RetailMeNot Ventures into Gift Card Business

According to an eMarketer report published last year, the share of US companies using mobile coupons for marketing purposes is expected to increase from 32% in 2013 to 44.5% in 2016. That share is expected to grow to 48% in 2017, implying that nearly half of the US companies with more than 100 employees will distribute mobile coupons either through SMS, websites, apps, or emails. The report also estimates that the number of US adults who redeemed digital coupons grew 7.6% to 121.3 million in 2015.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Airbnb Continues to Soar

A recent report by Research and Markets estimates the global vacation rental industry to be worth $100 billion. The US holds the biggest market share with nearly a 25% market share. The report further expects the global vacation rental market to be worth $170 billion by 2019. Billion Dollar Unicorn Club member Airbnb is already seeing strong growth in this industry.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Square Eyeing Large Sellers

According to eMarketer, the number of people in the US using proximity mobile payments is expected to grow 61.8% to 37.5 million by 2016 while mobile payments are estimated to grow 210% to $27.05 billion in 2016 from $8.71 billion in 2015. Mobile payment firm Square, former member of the Billion Dollar Unicorn Club, went public early this year and recently reported second quarter results that beat analyst estimates. >>>

Tableau Faces Increasing Competition

According to Gartner, the business intelligence (BI) and analytics market is in the final stages of a multi-year shift from IT-led, system-of-record reporting to business-led, self-service analytics. Global revenue in the BI and analytics market is forecast to grow 5.2% over the year and reach $16.9 billion in 2016. >>>

Energy Recovery Expands in the Middle East

According to a MarketsandMarkets research report on Water Desalination Equipment Market, the water desalination industry is estimated to grow 9% annually to be worth $15.27 billion by 2018. The report cites that the Middle East region is the largest market for water desalination equipment as it is witnessing the biggest number of activities in utilities, construction, and industrial end-uses in countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar. Water desalination vendor Energy Recovery Inc. (ERI) (NASDAQ: ERII) is already benefitting from the contracts out of the region.

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From Unicorn to Unicorpse: Jive Software Beats Estimates

According to a ReportsnReports research report, the global enterprise social software market is projected to grow 11.3% annually from $4.77 billion in 2014 to $8.14 billion in 2019. However, ever since it went public in December 2011, enterprise social software provider Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE) has seen its valuation dwindle from $1.5 billion to around $300 million and its status has been degraded from a Billion Dollar Unicorn to a unicorpse*. >>>

Baidu Fighting Regulatory Challenges

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) has been struggling in recent quarters due to regulatory pressure. The company, however, has been moving beyond search to other areas like online video and autonomous cars, and its latest venture is into Augmented Reality (AR). >>>

ServiceNow Diversifies

According to recent reports on the cloud services, global spending on public cloud Infrastructure as a Service hardware and software is estimated to grow to $38 billion in 2016 and the market is estimated to grow to $173 billion in 2026. The Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) parts of cloud hardware and infrastructure software spending are estimated to grow to $12 billion this year and will grow to $55 billion by the year 2026. Another report by IDC estimates that by 2020, penetration of SaaS versus traditional software deployment will be more than 25% and packaged software consumption in enterprise segment will shrink to 10% of new installations. Most cloud companies are therefore switching gears to address this rapidly expanding market. >>>

Alphabet Reaches Record High

After a disappointing quarter to start the year with, Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) appears to have got its groove back. The company’s recently reported results helped push the stock to a record high. And with its continued investment in the Cloud and Video, Alphabet’s growth won’t end soon.

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Amazin’ Amazon

It sounds like a broken record when it comes to Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) earnings. The company delivered another stellar quarter that even recorded its biggest profits ever. And most of it is thanks to the cloud.

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