Street Fight Daily: The Classifieds Wars, Uber Expands Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Documents Show How Ebay’s Meg Whitman And Pierre Omidyar Conspired To Steal Craigslist’s Secrets (Pando)
In August, attorneys for classified site Craigslist filed their latest complaint in a years-long legal fight in which Craigslist claims eBay executives plotted to steal trade secrets in order to launch their own rival classifieds sites. The ongoing civil suit outlines fourteen separate allegations against the company including accusing eBay of committing fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, and a host of other violations.
WeddingWire CEO: Building Technology For The Ephemeral Consumer (Street Fight)
Steven Jacobs: The ephemeral quality of the wedding consumer creates a fascinating dynamic for technology companies that serve the market. Last week, Street Fight caught up with WeddingWire CEO Tim Chi to talk about the changing opportunity for vertical marketplaces, and the role of software in building relationships with merchants.
Uber Expands Grocery Delivery Pilot, Renames It UberEssentials (The Next Web)
Uber launched the experiment as Corner Store this summer and it seems it’s been successful enough to continue. UberEssentials will run from 9am to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to midnight on weekends. Currently the service is iOS only but Uber says it’ll arrive on Android within days.
Hyperlocal M&A in 2015 — Here’s What Some Potential Acquirers Are Looking For (Street Fight)
With the new year just around the corner, corporate development teams are undoubtedly gearing up for 2015 acquisitions. The local technology industry saw plenty of M&A activity in 2014 and remains poised for another busy year as established firms look to stay on top and a new batch of public companies come into capital.
The Post-Google Local Survival Guide (Search Engine Land)
Andrew Shotland: Ask any local SEO worth their salt, and they will tell you that the Pigeon algorithm update has been a kind of big shift in local search results. To that end, here are five quick tips for adjusting your local search tactics in this post-Pigeon world.
Changes Coming to Credit-card Readers for Small Merchants (USA Today)
Over the past few years, small merchants have grown their businesses and accepted credit cards for the first time without having to pay big fees that turned them off initially to taking credit. But big changes are coming, in the form of an all-new type of credit card, and all but certain higher costs.
Why Yelp’s CEO Turned Down Google (Time)
Jeremy Stoppelman: Just about every year starting in 2005, Google would come to us and say they wanted to buy us. In thinking about Yelp and what it could be, it felt like leveraging the resources of a Google would allow Yelp to expand rapidly worldwide, which is something we were just getting started on.
Starbucks And Asda Drive Christmas Footfall With Location-based Mobile Ads (Marketing)
Starbucks and Asda have rolled out location-based mobile ad campaigns in a bid to drive footfall to local stores over the key Christmas period. Ian Cranna, Starbucks’ EMEA marketing chief, said that “the mobile industry has struggled to showcase the full impact and potential of the mobile channel.”
Rocket’s Home-cleaning Venture Helpling Raises Funds For Expansion (Reuters)
Helpling, the online marketplace for household cleaners backed by Germany’s Rocket Internet, has raised $16.8 million from investors to fund its race to go global before rivals stake out the territory. Berlin-based Helpling aims to do for home cleaning what Airbnb and Uber have done for room-sharing and ride-sharing respectively.
For Uber, Airbnb and Other Companies, Customer Ratings Go Both Ways (New York Times)
Travelers are often asked to review their hotel, restaurant and car service. But increasingly, it goes both ways. Drivers for Uber and Lyft, for example, rate their passengers from one to five stars at the end of each ride. If a rider receives three stars or fewer, the driver and passenger will not be paired up again.
Airbnb Picks Up Pencil, Cambridge Startup That Built Scheduling App (BetaBoston)
Airbnb has quietly acquired a small Cambridge startup, Pencil Labs. The company had built a scheduling app called Wyth that was intended to eliminate some of the headaches of coordinating get-togethers with friends.
Get Street Fight Daily in your inbox! Subscribe to our newsletter.
