Rishi Taparia - Issue #28
This week Amazon makes FedEx and UPS nervous, both AirBnB and Ant Financial say no thanks to an IPO, Goldman furthers their shopping spree, WhatsApp starts P2Peering at more payments capabilities and more. Enjoy!
Commerce
Amazon to Launch Delivery Service That Would Vie With FedEx, UPS
Amazon wants to own their destiny and refuses to be reliant on any third party, end to end. They are planning now looking to launch their own delivery service, an interesting albeit unsurprising move given the decrease in truckers in the country. Jeff Bezos has previously said that truck-driving is a retraining option for its employees. Clearly, Amazon has been tracking trucking employment trends for some time now.
Target, Casper deepen ties with new exclusives
Target is looking to differentiate on merch. Casper is looking to drive offline distribution having opened 15 of its own stores. Now Casper can go after Target’s 1,200-store brick-and-mortar stores. Target and mattress firm Casper have deepened ties, with exclusive lines being offered to Target customers.
Alibaba to take $486 mln stake in China retail data firm
Data is increasingly central to the future of retail. Alibaba has spent more than $10 billion ramping their brick-and-mortar outlets. Now they are investing $486M into Shiji Retail Information Technology, provider of software and data systems to hotels, retailers and entertainment companies.
FinTech
China's Ant plans equity fundraising at potential $100 billion valuation
This is big news and will be a surprise to many who thought that Ant Financial would go public this year (myself included). The company is said to be raising up to $5 billion in fresh equity that could value the online payments giant at more than $100 billion. A surprising move, particularly given Alibaba’s recent 33% investment.
WhatsApp has launched person-to-person payments into beta in India
India seems to be ground zero for WhatsApp’s foray into payments. After testing B2C payments, WhatsApp has begun testing a new payments feature in India that will allow people to send money to other WhatsApp users. The feature is currently in beta, and making WhatsApp more competitive against the likes of Alipay, WeChat and Venmo.
Goldman Is Close to Buying Personal-Finance Startup Clarity
When you hear Goldman, you’re likely to think investment bankers in suits swimming in pools of money (…right? Or is just me). Regardless, Goldman is now beefing up it’s consumer practice, leading with its online lender Marcus. Now it seems they are in discussions to acquire personal-finance startup Clarity Money, with plans to fold it into its Marcus online lender.
Technology
Inside Airbnb’s Battle to Stay Private
A busy week for AirBnB. Lawrence Tosi, CFO and the man many expected to help navigate the company through an IPO (and who just so happened to build a $60m a year hedge fund within the company) was shown the door as the company looks to stay private. A great read illustrating a crossroads many so-called unicorns are facing in 2018.
AirBnB - Helping hosts lower their mortgage rate
In addition to promoting Belinda Johnson to the position f COO, AirBnb is launching a mortgage refinancing program. Hosts who share their primary residence (key to the initiative it seems) are invited to apply to refinance with Quicken Loans, Citizens Bank, or Better Mortgage. A great way to drive stickiness on the platform.
Random Tidbits
Jordan B. Peterson on 12 Rules for Life
The clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson, who previously wrote the acclaimed “Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief” has released his new book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos”. If you don’t feel like reading the book (you should), here’s a video of a talk he gave at the How to: Academy. Well worth a listen!