Hidden champions from Sweden, US and China!
3-in-1: 3 digital news in 1 minute. On Monday. Episode 210
1.374 subscribers on Messenger follow these Monday news. Now on Medium. Discover 3 original digital news, invest one minute and be a better professional!
News 1: Instacart, the hidden champion and winner
Instacart is an app for delivery or pick-up of grocery in the US. The surprising winner in e-commerce during the covid-19 crisis. Usage went up +500%. More supermarkets were on-boarded (400 retailers, 30.000 stores). All but Walmart with its own system. Instacart do any kind of delivery. And new finance round of $225m at a stunning §13,7 billion valuation. Opinion for B2B: 2018 was the Instacart year with 4 funding rounds (over 1 billion) and lot of attention. Then we heard very few in Europe… but in the meantime, Instacart grew its network, logistics and users. Now the incredible winner during lockdown time. The real competitor to the two US giants Amazon and Walmart! And a great iconic green delivery bag!
Love hidden Champion!
News 2: Facebook shops maps in Malmö
Facebook just acquired Mapillary, a map platform specialised on “street level”. OpenStreetMap is a crowd-sourced imaging of street that Mapillary patrons. Behind the Malmö (Sweden) based start-up is a complete software suite around mapping. The entrance for Facebook in Maps competition. Opinion for B2B: Competition is larger than just maps, dominated by Google Maps. Google, Apple and now Snapchat have used mapping to promote local business and shopping. No maps, no local shopping. Facebook close this deficit and gives another hint on big plan for shopping!
Great start-up Mapillary like many Swedish start-ups. This one from Malmö, not Stockholm.
News 3: Greatest unknown sales event. 618 in Europe
618 is a mid-year sales festival imagined by second largest e-commerce JD.com in China. An event that peaks on June, 18th (hence 6/18). AliExpress, the international shopping app of AliBaba pushed last week great sales in its European app, named 618 “SummerSales”. AliExpress is #1 marketplace in countries like Russia and #2 in Spain (even a store in Madrid). Opinion for B2B: All Chinese goods marketplace are running the 618-like sales. Top app Shein (often leading download charts in EU) also have summer sales with incredible offers. But will consumers question the logic behind these apps; only cheap China goods, globalisation at the extreme, delivery oversea and no impact on local business.
Too few attention towards AliExpress, Shein and alike!
Authors are the 10 trend scouters at Space and Lemon, always on the hunt for the newest trends in tech and digital. Gathered here in original weekly news since 2016 — no re-write of TechCrunch, always with an opinion and B2B takeout. Come back next Monday and share your opinion.
