Stripe announced in a blog post on Tuesday that the company will no longer support Bitcoin as a form of transaction settlement. Back in 2014, the payment processor was one of the first to allow merchants to adopt Bitcoin as a form of payment, with CEO Patrick Collison citing the importance of the cryptocurrency’s universal accessibility as the main motivation. However, “by the time the transaction is confirmed, fluctuations in Bitcoin price mean that it’s for the ‘wrong’ amount,” according to Tom Karlo, Payment Methods and Dashboard Product Manager. The transactions now regularly come with a fee in US dollars that makes Stripe nearly as costly as bank wires. Stripe no longer considers this to be a sound product or strategy. Therefore, the last Bitcoin transactions on Stripe will be processed on April 23, as the company works with merchants to wind down support for cryptocurrency transactions. Stripe remains very much involved with the cryptoeconomy, however, taking an optimistic stance on possible upcoming cryptopayment methods like Stellar (for which they provided seed funding), OmiseGO, Lightning, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, or another variant still to come.
In big data news, growing online regulations in the European Union prompted Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to announce at a Facebook event in Brussels this week that the company will be “rolling out a new privacy center globally that will put the core privacy settings for Facebook in one place and make it much easier for people to manage their data.” This comes in response to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will be enforced in the EU starting May of this year. Multinational companies handling private information of EU citizens who do not comply with the GDPR could face fines up to 4% of their global yearly turnover. Facebook’s updated framework will roll out ahead of the GDPR taking effect in an attempt to comply with the new regulations and provide users with “transparency and control.”
Elsewhere in the data world, GoDaddy has recently announced that they will mask some Who.is information when it is requested through Port 43 Who.is lookups. As of Thursday, January 25, users’ first names, last names, emails and phone numbers will be masked when requested through Port 43 lookups, in an attempt to reduce the amount of spam GoDaddy customers receive. Read here for a full update on the policy change. GoDaddy also made M&A news this week, with the recent announcement that they are acquiring the business marketing strategy and automation company Main Street Hub for a combined purchase value of $125 million in cash and up to $50 million in potential future earnouts. The acquisition means that marketing services like automation, CRM, social media, and reputation management as well as web and email marketing will be available to GoDaddy customers. Co-CEOs and Co-Founders, Matt Stuart and Andrew Allison, will be joining the GoDaddy leadership team once the deal is finalized.
Featured in digital business listings this week we have a $650K recruitment and employment resources digital service business, with a patented and proprietary hiring technology, high gross margins averaging c.60% over the last year, a diverse customer base of c.615 clients in the past year, an authoritative and well-known brand in the lucrative recruitment niche that comes with a full team in place.
Featured in display advertising business listings this week we have a $165K lifestyle and motivational quotes business, with diversified revenues across multiple sales channels, a strong traffic profile boasting over 15 million visitors and 20 million pageviews in the last 12 months, rankings for c.175K keywords and low owner involvement. If you are interested in either of the above businesses, follow the links to request a Prospectus.
Attention e-commerce owners: looking for ways to drive traction in the slower post-holiday shopping months? Be sure to mark your calendars for our next Boston E-Commerce Meetup on Wednesday, January 31 at WeWork South Station from 6-8pm! The panel topic will be “Best Ad Strategies for E-Commerce Businesses”, featuring expert panelists Lindsay Worcester, VP of Digital Advertising of Agency 451; Nick Sozio, Senior Marketing Analyst of the Grommet; Chase Carpenter, Director of Digital Marketing at CommCreative; and Harry Kanistik, Founder of Frank.ai. You can read more about the panelists and subscribe to the meetup here. Founder Thomas Smale will also be attending SaaStr Annual on February 6-8 in San Francisco, where he will be hosting a get-together for valued clients and attendees on the 8th. Follow the link or get in touch for more information.
Continue reading below for more on Stripe’s discontinuation of Bitcoin transactions, Facebook’s centralized privacy data management system and GoDaddy’s acquisition of Main Street Hub.
