The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 24 August 2012

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.

India is steadily growing into an important ecommerce market. However, with the exception of clear market leaders such as Flipkart, I wonder whether the market is moving forward or not?

The 10 ecommerce news stories that got my attention is:

1. J.P. Morgan invests $45 million in Brazilian e-retailer Dafiti – Surely I am not the only person wondering why J.P. Morgan suddenly is so keen into invest into Rocket Internet ecommerce businesses? Zalando and Dafiti are both in the fashion industry but are in two very different regions (Europe and Latin America)

2. How eBay Turned Around a Dying Business (Secret Word: Mobile) – eBay is arguably the most successful ecommerce business in mobile globally? However, I wonder what is the percentage in difference of value between visits on smartphones and tablets?

3. Meet the International E-Commerce Contenders – The markets mentioned is Brazil, China and the Middle East and they are explained in great detail. The only let down is that no ecommerce businesses are mentioned and a pretty vital new market is MIA.. (SEA is missing for those wondering)

4. Play.com customers spent £2m through Facebook in 2011 – I must confess this is the first proper data I have seen on the ecommerce economics in social media. We all have read about Dell and South West Airlines but no other examples are well known. Rakuten, who owns Play.com is definitely a global powerhouse.

5. Rocket Internet May Face Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over ‘Kasuwa’ Trademark in Nigeria – It felt that the Jumia decision mentioned last week was a bit odd. A lawsuit over copyright infringement seemingly was the reason for the name change.

6. China’s next top models bypass the catwalk for the Web – What is one of the fundamental items of ecommerce? Product pages, and on them are images, right? Well Alibaba’s Taobao has added an element that is quite out there.  “Taobao ranks the girls based on sales of the products they pitch, as well as their popularity among vendors and fans who can vote on the website. Sellers can then make an online booking to hire a girl to pose with their product.” Read the entire post, it makes one realise that many elements in ecommerce can be seen from another angle.

7. What Ever Happened to the Promise of B2B Ecommerce? A fascinating post from Erin Griffith from PandoDaily. B2B is not the most sexy part of ecommerce but Amazon is relooking at the vertical with AmazonSupply. I am expecting more entrants..

8. Groupon is not a tech company. Why was it valued like one? – Andrew Mason must be wondering why he said no to the Google acquisiti0n. OM Malik nails it with this post on Groupon.

9. Online sales grow in Turkey – Turkey is a market which long term may become a keeper. After seeing it first hand; the high penetration of credit cards, smart phones and demographics, it does definitely indicate that Turkey is a hot market for ecommerce.

10. Amazon launches standalone Kindle Store in India – The Kindle store has become the symbol for me that Amazon has finally arrived in a market. Junglee is a bit of disappointment but from own experience the bookstores in India are pretty good. This can potentially add a whole lot more users to Junglee..

Bonus links this week (I have a few interesting posts that need further attention):

Onwards..