December 24, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Tokyopop, along with the help of media distributor Baker & Taylor and MashON, launched the new Tokyopop online store. Along with new merchandise, the store store will be adding a print-on-demand feature that allows anime fans to purchase out-of-print titles.

This will be the latest venture for Baker & Taylor, who are the country’s leading independent magna media company. With the print-on-demand feature they hope to expand TextStream’s appearance by using Tokyopop as a launch pad. TextStream gives publisher a plethora of print-on-deamand / print-to-order services through a variety of binding formats and trim sizes.

By combing their partnership with MashON, Tokyopop will be able to provide a wide range of merchandise with magna brand designs, though they may need play a little catch up on product development as some of the goods are a bit outdated (only offering iPhone 3G cases).

“It’s an incredible bonus that we have partners who also have made it possible for us to offer print-to-order books and exclusive merchandise. We’ve always wanted to offer these features to our fanbase and now the technology is here for it,” says found and CEO of Tokyopop, Stu Levy.

MashON is also excited to be apart of Tokyopop’s new launch and foresee the blossoming of a beautiful relationship.

“As a technology provider, MashON has created a model for Tokyopop to integrate our e-commerce and creative platfrom with Baker & Taylor in such a way that it is the new benchmark for the publishing industry,” said Andre Costa de Sousa, MashON’s Head of Special Projects.

Alas, fans of Tokyopop are going to have to wait on the full fledged anime experience of the site, as it is still in its beta form. But that doesn’t mean Tokyopop can’t celebrate its new facelift. They will be offering 30 percent discounts storewide and providing free shipping on orders of $25 or more.

December 24, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

E-commerce book store Flipkart recently announced its acquisition of social book discovery site weRead from Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

weRead is considered the largest book based social network. It provides readers a platform in which they can view book recommendations and reviews of over 3 million readers and 60 million book titles. The site enables its members to list, rate, and write reviews about the books they have read or are currently reading and share the reviews on their social networks (Facebook, Orkut, Yahoo, MySpace and Hi5).

Flipkart started off its career as an online bookstore but has since moved into new product categories such as movies, music, games, and even plans to sell software like Norton Anti-virus, Adobe, Windows and others. The site has over 7 million book titles ranging across all facets of the human life cylce (kids to adults). Flipkart currently operates from offices in Bangalore, Mumbair, Delhi, and Kolkata.

It’s no mystery why Flipkart decided to buy up weRead. Flipkart’s purchase will allow them to provide a new recommendation option for book worms to make more informed purchase decisions based on recommendations from people within their social network.

“Acquiring weRead will take out relationship with our customers to a wider plane where we will be their partner in the entire book reading experience – right from purchase to referrals,” said Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart. Bansal goes on to explain how people will be able to make worry free purchases and discover a plethora of new reading material that caters to their particular interest, all in one area.

This is an obvious and very smart acquisition for Flipkart. They have now entered the realm of the social network, a network that is growing exponentially everyday. Just by making this purchase Flipkart has tapped into a market of millions of new customers, practically over night. Bravo, Bravo.

December 23, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Gilt Groupe has decided to make a bold, and perhaps very savvy, business move with the Dwell Media magazine. Mostly known for selling high end fashion at discounted prices, Gilt has now teamed up with Dwell to sell discounted modern home plans.

Dwell plans on selling 20 packages of prefab homes. The packages, containing a Finisterre 1115 plan, along with custom renderings and architectural services from Turkel Design, will be selling for $12,500, half the price the package would normally go for, says Dwell.

The Finisterre plans are designed to be someone’s first home or weekend retreat, and does not require a lot of land to build on. The house allows for 1,115 square feet of living split between two levels. The lower level consists of a kitchen, partial bathroom, dining area, and living room. The second level contains two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a roof deck.

The idea for this venture came when Dwell Media President Michela O’Connor Abrahams and Gilt Chairman Susan Lyne struck up a conversation at a Mediabistro event, in which the two were scheduled speakers of.

