Few people would place data management on par with the Paris to Dakar rally when it comes to thrills and adventure. But, to retired data-scientist turned rally driver, Roland Rijpma the mountains of data created by the explosive growth of the social media were becoming just as exciting as the arid dunes of north Africa.
It was a research thesis by university student Thomas Slabbers that tipped the balance in the favor of data, and set the stage for Roland’s “un-retirement”.
The paper: You are who you follow — A deeper analysis of how people act on Twitter crystalized Roland’s thoughts on the unprecedented opportunity presented by the rapidly growing amounts of publicly available data generated by the social media.
In July 2013, Roland, Thomas, and data engineer Peter Versteegen joined forces to found Socialdatabase. Beginning with publicly accessible Twitter data, it was not long before their data-complexity approach to analytics proved to be uniquely successful at generating fact-backed insights, and defining behaviorally predictive audiences.
Soon Socialdatabase’s servers were running 24/7, devouring, re-categorizing, and analyzing massive amounts of data. By 2015 this unprecedented appetite for data had not go unnoticed by Twitter who asked for an explanation.
At a meeting in Twitter’s San Francisco HQ Thomas explained how socialdatabase had downloaded, completely restructured, and analyzed the Twitter database. Twitter was surprised by the size, and effectiveness of this data restructuring. They immediately recognized that Socialdatabase had such a clear understanding of the Twitter database. Twitter were more than impressed. Rather than objecting to this as an overstep, the result of the meeting was an invitation to become Twitters first official API partner. This opened doors to even more of Twitters database, and with that, even deeper understanding.
Since 2013 Socialdatabase has grown from a single server to a database of over 23 trillion structured data points. Today we are a Twitter Marketing Partner with offices in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Dubai, and Tokyo. We deliver tailored audiences and insights to clients including Twitter, Google, Nike, Heineken, Philips, Nutricia, Samsung, and Slack.
Thomas Slabbers continues to run daily operations from Amsterdam, while Roland Rijpma focuses on improving, and enlarging our database, and keeping his entrepreneurial eyes open for the next exciting opportunity.
Thomas Slabbers
Founder & CEO
@Thomasslabbers
Roland Rijpma
Founder & R&D
@socialdatabase
Peter Versteegen
Founder & CTO
@VersteegenPeter
Duco Janssen
COO
@ducoluno
Joran Cornelisse
Director of Technology
@CornelisseJoran
Ingrid Doesburg
Director of Operations
@IngridvWijk
Nina Wehneman
Marketing Manager
@NWHNMN
Peter van Kampen
Infra & Ops
@socialdatabase
Micha de Haan
Business Development EMEA
@micha_haan
Pim Bergsma
Business Development EMEA
@pimbergsma
Judith Mennens
HR & Finance
@JudithMennens
Henry Zweers
Audience Creator
@mxenrsportspics
Maureen Burton
Business Development EMEA
@mauburton
Chiel Heldoorn
Infra & Ops
@buffel4000
Fares El Masri
Business Development MENA
@FaresElMasri
Gerben Wolters
Tech Support
@GerbenWolters
Xam Mouthaan
Personal Development
@xandermouthaan
Doeke de Wolf
Frontend Developer
@socialdatabase
Carolinde Freundenberg
HR & Finance
@socialdatabase
Luisa Zimmermann
Paid Social Manager
@LuisaZi01493069
Thomas Dekker
Audience Creator
@ThomasDkkr
Claire Amson
Audience Creator
@Claire_Amson
Yuri Ueda
Business Development Japan & APAC
@YuriUeda7
Taco Remkes
Personal Development
@TacoRemkes
Boet Rijnders
Audience Creator
@socialdatabase
Matheus Faria Da Silva
Paid Social Manager
@matheussfaaria
Reshma Remesh
Business Development India
@resh_remesh
Jelger Algra
Audience Creator
@JelgerAlgra
Patrick van Rietschoten
Software Developer
@socialdatabase
Lucas Prieto
Data Scientist
@lucasprietoal
Kevin de Jong
Audience Creator
@kdejong00
Anca Axinoiu
Design
@axianca
Jaïr Klaver
Paid Social Manager
@KlaverJair
Kalyani
Backend Developer
@Kalyani71942551
Sara Cabrerizo Muñoz
Paid Social Manager
@sarisiri_