Street Fight Daily: Prime Day, Amazon’s Power, and Local; Google’s Mobile Speed Update and SMBs

BIG MOVES AND TOP TAKES IN LOCAL

Prime Day Showcases the Power of an E-Commerce Empire—And What It Means for Local (Street Fight)
​Prime Day underscores Amazon’s power in the retail market because it compels the over 100 million consumers who pay for that service to make the most of their investment by purchasing directly from Amazon. Local businesses are hardly in a position to compete.

Why Google’s Mobile Speed Update Smells Like Trouble for Small Businesses (Street Fight)
The murky guidelines surrounding just whom and how many people and sites the mobile speed update may affect—and how exactly businesses in the line of fire are to amend unsatisfactory practices—spells potential trouble for small businesses.

Assessing Groupon’s Strengths As It Puts Itself on the Market (Local Onliner)
While Groupon and its Living Social unit still work with sizable audience lists, demographically, its users probably resemble home shopping channel viewers and coupon cutters more than the social-driven, college-educated women that were first attracted to its cheeky email deals.

Simpli.fi Reaches Next Level in Precise Location Targeting (Street Fight)
As of this morning, advertisers using Simpli.fi’s programmatic advertising platform will have access to Addressable Geo-Fencing, a solution that Simpli.fi’s vice president of marketing Ryan Horn says is the next logical step in the localization and personalization of programmatic advertising.

Nordstrom Local Expands Its Innovative, Inventory-Free Retail Hubs (Fast Company)
What if your favorite fashion destination was also your local tailor, manicurist, bartender, juicer, cobbler, stylist—and even your WeWork? That’s the essential idea behind Nordstrom Local.

Smart Speakers Are a Two-Horse Race, and Apple Isn’t in the Running (Quartz)
A new report from industry analyst Canalys predicts by the end of 2018, over 100 million people will have installed smart speakers. There’s only one thing missing: the world’s most valuable hardware company.

A NEW HIRE AND A HIRING SPREE TO COME

Restaurant Management Platform Toast Raises a Whopping $115 Million (Street Fight)
Restaurant management platform Toast is announcing a $115 million Series D this morning. Courtesy of T. Rowe Price Associates, the round values Toast at $1.4 billion.

Foursquare Announces New Chief Revenue Officer, Liz Ritzcovan (Street Fight)
Ritzcovan’s mission will center on “client centricity.” She’ll be tasked with optimizing Foursquare’s relationships with its clients as the company seeks to make the case that its suite of resources for brands looking to connect the digital and physical worlds is both comprehensive and indispensable.

POLITICS AND POLICY

What If People Were Paid for Their Data? (The Economist)
To highlight a sorry state of affairs, artist Jennifer Lyn Morone has resorted to what she calls “extreme capitalism”: she registered herself as a company in Delaware in an effort to exploit her personal data for financial gain.

Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Decided Against Net Neutrality and For NSA Surveillance (The Verge)
After intense speculation, President Trump said Monday night that he has selected Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.

PUBLISHERS AND PARTNERSHIPS

YouTube Debuts Plan to Promote and Fund ‘Authoritative’ News (Wired)
Following a year in which YouTube has repeatedly promoted conspiracy-theory videos during breaking news events like the shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Las Vegas, the company announced on Monday a slew of new features it hopes will make news on the platform more reliable and less susceptible to manipulation.

Snapchat Moves Beyond Traditional Publishing Brands With Latest Partnerships (Digiday)
Your mom might not know who Daquan is or what Goalslayin is about, but a lot of teenagers on Snapchat do — and Snap wants to work with the companies and creators behind these brands.

Here’s What HBO’s New Boss Really Said About the Company’s Plans Under AT&T (Recode)
Did the AT&T executive in charge of HBO announce, days after buying the company, that he planned to radically change HBO’s business plan, so that it could compete with Netflix and other tech giants? Yes. And also no.