“We talked about private sales, and it started to percolate from there,” said O’Connar.

Though profits from the sales will be split among Dwell, Gilt, and Turkel, O’Connar says the main advantage will be exposure for the brand.

“Selling this special home design with Gilt continues to enforce Dwell’s mission as a champion of good design anywhere, anytime, and in any form,” explains O’Connar.

The deal between Gilt and Dwell follows Gilt’s expanding interest in working with magazine brands. Its first editorial venture was with Conde Nast Traveler, in which Gilt created a site that cross-promoted travel deals. Their more recent endeavor allowed them to create an online pop-up store of gifts recommended by Real Simple magazine.

This will be the first time that Gilt and Dwell will have attempted to sell plans for a house online. Yes, it’s a risky move for a discounted deals site (especially with the high sticker price) but it’s a move that only Gilt would be able to make, considering their reputation of selling high end products as it is.

The sale ends today, that is if it hasn’t already sold out.

December 23, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

American Airlines and Orbitz have ended their 11 year business relationship, giving the old ‘look Orbitz, it’s not you, it’s me’ heave-ho. American said it would stop displaying and selling fares through Orbitz and Orbitz for Business. However, tickets already purchased through Orbitz remain valid but any changes travelers need to make must be made through American Airlines.

The split happened December 21 after an Illinois court granted American Airlines to cancel its contracts with the travel site. The severe departure from Orbitz is the airline’s effort to cut costs. Online travel sites, such as Orbitz, Travelocity, and Priceline, get their booking information from global distribution systems. Essentially, airlines are paying fees to the global distribution companies that provide the flight information to the travel sites, in addition to already paying those travel sites commission for selling their tickets. American took an approach to flip the current financial arrangement around and urged Orbitz to get that flight information directly from them, removing the middle man, the global distribution systems. However, Orbitz was contractually obligated to their global distribution system, Travelport LP who owns 48 percent of the travel site and could not negotiate.

A representative for American said in a statement that the airline needs to be “free to customize its product offerings to improve the customer experience as well as distribute its products in a way that does not result in unnecessary costs.”

What will Orbitz lose in the split?

In a report, revenue earned on American Airlines’ tickets and related products such as destination services, car, hotel and insurance booked on Orbitz sites represented 5 percent of its total revenue, amounting to $575.1 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30. Orbitz remains optimistic, stating that most of American’s ticket volume will be replaced by other airline suppliers. Orbitz “has access to more than 400 airlines globally and sells tens of millions of air tickets each year” said Orbitz spokesperson, Brian Hoyt.

So, no hard feelings then? Can American Airlines and Orbitz still be friends?

With all long term relationships, it is always hard to move on from the first. The two companies have a relationship that goes back over a decade. American Airlines, through its parent company AMR Corp was one of five original founders of Orbitz in late 1999. This was the airline’s attempt to compete with existing computer-reservation systems such as Travelocity. However, the split has allowed American to dig into their new found independence as an emerging competitor in this market. American has developed a system of its own called Direct Connect that provides fare pricing and options directly to larger online travel agencies. As for now, American will continue to sell tickets through Priceline.com (an Orbitz competitor) and their own website AA.com. Although the two seem to have gone their separate ways, don’t count the end of this relationship just yet. Orbitz is continuing to seek an arrangement to sell American’s tickets on their sites. The big split may have left a void that Orbitz cannot afford to lose, but depending on the future success of American’s new approach to ticket sales, it’s a void that American may not be able to afford to lose either.

December 16, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Market America is looking to revolutionize the online social shopping experience with its recent acquisition of comparison shopping site, Shop.com. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed but the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

The move to acquire the company is part of Market America’s strategy to rival as a content rich, online shopping destination against the current leaders in this market.

“To date, no one has truly harnessed the power of technology to provide a high touch, personal shopping experience combined with the depth of selection available through instant search of the more than 43 million products in our database.  Our business model rewards customers at every stage – by making their shopping easier and more efficient, and rewarding them with cash back for shopping with us.  This unique strategy positions us for explosive growth and to compete head-to-head with the biggest, most dominant shopping sites on the Internet,” said President and CEO of Market America, James Ridinger.

