Street Fight Daily: Big Retailers Support Mobile Payments, Snap Ads Struggle to Grab User Attention

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

Amazon, Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks Drive Mobile Payment Behaviors (MediaPost)
Thanks to some major brands, mobile payments may become more of a reality. It’s not so much because of the actual payment aspect as it is because brands are incorporating mobile pay into a full-service, mobile-centric approach.

The Coming Polarization of the SMB Software Market (Street Fight)
Mark Macleod: Strangely, despite the size of the opportunity you don’t find too many SMB companies in most VC portfolios. You see plenty of consumer and enterprise-focused startups, but much fewer on the SMB side. The reason for this is that it’s “hard” for companies serving SMBs to grow at the rate that can deliver “venture” returns. 

How Do Users Like Snapchat Ads? (eMarketer)
Snapchat users do not engage with ads very often, according to March 2017 research from J.P. Morgan—though Snapchat’s sponsored creative tools appear to be catching users’ attention more than its other ad offerings.

How Retailers Can Use Social Media for Better Customer Support (Street Fight)
A new survey by the marketing agency Rational Interaction found that 92.5% of brands are failing to meet their customers’ social customer care expectations. Here are seven strategies for how brands and retailers can offer better customer support across all the social channels that their customers use.

AOL’s CEO Explains that Oath is About B2B Branding (TechCrunch)
The newly minted and already much maligned poster child of the forthcoming face of Verizon’s Yahoo acquisition was developed in-house as a B2B brand, designed for customer and partner relationships.

MZ Launches Satori, an Open Platform with 5.5 Million Real-Time Data Feeds (VentureBeat)
MZ, whose live-data streaming technology helped secure it a leadership position in mobile games, today is launching an open version of the technology to give developers access to massive amounts of data.

Brands See the Future of Fashion in Customized 3-D Knitted Garments Produced While You Wait (Quartz)
One of the futuristic promises of 3D printing in fashion was that one day the technology would allow you to walk into a store, give the staff your measurements, and walk out with a garment made on the spot, just for you.

Yik Yak’s Biggest Investor Is Trying to Sell the Company (Fortune)
Anonymous messaging app Yik Yak is up for sale, according to sources familiar with the situation. Sequoia Capital, the company’s biggest investor, has in recent weeks held deal talks with potential buyers for the Atlanta-based startup.

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