Street Fight Daily: Google Brings Back Google+, Angie’s List Says No to Acquisition (Again)
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Four Reasons Why Google Is Bringing Google+ Back to Life (Recode)
In a short post on Tuesday, Google trumpeted the return of a “fully redesigned” Google+. It centers on two things: Communities, a three-year-old feature for interest-based groups, and Collections, an interest-based sharing feature akin to Pinterest.
Angie’s List Turns Down IAC’s Second Offer to Buy It — This Time for $512 Million (Business Insider)
Angie’s List, the local reviews site, was approached earlier this month with an offer from IAC (the parent company of HomeAdvisor, OkCupid, The Daily Beast, Vimeo, and more) to buy it at $8.75 per share, or $512 million. The Angie’s List board of directors has now formally and unanimously decided to turn down the offer.
All Politics Is Data for 2016 and Beyond (Street Fight)
The saying used to be that “all politics is local.” A more appropriate term for the 2016 election cycle might be “all politics is data.” In fact, with their emphasis on audience and local targeting and their growing adoption of programmatic buying, political campaigns have begun to increasingly resemble marketing campaigns.
Lyft Executive Says on Track to Hit $1 Billion in Gross Revenue (New York Times)
The ride-hailing app Lyft expects to reach $1 billion in gross annual revenue. Hitting this mark suggests that the privately owned company has increased market share in some U.S. cities, despite competition from Uber, which is larger and better financed. Lyft’s net revenue was estimated at $130 million in 2014. (Another recent piece further breaks down the company’s financials.)
StructuredWeb’s Nissan: We’re Just Starting to See the Complexity Curve Going Up (Street Fight)
Long sales cycles, smaller target audiences, higher transaction values — all these characteristics separate B2B from B2C marketing. “There’s a level of precision that you need to have in the B2B space, because otherwise you can spend a lot of money without seeing any results,” said StructuredWeb president and CEO Daniel Nissan.
Square IPO Offers Up a Litmus Test (Wall Street Journal)
The battered market for new technology company shares faces an important test with Square set to price an initial public offering that could value the company at more than $4 billion. Square’s performance will be closely watched as a harbinger for the dozens of tech companies that have been valued at more than $1 billion in private fundraisings. (Subscription required)
TinyRx Gets $5 Million in Seed Funding to Take On PillPack and Other Prescription Delivery Services with Coupons (TechCrunch)
A number of investors, including Google Ventures, have added $5 million in initial funding to prescription delivery startup TinyRx. The company plans to use the money to build out its business and take on bigger chain pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS.
Mobile Marketer Ubimo Adds Politics as a Data Layer for Ad Targeting (Marketing Land)
Mobile marketing firm Ubimo announced that it’s adding U.S. election data to its targeting platform. The Tel Aviv-based company, which focuses on the U.S. market, said this is the first time such publicly available presidential and congressional election info has been married to local event, demographic, and other data for targeting ads at mobile apps. (Today’s Street Fight piece analyzes Ubimo’s move in the context of “all politics is data.”)
Goodblock, the Ad Blocker for Good Samaritans, Enters Beta (Gigaom)
Goodblock blocks ads, but it also gives users the option of periodically viewing advertisements that give at least 30 percent of their revenues back to the charitable cause of their choice.
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