Street Fight Daily: Amazon Gets Patent for Futuristic Warehouses, The Rise of SaaS

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

Amazon Receives a Patent for Drone-Powered, Floating Warehouses (VentureBeat)
The e-commerce giant has been awarded a patent that describes a logistics technology it calls “airborne fulfillment center (AFC).” The AFC is essentially an airship that’s capable of flying at altitudes of 45,000 feet or more that would house items the company sells through its online marketplace. 

Street Fight’s 10 Most Popular Stories from 2016 (Street Fight)
In the local space, 2016 brought both consolidation and renewal. Major players were acquired, while other companies experimented with innovations in bots and AI, VR/AR and a new generation of voice search. Here’s a look back at the top Street Fight stories (at least in terms of traffic) this year.

M&A 2016: The Year Ad Tech Cautiously Rose Again (AdExchanger)
So it’s now a world where software companies trade for higher multiples than services companies. This shift has led to another interesting trend: services companies trying their best to go SaaS. But that’s easier said than done.

Raise Report: New Funding for HelloFresh, Rent the Runway, Dynamic Yield (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for Numetric, Byte Foods, Xplenty, and Never Eat Alone.

Mobile Research Starts the Purchase Cycle (MediaPost)
Once a consumer starts researching products on their smartphone, the actual purchase of a product is pretty close behind. In the U.S., the final purchase is most likely to occur in a physical store, which is not the case in some other countries.

Few Startups IPOed This Year, But The Ones That Did Soared (TechCrunch)
Just 14 venture-backed tech companies went public, according to Dealogic. This compares to 25 last year and the 40+ we saw in each of the five years before.  The last time we had fewer tech IPOs was in the 2009 financial crisis.

Not Everyone Shops Online: Brick-and-Mortar’s Most Loyal Customers (Wall Street Journal)
Amazon is a popular and convenient way to shop, yet millions of Americans have never used the online retailer, and some even refuse to use it. Roughly 22 million U.S. households didn’t use the retailer this year.

15 Interesting Startups to Watch in 2017 (VentureBeat)
Will virtual reality, on-demand services, and bots shine again in 2017? Or will the spotlight turn to messaging apps, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence?

LBMA Podcast: The Annual Predictions Show (Street Fight)
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. This week’s show is the annual predictions episode, with a look at where location-based marketing is headed in 2017.

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