Mercator Labs

In an earlier post on Mercator Labs, we discussed different types of market opportunities as new companies aim to enter existing markets or create entirely new markets. Both of those avenues require significant background research as those companies’ backbone consists of evaluating market size and the potential for growth. This post explores some ways to go about evaluating market size […]

Twitter released some real-time data after the 2015 Grammys, highlighting the most retweeted posts (the top 5 message had over 83,000 retweets). If the average user has 150 followers, that quickly leads to 12.5 million impressions from those five posts alone. This is a quick example of how analyzing big data in real time is an omnipresent exercise. Additionally, there […]

Twitter recently reported its 2014 fourth quarter and fiscal year-end results, beating most analysts’ expectations, sending the stock up more than 15% as the trading week winds down. Two of most widely reported numbers for the most recent earnings release were monthly active users (MAUs), which came in lower than expected, while quarterly revenue nearly doubled year-over-year. Before getting too […]

The ultimate consolidation of fitness apps was and still is on the horizon with one of the biggest moves to date just announced: Under Armour is acquiring MyFitnessPal and Endomondo. For those of you not as familiar with MyFitnessPal, it is one of the most popular calorie counter and diet trackers for consumers. Under Amour has additionally scooped up Endomondo, […]

Defining market opportunity is a common yet sometimes complicated exercise when a company is exploring a growth strategy. Larry Cheng, Managing Director at Volition Capital, covered the topic of examining market size when it comes to a prospective investment. Aside from a great perspective, the blog post ends by briefly exploring companies that are looking to gain market share in […]

This week two new media companies, Mashable and Business Insider raised a combined total of $42 million in new venture funding. While some of their content overlaps, both have distinct business models and their respective infusions of funding will continue bringing them on divergent paths when it comes to business models. At the highest of levels, Business Insider (BI) is […]

This morning Snapchat introduced a new feature, Discover, for its users, one that will significantly increase time spent within the app as well as give publishers more access to the millions of young Snapchatters. The new section features news articles and video clips from media partners such as ESPN, CNN, Vice & Cosmopolitan. In parallel to these new channels, brands […]

For every major category and interest, you can beat there’s a mobile app built around it or to service it. According to Nielsen, the average user engages with north of 25 different apps per month, spending over an entire day’s worth of time crushing candies, booking Ubers, posting Instagrams and Snapchatting selfies. While usage continues to rise and apps evolve […]

The Consumer Electronics Show (commonly known as CES) is a large jolt back for the tech industry after an eggnog-induced slumber that finished off 2014. This four day event will highlight new innovations across a myriad of categories: Communications, Gaming, Robotics, and Wearables, just to name a few. There will be north of 3,500 exhibitors showcasing 20,000+ product announcements for more than 40,000 attendees. It’s a frenzied four days to say the least.