GovDelivery, a provider of government-to-citizen communication solutions, acquired D.C.-based GovLoop, the social network for the government community. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Through the acquisition, GovLoop has become an operating division within GovDelivery and Steve Ressler, founder and president of GovLoop, will continue in his role leading the fast-growing social community.
This union brings together two leaders in government 2.0 at a time when digital communication, transparency, openness and collaboration in government are a top national priority and growing exponentially.
“GovLoop has been called the Facebook® for government, because it helps people across government collaborate and solve real problems every day,” said Scott Burns, CEO and co-founder of GovDelivery. “Steve Ressler has led GovLoop’s explosive growth and we are excited to have him continue leading GovLoop. With GovDelivery’s resources and expertise, GovLoop’s growth will continue to accelerate and help spur social media adoption in government.”
This acquisition strengthens GovDelivery’s role in assisting government’s use of digital channels and social media to improve communication to the public and collaboration between government agencies and employees. GovDelivery’s reach has grown exponentially in the past two years. Currently, between 10,000 and 100,000 new people signup to receive updates to government information each day via the GovDelivery platform. Topics range from updates on local parks and road closures to major national health issues such as the H1N1 outbreak. Many of the people signing up to receive information through GovDelivery are people who work in government and GovDelivery will work to encourage these people to collaborate with each other on GovLoop.
With more than 18,000 members, GovLoop has become the most powerful space for people working in and around government to collaborate, socialize and support each other in an effort to make government better.
GovDelivery’s digital communication platform is used by more than 300 government entities including more than half of U.S. federal agencies, local and state government entities across more than 30 states, and several major agencies in the U.K. Government clients use GovDelivery to send more than 140 million emails and wireless alerts each month to individuals who choose topics based on their interests.