Street Fight Daily: Uber’s $62B Valuation, Nextdoor’s New On-Demand ‘Casual Labor Exchange’
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Uber Valuation Put at $62.5 Billion After New Investment Round (New York Times)
Uber’s fundraising efforts are showing no signs of slowing down. The company is close to raising a $2.1 billion venture capital round, its single largest to date. Once completed, the investment will value Uber at $62.5 billion, securing its place as the world’s most valuable private startup. Meanwhile, Uber’s rivals are banding together in efforts to thwart its dominance.
Nextdoor Is the Latest Company to Enter On-Demand Services (BuzzFeed)
Nextdoor is quietly testing an on-demand function not unlike TaskRabbit or Google Home Services, Nextdoor Now, in San Francisco and Austin, and has plans to roll the feature out gradually in new cities in 2016. Residents can choose from a list of different types of services their neighbors have already signed up to provide, including yard work, pet sitting, babysitting, tech help, tutoring, and other odd jobs.
Why a Remote Work Policy Is Worth Considering (Street Fight)
More than 3.5 million employees work remotely at least half the time, a trend that increased 6.5 percent in 2014. Many employers claim that workers are more productive when they work remotely, but some tech companies aren’t considering remote workers, or don’t allow telecommuting at all.
Mobile Marketing Association’s Top Mobile Trends of 2015 (GeoMarketing)
Mobile ads were hardly a new phenomenon in 2015, but this was the year that many major retailers began a true exploration of mobile ad targeting beyond its basic functions, like using geo-behavioral data to interact with consumers more personally. Here, five key mobile trends from 2015 as identified by the Mobile Marketing Association — and what they mean as we head into 2016.
EatStreet, an Online Food Ordering Platform for Smaller Cities and College Towns, Picks Up $15M (TechCrunch)
While Amazon expands Prime Now restaurant ordering and delivery to more places, a startup has picked up funding to go head-to-head with it and the many others in the crowded food-on-demand category. EatStreet, a platform for restaurants in smaller cities to take mobile and online orders, has picked up $15 million in a Series C investment.
Openings and New Hires at Sears, Uber, and Yext (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, Sears snags the former CMO of Restaurant.com, Uber lands a Google product veteran, and Yext hires a sales executive for small business and partner channels.
Angie’s List Launches LeadFeed (ACHR News)
Angie’s List has announced the launch of LeadFeed, a product designed to capture demand from its free online visitors and turn it into leads for service providers. More than 100 million unique visitors come to Angie’s List annually searching for home services, and more than 85 percent of them are not Angie’s List members. LeadFeed is designed to connect those non-members to service providers.
Wayfindr Is Building an Open Standard for Indoor Navigation by Beacon (TechCrunch)
A non-profit initiative called Wayfindr has now evolved its initial idea of building a navigator app powered by beacon pings into a more ambitious plan to develop an open standard for indoor audio navigation instructions and the optimized arrangement of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons needed to power it.
LBMA Podcast: Kantar Shopcom and 4INFO Team Up, Tapad Partners with VisualDNA (Street Fight)
On the show: Kantar Shopcom and 4INFO team up; Tapad partners with VisualDNA; JCDecaux Star Wars OOH campaign; Placester raises $27 million; Beretta showcases its new i-Protect bluetooth gun; Brazil’s L&PM Editores prints books that double as subway tickets. Plus, news from Airbnb and MLSE, Royal Caribbean, TCS and Loctronix, and Loblaws.
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