EMERGE - Tophatter Produces Addictive Online Auctions

Tophatter Claims 90 Second Auctions are an Entertaining Way to Buy Online 

Imagine 16 million online shoppers (TOPHATTER'S number) focused on over ninety items each one in an individual auction window showing the retail price, the number of bidders, the current bid, the cost to ship and a countdown bar that displays the bidding process (Accepting Bids, Going Once, Going Twice) until SOLD.

The entertainment value of watching things go at prices that are unexpected, eventually draws buyers and sellers to participate, according to some observers. Over the holidays, we observed several sessions and experienced the addictive nature of this auction medium. Although not registered as a buyer, one could easily imagine how setting aside $50 for a few hours of fun and entertainment with surprising results (purchases) could be fun.

Online auctions aren't new, as those who follow this sort of thing know. Platforms such as eBay, Invaluable (France) and Auction King (Sacramento, California) provide a price discovery service and logistics for sellers as well as some level of vendor trust indication for buyers. Platforms like Kijiji and Craigslist compete with print media classified advertising to bring together buyers and sellers for price discovery. Platforms like Amazon, Alibaba and Walmart try to replicate the whole shopping experience for the online customer with huge investments in logistics and inventory to secure customer satisfaction for their own brands and those they serve.

However, what seems novel about the Tophatter platform is the way this service adds a measure of gamble and entertainment to the process. TOPHATTER promises vendors, the fastest growing mobile shopping app for professional sellers, businesses, and brands.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT:
This platform provides another low cost path to the consumer with a novel client experience factor. Since streaming video is influencing the consumer to stay out of the marketplace faster than anyone anticipated, adding a window to the entertainment screen so consumers can play in an online auction may have surprising results. Watch for platform competitors, for brands using the service to introduce new products and for the impact on liquidators like the 'Dollar Store' etc.

INVEST - Nextdoor raises US$75M

Nextdoor raises Series E at a valuation of US$1,425,000,000

According to the Nextdoor website, this application is a free, private social network for you, your neighbors and your community. They claim it's the easiest way to connect and talk with your neighbors about the things that matter in your neighborhood. They suggest when neighbors start talking, good things can happen. 

During the California Wildfires, this site was used by neighbours to share information and to assist each other with appropriate responses to a rapidly changing situation. 

According to the Crunchbase Profile, Nextdoor has raised a total of US$285,200,000 in five rounds. The application is receiving 60,899,036 monthly visits in 160,000 communities in the US, UK and Germany. The San Francisco based company was organized in 2010 and hopes to gather up neighbours around the globe into an ecosystem that supports and encourages community activities.

Although the focus of the free service currently seems to be on gathering subscribers, management says monetization of the application will eventually rely upon listings for real estate and other items that neighbours wish to share. There are parallels with applications such as Craig's List and eBay.

PayPal and EBay Chart Separate Paths into the Future

EBay will spin off its PayPal business into a separate publicly traded company in 2015.

Retweet (WSJ) - EBay Inc. said today it plans to spin off its PayPal electronic-payments business into a separate publicly traded company next year, acceding to the wishes of activist investor Carl Icahn who had pushed for the company to split.

The decision marks a sharp reversal for a company that spent a lot of time and money earlier this year fighting Mr. Icahn and the premise that eBay would be better divided. Now, eBay is employing many of the same arguments Mr. Icahn made in urging the split, saying, for example, that it would enable management to better focus on emerging challenges and opportunities and free PayPal to more easily reach agreements with companies that compete with eBay's online marketplace.

The payments landscape is changing rapidly, and Apple Inc. unveiled this month a new mobile-payment service it hopes will shake up the industry further. Also changing is eBay's leadership as Chief Executive John Donahoe steps down as CEO.

Mr. Schulman is a former Sprint Nextel executive and chief executive of Priceline.com, the discount travel website. He joined American Express in 2010 to lead the company's expansion into alternative forms of payment. There, he headed a new unit called the Enterprise Growth Group, which invested in companies focused on serving digital commerce.

Investors appeared to approve of news of the split, as shares of eBay jumped 7.4% to $56.57 in midday trading Tuesday, giving it a market value of about $65 billion. Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst, estimated the combined value of the PayPal and eBay is $62 per share.

PayPal has been on pace to overtake eBay's core marketplace by sales. In the June quarter, the payments unit boosted sales 20% to $1.95 billion and added 4.1 million new active customers from the first quarter, to 152.5 million. PayPal facilitates one in every six dollars spent online, eBay said. At its namesake marketplace, revenue rose 9% to $2.17 billion as the number of active accounts increased by 3.8 million to 148.9 million.

EBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.4 billion in stock. After the spinoff, PayPal and eBay will continue working together, the company said, with Robert Swan, eBay's finance chief, adding that both will have strong balance sheets. EBay plans to hold on to its current $7.5 billion in debt.

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