News and Analysis
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash Fight Gig Economy Law in California
Ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft are teaming up with restaurant delivery service DoorDash to fight California’s AB 5, a law that would force gig-economy companies that survive on contractor labor to register their drivers (or dashers) as employees and offer them benefits, Vox reported.
The coalition, the Protect App-Based Drivers and Services campaign, is attempting to place a referendum on the 2020 California ballot that would give voters the choice to exempt ride-sharing services from the law. That would presumably include DoorDash, which is not a ride-hailing service but essentially iterated Uber’s business model, employing drivers to escort food instead of passengers from A to B on demand.
The Vertical Approach to Grocery Marketing
More than just a niche market inside the retail vertical, grocery marketing has grown to become an industry unto itself. According to eMarketer, grocery is the “least penetrated but fastest-growing category” in e-commerce. Explosive growth, fueled in part by the rising popularity of online grocers and on-demand delivery services, like Instacart, that deliver goods from brick-and-mortar stores, is behind the prediction that the grocery retail market will reach $12.24 trillion globally by 2020.
CPG brands and supermarket chains have been quick to adopt vertical-specific marketing platforms and tools. Although there are plenty of local retail marketing solutions that could be adaptable to the grocery industry, the supermarket itself is a unique environment and that makes verticalized solutions even more desirable in this arena.
Triller App Sets Its Sights on Taking Over TikTok
A US-based music video platform and TikTok rival ‘Triller’ got a $28 million investment from Proxima Media and seems to have handed a stake in its business to all three major labels.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Triller is potentially valued at $130 million. Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment each own a minority piece of the platform. In a press release announcing the $28m raise, Triller said that the new funds will fuel growth and product enhancements and that it has its sights set on overtaking competitor TikTok.
Commentary
Can Yelp Extend Its Moment in the Sun?
“[Yelp has] not been very innovative in approaching the many needs of the SMB markets,” Mike Blumenthal writes to David Mihm. “It would seem that there could be (or should have been?) a raft of functionality that they could provide from appointments to customer follow-up that would be a natural fit.”
Latest Posts
LMC Chief: Local News Pessimists Are Missing the Big Innovations
Is the outlook for local digital news as gloomy as a spate of recent reports indicates? Or are the forecasters looking in the rear-view mirror? We spoke recently with Rusty Coats, executive director of the digitally focused Local Media Consortium, about why the prognosis for local media might not be as bad is it seems.
Gimbal Launches Proximity Data Platform for Mobile App Publishers
While more consumers own smartphones than ever before, they also face an unprecedented number of options when it comes to mobile apps. For app publishers, it can be hard to stand out in the crowd — even if your service is perfect for a a specific kind of user. As a way to help publishers […]
6 Ways That Local Merchants Are Using Pokémon Go to Drive Business
With interest in the augmented reality game reaching a fever pitch this week, savvy local merchants and national retailers are using social media and targeted rewards to lure in Pokémon Go players and turn them into paying customers. Here are six examples of ways that merchants are doing that right now.
Foursquare President: ‘Huge’ Industry Developing Around Location Intelligence
As the company maps consumers’ digital actions to where they are and what they do in the real-world, it is looking to become the “Nielsen of the real-world.” Street Fight recently spoke with Foursquare president Steven Rosenblatt about the explosion of location data, and why there is a big opportunity in connecting the dots between ads and store visits.
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing