Street Fight Daily: Uber Eyes $50B Valuation, Google’s Mobile Search Strategy
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Uber Fund-Raising Points to $50 Billion Valuation (New York Times)
The mobile car-hailing application is in early talks to raise a new round of financing that could value the start-up at $50 billion, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Uber could raise around $1.5 billion, given the amount of interest from investors in the company, the person said.
5 Analytics Platforms That Can Help Brands Understand Mobile Advertising (Street Fight)
Although the vast majority of mobile advertising analytics platforms were designed to allow brands and agencies to measure multiple campaigns across single dashboards, some of the more advanced solutions are also providing marketers with the ability to make real-time decisions and link in-app engagement to specific advertising partners.
Google’s Mobile Search Strategy: Bake In and Take Out (Recode)
Last week, a few pieces of Google’s plan to address investor concerns about mobile emerged. With Google’s latest feature, a tiny truck will appear in restaurant queries, allowing searchers to jump to a ordering site or app. Google is working with six partners: Seamless, Grubhub, Delivery.com, BeyondMenu, MyPizza.com and Yelp’s Eat24.
Why Brands and SMBs Need Each Other for Success in Local (Street Fight)
Brendan Morrissey: Product brands commit more than $22 billion in online co-op advertising funds each year, but local businesses leave approximately $1 billion of these funds untouched. That’s a lot of money. The revenue brands stand to earn by introducing local businesses to the digital age is remarkable.
Yelp Sale Rumor Reminds Us that Social Is Terrible as a Business Even If It Did Change the Web (VentureBeat)
Chris O’Brien: From the start, Yelp has been a terrible business. What’s more surprising is that investors at times appeared so giddy about its prospects, despite a lack of profits for most of its history. And for many years, they appeared content to give Yelp more time, even as the losses piled up.
Amazon’s Delivery Drones Could Find You Wherever You Are (TechCrunch)
Amazon’s delivery drone plans may have seemed more like a media stunt than a concrete vision back when it launched, but with active testing taking place and new details showing up in a patent application, things are getting real. The new proposed patent contains some impressive revelations about Amazon’s proposed automated package transport plans.
UT San Diego Sale: Online Isn’t Adding Value to Traditional Media Sale Prices (Local Onliner)
Peter Krasilovsky: A former colleague of mine developed a general hypothesis that if a traditional media property could show recurring value in online properties, it would be able to boost its sale price by X percent – probably 20 percent or more. It was a major reason to double down on digital growth. But this clearly hasn’t happened.
Interview: Groupon’s Founder Is Trying to Reinvent the Audio City Tour (Skift)
Andrew Mason: I wanted to build something that would create a better way for people to connect with place than anything that’s out there, where you feel like you’re walking around with a local who really understands the people in a place, and that person feels like they’re there with you.
Real-Time Audience Targeting, Coming Soon To A Theater Near You (MediaPost)
Screenvision, a cinema advertising company, this week announced a partnership with mobile engagement platform Sito Mobile to launch a new real-time ad targeting initiative dubbed Project Lynx. It’s meant to allow Screenvision advertisers reach moviegoers outside of the cinema shortly after they have left the theater.
Gimbal and Tillster Beaconize Restaurants (PYMNTS)
Tillster, which offers digital engagement and ordering platforms for the restaurant industry, has teamed up with Gimbal, a proximity mobile engagement provider, to bring mobile location-based services to help restaurants better serve their customers.
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