Street Fight Daily: Groupon CEO on ‘Myths’ About the Company, P&G’s Snapchat Success
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Is Groupon ‘Misunderstood’? It Probably Is Under-Appreciated (Local Onliner)
Groupon is “misunderstood,” people haven’t updated their view of it as a full-blown marketplace rather than a “daily deals” company, and it actually is “the unquestionable leader in local.” All this per newly-elevated CEO Rich Williams, in a public letter that also conceded past strategic errors.
Square Deal: Payments Startup Passes First Test as Publicly Traded Company (Street Fight)
Noah Elkin: Square made its debut on the public markets yesterday. After its much-commented-on offering price of $9 per share, which some took as a shot across the bow for unicorn startups, the payments firm surged more than 45 percent in its first day of trading. The pressure may be off Square momentarily, but it won’t stay that way for long.
How P&G Is Tying Snapchat Ads to In-Store Sales (Ad Age)
“What’s unique about geofilters is it kind of flips purchase-based targeting on its head,” said P&G brand manager Eric Rose. “It’s not about historical or behavioral benchmarks. It’s more about [consumers being] likely to seek out and discover the proposition that we’re offering in the place we’re offering it.”
Newsonomics: Can You Get Readers to Pay a Dollar a Day for Digital News? (Nieman Lab)
Ken Doctor: The Boston Globe is offering unlimited, cross-platform digital access for a dollar a day. It’s a strategy with several moving parts, building on a foundation of sufficient unique content, and if the Globe has continued success with digital subscriptions, we may well have a new model for reader revenue.
Connectivity Culture Growing Beyond ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’ (Street Fight)
Marketing technology company Connectivity went from a 20-person company to an 80-person company in a year and a half, and it’s poised to continue accelerating. Part of Connectivity’s success stems from fostering experimentation. “We always want to hire people who are entrepreneurs themselves, and let them know that they’re not going to get in trouble for failing,” said CEO Matt Booth.
Jack Dorsey Still Wants to Resurrect Square Wallet (Recode)
Jack Dorsey has long been known as a guy who loves consumer products. The main customers of Square, his payments company, are businesses, but Dorsey spoke glowingly about the now-defunct Square Wallet app that let people pay in stores by saying their name at the register, and sounded like he still wants the company to bring it back from the dead in some form.
Search Engine Relcy Aims to Be the Master Slackbot (Fast Company)
A search startup called Relcy works with Slack to surface links to various apps and services. For example, if you type “/relcy mexican food manhattan beach,” you get a list of eateries in the L.A. suburb. Clicking on one brings up a web card (resembling a mobile app screen) with links to services like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Uber, Lyft, and Google Maps for ways to get there.
Openings and New Hires at Moasis, EBTH, and Tout (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Moasis hires two ex-Googlers to its c-suite, Everything But The House makes a spree of executive hires, and video network Tout woos away a Deseret Digital Media leader.
Yahoo Mail Is Blocking Ad Blocker Users from Accessing Their Email (Digiday)
Yahoo joins other publishers and brands in locking out ad blocker users from accessing their content. The move comes as Yahoo’s advertising revenue is dwindling. The company recently struck an agreement with Google to power some of its advertising and search results.
LBMA Podcast: Jet.com Job Prospects Experience the Office Using VR, PillPack Location-Based Alerts for Your Meds (Street Fight)
On the show: Uber partners with TomTom; PriceLocal launches in Charlotte; SingPost developing the O2O mall of the future. Plus, news from Coke, Google, Verve and Moat, Blippar, and Spotify.
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