Street Fight Daily: First Data’s Turnaround, Offline Sellers’ Search Spending

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology

firstdata-iKKR Banks on Bisignano Forging Apple Deal at First Data (Bloomberg)
This month, as Apple unveiled new iPhones featuring digital credit cards, First Data CEO Frank Bisignano’s effort paid off: First Data will provide encryption technology for the transaction system, called Apple Pay, a deal that could attract new clients and help turn around a seven-year-old losing bet by KKR & Co.

Macy’s Expands Shopkick Beacons to Stores Across the Country (Street Fight)
Macy’s just made a big bet on beacons — the proximity messaging technology widely hailed as a key ingredient in the future of retail. The company says it plans to expand its partnership with the Silicon Valley-based Shopkick from a small pilot o to a national roll out that will include over 4,000 beacons in Macy’s locations across the US.

More than Half of Top 25 Google AdWords Spenders Sell Mostly Offline (Screenwerk)
Greg Sterling: According to a list published by AdAge, Google’s top 25 AdWords advertisers in 2013 spent $1.34 billion on paid search in the US. However, what’s interesting is that roughly half or slightly more than half of this list, depending on how you count, are brands and advertisers whose revenues overwhelmingly come from offline sales.

Handybook Rebrands As Handy, Says It Grew 10x in Past 9 Months (Street Fight)
The New York-based Handybook, which allows users to book pre-approved home service providers, is dropping the book from its name, rebranding as Handy to avoid confusion with — well — books. The company’s chief executive Oisin Hanrahan says the startup has grown by nearly ten times in the past nine months, and believes the move will help the company develop the type of brand that has helped to propel Uber and Airbnb into multi-billion dollar companies.

The Case Against Everything on Demand (Recode)
Marc Kuo: Delivery startups are cropping up everywhere, which is great in the age of Everything-as-a-Service. Yes, being able to promise hyper-fast deliveries is neat, but at what cost? Most on-demand startups are probably running on losses and battling a constant last-minute scramble day in and day out.

Google Outside: The Inside Story (Wired)
Adverts are telling you a story this month in London, and for once it might be an idea to pause and listen. That’s because Google has taken over 175 Digital Out of Home displays to showcase its Google Search app for iOS and voice control by delivering hyperlocal mini-guides to the area of the city they are located in.

Interview With GrubHub’s Matt Maloney: The Leader In Mobile Food Delivery And Pick-Up (Forbes)
Matt Maloney: “The overall market continues to grow pretty steadily but the real change we are seeing in diner habits is the shift from offline to online. There is immense opportunity in the market as more than 95 percent of takeout orders are still being placed by phone and paper menus.”

One Positive Pigeon Result: We Can Finally Ditch Ranking Reports (SearchEngineLand)
Greg Gifford: Now that Pigeon has caused havoc with local rankings, we’ve got a huge opportunity to take advantage of the flux and educate our clients that rankings don’t equal success. All of the Local SEOs can band together,and show our clients better reports with metrics that really matter to the bottom line.

Targeted Mobile Shopping Ads Starting to Hit Home (MediaPost)
The accuracy of location data has improved substantially recently with ads for mobile shopping now approaching location perfection. Those are among the latest finding in a quarterly location tracking benchmark study that analyzes how well targeted ads are at reaching consumers at the right place.

Sidecar Raises $15M as Uber, Lyft Duke It Out (CNet)
As Uber and Lyft battle to beat each other out, it appears investors are looking at a smaller ride-sharing service called Sidecar. Sidecar announced on Monday that it raised $15 million to help fuel its Shared Rides carpool feature and a bigger expansion throughout the US.

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