Tag Archives: amzn

Amazon, Apple, Google Not Serious Threat To PayPal: Analyst

PayPal ( PYPL ), now untied from its prior owner eBay ( EBAY ), does not face a serious competitive threat in the near future, an analyst said Wednesday. At the Electronic Payments Summit in New York, panelists were “generally bullish” on the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s chances at holding on to its market share, according to a research note from Jefferies analyst Jason Kupferberg. The analyst cites the company’s installed base of 185 million consumers and 13 million merchants. “This represents a competitive advantage, which is reinforced by new products such as One Touch and Venmo,” Kupferberg wrote. “While some large merchants are still somewhat ambivalent about the benefits of PayPal, one panelist highlighted a 14% online sales increase for a big merchant once they implemented PayPal.” Kupferberg also wrote that large merchants are generally reluctant to have more than two checkout buttons or digital wallets available for shoppers because returns “diminish beyond that number.” Competitors in payments , such as e-commerce leader  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and digital cash register and payments processor Square ( SQ ), have been aiming for a greater foothold in payments. Amazon has been at it for some time, but with little to show for it, according to Wedbush analyst Gil Luria. For its part, Square announced last week that it was adding Web checkout capabilities to its array of features, which is likely a direct challenge to PayPal’s payments platform. Also at the payments summit, Kupferberg wrote that 10% mobile wallet penetration of U.S. in-store payments could be five years away. Firms such as Apple ( AAPL ) and Alphabet ( GOOGL ) unit Google, among others, have developed such technology . PayPal stock was up more than 1%, near 39, in midday trading on the stock market today . PayPal is an IBD Leaderboard stock and has an IBD Composite Rating of 93, where 99 is the highest. Shares are below a 40.03 entry but just above an earlier entry at 38.62.

Amazon.com Has Likely Sold 3 Million Echo Speakers To Date

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) seems to have a hit product on its hands with the Amazon Echo smart speaker. The e-commerce giant is estimated to have sold 3 million units of the device in the U.S. since it went on sale in late 2014, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reported Wednesday. Amazon likely sold 1 million Echo devices during just the holiday shopping season in late 2015, CIRP said. Echo is a voice-responsive Internet query device and household controller, as well as a high-end streaming music speaker. Awareness of Amazon Echo among U.S. Amazon customers more than doubled during the year, CIRP said. By the end of 2015, 47% of Amazon’s U.S. customers were aware of Echo, up from 20% in March 2015, the Chicago-based research firm said. “Amazon very carefully but aggressively promoted Amazon Echo during the year,” Josh Lowitz, partner and co-founder of CIRP, said in a statement. “It dedicated Amazon.com homepage real estate to Echo, promoted it on Amazon Prime Day in July, and also advertised it heavily during the holiday shopping season. This effort paid off, as it stood out among Amazon customers.” Amazon also promoted Echo with a Super Bowl commercial this year starring Alec Baldwin. CIRP bases its findings on regular surveys of Amazon customers. In March, Amazon added two more devices that use its Alexa voice-control personal assistance, in addition to Echo. They were the Echo Dot, a smaller hands-free voice-controlled device, and the Amazon Tap, a smart portable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speaker. Echo costs $179.99, while Echo Dot costs $89.99, and Amazon Tap costs $129.99. Amazon’s Alexa technology competes with other voice-response digital assistants, like Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) Siri and Microsoft ‘s ( MSFT ) Cortana.

Twitter Wins Right To Stream NFL’s Worst Football Games

Twitter ( TWTR ) will live-stream Thursday Night Football, confirmed NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell in a Tuesday morning post on — where else — Twitter. This fall Thursday Night Football will be streamed live @twitter so fans will see more of this. https://t.co/s6tbr9FjvY — Roger Goodell (@nflcommish) April 5, 2016 The news unofficially sprung up early Tuesday, with Bloomberg reporting that Verizon Communications ( VZ ), Yahoo ( YHOO ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) were also in the bidding for the NFL streaming rights. Facebook ( FB ) pulled its bid last week, said the media outlet, citing a person familiar with the matter. Terms of the transaction are unknown. But according to an official release , Twitter will offer a free live-stream of 10 Thursday Night Football games “broadcast by NBC and CBS, which will also be simulcast on NFL Network, securing the league’s “Tri-Cast” distribution model of broadcast (NBC/CBS), cable (NFL Network), and digital (Twitter).” “Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football,” said Goodell in the prepared statement. Re/Code reported that Twitter will pay less than $10 million for all 10 games. Thursday night football games often are criticized for being low quality. Players have less time to recover, while coaches have less time to develop strategies. Twitter rose to 17.83 shortly after the open, but closed down 4 cents to 7.05 on the stock market today . The stock has been trading below its 50-day level for the better part of five months, though shares retook support at the key level on Monday. Facebook fell 0.3%, Amazon 1.2%, Verizon 0.6% and Yahoo 1.65% as the general market retreated.