Google has finally confirmed its Kaggle acquisition. Rumors of the same first surfaced yesterday and now, they have been substantiated as well. Google announced the acquisition at its Google Cloud Next conference this morning in San Francisco.
The company has refrained from disclosing the terms of the deal however they could have been fairly impressive from Kaggle’s perspective considering that it is one of the few platforms of its sort out there. The platform professes to bring data science professionals together and also hosts hosts data science and machine learning competitions.
Kaggle currently has users in the hundreds of thousands — and considering the scarcity of professionals in the field, that is a huge number. That is probably one of the biggest factors Google took into account while making the purchase. Acquiring Kaggle has given the software company instant access to one of the largest communities of data scientists on the planet. Considering that competitors like Amazon are also working on technologies that need data scientists, Google will the first pick.
What’s more, Google will be able to get its name circulating within the data scientists community. I mean sure, everyone already knows about Google and I doubt there is a scientists too dedicated in his studies to have ever heard of the search engine giant, however, the company will now have an opportunity to directly interact with scientists and ingrain itself within the community.
Doing this will create a better brand name for Google amidst the community, while also allowing it to take its pick for any data jobs. Also, and I am only speculating here since the terms haven’t been disclosed, Google could use the results of all the contests Kaggle hosts to separate the best of the community and offer them positions. Again, this is pure speculation.
Meanwhile, the acquisition is sure to fuel Google’s AI efforts.
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