Category: 10 stories that got my attention

Walmart has a Polaris moment, 360Buy blocks eTao, JadoPado sees big potential in the Middle East and more

It is the last day of August 2012 and this past week has been nothing short of a ecommerce hotpot. So many stories, story lines and ideas that makes my head spin (it feels like I don’t have enough time to write this).

This week has a significant milestone in it, Walmart telling the world about their new semantic search engine (Polaris) which I think is a big deal. It is clear that Walmart feels threatened by Amazon in terms of ecommerce, they have bought startups to ramp up their own offering. I said it a few weeks ago, the loss of the Kosmix founders was way bigger than what the press articles mentioned. Remember that they both created Junglee in the 90’s and then sold it to Amazon. The Junglee name has returned in India for Amazon, but what I find interesting to watch is the  amount of ex-Amazon talent taking jobs all across the globe in ecommerce. I speak from a bit of experience, they are like gold. Seattle water must be different or something but heck, their thought patterns on ecommerce is very different but always backed by reason and fact. I am a believer in experience, you cant buy it which leads to clearer goals and better decisions. That for me is Walmarts big disadvantage, they have all in the knowledge in retail but their ecommerce talent roster is bare.. prove me wrong Walmart and I will retract that sentence.

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JP Morgan invests in a Rocket, LivingSocial confirms exit of MENA, Turkish ecommerce delights and Kindle launches in India.

It is Q3 and it is obvious that global ecommerce companies are gearing for the end of 2012. Heck, the M&A activity is hot and happening. As an observer of ecommerce activity it is becoming ever increasingly visible that developing ecommerce markets is the new battleground for the big players. There is not one part in the value chain that has not seen a spike in activity.

This past week has raised serious questions on MENA for me. Egypt is rapidly becoming a battle field for companies looking to get first mover advantage. I thought when LivingSocial entered MENA via an acquisition that the market would become more mature in the coming 12 months. The news this week that LivingSocial is moving out of the market poses questions on just how viable the Middle East is.

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Rocket Internet pruning their investments, LivingSocial to pull out of the Middle East and become.com redesigns.

The e-commerce stories for the past week is dominated by Rocket Internet. The German clone factory raised additional capital for its European fashion company Zalando. They added J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Quadrant Capital Advisors as its newest backers and I believe Zalando will over time become more important for the Rocket Group… It seems from the outside that something is going on at Rocket Internet. More on that later.

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Square gets a cup of coffee from Starbucks, Maelle Gavet from Ozon.ru, Multiply pivots to ecommerce,  ShopGo enables ecommerce in the Middle East and mobile commerce is the week in a few words.

The summary of the 10 e-commerce stories for the past week highlights just how global ecommerce is. Let me start by saying it was a fun week for news and plenty of excellent articles made me think about the future. Russia is the last big market that is available for ecommerce investment but the Ozon story highlights how dominant the company is. Remember the name Ozon.ru, as I suspect that the company is on track to become a emerging market heavy weight.

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