Acquiring  a company like Shop.com will only beef up Market America’s numbers. Shop.com is backed by such major investors as Bill Gates, Amazon.com, Yahoo, and Oak Investment Partners. The site reaches five times more people per month than Market America and is expected to add about 30 to 40 percent to Market America’s current revenues. The combined entity will have in excess of 650 employees.

For now, Market America and Shop.com will continue to operate as independent websites through a transition period to preserve their individual customer bases. However, the integration of the unique benefits each company has been successful with will begin immediately. Both companies are already working to integrate technology systems. Shop.com’s strength in technology and merchandising, provides customers with the latest high-tech shopping experience combined with Market America’s high-touch, personal shopping experience, including their unique unlimited cash back program, acts as a one-two punch to their competitors. Eventually, Market America will look to draw in Shop.com’s customer base but it is unclear whether the brands will fully merge.

“Market America and Shop.com are online shopping pioneers with distinct areas of expertise,” added Ken Goldstein, Chairman and CEO of Shop.com, who will depart his current role and become a strategic advisor to Market America as part of the transition. “By bringing our companies together, we are creating a game changing shopping experience with transformative potential to our customers, retailers, consumer brands and business partners.”

December 15, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Gogo inflight internet and SkyMall, the luxurious way to buy expensive products while in mid-flight have teamed up to provide airline passengers with free access to the SkyMall website. The new service will begin this month in nearly 850 Gogo capable aircraft on airlines such as AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, Delta, US Airways, and United Airlines.

Normally costing anywhere from $4.95 to $12.95 per session, customers will be able to shop from over 300 retailers and over 22,000 products from SkyMall through Gogo with no internet access charge.

To kick off their wondrous partnership and provide an extra incentive, customers who spend $125 or more on SkyMall merchandise via Gogo will receive a free Gogo flight pass valid on any Gogo equipped flight.

“This is a natural partnership and signals an important evolution in Gogo’s offerings. It melds one of the staples of air travel, SkyMall, with the connectivity-enabled passenger experience of the future,” said Ash ElDifrawi, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Aircell. “This collaboration demonstrates how the Gogo platform can be used to enhance the passenger experience through strategic partnerships with companies like SkyMall.

It was a smart move on their part to launch the promotion around the holidays, considering the significant increase in flight and passenger traffic, along with that last minute scramble for gift ideas that many of us are guilty of.

“Whether leisure or business traveler, there are some cool promotions in there,” said Dave Bijur, VP of partnerships at Aircell. “For the crazy business traveler who’s losing it because it’s close to Christmas and they are stressing about buying gifts, this might be a solution.”

Through this symbiotic partnership SkyMall and Gogo will be able to reach a new customer base that the two by themselves would otherwise pass by.  SkyMall will now be able to offer access of a vast variety of merchandise through a multitude of media, whereas Gogo customers will be able to shop directly from SkyMall, as well as surf the web through any Wi-Fi equipped laptop, smart phone, or any other personal electronic device.

The online textbook rental site Chegg.com recently announced its acquisition of Cramster, a website dedicated to helping high school and college students with their homework. This will be Chegg’s second purchase in four months, after acquiring CourseRank, a site that helps college students plan out their term courses.

Founded in 2002, Cramster is the largest online study community (nearly 1 million strong) consisting of college and high school students, teachers, professors, parents, and experts who contribute information on a variety of subject matter and study resources.

“Chegg and Cramster share the same vision of providing students with value throughout their college experience,” said President and CEO of Chegg, Dan Rosensweig. “We are always striving to offer students the very best tools to help them save time, money and get smarter, and Cramster is the natural fit to expand on our offering.”

Cramster’s co-founder Aaron Hawkey is excited to share in Chegg’s beliefs and goals:

“We started Cramster to help students get unstuck when they need help most and we look forward to expanding the vision with Chegg.”

