eBay Buys Expertmaker's Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics Platform

Sweden-based Expertmaker, which specializes in providing intelligent solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and big data analytics, is being acquired by eBay according to a recent announcement. 

Expertmaker has been a partner of eBay’s since 2010, most recently helping with eBay’s structured data initiative. Upon the close of the deal, Expertmaker's employees will join eBay’s structured data product and technology team.

Expertmaker's technology, expertise and engineers will help advance eBay’s structured data initiative, which works to improve the eBay experience to help users receive the best product choice with the most relevance. With this initiative, which eBay calls structured data, the company is organizing its inventory in order to better aggregate insights into supply and demand. This structured data foundation will allow eBay to build better user experiences and improve discoverability.  

One component of eBay’s strategy to drive the most relevance is its shift to be more product-based.  With over 900 million listings on eBay, there are three key efforts that comprise eBay’s structured data initiative: collect the data; process and enrich the data; and create product experiences. Expert maker will contribute to data processing and enrichment, specifically with respect to product attribute normalization.