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Downdetector and Speedtest sold to Accenture for $1.2B

https://www.theverge.com/tech/889234/downdetector-ookla-speedtest-sold-accenture
51•Garbage•1h ago

Comments

coreyh14444•53m ago
Why tho?
folkrav•25m ago
It's almost always user data these days, so probably that.
ranger_danger•21m ago
Maybe the owners were ready to cash out and move on with life?
IshKebab•46m ago
That seems like a lot for name recognition. I bet you could rebuild their technology for like $20m at the most, and buy 100% market share for like $100m easy. Unless they have some other assets other than the obvious?
pyvpx•42m ago
It takes more than money to supplant the name brand that every ISP games and every front line support worker uses by name
cyanydeez•41m ago
selling peoples ip addres for some reason along with whatever privacy invasion tech they have.
jedberg•37m ago
Fast.com has existed for 15 years yet isn't nearly as popular. It's easy to build a new speed test, but much harder to get people to use it.

Downdetector wins because of SEO. Most people don't get there directly, they google for "is $x down" and then get sent to downdecetor. Which from my understanding works by simply showing you how many people came to their site with those search terms. They don't actually check the sites.

wartywhoa23•36m ago
Isn't Speedtest's huge dataset of Internet speeds mapped to time, location and IP address, as well as data on VPN usage (a user checks the speed of his/her direct connection then turns VPN on and checks over that too, all within the same session) such an asset?

I doubt they didn't collect all of that.

P.S. Now marry that huge dataset with services that Accenture provides, among others:

"In February 2025, Vice News spoke to a former Accenture employee under the condition of anonymity. His project on the WhatsApp team for Meta required him to sift through images and decide whether or not they depicted child sexual abuse, which he coped with "through a lot of substance abuse". The former employee claimed to have witnessed multiple missed opportunities to protect children, and alleged that one colleague had previously been arrested for possessing child abuse materials. In a statement, Accenture said they are "committed to helping companies keep their platforms safe through services such as content, advertising, and compliance reviews."¹

¹: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accenture

progforlyfe•39m ago
that's nuts, unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem like those products are that mind blowingly complex... wow. Makes we want to try building my own for the hell of it.

Downdetector in fact just seems to be a website catalog with essentially a guestbook and hit counter...

kingleopold•36m ago
dont miss it, its almost all about users and revenue not how complex or simple product is.
fontain•33m ago
Ookla has huge amounts of data, speedtest’s software is integrated into networks and used by hundreds of millions of users, they have the most comprehensive information about internet connections. You can recreate the software but you can’t recreate the data without decades of integration into what seems like every network.

https://www.ookla.com/ You can see an overview of the data they collect and sell on the corporate website

rozenmd•12m ago
the best part is Downdetector is inaccurate as hell - if AWS is genuinely down, folks get curious and search other providers, causing Downdetector to mark them as down too
jpalomaki•30m ago
"By integrating Ookla’s data products, including Speedtest®, Downdetector®, Ekahau®, and RootMetrics®, Accenture will help Communications Service Providers (CSPs), hyperscalers, and enterprises optimize the mission-critical Wi-Fi and 5G networks that power their digital core. [...] Ookla’s data platform is anchored by more than 250 million consumer-initiated tests per month, complemented by controlled drive, walk, and embedded testing options"[1]

[1] https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2026/accenture-to-acquir...

MaciejR•28m ago
And now every SLA that Accenture is held to for uptime suddenly will never be breached…
yokoprime•17m ago
may i suggest nettfart.no by the norwegian government as an alternative ? at least the name is fun
joshuat•13m ago
fast.com is my go-to in the rare case I need to check network speed these days

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