Deal Highlights
Featured:
Digital Service – Recruitment & Employment Resources – $67K gross/mo
- Patented and proprietary hiring technology
- Authoritative and well-known brand in the lucrative recruitment niche
- Diverse customer base, serving c.615 clients in the past year
- High gross margins averaging c.60% over the trailing 12 months
- Low owner involvement with a full team in place
Yearly net profit: $189,000
Asking price: $650,000
Display Advertising – Lifestyle & Motivational Quotes – $5K net/mo
- Revenues diversified across multiple sales channels, reducing concentration risk
- Strong traffic profile with over 15 million visitors and 20 million page views in the last 12 months
- Notable SERP presence with the site ranking for c.175K keywords
- Low owner involvement
Yearly net profit: $63,000
Asking price: $165,000
Sold:
Display Advertising – Technology – $3.7K gross/mo
Affiliate – Outdoor & Lifestyle – $1.7K gross/mo
Affiliate – Footwear – $1.3K gross/mo
In the News…
Stripe Will Discontinue Support of Bitcoin Transactions
Stripe announced on Tuesday that they will no longer support Bitcoin as a payment option on the platform.
Four years ago, Stripe announced that it would become one of the first major online payment platforms to accept Bitcoin for payments. Now, the company said that the cryptocurrency has grown too popular for use; the time required to make a payment is so long due to the number of users that payments sometimes fail. According to Stripe’s own Tom Karlo, “By the time the transaction is confirmed, fluctuations in Bitcoin price mean that it’s for the ‘wrong’ amount. For a regular Bitcoin transaction, a fee of tens of U.S. dollars is common, making Bitcoin transactions about as expensive as bank wires.” Stripe has announced that it will keep an eye on the cryptoeconomy, something CEO Patrick Collison was always on top of, in order to stay open to other cryptocurrency options. In a comment to Recode in 2014, he said it was important that the platform accept a universally accessible form of currency, noting that “Bitcoin is something anyone can get a hold of.”
The final Bitcoin transactions will take place on April 23, giving users some time to adjust ahead of the change.
GoDaddy to Acquire Main Street Hub
GoDaddy has announced that they are acquiring Main Street Hub, an Austin-based social media marketing platform, expected to close in Q2 2018.
The deal has been announced to be split in $125 million in cash, plus an additional $50 million in potential future earn outs. The social media management and marketing automation company handles all aspects of a small business’s online presence for a monthly fee. The setup includes managing marketing automation, CRM, social media, reputation management and mobile, web and email marketing. The real differentiation of the service is their robust social media management. With their team of photographers, writers, designers and marketers all working to make a business’ presence as high quality as possible, the company works to make small businesses’ pages thrive. Founded in 2010, Main Street Hub raised $93 million in debt and equity financing from different investors. Once the deal is closed, GoDaddy customers will have access to Main Street Hub’s services, including website creation, email marketing and social media platforms.
Main Street Hub will continue to run as normal before the acquisition is finalized and will continue to operate out of Austin for now. Main Street Hub’s co-CEOs and co-founders Matt Stuart and Andrew Allison will have leadership positions at GoDaddy.
Facebook Releasing Global Privacy Settings Hub
Facebook is releasing a global privacy settings hub to have one centralized place for users to manage their privacy data.
COO Sheryl Sandberg has announced that following major privacy changes coming to Facebook later in 2018, the company will be “rolling out a new privacy center globally that will put the core privacy settings for Facebook in one place and make it much easier for people to manage their data.” This comes in response to new regulations from the European Union, which is releasing more stringent data protection regulations around user privacy data. General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is “the biggest overhaul of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet and aims to give Europeans more control over their information and how companies use it,” according to the Reuters report. All multinational companies that process European citizens’ personal data will need to comply with GDPR, or else face fines as large as 4% of the company’s global turnover. For Facebook, this means fines in excess of a billion dollars. The new privacy hub will “put the core privacy settings for Facebook in one place and make it much easier for people to manage their data,” according to Sandberg.
The privacy hub will allow 2 billion users to manage their own privacy data, and will be released on May 25th ahead of the policy changes in the EU.