Street Fight Daily: Uber President Steps Down, Google Increases Brands’ Control Over Online Ads

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

Two Executives, Including President Jeff Jones, to Leave Uber (NYT)
The number of executive departures from Uber is growing. Jeff Jones, Uber’s president of ride sharing, has left the company after just six months, Uber said on Sunday. In addition, Brian McClendon, vice president of maps and business platform at Uber, also plans to leave at the end of the month. WSJ: Court Upholds Seattle Ordinance Rules Allowing Uber Union Vote

InMarket Unveils Program to Recapture Lost Shoppers — And Revenue — for Retailers (Street Fight)
The company’s new program identifies consumers who have not visited a partner retailer for a set period of time. This information is then used to put ads in front of the consumer to encourage them to return.

Google Vows More Control for Brands Over Online Ads (WSJ)
Google on Friday said it plans to give advertisers more control over where their ads appear online after major clients in the U.K. withdrew their spots because some ads ran before extremist videos on its YouTube site.

Point Inside Announces Personalization Tool for In-Store Marketing (Street Fight)
The new service leverages historical shopping information to allow retailers to serve shoppers more relevant deals on their phones. It is an extension of the company’s StoreMode platform, which upgrades the usefulness of retailers’ branded apps with features like indoor mapping, product location, and store-specific searches.

Why Samsung Wants to Build a ‘Corporate-Wide AI Voice System’ (VentureBeat)
“The idea is to create a corporate-wide AI voice system that’s applied to all products that we offer,” said Won-Jin Lee, executive vice president at Samsung. At the heart of this effort is Viv Labs, the virtual assistant startup Samsung acquired last year for around $215 million.

Yelp/Eat24 Appear to Test Delivery Robot in San Francisco (TechCrunch)
Ryan Lawler: It’s not every day that you are wandering around your neighborhood and get a glimpse of the future. Yet there I was minding my own business when I bumped into what appeared to be a Yelp/Eat24 “delivery robot” cruising around San Francisco’s Mission District on a Friday afternoon.

Movable Ink Launches Loyalty Solution (MediaPost)
Movable Ink launched a suite of data-driven applications this week to help email marketers engage with their loyalty reward members. The Movable Ink Loyalty Solution is a collection of technology assets that deliver dynamic, data-driven content in real-time to members of a brand’s loyalty program.

Advertisers Are Investing More in Social, Especially Facebook (eMarketer)
Advertisers in 2017 are allocating more money to paid social, particularly Facebook. Over the next 12 months, close to two-thirds plan to increase their investment to the social platform, according to December 2016 data from ClickZ Intelligence.

Wall Street is Loading Up on Bets Against Snapchat (Business Insider)
Traders are loading up on short bets against Snapchat. Short interest in the stock has surged to more than 30 million shares, making up about 15.4% of the shares available for trading, according to Data provided by Wall Street analytics firm S3 Partners.

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