Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, August 6

Facebook launches feature to allow businesses to privately message users: Facebook rolled out features Wednesday that enable businesses to privately communicate with customers through messages as part of the social networking company's push to make its Messenger app a stand-alone platform. Businesses can now include a "send message" button in ads that appear in Newsfeed that allow Facebook users to click a button and send messages, which are private. If users post a comment on a business' Facebook page, then the business can privately message that person The features are part of Facebook's efforts to convince more small and medium-sized businesses - especially those in emerging markets, such as India, Brazil and Indonesia - to advertise on its platform. By giving them direct access to customers, the world's largest social network hopes to show that advertising on Facebook directly leads to increased sales. To encourage quick responses, Facebook will award "very responsive to messages" badges on business pages that respond to 90 percent of messages and respond on average within five minutes. People will, however, still be able to block private messages from businesses. The features will be especially valuable in southeast Asia, Facebook wrote in a blog post. About twice as many Thai and Singaporean users use Facebook messages to communicate with businesses each month and most Southeast Asia users follow some company pages.

Twitter Will Offer ‘Buy’ Buttons to as Many as 100,000 Merchants With New Shopify Deal: The social network is in the process of integrating with Shopify and other e-commerce software companies to offer its Buy buttons to a much wider range of businesses, big and small, according to multiple sources. Shopify alone has somewhere around 100,000 merchants in the U.S. that use its software to run their online shops. With a Twitter deal, those businesses would be able to sell their wares within tweets using Shopify’s software. Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest have all been adding Buy buttons to their platforms over the last year, as they try to build new revenue streams from their giant audiences and take advantage of people’s interest in buying items through their platforms. But since those three giants don’t — or can’t — integrate directly with every business that wants to sell goods on their platforms, they are turning to companies like Shopify to help. Pinterest is working with Shopify as well as Demandware, which runs online shops for some bigger brands and retailers like Michael’s and Cole Haan. Facebook, too, is working exclusively with Shopify merchants in the beta tests for its own Buy button. When Twitter’s Buy button initiative first launched last year, the company was working with smaller e-commerce software providers like Fancy and Gumroad. So a deal with Shopify at this point has essentially become table stakes for these platforms. But it certainly does not guarantee success. It’s not proven that people want to shop on these social platforms, nor that all these merchants want to sell on social media platforms. And small merchants without strong followings on these networks may have to turn to advertisements to promote their products more broadly.

GoDaddy forecasts current-quarter revenue below estimates: Web-hosting company GoDaddy Inc forecast current-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates after a comfortable beat, sending its shares down 5 percent in after-market trading. GoDaddy on Wednesday forecast revenue in the range of $405 million-$410 million for the third quarter ending September 30. The company, which manages about 60 million Internet domains, or about a fifth of the world's total, has been investing heavily to expand into new markets. GoDaddy's revenue rose 16.5 percent to $394.5 million, beating the average analyst estimate of $392.9 million. Total costs and operating expenses rose 20 percent to $428.1 million. General and administrative expenses included about $30 million in IPO-related costs, Wagner said. GoDaddy had a blockbuster debut on April 1, with investors snapping up its shares betting that the company can grow further by providing tools to small businesses. The net loss attributable to the company narrowed to $29.8 million from $37.6 million. GoDaddy's shares closed at $29.47 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The shares had risen about 47 percent since the market debut.

Tesla Falls on Sales Target Cut to as Few as 50,000 Vehicles: Tesla Motors fell in extended trading after the electric-car maker backed off its full-year vehicle sales forecast. Tesla said it now aims to deliver 50,000 to 55,000 vehicles this year, compared with a previous target of 55,000. The company sees third-quarter production and deliveries of just more than 12,000 vehicles including just a few Model X sport utility vehicles. Reaching the initial target may be a stretch because some interior suppliers might not be able to increase the flow of high-quality parts fast enough to meet the Model X production plan, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on a conference call with analysts. Because the SUV and the existing Model S share the same assembly line, a shortfall by one Model X supplier could slow output of both vehicles. Tesla stock fell 5.8 percent after tumbling as much as 9.3 percent following regular trading. Tesla had gained 21 percent this year through Wednesday’s close, outpacing the 2.4 percent increase by the Russell 1000 Index. Some analysts had been skeptical about Tesla’s plans to increase deliveries by 74 percent this year, especially with so much of the increase coming late in the year.

Fitbit Declines on Margin Concerns in First Post-IPO Report: Fitbit shares dropped as much as 16 percent in late trading after the company, which makes wearable fitness trackers, posted narrower margins in its first earnings report following an initial public offering. Second-quarter gross margin, a measure of profitability, narrowed to 47 percent in the second quarter from 51 percent a year earlier. Revenue more than tripled to $400.4 million, and profit before certain items was 21 cents a share, San Francisco-based Fitbit said Wednesday in a statement. The company, which dominates the market for fitness bands that monitor health data such as activity and sleep patterns, said it sold 4.5 million devices in the quarter. Costs to boost manufacturing capacity as well as slimmer profits on fast-selling newer products led to the gross margin decline, said Dougherty analyst Charles Anderson. Fitbit shares slipped as low as $43.25 following the report, after initially jumping as high as $56.48. They rose 3.9 percent to $51.64 at the close in New York. The company went public on June 17 at $20 a share. “This is a stock that had reached nosebleed levels,” he said. “But it’s hard to argue with a company that’s growing 250 percent.”