A few bits of exciting e-commerce news from the last days:
Groupon Deals
Groupon dilutes its business model with their Groupon Deals marketplace in Germany:
Groupon on shopping spree
Groupon has acquired Hyperpublic, a startup which builds databases of local information:
"[Jordan Cooper, Mitgründer und CEO von Hyperpublic] said he could not speak specifically about Groupon’s future plans for Hyperpublic. But he noted that figuring out how local markets work and using public information from the social Web to understand consumer habits and interests is becoming a hot area for many companies.
It’s not hard to imagine that Hyperpublic would be able to help Groupon better target subscribers in some of its coming products, including Groupon Now, a service that lets users see deals happening in real time, based on their location. It’s also an area that companies like Foursquare, Facebook and Google are widely thought to be eying as they continue to develop their mobile advertising strategies."
Groupon has in addition acquired Kima Labs, a startup working with mobile payment systems:
"Another acquisition for Groupon, and a sign of how the e-commerce company is getting more focused on mobile as a route to future growth: it has picked up Kima Labs, which makes mobile barcode reading app Barcode Hero and mobile payment app TapBuy."
Groupon VIP
Furthermore, Groupon is testing a VIP service for power users in the USA:
"What do you get for $30 a year? Early access to deals, and ability to buy old deals, and refunds for any Groupon at any time."
Swoopo domain name gets new owner
DealDash has taken over the domain name of the insolvent penny-auction deal pioneer, Swoopo:
DealDash was one of the very first penny auctions to launch in the US (April 2009), they launched as BidRay.
The penny auction paid 10,000 euros, $13,170 US to purchase the domain name on Sedo just a few weeks ago."
Windeln.de
Existing investors including Acton Capital Partners and High-Tech Gründerfonds have provided windeln.de a ”seven-figure” amount of additional financing to help drive further growth.
bol.com
bol.com, the largest online store in the Netherlands (355 million euro revenue in 2011) has been acquired by the Dutch supermarket operator Ahold (German link).
Related posts:
- Extras: Dwolla Instant, Kabbage, CatchOfTheDay, Anti-SEO, Top 10 Startups
- Extras: Fab.com, Plum District, Groupon, Zappos, Marka VIP
- Extras: Swag Of The Month, Hunch, Etsy, Kindle, Private Sales Clubs
Originally posted in German by Marcel Weiss, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.
Comments