Street Fight Daily: Uber Wants to Be a ‘Content Marketplace,’ The AP Supplies Hyperlocal Data

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

Uber Plans to Turn Its App Into a ‘Content Marketplace’ During Rides (TechCrunch)
Uber wants to turn it into a “content marketplace” — a feed of entertainment and other features with potentially dozens of third party content partners, designed to grow engagement in the Uber app itself — going beyond the basics of ordering rides and rating drivers. NYT: How Uber deceives authorities worldwide.

Why Google is Becoming the ‘New Homepage’ for SMBs (Street Fight)
Mihm and Blumenthal: “So many things are happening right on Google; clicks to call, driving directions, etc., and even more so than a website,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “For a business to do well there, things like photos, reviews (everywhere) and other visuals are becoming ever more important.”

The AP’s Plan to Put Hyperlocal Data in the Hands of Reporters (TechCrunch)
The AP is entering into a joint pilot program with Data.world to equip reporters with granular, local data for more telling stories. Data.world is a platform for hosting and collaboratively analyzing data.

Will Native-Social Ads Dominate Mobile? (Street Fight)
Michael Boland: The majority of mobile ad companies that don’t evolve their janky and interruptive banners will be displaced. A new era of mobile ads will be defined by intelligent formats that speak to the affinities of buying-empowered millennials (who are now almost 40 by the way).

Yelp Blames Google for Its Failed International Business (VentureBeat)
Yelp made the surprising decision last fall to shutter its international operations and focus on North America. Over the course of 12 years, the company had made astonishingly little progress growing its overseas business.

Walmart Can Beat Amazon Once It Starts Doing What Amazon Does Best (Recode)
Ron Johnson, former J.C. Penney CEO, praised the innovation and customer-first philosophy of Amazon and said big retailers need to copy those traits if they don’t want to get lapped. He argued that Walmart has the physical footprint and the money to beat Amazon — if it can focus on the right things.

Are Media Brands Benefiting from Investing in Snapchat? (eMarketer)
NBCUniversal invested $500 million in Snap Inc. during its IPO last week. The move not only highlights the media company’s plans to attract a younger audience, but signals a shift to digital content consumption on social platforms.

Users and Devices: The New E-Commerce (MediaPost)
Ray Schultz: Almost a third of e-commerce transactions involve two or more, according to a new study by Criteo. And conversion rates are 1.4 times higher for multi-device engagements than ones conducted on a lone apparatus. Still, retailers will have trouble if they can’t accurately attribute them.

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Joe Zappa is the Managing Editor of Street Fight. He has spearheaded the newsroom's editorial operations since 2018. Joe is an ad/martech veteran who has covered the space since 2015. You can contact him at [email protected]