ShareThis

Market position

ShareThis operates in the social sharing widget and behavioral data segment, competing with tools such as AddThis and AddToAny. AddThis, acquired by Oracle in 2016 for $200 million, was permanently shut down globally by Oracle as of May 31, 2023, removing a long-standing competitor from the market.

ShareThis derives its behavioral data from its own widely deployed free publisher tools rather than purchased inventory, giving it observed sharing, interest and intent signals across more than three million domains. It holds an exclusive license from the University of Illinois to co-founder David E. Goldberg's patent applications covering genetic algorithms and machine learning for information collection and discovery based on sharing behavior. The company also emphasizes privacy positioning, citing placement in the top 1% of Neutronian's Data Privacy Scores for three consecutive quarters, and cookieless data solutions ahead of the deprecation of third-party cookies.

Technology

The platform captures user-level social share, interest and intent signals from tools embedded across more than three million global domains and processes them in real time for insights, targeting and enrichment. Underlying patent applications licensed exclusively from the University of Illinois cover genetic algorithms and machine learning applied to information collection and discovery from sharing behavior. Access layers include a REST API, an MCP server for AI agents and a ChatGPT app, alongside a consent management platform and privacy tooling.

Go-to-market

The company acquires publishers and content creators through free, self-installable website tools and plugins, then monetizes the resulting behavioral data through data solutions sold to advertisers, ad tech platforms and agencies. It also publishes news and trends content, and distributes its data through partner integrations such as the announced work with Eyeota and ID5 on cookieless audience targeting.

Online content creators, publishers and website owners for the free tools; advertisers, marketers, ad tech platforms and media agencies for data insights, targeting, activation and enrichment.

Geography

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with additional offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Its data draws on consumer behavior across more than three million global domains, and its website is offered in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Traditional Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese.

History

The company was founded in 2007 by David E. Goldberg, an engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Tim Schigel. In March 2008 it raised $15 million, as reported by Wired and CNET. Kurt Abrahamson, previously a Google AdSense executive, became CEO in July 2011 and served for seven years before moving into an Executive Chairman role; Dana C. Hayes, Jr. subsequently became CEO. In February 2019 ShareThis was named among 16 companies affected by a data breach that exposed 41 million account records; the company confirmed the incident, notified affected users and engaged forensic and data security experts. A related entity name, Predactiv, is referenced by the company as a former ShareThis name in an executive biography. More recently the company has positioned itself around cookieless data solutions and AI-native interfaces to its platform.

Risks & controversies

In February 2019, The Register reported that ShareThis was among 16 companies affected by a security incident in which 41 million account records — including names, usernames, email addresses, DES-hashed passwords, gender and dates of birth — were exposed and offered for sale on the dark web. ShareThis verified the breach, notified compromised users and opened an investigation with forensic and data security experts. The company operates in a data segment exposed to privacy regulation and identity-based advertising pressures; sector precedent includes the deprecation of third-party cookies and the GDPR-driven curtailment and eventual global shutdown of the comparable AddThis service under Oracle.