Street Fight Daily: PayPal’s Agrawal Departs, Google Expands Shopping Service
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology
PayPal’s Strategy Exec: I Quit Before Twitter Tirade (Recode)
Rakesh “Rocky” Agrawal, the PayPal strategy exec who unleashed on a couple of coworkers in a late-night Twitter rant earlier this weekend, said in a tweet on Sunday morning that he had resigned from the payments giant before his tirade. On Saturday, PayPal posted a tweet announcing his departure, which left room for interpretation on whether Agrawal had been fired or had resigned.
Shopify CPO: Next 5 Years Will Be More Exciting for Retail Than Previous 150 (Street Fight)
This May, Street Fight will take a look at the companies, technologies and ideas that are shaping the way we buy and sell goods in the real-world. To kick-off the series, we caught up with Harley Finkelstein, chief platform officer at Shopify, to discuss the blurring line between e- and local commerce.
Google Shopping Express Comes to NYC, L.A. (USA Today)
Google has delivered its same-day shopping service to Manhattan and west Los Angeles. Until Monday, the year-long service had only been available in the San Francisco Bay Area. Google Shopping Express will offer the same shopping list in Manhattan and west Los Angeles as it does in the Bay Area: goods from Target, Walgreens, Staples and selected grocery stores.
Facebook’s Path to Dominating Mobile (Local TBD) (Street Fight)
Michael Boland: Facebook Audience Network will apply Facebook’s audience targeting to third party apps, such as those using Facebook Connect for log-in authentication. The beauty of such an off-site network is that it uses Facebook’s data and positioning to continue milking demand for mobile ads, without killing the cow.
Rare Yelp Lawsuit Over Alleged Fake Reviews is Put on Hold to Debate Merits (Ars Technica)
A San Diego lawyer has filed a motion to immediately put on hold last year’s lawsuit that Yelp filed against him. The online reviews giant accuses Julian McMillan of orchestrating false reviews for his own law practice, a charge he squarely denies. Yelp’s August 2013 lawsuit alleges breach of contract, intentional interference with contract, unfair competition, and false advertising.
Is Instagram’s Move to Replace Foursquare with Facebook Places Premature? (The Next Web)
About a month ago, Instagram appeared to have replaced its list of recommended “location names” to Facebook Places, where users had previously had access to the “powered by Foursquare” list. This begs the question – is Instagram breaking up with its long-time partner too soon?
Smartphone Penetration in US Crosses 70% (Internet2Go)
Media measurement firm comScore said that in March 166 million Americans (over age 13) owned smartphones. The firm says that amounts to 68.8% penetration. However historically comScore has made its penetration estimates using a base of 234 million mobile subscribers.
Franchise Redux: The Professionalization of the Sharing Economy Has Deep Implications (Pando)
According to conventional wisdom, Airbnb and Uber enable “regular individuals” to make a few extra bucks renting out an extra bedroom or giving fellow travelers a ride. But Uber and Airbnb are best understood as reimagined franchise operations that leverage mobile data, the social graph, and continuous feedback loops to deliver a better consumer experience.
Why Companies Need to Embrace Location-based Marketing (The Next Web)
The most recent research on mobile marketing shows that 42 percent of the consumers feel that none of the marketing communications they receive from businesses on their mobile devices are relevant nor useful. So how can mobile marketing become more relevant? The answer is simple: personalization and localization.
Hang Local Looks to Bring the Buddy List Offline to Facilitate Better Real-world Relationships (Pando)
Think of Hang Local as a platform for broadcasting your realtime – and same day – availability in the offline world. Looking to meet up after work for happy hour or have a few hours on the weekend to play ultimate frisbee? Well there’s a good chance that someone in your social network would be happy to join you, if only they knew your intentions.
Uber Will Pay $500 to Lyft Drivers Who Start Working for Its Company (GeekWire)
The San Francisco-based transportation company is offering $500 to drivers from competing services like Lyft and Sidecar just for making one trip on UberX. . The company previously enticed drivers of Lyft, Uber’s main competitor, back in December when it offered them free $50 gas gift cards and sign-up bonuses.
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