Tuesday, November 25, 2014

• Amazon is expanding its local services offerings - plumbers, electricians and handymen: Amazon wants to connect users with handymen like plumbers and electricians through the expansion of its Amazon Local Services division in New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a document viewed as well as person briefed on the plan.  Amazon shoppers in those cities will reportedly see installation or handyman offers after purchasing goods like ceiling fans, air conditioners, and the like. The company will offer a money-back guarantee on its services and will do background checks on any service provider that it lists on the site. Every handyman or woman will have to liability insurance.

• Amazon is using kiosks on the NY Metro as scan-and-shop physical pop-up stores: Earlier this year, design firm Control Group partnered with New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to roll out large digital kiosks underground that display maps of the city's transit systems. Today, Amazon is the first advertiser to use those kiosks as digital pop-up stores to drive sales of holiday gifts. Amazon's promos are running on 100 digital 47-inch screens in 12 major hubs in New York, including Grand Central Station, Union Square and Brooklyn's Barclays Center. Collectively, the kiosks target 1.2 million riders per day. Half of the screens are placed on subway platforms and the other half are near entrances and high-volume areas. Creative content on Amazon's ads differs between the two areas: Ads in the mezzanine area focus on branding while promos near trains drive sales. The digital screens are swipe-able and let consumers browse through a curated list of electronic holiday gifts from brands like Bose, Samsung, Sony and Belkin. Each item can be tapped on for more information, which also pulls in real-time pricing. After finding a product they want, riders can scan a QR code or send a text message or email and receive an Amazon.com link, where they can buy the gift from a smartphone once they're above ground. Amazon's campaign runs through Dec. 23—the last day consumers can buy something online and have it delivered by Christmas.

• Production and delivery bottlenecks are crimping Xiaomi's growth - but its India focus has only intensified - will make locally, and launch Redmi Note in offline stores as well: Instead of expanding into 10 new markets this year, Xiaomi will enter just five. That means consumers in Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and Turkey will have to wait a bit longer. The problem? Production and delivery bottlenecks are slowing the no. 3 smartphone maker's pursuit of Samsung Electronics and Apple. In the past two months, Beijing-based Xiaomi has had to charter special flights four times to make scheduled deliveries into India. While Xiaomi usually relies on commercial cargo flights for deliveries, the company can't always get the space it needs to meet demand, Manu Jain, head of operations in India, told reporters in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon yesterday. Hence the charters. The solution for Xiaomi is to produce its smartphones in the countries where it wants to grow.  Production in India will likely begin in one to two years, and Brazil may start sooner, he said. While Xiaomi has pushed back the expansion plans for some markets, India will be a "focus" for years to come, said Barra. The company has sold more than half a million of its low-cost phones in the country since expanding there in July. Xiaomi is on track to cross one million smartphone shipments in India this quarter and could break into the nation's top-five smartphone vendor rankings, he said. "Like Chinese consumers, Indian consumers are quickly warming up to bigger screens on their devices," Shah said. "Redmi Note will provide that power boost for Xiaomi to quickly move up the rankings capturing market share away from the incumbents.".

• Despite concerns over its content, anonymous messaging app Yik Yak secured $62M in funding led by Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, according to a person close to the deal. Yik Yak differentiates itself by focusing on local communication; users chat anonymously with one another based on their location. And the company says it is highly popular within schools and universities.  The app is mostly popular with college students “but has been troublesome for middle and high schools across the country because of bullying,” reports Re/Code. Yik Yak allows anyone within a mile of the person posting the message to read it, which means it works well in school and campus settings, depending on your definition of “working well.” The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman points out that when you log into Yik Yak, these are the “top messages” you see — the ones with the most upvotes by users (using a similar system as Reddit does; being able to vote on posts to get them in front of more eyes.)  The messages are pretty gross.