Twitter Acquires Ueno: Design Agency to Shape New Products

Twitter announced this morning that it is integrating the full-service creative agency Ueno into its organization to collaborate with Twitter’s existing design and research groups. This move, resembling an acqui-hire, involves Twitter acquiring an agency with which it already maintained a strong working relationship, having previously collaborated with Ueno on various design and product developments.

The agency was established in 2014 by Haraldur Thorleifsson in Reykjavik, Iceland. Currently, Ueno employs numerous individuals across its offices in Reykjavik, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.

Throughout its history, Ueno has completed projects for a diverse range of prominent brands and startups, including Google, Facebook, Reuters, Uber, ESPN, Sotheby’s, Walmart, Visa, The New York Times, Apple, and Slack. The agency also partnered with startups such as Zero, Checkout.com, Superhuman, Tagomi, Strava, Cruise, Credit Karma, and Boosted, among others. According to its website, Ueno also worked with Clubhouse, though this is a separate entity from the social audio platform competing with Twitter Spaces.

Notably, some of Ueno’s clients also had connections to Twitter: Medium, the publishing platform founded by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, and Jelly, a Q&A application created by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, which was later acquired by Pinterest.

Dantley Davis, Twitter’s Chief Design Officer, revealed the news of Ueno’s integration on Twitter, highlighting the agency’s “highly experienced and innovative team of designers, strategists, and producers.”

He further stated that the team will contribute to “accelerate the quality and execution of Twitter’s product experiences.”

The founder of Ueno also shared the announcement and playfully referenced Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey regarding the possibility of an edit button.

TechCrunch reports that Twitter has informed Ueno it will discontinue its agency services and fulfill its current commitments to other clients in the coming weeks.

The company also plans to meet with Ueno’s 50 global employees to assess their skills and career aspirations, with the intention of determining their suitability for roles within Twitter’s design and research departments. This suggests that Twitter may not offer positions to all 50 employees.

While Twitter has not disclosed specific projects for Ueno, it is understood that Ueno staff will be integrated into key teams within the design and research organizations to support product initiatives, including “conversational tools” and other forthcoming features. This indicates that Twitter Spaces, the company’s new audio-based conversation platform, is likely to benefit from this integration.

The company also indicated its continued interest in acquiring additional talent to expedite its work, suggesting that this may not be the last acqui-hire deal for Twitter.

This news follows Twitter’s recent acquisition of social podcasting app Breaker, announced earlier this week, also aimed at bolstering staffing for Twitter Spaces, its new audio-based networking project and competitor to Clubhouse.

The financial details of the deal were not revealed.