Jingdong to enter the US?, Alibaba invests into ShopRunner, Bad news for LivingSocial (was there any good news about LivingSocial?) and more

Ladies and Gentleman, may I be the first person to put it on record that the Superpowers (Tencent, Jingdong and Alibaba) of the East are beginning to move to other markets (Europe, US and others). Alibaba and Tencent are the businesses that in my mind will disrupt big Internet businesses. Alibaba have made a handful of investments into US ecommerce businesses which are all areas that they lacked in. Tencent, I think will disrupt mobile commerce in a very big way. However, the news that Jingdong (360buy.com) met with partners in the US made me shake my head in disbelief. It makes little or no sense – as the incumbents are invested into the market heavily and potentially could lead to a heavy spending spree by JD.com (not that that has been a problem).

Alibaba’s investment into ShopRunner is an interesting one as that seems to be a clear ploy to counter Amazon Prime. I am going to say this once – Alibaba is the only company that can battle Amazon head on. The rest will have to watch the market moves and ponder the future. Whether Alibaba wants to go directly against Amazon is another question?

LivingSocial with Groupon were the ecommerce darlings for the quick investors but both are looking at strategies to survive. Groupon is pivoting to being a local commerce businesses focused on payment, restaurant bookings etc. LivingSocial bought aggressively in 2011 and are looking in real bad shape. How long before the completely disappear is the real question. Ticket Monster, LivingSocials big acquisition is for sale..  Is it a case of model no longer being relevant? The Group buying business is in my mind, the digital version of impulse buying and that is not a sustainable behaviour to replicate online. Groupon is however making progress and in all might be the only survivor in the group buying space.

The 10 stories that caught my attention last week:

1. Breaking Ads: Google Shopping Completely Stops Free traffic? – This is a topic that is very interesting. One, I thought free traffic from Google Shopping ended, secondly I think we will see this phenomenon quite a bit more. Free traffic is bad for Google’s revenue but I think CPCStrategy may have spotted something else that Google was testing. I still think that Google was sandbagging when the ads were free..
2. Seattle Times owner scoffs at Craigslist founder’s journalism advocacy efforts – Craig Newmark from Craiglist is a topic that raises its head every so often. Whether it be court cases (hello eBay and startups) or being called out for killing the revenue making part of newspaper publishing, he gets mentioned. I am in two minds over the newspaper claims but think that maybe oneday he will write a book that will tell his side of the story.
3. Affiliate marketing startup PopShops acquired by Rakuten – PopShops is an affiliate platform that seemingly has a firehose of data that enables marketers to potentially make revenue from affiliate data. Rakuten Linkshare – I think is becoming more important for Rakuten due to its technology and revenue making ability.
4. Denmark’s “youngest fashion billionaire” invests in Zalando – This is a big news story. In a sense this a technical exit for Rocket Internet from the company they formed in 2008. The shareholders in Zalando are some of the biggest investors and fashion businesses (Investment AB Kinnevik: 37%, European Founders Fund: 18%, Anders Holch Povlsen: 10%, DST Global: 9%, Holtzbrinck Ventures: 8%, Tengelmann Ventures: 6%, Others: 12%). Kinnevik is now the biggest shareholder in Zalando, do they IPO in 2o14?
5. Exclusive: Snapdeal Raises $75 Million From Softbank – Softbank investing into Snapdeal is a new source of interest. Indian ecommerce is suddenly getting lots of investment again. Is it a case that Amazon’s entry has forced investors to ensure their business is on the road to a long existence?
6. Why Is Amazon Hiring for a Secret New Jersey Warehouse? –  A great scoop by Jason Del Rey. I think this may be AmazonFresh’s arrival to New York potentially. Alternatively it is another indicator that New York / New Jersey has a lot of Amazon customers.
7. Improving the eBay Experience: Interview with Hugh Williams – Hugh Williams arguably has had one of the most interesting task to do in the ecommerce space in the past 12 months. Williams is the VP of Experience, Search and Platforms at eBay which has to rebuild search at eBay. Cassini is off to a good start but the real results will be seen on Black Friday and over the festive season..
8. The Urban-First eCommerce Approach: Looking To Emerging Markets – Forrester Research provides the most logical explanation for eCommerce roll out in emerging markets. Urban first makes a lot of sense and provides the business to learn from the first set of challenges. This is something that I have not seen executed well..
9. Lazada launches Marketplace platform, wants to be the Alibaba of SEA – This is arguably the news of the week. Lazada going into marketplace in South East Asia is literally going against 2 juggernauts in Asia (Rakuten and Alibaba) whom has much more experience than what is at Lazada.
10. Former Amazon manager takes Chinese e-commerce company global – This story got me thinking. Does JD.com really think they have a chance in the US? Why the meet and greet with the various partners in a market that has a marketleader that is closing businesses down.

Bonus links:

• Skift raises undisclosed funding from Times Internet – Skift is a really good service but why have they battled to get funding from Expedia and Google?
• Birchbox Says Its Subscription Model Is Working, With 25% Of Revenues Coming From E-Commerce Store – Birchbox is in my mind an outlier. Name me one other subscription ecommerce business that is successful?
• Amazon launches page featuring the funniest product reviews – This is a very clever idea from Amazon some of this content is so amusing that you spend quite a bit of time on the reviews page.

Onwards..