Amazon has gone up a few gears and are moving at a speed I have not seen before. First they subtly tell the world that they are working on an advertising product to rival Google’s advertising monopoly and then the Seattle-based behemoth acquires Twitch. Currently it feels like Bezos is asking questions to the Google founders because they are trying to get into the vertical that Amazon dominates (ecommerce).

I think the Twitch purchase was based on a few factors: Twitch did not get the answers it desired from Youtube. Secondly – Amazon has always bought content based business – DPreview, IMDB, goodreads etc, so this is not a completely new thing. Twitch adds a few things to Amazon’s business – a community to are deeply connected with gaming (ads to a gamer will lead to conversions and sales while watching a video of someone playing). It adds another data source to Amazon enormous data-based business model and as VC, Mackey Craven points out this might be also for technology.

Alibaba is to IPO in September with trading of shares to begin from the 8th. This is the moment the entire ecommerce industry has been waiting for. It changes the entire industry as suddenly there is a new player that has a lot of cash that can go into underserved markets. I expect them to do something big in the US to rattle Amazon’s & eBay’s cages. I am speculating but believe they will acquire a few businesses in South East Asia and move aggressively in markets such as Latin America, the Middle East and India. Rocket Internet and Zalando’s IPO’s are also potentially affected by this IPO – if the market accepts it (unlike what happened to facebook) I suspect their IPO’s to be at the end of September.

The stories that caught my attention this past week:

1. Amazon Vs. Hachette: Fewer Middlemen Equals A Better World (TechCrunch) – “The bonus for the world is that eliminating middlemen makes the world more economically efficient and maybe even more educated. Prices come down and the amount of reading goes up. The lessons for other marketplaces here are straightforward. Align the incentives of the buyer and supplier and, if possible, ignore the incentives of other middlemen. Provide the tools necessary for individuals to thrive and help them achieve their full potential. Empower aspiring professionals, lower barriers to entry, let the cream rise to the top, and make sure you’re the only middleman left standing.”
2. Pick n Pay Brand Match saves customers money (mybroadband) – “Pick n Pay has launched Brand Match today (31 August 2014) – an application which compares prices of one thousand top-selling branded products with prices in other supermarkets. When a Pick n Pay customer buys ten or more different products, and at least one is in the Brand Match thousand, it will trigger a price comparison at the till.”
3. Just Looking: Indonesia Still Not Down With Online Shopping (WSJ) – “One of the barriers is low credit and debit card penetration. Just 92 million bank accounts have linked bank cards in a population of 240 million according to Euromonitor International data from 2013. Another reason consumers aren’t buying online: distrust. According to Nielsen, 60% of consumers in Indonesia do not trust giving out their credit card information online, more than in any other Southeast Asian country except the Philippines.”
4. Can Google and Rivals Overcome Drone Delivery Hurdles? (WSJ) – “Google and Amazon engineers may be able to reassure the FAA if they are able to address one of the biggest technical issues currently impeding autonomous drone flights: the lack of proven sense-and-avoid technology. So far, drone engineers have yet to figure out how to get the devices to consistently recognize every obstacle in their way and safely avoid them. Early sensors use lasers and sonar to identify obstacles, but some things have proven difficult to spot, including tree branches and lone birds.”
5. An open letter to Jeff Bezos: How to generate an extra $2B for Amazon (Geekwire) – “I am a small online merchant who primarily sells fitness products through our website.  After a customer buys one of our products, we also sell them related products found on Amazon.com through your Amazon Associates program.” Not a chance this will happen – I suspect that Amazon will simply say that he needs to use AmazonPayments.
6. Exclusive: Flipkart shutting Payzippy, invests in Ngpay (Medianama) – “Indian online marketplace Flipkart is phasing out its payment gateway business Payzippy, a little over a year after it launched it, MediaNama had learnt from reliable sources. In response to a query from MediaNama, Flipkart informed us that it has made a strategic investment in mobile payment company Ngpay (Jigrahak Mobility Solutions Pvt Ltd), and it is phasing out Payzippy.“
7. Amazon’s new ad network has a secret weapon against Google AdWords: shopping data (Venturebeat) –  “The new ad network, which Amazon is calling “Amazon Sponsored Links,” will also set up back end systems that allow ad agencies to “buy audiences” by buying ads in bulk. The agencies would then place ads on behalf of their clients based on the target audience demographic of the product. Again, those ads would be targeted to consumers using a sophisticated real-time system that knows the viewer’s product preferences, as expressed by their browsing and buying history on Amazon.”
