Street Fight Daily: How Google Cashes in on AI, Uber CEO Says IPO 18-36 Months Out

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

Google and Microsoft Can Use AI to Extract Billions More in Ad Dollars from Clicks (Wired)
When Google and Microsoft boast of their deep investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, they highlight flashy ideas like unbeatable Go players. They talk less often about one of the most profitable, and more mundane, uses for recent improvements in machine learning: boosting ad revenue.

Drawbridge Partnership Brings Identity Graph to Latin American Market (Street Fight)
Latin America has become a hot spot for mobile advertising, with forecasters predicting that ad spending in the region will grow at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world through 2019. Today, the cross-device identity firm Drawbridge is expanding into the market in a big way.

New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months (WSJ)
Uber Technologies Inc.’s new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said he would start on Tuesday and aim for an initial public offering in as soon as 2019, setting the stage for what would be one of the most highly anticipated market debuts in memory. NYT: Benchmark-Kalanick feud goes to arbitration

Case Study: How an Unusual, Soft-Sell Sponsored Post Turned Readers Into Customers (Street Fight)
“I tried to think about everything I hated about sponsored posts and do the opposite,” says Aaron Seyedian, the founder of Well Paid Maids. “As a reader, I find that sponsored posts on blogs are often lengthy, impersonal and overly centered on sales. I set out to write a post that would be succinct and personal.”

Coming Soon to Facebook Watch: Sponsored Shows (Digiday)
Facebook Watch is barely out of the gate, but publishers are already trying to sell advertisers on sponsored shows on the fledgling video-viewing platform.

Target Plans a Big Move Away from AWS (CNBC)
The discount retailer is scaling back its use of Amazon Web Services, as the company aims to take greater control over its infrastructure and stop financing its chief rival. Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods is the latest sign of how deep the e-commerce giant is moving into all forms of retail.

Deliv Expands to 1,400 Cities, Contesting Dominance of Amazon’s Prime Now (TechCrunch)
Deliv says that is now covers a footprint the same size as Prime Now, the same-day delivery service that Amazon provides to its Prime subscribers, one of the bigger selling points for people signing on to Prime and buying from Amazon.

Users Continue to Spend More Time on Snapchat (Recode)
Even though Snapchat’s total user base is growing much slower than people expected, the amount of time its users spend using the app is growing at a nice clip, despite the Instagram onslaught.

Edgewell Gets Personal with Location-Based Consumer Insights (AdExchanger)
Where a person goes can be used as a solid signal of intent, but that signal gets stronger and more predictive when location is combined with shopper marketing data.

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Joe Zappa is the Managing Editor of Street Fight. He has spearheaded the newsroom's editorial operations since 2018. Joe is an ad/martech veteran who has covered the space since 2015. You can contact him at [email protected]