Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Nabs Google’s Mayer, LivingSocial E-Commerce
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
A Yahoo Search Calls Up a Chief From Google (NYT)
Marissa Mayer, one of the top executives at Google, will be the next chief of Yahoo, making her one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley and corporate America. After years of heading up its search business, Ms. Mayer became vice president of the company’s location and local services in late 2010, a group that included Google Maps and more than 1,000 product managers.
LivingSocial to Start Selling Merchandise, With Weekly Offerings Tied to Social Experiences (The Washington Post)
Online deals company LivingSocial is adding merchandise to its offerings that until now have mostly meant restaurant meals, weekend getaways and spa manicures. Beginning Tuesday, subscribers will be able to buy weekly-changing merchandise from LivingSocial’s online shop.
Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman: A Profile (SF Gate)
It was January 2010, and Google wanted to buy Yelp, the online, crowd-sourced review site. On the phone, Jobs urged Stoppelman, who revered the Apple chief as a visionary, to “stay independent and not sell out to Google.”
Venture Capital Investments Pick Up with Strong Emphasis on Mobile (GigaOm)
Venture capital investments picked up significantly this quarter, with a 37 percent increase in funding and 3 percent increase in deals over the previous quarter. About 13 percent of the activity — or 102 deals — was in the mobile sector, marking an all-time high, with 30 percent of those companies involved in photo or video technology.
Where’d Groupon’s Growth Go? (Seeking Alpha)
Yet here’s the fundamental issue for Groupon: having people like what you have to offer isn’t good enough in the business world; you must be able to make money. Since Groupon hasn’t yet demonstrated an ability to do that — and since the company is plagued by declining popularity and so many management questions — it’s hard to find much to like about the stock.
9 Trends That Are Transforming The Retail World (SAI)
Perhaps it’s a bit creepy, but when consumers decide to share personal data with retailers (like purchase histories and biometric fit profiles), they’re often using it to customize the experience for each customer. Neiman Marcus, for example, has a “location-aware” app called NM Service which sends customer preferences right to its sales staff.
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