Street Fight Daily: Instagram to Add Data and Direct Booking, Uber Rides in U.S. Hit All-Time High

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

Instagram Grows to 1 Million Active Advertisers, Plans to Add More Data and Direct Booking (TechCrunch)
Instagram is trying to “produce visible action” — it’s not just about getting users to like a photo or follow an account, but also convincing them to visit your website and maybe buy a product, said James Quarles, who leads the company’s ad business.

6 Ways Retailers Are Using Messaging Apps for Marketing (Street Fight)
Popular consumer-facing apps like Viber, Kik, and WhatsApp, are pushing hard to become known as more than just messaging services, and one of the ways they’re doing that is by beefing up their social commerce capabilities. Here are six examples of innovative ways that retailers are using them to market to consumers.

Uber Says It Just Had Its Best U.S. Week Ever Despite Controversies (Recode)
“In fact, in our most mature country, we’ve grown faster in the first 10 weeks of 2017 than in the first 10 weeks of 2016,” said Rachel Holt,head of Uber’s U.S. and Canada operations. “Looking at less mature regions like Latin America, trips were up 600 percent in February, year on year.” NYT: Uber Board Stands by Kalanick

Tried and True Marketing Tactics SMBs Can Borrow from Premium Brands (Street Fight)
Evan Brubaker: Many small-but-growing businesses have a multi-store operation and a dynamic online presence, but simply can’t afford the custom-built, integrated retail and ecommerce systems that keep a premium brand’s customer experience tight and consistent. Here are some tactics they can employ to hack that problem.

The Texas Tribune is Using a Facebook Messenger Bot to Reach New Audiences (Poynter)
Starting this week, people who want to know more about the Texas legislature have a new way to get information: a Facebook Messenger bot named Paige.

Snapchat is Building Up Street Cred with TV Advertisers (Business Insider)
Snapchat desperately wants to carve out a piece of the $70 billion in brand spending that currently goes to TV advertising in the US. To get a piece of the pie, the maker of the popular messaging app is touting its ability to put people in front of their TVs.

Fresh from $1 Billion Investment, AirBnB Reveals Major Growth Plans for China (VentureBeat)
Fresh off a $1 billion fundraising round, Airbnb announced plans on Tuesday to expand its services in China and increase its staff there. Airbnb said it would more than triple its local workforce this year and double its investment in the region.

The Case for a Branded App (MediaPost)
Michael Baer: There are many good reasons to create a branded app. And, as Joseph Jaffe said: “If someone doesn’t download your app  — or they don’t use it regularly enough — it’s your fault for not giving them a compelling reason to do so.”

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