8. Google Allows Store-Exclusive “Nearby” Product Listing Ads On Desktop (Searchengine Land) – ““Based on positive feedback,” a Google spokesperson told VentureBeat, “we’re now enabling retailers to show store-exclusive products on desktop — a feature so far limited to mobile. In addition, we’re also expanding local inventory ads internationally, beginning with UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia.””
9. Alibaba’s Top IPO Banks Underwrite $3Bln Loan (WSJ) – “Alibaba has signed a US$3 billion revolving credit facility ahead of its jumbo IPO, according to the firm’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that also gave details of a near-tripling in its quarterly earnings. The loan, which has yet to be drawn down, is for working capital and general corporate purposes, Alibaba said in the filing.”
10. Tencent’s and Baidu’s $814M joint venture with Wanda signals the coming tide of in-store WeChat payments (TechInAsia) – “China’s largest tech corporations are rushing to penetrate an industry that’s historically not tech-savvy – brick-and-mortar retail. Dalian Wanda Group, a conglomerate best known for its chain of movie theaters, has launched a US$814 joint ecommerce venture with Baidu and Tencent for the purpose of accelerating the three firms’ reach for in-store mobile payments. Tencent and Baidu have confirmed news of the venture with Tech in Asia.”
11. Zalando Tech Team Mixing Data With Fashion Ahead of IPO (Bloomberg) – “One concern for Erler is that traffic to the site is tapering off. Zalando.com recorded 17.5 million unique visitors in June, compared with an average of 21.3 million over the past year, according to ComScore Inc. (SCOR), which doesn’t include hits to Zalando’s increasingly popular mobile apps. The site now gets 41 percent of its traffic from mobile devices, versus 35 percent last year and 10 percent two years ago, Zalando said. “
12. Apparel is next (Asymco) – “This amount of money is not spent only to protect the wearer from the elements–any more than the money spent on telecommunications is spent to convey vital information. Most of the value in apparel, perhaps 80%, is spent on solving psychological needs. And therein lies the opportunity. As the value is beyond functional, substitution of psychological jobs by new products is a matter of engineering better solutions. Consider the behavior of US teens: anecdotally, their spending on apparel is fading as the solution to feeling good about themselves increasingly relies on a device and service.”
13. The Future of eCommerce Logistics (Carlson on Commerce) – “The combination of local knowledge, expediency, and security is going to be a real game changer for local commerce. And why not think bigger than that?  Why wouldn’t it be possible for me to purchase something for a family member in another city and have Uber pick it up and deliver it to their door?  The technology is there! Current online retailers should begin to think about integrating with non-traditional logistics solutions such as Uber in order to offer their customers the broadest range of options.  There are huge possibilities here that could be real game changers for those on the leading edge.”
14. Amazon Quietly Hires Visa Credit Card Boss to Expand Little-Known Lending Business (Re/code) – “The big-time hire suggests Amazon has lofty ambitions for its young lending business. Amazon Lending, which, according to a job posting, only currently operates in the U.S. and Japan, is aimed at providing Amazon sellers with quick access to capital at rates that are normally cheaper than most credit card interest rates. Repayment is automatically deducted from sellers’ Amazon accounts each month. Amazon’s lending business has focused on business loans up to now. But Talwar’s consumer background at least raises the question of whether Amazon is considering lending to individuals as well.”
15. DHL to pilot its APAC e-commerce solutions in India; To invest €100M in next 2 years (Medianama) – “Mail and logistics group Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL) has chosen India to pilot its e-commerce logistics business model for Asia-Pacific. This pilot will be through its Indian subsidiary Blue Dart Express in which the company holds 75% stake. DPDHL CEO Frank Appel told DNA that they will be investing €100 million in the country over the next two years to build the infrastructure for this business.“
16. Behind the scenes at Rocket Internet’s eBay in North Africa (Kaymu) (Wamda) – “To help facilitate this, the Kaymu team has started organizing ‘Kaymu Universités’ in Morocco and Tunisia, meetups during which sellers discuss pre-determined topics. To make sure sellers get engaged, the Kaymu teams always make sure at least two well-trained sellers are there to take the lead. The real challenge in these countries, where people are not used to talking about their businesses, is to get people to share. One of the solutions, explains Ponce, is to carefully select participants, notably to avoid the presence of two competitors at the same time. Another is to make sure retailers understand they’re pioneers of online sales, and that they have to stick together if they want to find solutions to their problems, she adds.”
