Both Microsoft and American Express are fighting to acquire equity in the company.
A number of technology news reports that were recently published have suggested that insiders who are close to this issue claim that American Express Co. and Microsoft are both showing interest in purchasing an equity stake in Foursquare Labs Inc.
If these reports are true, then it suggests that the two giants would rather invest in the company than work jointly on it.
Foursquare is a tremendously popular form of mobile check-in platform. At the same time that this technology news was being released, it was also in negotiations with venture capitalists in possession of convertible debt with regards to transforming their current “holdings into equity”. The discussions that are underway are also indicating that the prospective investors have become more bold about the potential of Foursquare, following the results that it has been achieving through its latest approach to advertising that gives brands the ability to target users at the time that they have checked into a specific location.
This technology news is clearly highly appealing to Microsoft and American Express, that each have their own plans for it.
From the side of Microsoft, the acquisition of Foursquare would provide the giant with the opportunity to develop a larger role in both mobile commerce as well as in the social media scene. On the other hand, it is believed that American Express is primarily interested in the check-in platform so that it will be able to boost its competitive edge with its credit card rivals through the use of enhanced marketing an improved loyalty programs that are furthered by the influence of social media.
Steven Rosenblatt, the chief revenue officer for Foursquare, released a technology news statement, recently, which said that “I think we’ve proven our business model.” He also went on to add that “Our business model is very clear and it’s working, doing what we thought it would do, if not more. It’s all well ahead of what we anticipated.” If the rumors are true about Microsoft and American Express, then clearly Rosenblatt is right.
Yesmail Interactive has released a benchmark report that shows that consumers often access email over these devices.
An insightful benchmark report has just been released by Yesmail Interactive, which could prove to be highly useful to online mobile marketing and commerce companies who are currently – or who will be – using email to communicate with consumers.
The report showed that a tremendous percentage of consumers are using their smartphones and tablets to open emails.
It also revealed more detailed data, such as the fact that an overwhelmingly large number of brand emails are being opened specifically over devices based on Apple’s iOS. At the same time, Android devices are far behind that leader, with only 17 percent of owners opening brand emails using their devices. Windows, BlackBerry, and other device platforms are barely on the radar with a slim 1 percent.
Yesmail assembled its mobile marketing report based on an analysis of more than 5 billion emails.
The over 5 billion emails sent by Yesmail revealed the following key figures:
• Consumer service organizations such as Groupon or Yelp experience a mobile marketing email open rate of over 50 percent, which is a figure that is the highest in the industry. This suggests that this sector is performing the best in terms of optimizing their emails for smartphone and tablet users.
• One third of all consumers were deemed to be “device-agnostic” by the report. Also known as hybrid users, they use smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers equally, without preference, for viewing emails.
• 61 percent of active users either exclusively use their smartphones or tablets to open mobile marketing emails, or use their mobiles and desktops interchangeably.
• The most effective frequency of email sending is from three to seven times per week. The companies that have the greatest active subscriber percentage (21 percent) send an email at least one time every two days. When emails are sent on a daily basis, the figure plummets to 11 percent.
• Among all email opens, 49 percent occur on a smartphone or tablet.
• There is a 100 percent higher click-to-open rate on desktops when compared to smartphones and tablets, across all industries.
• Eighty two percent of all mobile marketing email opening activity occurs on Apple devices.
The insight from this report could be highly beneficial for underscoring the need for proper mobile marketing optimization for emails, and tailoring a campaign to provide consumers with the experience that they expect and prefer.