Chegg.com Stats

Founded in July of 2007, Chegg has ties with over 6,400 campuses nationwide and is considered to be the number one online textbook rental company. It is estimated to have help students save millions of dollars on textbooks so far. To showcase their love of nature, Chegg plants a tree every time a student rents a book. They do this through a partnership with the American Forests’ Global ReLeaf program. Since its inception, Chegg has raised over $200 million for this project.

Cramster Stats

Cramster was founded in 2002 by Aaron Hawkey, Robert Angarita, and Kaveh Golabi and has grown exponentially in the past few years. To date the company has rasied $9 million, including $6 million in a funding round this past April.

December 6, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

It has been foretold that one day two entities will join forces to end the tyranny and wrong doings that mankind has brought to this Earth. Until that happens we have to be content with two social game publishers buddying up. Zynga, makers of the Facebook sensation Farmville, recently purchased Newtoy, creators of addictive hits like Words With Friends and Chess With Friends.

The acquisition signifies Zynga’s desire to expand its success from the PC to mobile.

“Zynga is committed to providing the best of breed mobile game experience and we expect The Zynga With Friends Studio to deepen our bench of seasoned veterans and broaden our scope of mobile game development,” said David Ko, SVP of mobile at Zynga. “The mobile industry is still in its infancy and we’re excited about the opportunity ahead of us.”

Five months ago Zynga launched Farmville on iPhone and saw great success with over seven million downloads of the app.

Newtoy, based in Texas, focused their efforts toward developing social games for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Fans of their developmental genius need not worry about their new owner because Newtoy will still be developing and releasing games. The only change to be made is the Newtoy name which will now read: “The Zynga With Friends Studio.”

Zynga’s reach in the gaming industry seems to endlessly span the world wide web. The company has already launched games on Yahoo, partnered up with AMEX, and is making plans to release its first Android game, Zynga Poker.

There are currently 215 million people playing Zynga’s free games each month. Newtoy’s Word’s With Friends sensation has been downloaded over 12 million times.

December 3, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

What can eBay possibly do to become even more mad with power in the world of e-commerce? Purchasing the up and coming local shopping startup Milo.com for a reported $75M sounds like a good start.

Milo.com, founded by Jack Abraham, is a free site which lets shoppers research a vast array of products in their local area online. The site tracks real-time availability and prices of more than 2 million products in more than 48,000 retail stores across the country. So what does this mean to eBay?  It’s their bridging of online commerce and brick and mortar retailers. This is a merger that will allow retailers to market online without having to startup their own online store.

How will this change things for people?  Simply put: it gives them more options. Think about products that were in high demand, but seemingly low in quantity (Nintendo Wii). Enter the eBay seller who happens to have the product, but at an exponentially higher than retail price. Now, this product could be available at the local store, but people tend to get lazy and don’t want to pick up the phone or go store to store in search of something that may not be there. Throw Milo.com  into the mix, and now the customer is able see the true retail price of the product they’re searching for, whether or not if it’s in their area, and the current inventory of said product.

This could be the beautiful marriage of online shopping and brick and mortar retail that many people have been talking about, but thought could never happen.  If executed correctly, eBay and physical retailers could be seeing a whole new set of customers and profits.

To date, Milo.com has raise around $5M in venture capital from many early-stage investment firms along with a list of golden angel investors, including Keith Rabois, Kevin Hartz, Jawed Karim, Brian Pokorny, Aaron Patzer, Magid M. Abraham, and Chris Dixon.

November 30, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Okay, please raise your hand if you recently bought Groupon. Ahem, no Amazon? And not eBay? Wait a minute, not so fast Yahoo, it looks like Google may have just taken their giant hand and raised it high above everyone else. Talk of whether or not Google has bought Groupon has been swirling around the tech press rumor mill the last few days. With no sources confirming any details yet, tech mongers are still waiting to get a simple ‘yes’, head nod, or even a wink from a Google rep; however, Google’s ‘no comment’ response is almost as good as saying that there is something amiss. The details of the speculation lead to Google had acquired Groupon, the deal-of-the-day website, for just about $2.5 billion over the weekend.

