Street Fight Daily: Instacart Aims for Positive Cash Flow, Google Drives App Installs

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

Instacart Looks to Build an Empire with Promoted Ad Business (TechCrunch)
Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta says he thinks the company can get to cash-flow positive in the next year, and that’s thanks to the company’s attempt at bringing in a diverse number of revenue streams instead of just relying on a cut of the transaction costs.

Google’s App Ad Business Drives Billion Installs in Last Four Months (Recode)
Google says developers have generated three billion installs for their apps using Google’s ads, up from two billion in May. That is: Google’s ads have generated one billion installs in four months.

SweetIQ acquires Connectivity(Press Release)
SweetIQ has acquired the local marketing division of Connectivity, a direct to business local marketing firm based in Burbank, California that works with over 20,000 brick-and-mortar locations across the United States.

Case Study: Portland Retailer Reaches New Customers with At-Home Try-On (Street Fight)
EcoVibe Apparel is working with a hyperlocal startup called Dorrbell and giving local shoppers a way to try on items from the comfort of their homes. Customers go online and choose products they would like to try on, they then schedule a time for them to be dropped off.

Ads Help Businesses Stay Afloat, But Slows Load Times End Web Visits (Business Insider)
Fifty-three percent of mobile website visitors will leave a webpage if it doesn’t load within three seconds, according to a new study by Google titled “The Need for Mobile Speed.” Mobile is becoming an increasingly critical discovery tool for businesses, and ads are the main culprit behind sluggish mobile webpage load times.

As Merchants Flock to Social Media, How Can Community News Sites Keep Pace? (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: According to a new survey, SMBs are turning to social media more and more. But they may be doing it not just because they’re getting good results but also because they have better buying experiences with Facebook and others.

With 50 Million Daily Users in Europe, Snapchat Pitches Brands Overseas (Adweek)
By now, most American marketers have learned plenty about Snapchat ramping up its ad business in the U.S. Yesterday, Imran Khan, the company’s chief strategy officer, gave European marketers a crash course in its ad formats including short video ads, lenses and geofilters.

Mobile Lags Behind Desktop, In-Store Shopping for Retail’s Busiest Season (eMarketer)
Among all US internet users, not just mobile device users, Shift Communications and Signal found that in-store (33.5%) and desktop or laptop (32.0%) were the most popular channels for holiday shopping buys. Meanwhile, only 16.4% said they plan to make these seasonal purchases on mobile, including smartphones and tablets.

The Sun’s Facebook Chatbot Drove Nearly Half of Users Back to its Site (Digiday)
“We were keen to test on small niche audience,”said Emma Fulton, director of digital strategy and operations at The Sun. “It proved what we thought was correct: Bots will work better when they are more targeted.”

As the Tide Rises for Branded Content, Buzzfeed’s Boat is Lifted Even Higher (AdExchanger)
BuzzFeed’s tech helps it create and distribute branded content, but it’s also used to analyze how various metrics or content types drive different outcomes for marketers. It might suggest one type of content to increase brand affinity and a different distribution plan to improve purchase intent.

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