Street Fight Daily: Instacart’s Big Valuation, Uber Stumbles in Spain

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

 20140422-Instacart-1-600x399Grocery Delivery Startup Instacart Scores $220 Million Investment (Recode)
Instacart, the grocery delivery startup, disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it had closed a monster $210 million investment that will value the company at $2 billion. The company lets customers order groceries online from local stores such as Whole Foods and Costco and have them delivered on the same day.

Hyperlocal Execs’ 2015 Predictions (Part Two): Cir.cl, xAd, Yodle, VendAsta (Street Fight)
As we have for the past three years, Street Fight recently asked a number of hyperlocal luminaries to weigh in with their predictions for where local is headed in 2015. We ran the first installment of their responses yesterday — now here are the rest.

Uber Suspends Operations in Spain (New York Times)
Uber, the ride-booking company that has been plagued by vocal opposition from taxi associations and policy makers around the world, suspended its operations in Spain late Tuesday. The decision came in response to a judge’s ruling this month that the company’s low-cost service, called UberPop, potentially amounted to unfair competition for taxi drivers.

UK Banks In Talks Over Apple ‘Wave And Pay’ (Telegraph)
Britain’s top banks are in talks with Apple to introduce its iPhone “wave and pay” service, Apple Pay, to the high street in the first half of 2015. But negotiations between the tech giant and at least one bank have proved tricky because of wrangling over the terms, including what data Apple will be able to access

This Year’s 10 Biggest Shifts, Shake-ups and Surprises in Mobile Marketing (AdWeek)
Fueled by new ad formats and acquisitions from Facebook, Twitter and brands, mobile marketing finally began to step up to its potential this year. From messaging and video to ultra-targeted ads and simplified shopping, smartphones and tablets became a major focus for most digital brands players in 2014.

The Payments Tipping Point Will Be In 2015 (TechCrunch)
Given all the noise in the tech community this year with the introduction of technologies like One Touch payments and Apple Pay, you would think that digital payments have taken over the world. But it hasn’t quite happened. Today, 85 percent of transactions are still done via cash.

Third Act Marketing Chief on National Brands, Local Marketing (Local Onliner)
Gregg Stewart: In the early days, brands relied solely on their sales channels (dealers, agents, franchisees) to do local marketing for them through co-op advertising programs. Now, brands have taken a lot of the responsibility for local marketing on themselves.

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