Google acquires app performance platform Appurify

Appurify helps developers optimize the performance of the apps through automated testing

There is a lot of pressure on mobile apps to perform well right out of the gate. Numerous studies have shown that people have little to no patience for a poorly executed app. That has lead to the rise of performance testing platforms, which help ensure that apps will meet standards right away.

Google has now purchased one such company, performance optimization platform Appurify, it was revealed at the I/O conference on Wednesday. No financial terms of the deal have been disclosed, but the Appurify team will be joining the Google team in Mountain View, where they will be working to incorporate their tools for mobile developers into Google’s developer platform.

Appurify's platform provides automated testing, debugging and helps to optimize the performance of their applications. It is easy to see what use Google will have for a service like that going forward.

"We know first-hand the pain of manual mobile app testing. Since we founded Appurify in 2012, we’ve been committed to helping mobile teams build better apps, launch faster and improve their app store reviews," Appurify CEO and co-founder Jay Srinivasan wrote in a blog post. "We’re excited to join Google, a company that shares our passion for streamlining app testing and supporting developers around the world."

According to Appurify, its tools for mobile developers, on both iOs and Android. will continue to be available "for the time being." But, ultimately, it sounds like the company will be absorbed into Google

"Longer term, we look forward to working closely with our new colleagues to incorporate our tools into Google’s developer platform," Srinivasan said. 

Founded in 2012, raised $6.3 million including $4.5 million in Series A funding led by Google Ventures in May of last year. 

Mobile acquisitions

It's widely known that mobile has become increasingly important to many of the Internet giants in the last couple of year.

Google, for example, has made 10 acquisitions last year, and has already made 19 acquisitions this year. And a good number of those 29 companies were mobile acquisitions, to either enhance Android of Google Glass

Last year, that included voice and image search company DNNresearch, gesture recognition companyFlutter, and social and behavioral sensing company Behavio. 

Even Bump, which allows for the transferring of files by physically bumping two phones together, could potentially be something that eventually becomes part of Glass.

Then there was mobile traffic app Waze. 

This year, its mobile acquisitions have included Bitspin, the Zurich-based maker of the Timely clock app; Android game developer Green Throttle Games; Quest Visual, the company behind translation service Word Lens; mobile device manager Divide; and now Appurify.

Facebook, on the other hand, has only made 13 acquisitions in the past two years.  That includes mobile software startup Osmeta; Parse, a cloud-based platform that provides scalable cross-platform services and tools for developers; speech translation app Jibbigo; mobile data optimization company Onavo;  Little Eye Labs, which provides performance analysis and monitoring tools for Android developers; mobile messaging service WhatsApp; and exercise app Moves.

But the company that has probably made the most mobile acquisitions is Yahoo.

After buying up a ridiculous 27 startups in 2013, Yahoo has made another 10 acquisitions so far in 2014. And of those 37, a good number had to do with mobile.

Last year saw the additions of social news start-up Snip.it;, location discovery app Alike; news summarizer Summly; productivity app Astrid; social media web browser startup Rockmelt; and email and address book management app Xobni. 

This year has seen it purchase Aviate, a replacement Android home screen launcher; mobile marketing startup Sparq; enterprise app studio Tomfoolery; Incredible Labs, the company behind mobile personal assistant app Donna; Wander, the company behind blogging app Days; and Snapchat competitor Blink.

(Image source: appurify.com)