17. 6 Ways Competitors Are Trying to Kill Amazon (Nymag.com) – “There’s some evidence that Amazon is overextending itself in similar ways. It just unveiled Amazon Local Register, a point-of-sale app that is meant to compete with companies like Square to replace cash registers and credit-card processors at small businesses (and which few Amazon watchers are optimistic about). It’s pouring money into original content for Prime Video, and pet projects like the Fire are sucking up vast resources from the core business. It’s also reportedly considering starting its own shipping service, an expensive proposition that would have it competing with FedEx and UPS.”
18. Alipay Wallet Announces Open Platform, Offering Over 60 APIs (TechNode) – “Alipay Wallet, the app for mobile payments and other mobile services of Alipay, announced today an open platform that more than 60 APIs, programming interfaces and tools, have been available for third-party developers to access user data or create applications. The APIs enables third-party applications to interact with seven core features of Alipay Wallet, mobile payment, user account system, e-coupon, QR code, WiFi hotspot access, CRM service, and JASPI authentication.”
19. Curalate Brings E-Commerce To Instagram; Nordstrom Is First To Sell (MarketingLand) – “We continue to hear from customers that they want speed and convenience incorporated into all the places they shop -– including our social platforms,” Nordstrom social media director Bryan Galipeau said in a release. “We connect with more than 500,000 customers on Instagram by posting items we hope they find inspirational, beautiful and fun. Like2Buy enhances the experience even more for customers who want to take the next step and learn more about the great fashion we’re featuring or even make a purchase.”
20. Indian price comparison site PriceBag raises $2M (TechInAsia) – “India is a very price-conscious society, and consumers could do with a little help on finding the right prices online. So this is a natural market for review and comparison sites. Amazon-owned Junglee.com leads the space in the country, and there are several others like Naaptol, MySmartPrice, and PriceDekho. Like those, PriceBag too lists a wide range of items. Users can find and filter products across categories, compare based on features and prices across stores, read and write reviews, and make an informed buying decision using its search engine.”
21. Snapdeal Gets Backing From Tata Figurehead In India’s Hot E-Commerce Market (TechCrunch) – “On the heels of Flipkart raising an eye-popping $1 billion, here’s one more sign of the landgrab going on in the Indian e-commerce market today. Its rival Snapdeal has raised yet more outside investment, for the third time this year, this time from Ratan Tata, the chairman emeritus of Indian conglomerate Tata Group.”
22. Line takes aim at Rakuten and Amazon, to launch five new ecommerce services (TechInAsia) – “Line, the messaging app that has nabbed 490 million registered users in three years, announced its plans for becoming a major player in the ecommerce industry at a news conference in Tokyo today. The strategy marks an interesting inflection point for Line. The service gained popularity for it’s colorful stickers, grew its revenue base with mobile games, and now has its sights set on ecommerce.”
23. Amazon aims to sell more to Chinese online shoppers (Internet Retailer) – “On its tenth anniversary of entering China, Amazon.com Inc. announced plans last week to build a fulfillment center in a free-trade zone in Shanghai, hoping to be able to sell items from its global sites to Chinese consumers at lower prices and to deliver goods more quickly. The e-retailer also plans to let Chinese consumers shop on Amazon.com in their own language, Amazon senior vice president for international consumer business Diego Piacentini said at a ceremony in Shanghai marking Amazon’s commitment to open a facility in the free-trade area.”
24. m-Commerce surges by 47% in Q2 2014 (comScore) – “It is very telling that the pronounced softness seen in previous years’ second quarter did not happen this year – a sign that perhaps the base of m-commerce buyers is finally solidifying and becoming more consistent throughout the year. A more solid base of buyers means a better foundation for growth in the coming months. And as buying expands to more platforms – particularly tablets – consumers will only become more comfortable purchasing via mobile. While it is highly unlikely to see growth rates in excess of 40% in the Q3 and Q4 this year, it is very possible that the numbers will come in solidly in the 30% range. If that happens, then 2014 m-commerce spending looks to be headed for around $35 billion – not far behind the size of the entire digital advertising market. As m-commerce grows into a more mature transactional medium over the next few years, it’s clear that omni-channel marketing will become an even more important – and likely more challenging – issue for marketers.”
