Wednesday : Bulletin Board #DayRecap

Snapdeal.com launches Office Equipment Category with over 1,000 products

Online marketplace, Snapdeal.com has now added Office Equipment category on its platform. “Often when young entrepreneurs or small enterprises are scaling up, they have trouble locating a place from where they can shop for all their office needs. We want to address this with our new collection of office equipment. With the largest assortment and the best prices, we are not just selling to businesses now but are also enabling them,” said Tony Navin, VP-Business Development.

The new range of administrative and office equipment includes over 1,000 products from brands like Canon, Xerox, Brother, Dymo, Casio, Bambalio, Epson, Fellowes, Fiskars, Godrej, Maxsell, Motorola, Mega etc.

Companies like Officeyes and Kobster deal specifically in this category.

CEB Acquires Indian talent analytics Startup Talent Neuron for $15 Mn

Corporate Executive Board, the U.S.-based member advisory company has acquired Talent Neuron for around $10-$15 Mn. Talent Neuron was incubated by Bangalore based Zinnov, two years ago.

The Talent Neuron tools, which will now be available as CEB TalentNeuron, provide view into talent market dynamics across 600 cities, 7,500 companies and 90 roles globally. This visibility empowers HR and other corporate leaders to incorporate fact-based analysis of talent demographics, availability, cost and competitive landscape into key operating and strategic decisions.

Tom Monahan, CEB chairman and CEO said that the acquisition will help them bridge the gap between talent outcomes and business outcomes by equipping them with the missing link—trusted employee and market data—that strengthens their planning processes and complements their own good judgment.

MagicBricks Challenges Data released by Competitors

Sudhir Pai , Head of MagicBricks today posted an entry on TimesInternet official blog. The post,  claims that recent report published by Medianama on statistics and numbers of online property portals of India is not true. He also stated that his post is based on the recent 12 months of data by ComScore.

The blog entry highlights 5 major data points comparing all leading online property portals. As per Sudhir,“With 99Acres slightly ahead on UVs recently, and CommonFloor ahead of both last month). In our view: we care more about the total visits than UVs. It’s easier to ‘buy’ UVs by spending on SEM and getting people to visit one time (even people who aren’t looking for a home). For the last 6 months, we’ve reduced our SEM/paid traffic. That’s why despite 99Acres and Magicbricks having similar number of visitors, Magicbricks gets significantly more visits and leads the category by a comfortable margin.”

Read the full post here

Inmobi launches video ad platform

Bangalore and San Francisco based mobile ad network InMobi has launched Video ads network which will enable brands/advertisers to enhance video ads by introducing clickable windows and call-to-action buttons to increase the interaction rate. On the other side, consumers will only receive contextually relevant ads based on external feeds like location, weather etc.

Interactive Canvas: Improve brand lift with ads that creatively engage consumers. Customize your creative and overlay interactive content at any time during video play using innovative calls-to-action.

Video SmartAds: Trigger delivery of contextually relevant videos and messages.

Video Continuum: Sequence brand messages across campaigns using video to reinforce brand recall and enhance favorability. Tell story using a series of videos with similar frames, backgrounds, or cue triggers that aid brand recall.

Form Capture: Drive lead generation, CRM activity, and audience measurement by encouraging users to share information as part of the interactive Video Ad experience.

Last month, Inmobi launched native advertising on its platform.

AmEx invests in Bangalore based Capillary Technologies

Bangalore based Capillary Technologies has raised undisclosed amount in funding from American Express Ventures, the venture capital arm of American Express. As per various reports the amount is Rs 33 Cr, which the company plans to utilize for expanding its operations in new markets, like China and Australia, and also to partner with the clients of American Express across the globe.

Capillary Technologies provides cloud-based software solutions that help retailers to engage intelligently with customers through in-store, mobile, social media and e-mail channels. Capillary’s platform powers end-to-end customer engagement, clienteling, loyalty and social CRM for more than 150 major brands across 10,000 retail locations.

It was founded by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Reddy, Krishna Mehra and Ajay Modani, five years back and so far has raised around Rs 124 Cr in funding, from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures.

GetitBazaar introduces integrated payment and delivery solution

getitBazaar has recently introduced integration transaction processing service which will help the sellers in integrating their existing websites, Facebook page, mobile apps, call center application, etc onto getitBazaar’s platform, which, in turn, will then take care of all the payments and logistics needs of the seller.

Sellers will have to pay a one-time integration fee of Rs 15,000 with a transaction processing fee of Rs 100 to avail the service. In case the order value exceeds Rs 4,000, a charge of 2.5% would be applicable instead of Rs 100. For heavy items above 5 kgs in weight and 25 litres in volume, a surcharge would be levied.

Yahoo announces Gurmit Singh as Managing Director for Yahoo India

Yahoo has announced the appointment of Gurmit Singh as Managing Director for Yahoo India.  As MD, Gurmit will oversee Yahoo’s business in India, and be responsible for its growth in the country and will report to Yvonne Chang, VP & Head of India and South East Asia, Yahoo.

Commenting on the appointment, Yvonne Chang, VP & Head of India and South East Asia, Yahoo said, “Gurmit comes to Yahoo with a strong track record of delivering growth. His understanding of users and advertisers will be a great asset for Yahoo as we bring a number of product innovations to India. Yahoo is a loved brand in India, and we are very happy to have a leader of Gurmit’s caliber leading the team.”

Gurmit has over 20 years of experience in the Media & Entertainment industry in India and most recently served as the CEO of Forbes India at Network 18.

Alibaba to launch US ecommerce site

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is now all set to launch a U.S. ecommerce website through its subsidiaries Vendio and Auctiva, says the company. Its subsidiaries will launch a business-to-consumer site, 11 Main for the US genre. Alibaba hasn’t given any details about the initiative beyond saying that it will be boutique ecommerce platform selling “interesting quality products” from “handpicked shop owners”.

Despite having full ownership, 11 Main will be run independently by its two subsidiaries. “Alibaba is happy to support 11 Main.. Alibaba is run by entrepreneurs and firmly believes in supporting entrepreneurs with great vision and a strong sense of mission for their companies.”

Last year, Alibaba had also paid $200 Mn for a minority stake in ShopRunner Inc, a US retail site.

Yahoo acquires diary app maker Wander

Continuing with its shopping style Yahoo has now acquired a New York based diary app maker Wander for an undisclosed sum, though as per Techcrunch, the deal is likely to be around $ 10 Mn. Launched by Jeremy Fisher, Wander has raised a total of $ 1.2 Mn so far. Initially, Wander was focussed towards sharing of travel experiences in a diary, but later it pivoted focus towards an app called Days.

Days is a visual diary that lets users capture & share their whole day at once. As per a blogpost by Wander, the Days app will live on as a standalone entity.

A few days back Yahoo had also acquired Cloud Party.