Billion Dollar Unicorns: Thumbtack Joins the Ranks

Analysts estimate the local commerce market for service providers to be anywhere between $400 billion-$800 billion. Despite its size, the industry is still heavily reliant on word-of-mouth and Yellow Pages like services. But the market is opening up and bigger vendors like Amazon and Google are joining in. Recently, Thumbtack, another smaller platform in the industry, joined the Billion Dollar Unicorn club with a model that is marginally different from the rest.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: ZocDoc Should Be Able To Withstand Public Market Scrutiny

It is well-known that the healthcare industry has been rather slow in adopting the benefits of the digital age. While federal regulations may have led to the implementation of the electronic health record system, when it comes to the simple task of taking an appointment over the Net, things still aren’t quite there. Billion Dollar Unicorn player ZocDoc realized this early in the day and has made significant advances to tap into this market opportunity.

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Challenges and Opportunities for Split HP

Early this month, Hewlett Packard split into two companies — HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE). HP Inc. will be dealing with the computers and printers business while HP Enterprise will include the software, storage, services, cloud, and financial segments. This post will look at the challenges as well as the opportunities for these two companies. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Machine Zone Translates Multi-Player Games to Multi-Billion Valuation

According to Superdata Research, the online massively-multiplayer (MMO) game industry is estimated to grow to $11 billion in 2015, accounting for 21% of the worldwide digital games market. The industry is estimated to be worth $13 billion by 2017. Free-to-play constitutes the biggest pie of this market with $9.3 billion in revenues in 2015 and growing to $11.1 billion by 2017. The pay-to-play segment is expected to grow from $2.3 billion in 2015 to $1.7 billion by 2017. Leading online MMO game developer and Billion Dollar Unicorn Machine Zone is already witnessing rapid growth in adoption and market valuation.

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Carnival in the Cloud: Workday and Oracle Continue to Battle it Out

According to a recent research report, cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions market is estimated to have grown 21% in 2014 to $6.1 billion. It is further expected to grow to $10 billion by 2019 at a CAGR of 10%. SAP is the leader in the market with 11% share and Workday (NYSE: WDAY) is the second largest player accounting for 9% of the market, followed by Ultimate Software with 7% share and Oracle with 6% share.

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What Lies Ahead for Salesforce?

According to Gartner, worldwide CRM software sales grew 13.3% to $23.2 billion in 2014. About 47% of the sales were SaaS-based, which has helped Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) grow its market share to 18.6% in the No.1 spot. Salesforce has been successful in leveraging SaaS in CRM for its growth. Its recent results are a testimony to that. But now, it is looking at analytics and verticals for more growth. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Alteryx is a Prospect

According to a Research and Markets report, the global Business Intelligence and Analytics Software Market is expected to grow from $17.90 billion in 2014 to $26.78 billion by 2019, at a CAGR of 8.4%. Gartner adds that with the proliferation of data sources and applications, analytics is shifting from being a singular tool to become more omnipresent, embedded in various applications and infrastructures. One vendor in this evolving BI and analytics space is Alteryx, which is seen as a prospective Billion Dollar Unicorn. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Ele.Me Shows Online-2-Offline Works

China’s total consumption in the food ordering industry is estimated to grow from 450 billion yuan (~$70.6 billion) in 2013 to 700 billion yuan (~$109.9 billion) by 2016, at an annual growth rate of 16%. Back in 2013, food delivering accounted for nearly 10% of this market, which indicates that the food ordering and delivery industry will reach 70 billion yuan (~$11 billion) by 2016. China’s Billion Dollar Unicorn Ele.me is a leading player in this segment.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Match.com Looking to Court the Stock Market Now

According to an IBISWorld report, dating sites in the US are expected to earn $1.17 billion in 2015 with dating apps expected to bring in $628.8 million. In 2014, dating sites had generated $1.08 billion in revenues with dating apps accounting for $572 million in revenues. The market has seen significant consolidation in the online dating industry with over 10 dating companies getting acquired last year. Analysts attribute the consolidation to there being “too many players and not a lot generating sufficient revenue for these sites”. Among the leading players in the segment is Billion Dollar Unicorn player Match.com, which recently filed to go public.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Atlassian Now Prepping for a US Listing

According to a Gartner report, the Application Development market is projected to be worth $8.7 billion this year. An IDC report estimates the Collaborative Applications market to be worth $13.5 billion and the Project and Portfolio Management market to be worth $3.8 billion in 2015. Australian entry to the Billion Dollar Unicorn club Atlassian has established a strong presence in these markets and is now looking to list on the US Stock exchange.

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