25. China’s M-commerce Turnover Rockets 378%YOY to 254B Yuan in H1 2014 (TechNode) – “China’s high-speed increase of e-commerce industry in the past decade seems to drawing to a close in recent years. According to report released by China e-Business Research Center, Chinese e-commerce volume sales increased by 43.9% YOY from 754.2 billion yuan (around US$123 billion) in H1 2013 to 1.08 trillion yuan in H1 2014. The whole-year sale is expected to reach 2.78 trillion yuan.”
26. Uber is testing a lunch delivery service in Santa Monica (The Verge) – “Presumably, Uber will one day be able to do basically anything for you that involves even the slightest amount of movement, and today that’s getting a bit closer to reality as it begins to test a food delivery service in Santa Monica, California. The trial service, called UberFresh, allows anyone within the delivery area to have lunch off of a preset menu brought to them for $12. The options are pretty basic right now — just soups, salads, and a sandwich — and vegetarians are out of luck half the week, since there’s only one option available each day.”
27. An Inside Look at eBay’s Global Innovation Strategy (WSJ) – “ow eBay is on a mission to help the beleaguered retail industry meet consumers’ rising expectations for a seamless, multiscreen, omnichannel shopping experience. It’s acquiring companies, exploring emerging technologies, and offering new services that satisfy consumers’ shopping preferences while alleviating pain points for retailers. eBay’s Innovation and New Ventures group is dedicated to building the future and testing new technologies that could lead to the next $1 billion business opportunity.”
28. Does eBay Fit In Instant Gratification Economy? (Information Week) – “It’s due to that same reality that eBay will never be able to compete with the behemoths in warehousing and distribution. Stuff for sale on eBay is scattered, so warehousing’s just not an option. Google doesn’t physically store stuff, either, but it is racing headlong into the same-day delivery arena with partners. Last week, for example, it announced that it was adding Barnes & Noble to its stable of retailers for same-day delivery. Also, it has a lot of influence over what shoppers come across in their search for products both through its search engine and its mobile platform and ad network.”
29. From Yale’s Sports Fields to Alibaba’s Mega-Deals: The Guy Who Executes Jack Ma’s Vision (Bloomberg) – ““He hasn’t changed one iota,” Gordon said. “Did I expect him to be a very significant contributor to the world’s economy in some way, shape or form? Of course. It’s how hard he worked, how smart he was, his ability to see differences in others and become their brother.” ”  A great read full of tidbits on one of the Alibaba powerbrokers.
30. Newegg takes same-day delivery in its own hands (Internet Retailer) – “Computer and electronics e-retailer Newegg Inc. is taking same-day into its own hands—or wheels. Starting today, consumers in Los Angeles ordering by 10 a.m. can have their purchases delivered on the same day by a fleet of Newegg delivery vehicles.“Testing same-day delivery for our LA-based customers is something we’ve been closely looking at for many months,” says Soren Mills, chief marketing officer of Newegg North America. “If all goes as planned, we will expand into new delivery areas.” Newegg Inc. is based in City of Industry, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles.”
31. The next Alibaba may come from…India? (Fortune) – “Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund with a $180 billion investment portfolio, is betting big on the future of India’s e-commerce. It recently invested in the Indian e-tailer Snapdeal with the expectation that the volume of transactions in that country’s burgeoning e-commerce market will increase by a factor of at least six over the next three to four years.That’s no small vote of confidence in India’s e-commerce potential. Temasek was an early investor in China’s Alibaba, an e-commerce titan whose annual transactions today exceed $250 billion, or more than Amazon AMZN -0.29% and eBay EBAY 0.13% combined. It likes Snapdeal because the company uses a similar model.”
32. The future of mobile commerce is commerce (GigaOM) – “Mobile commerce is an important part of any retailer’s strategy, but it isn’t a strategy in itself. It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on what’s new (and we’re happy to help our clients do that), but if we focus on the business case first, the technology choices will be obvious.”

Till next week. Onwards.