterest, and Twitter. The service gathered behavioral data from users even if they did not actively share content. At its height, AddThis attracted 1.9 billion unique visitors each month and was utilized by in excess of 15 million online publishers. The platform was managed by entities including AddThis, Inc., AddThis, LLC, and Clearspring Technologies, Inc. until it was acquired by Oracle Corporation on January 5, 2016. The service was fully discontinued on May 31, 2023.
History
Established in 2004 by Hooman Radfar, Austin Fath, and Dominique Vonarburg, AddThis, LLC quickly expanded its reach; by 2007, it had delivered over 100 million widgets to various websites. In 2008, Clearspring Technologies purchased AddThis with the intention of consolidating multiple content-sharing services under the AddThis brand. This unified platform reached an audience of 254 million unique users according to Comscore and grew to 600 million unique users by late 2009 following the integration of widget-sharing features.
In 2010, Clearspring introduced the Clearspring Audience Platform aimed at brand marketers for delivering interest-targeted display advertisements across more than 8 million websites, reaching over one billion unique visitors. The company further expanded by acquiring data analytics firm XGraph in 2011 and appointed Ramsey McGrory as CEO while co-founder Radfar transitioned to executive chairman.
On May 10, 2012, Clearspring rebranded itself as AddThis and launched enhanced sharing and analytics products including the Trending Content Box, Follow Tools, and Welcome Bar. That year also saw the addition of expanded support for Pinterest and Web Intents as well as the introduction of social login capabilities. In September 2013, CFO Richard Harris took over as CEO.
By March 2014, AddThis earned the top spot on comScore’s list of Top 30 Syndicated Ad Focus Entities. Prior to its acquisition by Oracle in January 2016 for close to $200 million, AddThis had secured around $73 million in investment funding.
Oracle announced on April 1, 2023 that all AddThis services would cease operations effective May 31, 2023.
Like button lawsuit
AddThis became involved in legal proceedings initiated by Rembrandt Social Media, which had also filed suit against Facebook regarding patents connected to the "Like" button". The technology was originally developed in Surfbook and held by the late Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer.
Canvas fingerprint tracking
In July 2014, ProPublica exposed that AddThis employed a tracking method known as canvas fingerprinting, which enables more durable user identification compared to standard cookie-based tracking techniques. This approach allowed AddThis to monitor user activity on websites such as WhiteHouse.gov and YouPorn.com. Following this disclosure, YouPorn removed the AddThis widget citing a lack of awareness regarding the privacy implications associated with the tracking technology.
AddThis provides an opt-out mechanism for its tracking features through its corporate website; however, users are required to submit personal details including their name, country of residence, and mailing address to utilize this option.