Street Fight Daily: Attribution Companies Thrive as AdTech Wavers, Lyft Partners with Taco Bell

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

Ad Measurement Companies Are Thriving Even as AdTech as a Whole Falters (Digiday)
The rise of ad measurement companies is best exemplified in the $850 million that Oracle is reportedly paying to purchase Moat. But the demand for ad measurement can also be seen in the fact that ad measurement startups are raising money at a time when venture capital funding in ad tech has dried up.

Building a Local Stack: The Rise of ‘SMB OS’ (Street Fight)
Michael Boland: SMB OS includes the full range of business services that traditionally fall outside of – but are related to – advertising. It’s POS systems, supply chain, payroll, insurance, appointment scheduling, online ordering, CRM… even HR.

Lyft Partners with Taco Bell, Demonstrating How Ride-Hailing and Local Can Play Off Each Other (TechCrunch)
Lyft’s new partnership with Taco Bell seems like a weird cross-marketing campaign at first glance, but it could become a model for future tie-ups to come, and a new revenue opportunity for ride-hailing in general.

Scorpion Acquires Driven Local, Building Out Its Franchise Business (Street Fight)
Internet marketing company Scorpion has announced this morning that it acquired digital marketer Driven Local. Together, they plan to offer technology, services, localized video ads, and campaigns for local and multi-local businesses across markets such as healthcare, legal, franchise, and home services.

Improved Social Media Metrics Mean Influencer Marketing Gains Value (AdWeek)
Lately, social media giants have rolled out more sophisticated methods for influencers and marketers to use their platforms and, at the same time, increased the accuracy with which what those influencers and marketers do on platforms can be properly measured.

Alphabet Adds to Cash Pile Despite Higher Costs, EU Fine (Reuters)
Alphabet Inc reported a 21 percent jump in quarterly revenue on Monday, maintaining a growth rate that is rarely seen among companies its size and suggesting the big sales gains enjoyed recently by the other Internet firms are not done yet. Quartz: The key to Alphabet’s future success isn’t advertising.

SoftBank Seeks Multibillion-Dollar Stake in Uber (WSJ)
SoftBank Group Corp. is pushing to take a commanding stake in the ride-hailing market, angling for a piece of Uber Technologies Inc. after spreading its bets across a trio of Asian startups.

The Data Collected by Home-Mapping Roombas Could Be Up for Sale (The Verge)
Colin Angle, the chief executive of Roomba-maker iRobot, said he wants to sell the data from these maps in order to improve the future of smart-home technology.

Is Facebook’s Revenue Growth Finally Slowing Down? (Recode)
Investors think Facebook’s revenue growth may finally slow down. Facebook has been warning investors for the past year that its revenue growth would slow “meaningfully” in 2017 because it has finally run out places to put ads in News Feed.

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