However, just a few weeks ago there were talks of a bidding war among the major players Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo with figures nearing $5 Billion. We know Yahoo could not afford to play at that price and eBay was apparently not involved, so the process of elimination leaves Amazon versus Google. Amazon’s market cap is $75 billion to Google’s $190 billion, it is suspect enough that if it came down to a bidding war, Google would win.

Google stands to gain a rather profitable company if the Groupon deal goes through. The acquisition of Groupon can help Google enter into the popular daily deal segment which poses beneficial as Google looks to maintain its relevance in new emerging segments. In addition, Google can leverage Groupon’s clout in local markets and position itself to build relationships small and medium sized businesses. After reportedly failing to acquire Yelp in 2009, Google continues to show their extreme interest to get into local search and directory listings with their (not as popular) Google Places.

Groupon may be their next chance to really get into this game. Groupon is the leader in the group discount and deal space, it takes in about $50 million in revenue a month and with a rumored $2.5 billion price tag, people may not fully buy into the idea that Google has acquired them just yet. Groupon is possibly worth more than just $2.5 billion.

Seriously though, what does Google not own, touch, or have some affiliation with? Hey readers, if you are a G1, Picasa, or YouTube user then chances are Google owns you too. The rumor, true or not, will be interesting to watch play out, if Google did buy Groupon, then fact: their celebrity couple name would be Groogle.

Social commerce innovator and Facebook Marketplace Czar, Oodle, recently announced its acquisition of Grouply,  the online service that lets social groups build customized social networks.

Oodle is attempting to reinvent the online experience for “classifieds” by building a social marketplace. Oodle CEO Craig Donato explains that what is bought is just  as important as who it’s being bought from: “Affinity groups such as mother’s clubs, neighborhood groups, and alumni organizations can be hot spots for trading activity,” says Donato. “People care about who they are transacting with and would prefer to deal with others they know or who share their interests. With over 500,000 active groups, Grouply is a leading platform for interest-based social networks and is a natural partner for Oodle.

Grouply’s employees need not worry about the the buyout, as most of them will be welcomed into Oodle with open arms.

“Oodle is the perfect fit for the Grouply team and a great place for us to continue our mission of allowing people to build groups that share specific interests,” said Mark Robins, Grouply founder and CEO. “We look forward to working with our partners at Oodle to introduce some exciting new products.”

Oodle’s marketplace averages around 14 million users per month. Users are able to buy, sell, lend and give with friends, friends-of-friends, and other people in their local community.  Oodle is accessible through a variety of venues including Facebook, iPhone, Android phones, and of course Oodle.com.  The e-commerce marketplace is currently available in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Grouply is a unique social network that lets people-created groups based on seemingly endless platforms of interest. Grouply is even more unique in the sense that it combines the social interactivity, media sharing, and modern design of social networking sites like Facebook with the rich discussions, popular email interface, and people-discovery opportunities found in traditional online group systems like Yahoo! Groups.

November 18, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Globetrotting daily-deals provider LivingSocial recently spent five million of its 50 million dollars of start up money to acquire smaller Australian counterpart “Jump On It.” Competition can be overrated, and LivingSocial’s move to expand into new territory by acquiring a smaller, but still very successful, international counterpart may prove to be a smart move. So far LivingSocial boasts over 10 million subscribers in over 100 international markets, netting them over one million dollars a day in revenue (with a target of over 500 million dollars of revenue in 2011). Bringing Jump On It onto “the team,” as LivingSocial puts it, will allow them to bring their unique brand of daily deals to at least the 550,000 Australians who are already “fans” of Jump On It’s Facebook page, but will probably reach exposure to about 1.2 million people, due to the networking nature of these kind of daily deals sites.

