Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Spins Off Small Business, Groupon Founder’s New Startup
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Yahoo To Spin Off Small Business Unit With Alibaba Stake (Quartz)
The unit, which helps small businesses set up their websites, has about 100 employees and brings in roughly $50 million in annual earnings. The unit’s boss, Amer Akhtar, said the move will provide an opportunity “to invest even more in our platform and chart our own course.”
Study: Mobile’s Data Problem Is Getting Worse (Street Fight)
In the mobile advertising industry, where data is harder to come by, location data has emerged as a pricey asset. But a new report from Thinknear suggests that the quality of the location data on major exchanges is actually on the decline.
Groupon Founder’s New App Offers Awesome GPS Walking Tours (Wired)
Less than two years after getting forced out of Groupon, and a year into fatherhood, Andrew Mason is debuting his next company. Detour, an interactive, long-form audio tour goes live today in San Francisco, where Mason hangs his hat these days.
Sponsored: How Bad Local Data Leads to Bad Calls — And Frustrated Customers (Street Fight)
In a pay-per-call campaign, quality and accuracy are king. Bad data results in dead-end leads for marketers, and keeps businesses from reaching the true targets of their campaigns. Here are some techniques for optimizing pay-per-call success.
Gannett: More Digital Acquisitions (NetNewsCheck)
Gannett CEO Gracia Martore put particular emphasis on its digital revenues in Tuesday’s earnings call, as digital now accounts for 32% of the company’s overall revenues. Martone also said the solid internal growth in digital may be augmented by more potential acquisitions.
PlaceIQ Opens Up Mobile Advertising Data to Agencies (Street Fight)
For years, mobile advertising firms have promised brands an opportunity to target their customers in the real world. Now mobile advertising startup PlaceIQ wants to help marketers better understand that behavior before a campaign starts and how it changes after the run is finished.
Amazon in Talks to Buy Some of RadioShack’s Stores (Bloomberg)
Amazon has discussed acquiring some RadioShack locations after the electronics chain files for bankruptcy. Amazon has considered using the RadioShack stores as showcases for the Seattle-based company’s hardware, as well as potential pickup and drop-off centers for online customers.
PayPal’s Retail Chief Don Kingsborough Exits ‘A Little Frustrated’ (Recode)
Don Kingsborough, the PayPal executive who spearheaded the online payment giant’s move into the physical retail world, has left the company. And he admits the company didn’t accomplish as much as it should have in its attempt to make PayPal a popular payment option in brick-and-mortar shops.
Apple Testing Mysterious Camera-equipped Vehicles In The Bay Area (Apple Insider)
A number of minivans with what appears to be camera equipment and a LiDAR sensor mounted to the roof that have appeared around California in recent weeks could be part of a new Apple project, as at least one of the vehicles is registered to the iPhone maker.
Report: Mobile Ad Revenues Don’t Line Up With Traffic Volumes (Marketing Land)
The first of the reported mobile imbalances is the gap between category traffic and ad revenues. Social networking overwhelmingly dominates traffic but doesn’t command commensurate ad revenues. Music, Video & Media and Games lead advertising revenue, though social isn’t that far behind.
Has Growth In Local Mobile Ad Spend Helped Yelp? (eMarketer)
Local business review site Yelp is benefiting from the growing popularity of local mobile ad spending, especially when it comes to search. eMarketer forecasts that the company’s mobile ad earnings would rise 87.7% to total $242.1 million in 2015 and hit $397.0 million by 2016.
Car Brands Are Starting to Get the Marketing Data That They’ve Always Wanted (AdWeek)
In terms of digital advertising, the car industry looks like it’s putting the pedal to the metal with data, as tech vendors, publishers and other players increasingly roll out new offerings to attract automotive ad buyers who are demanding better results.
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