Billion Dollar Unicorns: Pinterest Eyes E-Commerce

According to eMarketer, worldwide business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales are expected to reach $2.3 trillion by 2017. Billion Dollar Unicorn Club  member Pinterest is eyeing this market with its recent launch of Buyable Pins. This comes amid the rise of discovery-driven commerce apps such as Fancy, Wish, and Wanelo and the e-commerce plans of Facebook and Twitter. >>>

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Chegg Expands into Online Education

Analyts expect the digital education market to quadruple in size to $450 billion over the next five years. Chegg (NYSE: CHGG) is moving away from its traditional textbook rental service to focus on this disruptive market. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: InsideSales.com Bootstraps First, Raises Money Later

Analysts estimate the sales acceleration technology market to be worth $12.8 billion. Billion Dollar Unicorn club member InsideSales.com is making big inroads in this market.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Coupang Raises the Banner for South Korea

According to a recent eMarketer market, the total retail e-commerce market in South Korea is estimated to grow 11% this year to $36.76 billion, making them the third largest e-commerce market in the Asia-Pacific region, after China and Japan. E-commerce is expected to account for nearly 10% of South Korea’s total retail market share. The South Korean market is expected to grow to $47.8 billion by the year 2018. Billion Dollar Unicorn club member Coupang is already making big strides in the region.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Box Struggles in its Public Avatar

I have repeatedly written about the VC funding frenzy that has taken companies with doubtful business models to lofty valuations and exorbitant amounts of funding. Driven by such valuations, it is little surprise then that on the public stock exchanges even Billion Dollar Unicorns have faltered. Cloud storage company Box is one such example. After continuing to struggle with the timing of an IPO, Box went public earlier this year. Since listing, their valuation has been declining and the stock continues to struggle to go past its list price.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Dianping is Thriving in China with its Local Reviews Business

It is not just in the US where local business review sites such as Care.com and Angie’s List have gained lofty valuations from VC funding while relying on a faulty business model. The phenomenon has spread internationally where companies are counting on crowdsourced local reviews to drive advertising and subscription revenues across their platform. One such company is China’s Billion Dollar Unicorn club member Dianping. But Dianping appears to be taking good measures to rework this business model into one that actually may work. >>>

HomeAway Attempts to Regain Market Confidence Through Tie-Ups

After a disappointing first quarter performance, vacation rental site HomeAway (Nasdaq: AWAY) recently announced second quarter results that surpassed market expectations. Additionally, they have been tying up with several other online services providers in an effort to simplify the vacation planning process for their customers.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Garena Secures Singapore’s Entry to the Club

There aren’t many Southeast Asia-based companies that have joined the prestigious Billion Dollar Unicorn club. Singapore-based online and mobile entertainment provider Garena is one of the few who has joined the club and continues to grow at record pace. >>>

Watson Could Hold the Answers to IBM’s Woes

IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) revenues have been declining for a while now. But the company does not seem too worried as they continue to drive focus toward other investments, the biggest one being Watson. IBM’s cognitive system, Watson, has become the most well known example of super computers. Watson follows the human thinking process of observing, interpreting, evaluating and decision making to help automate processes across multiple industries. And IBM is ensuring they leave no stone unturned to support Watson.

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Carnival in the Cloud: Workday Delivers a Surprise Profit

According to Allied Market Research, the Global ERP Software Market is expected to grow 7% annually over the period 2014 through 2020 to be worth $41.69 billion. SaaS-based enterprise services provider Workday (NYSE: WDAY) has been doing well in this market. In fact, in the recent quarter, the company managed to sneak in a profit. It is hard to predict if they will manage to retain this profitability, but for now, things appear to be looking up.

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