For anyone who doesn’t know – that networking element works like this: LivingSocial, Groupon (described here as LivingSocial’s arch-nemesis), or even their green cousin, EthicalDeal put out a deal of some kind. All boast that the deal will save users at least 50% off of the regular price for whatever it is that they are promoting. The catch is, the deal only goes through if a minimum threshold of buyers agree to it. This is where the social networking element really shines: the buyers start doing the legwork, spreading the deal around to their friends (or anyone in their network) in the hopes that these other people will also buy into the deal and contribute towards that minimum necessary requirement, so that the deal will go through.

Between its existing markets and this new expansion into Australia, LivingSocial is now positioned in most primarily English-speaking countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada). This tactic of acquiring like properties in order to expand its brand isn’t a first for LivingSocial, who recently also acquired Urban Escapes and used it to bolster their own offerings by providing a once-weekly getaway packages to LivingSocial members (curiously enough, though, these offers are not group-participation-based, but they still offer significant savings).

These sort of cooperative moves may give LivingSocial the edge it needs to stay competitive agains powerhouse Groupon (aiming for 300 city-markets by 2011). Groupon has diversified its own image and exposure by partnering with eBay, and is currently courting some attention from buyers. The head-to-head between these two comes down to unique monthly visitors – LivingSocial’s 11.2 million to Groupon’s 8.5.

The real winner in all of this? Group buyers taking advantage of collective bargaining power (regardless of who they are going through) to save some green as the economy slowly plods uphill on the road to recovery.

November 16, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

A lot has been happening at Yahoo. Right now stocks are up amid serious talks about a possible buyout by AOL. Speculation about a buyout has been swirling around the lumbering beast since mid-October when the Wall Street Journal reported that AOL and some other investment firms were exploring the possibility of private ownership or some kind of merger (or reverse-merger, however you want to phrase it, seeing as how Yahoo’s market cap is $20 billion and AOL’s is only about $2.6 billion). The news was accompanied by two of the most active trading days for Yahoo in a long time, with shares jumping in value each day.

Plans for a Yahoo buyout are complicated and need to deal with Yahoo’s wide array of baggage and other projects, chiefly its 40% stake in Alibaba, a Chinese search engine giant. Yahoo would also most likely sell off some of its other assets to media outlets and other tech businesses. Merging with AOL would also allow both organizations to strip out their duplicate services (shopping, e-mail, etc.) and focus more on what makes both of them the most money: advertising. Advertising of the kind that AOL and Yahoo focus on is based on scale, and with the name recognition and traffic that they each already have, a merger could show great promise for both.

A merger or buyout could be just what the scattered and troubled Yahoo needs right now, in the midst of front-page downtime, late updates to various pages, and most recently gossip about 20% layoffs (the company’s woes have even achieved infographic form). All of these things point to a company in need of some serious help getting back on its feet and into the ring. Ecommerce outlets can take a lesson from Paul Graham’s analysis of the fall of Yahoo by setting out with a clear vision of what they want it to be and what they want to deliver to their target audience, picking one direction for success, and bringing together a team of the best and brightest they can find to power that process.

November 11, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

There’s no group option for this deal – only one buyer can come out the winner as Yahoo (and others) bid for collective savings provider Groupon. Apparently Yahoo has made Groupon an offer — somewhere between three and four billion dollars — in an attempt to stay relevant in a constantly changing marketplace.

Yahoo’s stock has been stagnant for a while, and with more competition in search engines, e-mail, and shopping, it’s easy to see why Yahoo would be eager to grab up Groupon before the social shopping giant gets any bigger. Social shopping sites like LivingSocial have garnered a lot of media attention lately as consumers and retailers alike realize the power of group buying, opinion, and relationships when it comes to consumer habits. Sites like Amazon and eBay have long given buyers a way to weigh in on their past purchases and rate ecommerce retailers and specific interactions, but lately a new crop of social shopping sites like ShopSocially and JoeShop have sprung up with interfaces specifically designed to allow users to discuss their purchases, favorite brands, and retailers. Interaction between consumers within the network drives future sales.

