Street Fight Daily: Just Eat Orders IPO, Lyft Raises $250M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology
Just Eat Joins Parade of London Tech IPOs, with $2.44 Billion Market Cap (Wall Street Journal)
Online restaurant-delivery company Just Eat said Thursday it priced its initial public offering at 260 pence a share, giving it a market capitalization of $2.44 billion. The company, which operates websites and mobile apps that allow users to order food from local takeout restaurants, decided to float in London to raise money to support growth.
Case Study: Heineken Uses Foursquare Partnership to Reach Target Demo (Street Fight)
Size matters for Heineken, which is why the global beverage brand took a close look at Foursquare’s 40 million users and 3.6 million check-ins at bars, restaurants, and nightlife venues when deciding whether to partner with the vendor on its 2014 mobile campaign. “As a brand, we are always investigating new and innovative ways to bring our programs to life,” Heineken brand manager Bram Reukers told Street Fight.
Lyft Raises $250 Million From Alibaba, Third Point and Others (New York Times)
Lyft, one of the big players in the nascent-but-booming ride-sharing industry, said on Wednesday that it had raised $250 million from a group that includes the Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group and the investment firm Third Point. Lyft is part of the increasingly popular ride-share industry, functioning effectively as a sort of dispatch network for regular drivers use their own cars to pick up passengers.
Alternative Press Expands Hyperlocal Network Into Suburban Philly (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: Mike Shapiro began his hyperlocal news network The Alternative Press in three suburban New Jersey communities — including his hometown of New Providence — in 2008. TAP has now expanded to 30 communities in the state and Shapiro has decided to cross over into Pennsylvania with a site in Lower Providence, in suburban Philadelphia’s Montgomery County.
Jim Brady Will leave Digital First Media (Poynter)
Jim Brady has “chosen to move on” from Digital First Media, CEO John Paton writes in a blog post. Paton confirms earlier reports that DFM is disbanding its Thunderdome project, which Brady championed. Tomlin is also leaving, Paton writes. DFM Digital Transformation Editor Steve Buttry writes in a blog post that he’s leaving, too.
Yelp Reviews Brew a Fight Over Free Speech vs. Fairness (Wall Street Journal)
The Federal Trade Commission has received more than 2,046 complaints filed about Yelp from 2008 through March 4, according to data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. A closely watched Internet free-speech case is headed to the Virginia Supreme Court this month, with many businesses that live and die by online reviews rooting for the owner of a small, suburban carpet cleaner.
Google Snoops on Public Wi-Fi Networks, Then Asks the Supreme Court to Defend It( Pando)
Google has asked the United States Supreme Court to consider its case that collecting emails, passwords, and other personal information as part of its Street View program was legal. The request comes after the company failed to persuade an appeals court that gathering the data was protected by the Wiretap Act because it “only” collected unencrypted information from public networks that anyone could access.
When Data Journalism Meets Hyperlocal — Oakland Local Launches Police Beat (GigaOm)
Matthew Ingram: After investigating police brutality during the Occupy protests, the non-profit news site Oakland Local decided to harvest 22 years of court data to create a database of alleged police misconduct and has made it free under a Creative Commons license.
Big Risks, Big Rewards: Citibank Takes Stock of Citi Bike One Year In (AdAge)
Ten months ago, New York City launched the first public bike-sharing initiative in the U.S., backed by $41 million in Citigroup money meant to help refashion the company’s image after the financial crisis. The program has been struck by nagging logistical and financial problems, and simultaneously been a wild success.
Have ‘Local’ and ‘Location’ Lost Their Luster? (Screenwerk)
Many agencies, investors and brands have historically seen the term local as a surrogate for “small business,” which is equated in some circles with “small time.” The term “local” has not done a great job of carrying or conveying what I and others have been trying to express – essentially the “online-to-offline” consumer buying pattern.
And Now We Have a Tinder for Home-Buying (Pando)
These days the startup pitch trend is to say you offer either the “Uber of” or “Tinder of” something. For the latter a mobile app is also involved, but its aim is to make a decision usually requiring a great amount of thought into a mindless, easy motion that facilitates a binary “hot-or-not” proclamation.
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