- Alibaba extends Taobao and Alipay to Australian merchants seeking to sell in China; focus on food & agri: Alibaba announced today that China’s biggest online payment system and online marketplace officially launched their respective channels for Australian merchants to sell their goods to Chinese customers. Taobao’s Australian channel will focus on selling food and agricultural imports. “With increasing concerns for food safety and higher levels of disposable income, Chinese consumers are keen on purchasing healthy, safe food and beverages from overseas,” says the press release. These products will be sourced by Melbourne-based Zoyu Digital. The ecommerce titan explains Alipay Australia will work with a joint venture partner called Paybang “to continue serving local businesses targeting China’s booming consumer base and facilitating cross-border trade between the two countries.” Despite media reports to the contrary, Alibaba did not mention launching a localized version of Taobao or Alipay for Australian consumers to shop on. However, Alibaba says it will work with Australia Post to sell Alipay Purchase Cards at 4,400 retail outlets so Aussie shoppers can buy stuff on Tmall and Taobao.
- Walmart has been quietly building up its own ad network and apps for comparison shopping: Walmart Exchange WMX is a platform available to brands that sell products at Walmart. Agencies buying ads for Walmart’s brands can use the tool to serve online ads in real-time based on shopper data, promising SKU-level measurement for marketers. Walmart’s media agency MediaVest also has access to WMX to manage its digital media buys on behalf of the retailer. Since launching, Monahan said that WMX is rolling out new features weekly that track the performance of campaigns. Meanwhile, @WalmartLabs is credited for cranking out mobile apps, e-commerce and social tools for shoppers. Just this year, it has rolled out a new e-commerce site, an app revamp that pulls in local inventory and a program called Savings Catcher. Savings Catcher is an app that scans a receipt to find prices at competing stores. If the app finds a cheaper price, shoppers get money back in the form of a gift card.
- Zomato closed $60M in funding; post-money valuation of $660 million: Zomato, the restaurant search and discovery service, has closed a further $60 million in funding, giving the company a post-money valuation of $660 million. Investment comes from India’s Vy Capital, and existing backers Info Edge, and Sequoia Capital. It takes total funding to over $113 million.
- Uber has walked into a storm of adverse publicity: An article from BuzzFeed this week alleged that an Uber executive floated the idea of hiring opposition researchers to dig up information on particularly critical journalists. But it needn’t have gone to such great lengths to get dirt -- its vast data stores might already contain that sort of insight. In fact, Buzzfeed also alleged that the general manager of Ubers New York City operations tapped into the user profile of one of its reporters, without the reporter’s permission, “to make points in the course of a discussion of Uber policies.”
- 5 early stage Indian startups that were picked by TLabs (an accelerator and early stage seed-fund) 1. Vidooly: Vidooly is an intelligent YouTube marketing and analytics suite for content creators, brands, and multi-channel networks 2. Wibe: Wibe recommends relevant videos to users while they read on the web. It is currently offered as a browser extension compatible with popular websites such as Google, Wikipedia, and Amazon. 3. Neuron: Neuron is a big data tool that examines a brand’s social presence (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest), picks up users who are interested in its products, and then uses deep learning to figure out which users are potential customers. 4. Flynx: Flynx is a floating browser for Android that makes multi-tasking effortless while browsing the web on mobile devices. It will load web pages in the background without obstructing current work-flow. 5. Mobapper: Mobapper creates native iPhone, Android, Windows, and Blackberry apps for your WordPress website instantly. No coding is required. It can seamlessly integrate with your existing website and fetch content automatically. In the previous batch, TLabs backed FashUpp, Ghar360, GreedyGame, ParallelDots, Spayee, Vidgyor, and Take Zero.