So why is Groupon so hot? Well, their business model is uniquely positioned for both businesses wishing to drive traffic and consumers wishing to save money. Consumers get a great deal on a product or service – but only if enough people decide to take advantage of the deal. This drives users to spread the word to other people within their network to make sure that the minimum number is reached. This all counts as free advertising for the businesses in question, as the e-mails that get circulated about the deal offer a unique opportunity to target a buying group with detailed information about their specific business. Add to this the fact that 60% of Groupon participants spend more than the value of the coupon that they bought through Groupon, and that’s a recipe for success. Groupon’s model is so successful that it has even spawned a green counterpart.

Reported here, a source at Business Insider says that Groupon is holding steady for right now, conducting a semi-annual review of its long-term options, which include buyouts, investors, an IPO, and more. Right now, though, it seems like Groupon is the prettiest girl at the dance, with Amazon, eBay (they have kind of a thing going on right now), and even that hunky Google all making eyes from across the dance floor.

November 8, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

After a price war fought in the changing rooms, it appears that Amazon has finally worn down Diapers.com owner Quidsi. Amazon acquired Quidsi for $500 million dollars, plus assuming $45 million dollars in debt on Quidsi’s part. The new addition to the Amazon family brings with it an increased range of baby products and the experience that Diapers.com has in successfully marketing and delivering those products to busy families.

Diapers.com debuted in 2005, a full year before Amazon started offering diapers and related products. They built up a solid following, even with the competition, until Amazon began massively undercutting them (offering a case of Pampers for $39 to Diapers.com’s $45). Incentive programs and targeted promotions like “Amazon Mom,” may have contributed to Amazon’s success.

In the face of overwhelming adversity, Diapers.com owner Quidsi made the sensible choice of selling out. After last year’s $1.2 billion dollar Amazon buyout of Zappos.com in an attempt to expand their fashion offerings, and then Woot.com. Amazon apparently knows a good thing when they see it.

Even with the massive market share over which Amazon exerts it control, and the considerable savings and range of products it has to offer, Amazon still recognizes and incorporates different companies and models to support its core mission. Much like the recent union of Groupon and eBay, and their new initiative to allow consumers to join forces for an item, Amazon’s acquisitions add new depth. Woot.com focused on daily deals, and Zappos.com devoted itself to providing above average customer service. Time will tell what Diapers.com’s integration yields for Amazon.

November 8, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

DeNA. The name might not sound familiar and even a bit odd, but this is a name to look out for. DeNA which is the combination of ecommerce and DNA is Japan’s leading mobile social game developer and platformer, they have become a mobile tech giant with their profitable Mobage-Town, a social gaming community. Users live in a virtual world with personalized avatars, games, and virtual interactions allowing real money to be used to purchase virtual goods. With 20.5 million registered users and growing in Japan alone, DeNA accredits their user engagement by combining social networking and gaming with a large viral presence.

The company has announced their third quarter revenues at $336 million up 216 percent from last years, and is on the way to bringing in $1.25 billion in revenue for their fiscal year. Think of how Facebook spans across the globe, with their estimated 500 million users domestically and internationally, for Japan, DeNA is like Facebook, if Facebook won the lottery and wore their big boy pants. DeNA claims their ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) bring in 30 times more than Facebook users. With such a financial momentum, DeNA’s next step is to become a global force entering into a market dominated by Facebook. DeNA looks to first bring their mobile technology and virtual community into the U.S.

Further expansion into the Western market continued in October 2010 with the acquisition of San Francisco based iPhone game developer Ngmoco for $403 million, who’s games have been downloaded more than 60 million times. This is one of four other U.S. investments DeNA has been involved with in the last 12 months. Their aggressive plans show no backing down as DeNA plans to target Apple and Google Android users. Using mobile devices as a platform to expand their virtual presence and social gaming. If Japan finds the same success they do at home but on a global scale, social gaming networks may just soon be turning Japanese.