Facebook Considers Big New York Office Expansion -12/11/19

From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your daily briefing.  

Introduction

With your Retail E-Commerce Briefing for today, Wednesday, December 11th, I'm Vincent Phamvan.

Facebook is in talks to lease a building in Manhattan, a deal that would make it one of New York City’s largest corporate tenants.

First, here are some retail headlines.  

Uber May Extend Delivery to Most Retailers

In a statement from the CEO of Uber, the popular ride-hailing company could extend its food delivery service to offer delivery services for retailers. He said, “We can extend that food delivery model to essentially every single local retailer so that anything you want in New York City can be delivered to you, hopefully in under 30 minutes.” The statement comes at a time when Uber is widening its fast-growing food delivery app to include groceries and other goods.  

Disney+ May Hit 20 Million Subsribers By End of Year

Disney Plus is estimated to hit 20 million subscribers before the end of the year. Analysts previously estimated the streaming service to hit 14.3 million subscribers but upped their estimates after healthier than expected app downloads and subscriptions indicated by Verizon. Disney Plus has had a successful launch in an increasingly crowded market. In the coming months, AT&T’s Warner Media will launch HBO Max and NBCUniversal will launch its streaming service, Peacock. Apple’s streaming service launched earlier this month, but with a limited streaming library.  

Duolingo Valued at $1.5 Billion

Language-learning app, Duolingo, is now valued at $1.5 billion dollars after a $30 million dollar investment by Alphabet. The new round of funding made Duolingo the first Pittsburgh-based tech start-up to be valued at more than $1 billion by venture capital investors. The company has raised a total of $138 million dollars to date. Duolingo has also made the CNBC Disruptor 50 list for two consecutive years and has seen a big jump in bookings, from $1 million less than three years ago to $100 million. According to a general partner at CapitalG, “Duolingo has been adding user and revenue at an impressive pace, continuing to solidify their position as the number one way to learn a language globally...The team has demonstrated that sticking to their mission providing free education is not only good for the world but also good for business.”  

Facebook Considers Big New York Office Expansion

Facebook is in talks to lease a building in Manhattan, a deal that would make it one of New York City’s largest corporate tenants. According to sources familiar with the matter, the social media giant is interested in a vast amount of space at the Farley Building in Midtown Manhattan. The new space would be in addition to Facebook’s recent deal to lease 1.5 million square feet at the new Hudson Yards development, which the company announced last month.  

A lease at Farley and Hudson Yards, combined with its existing offices in the city, would bring Facebook’s total footprint to more than 3 million square feet of New York office space, putting the company in the top ranks of the city’s largest corporate tenants. If the Farley deal is completed, the leases would create space for more than 14,000 Facebook employees. Amazon had previously planned on opening its second headquarters in the city, promising to create over 20,000 jobs before the retail giant abruptly canceled its plans.

New York is becoming a prime location for tech companies. When Amazon backed out of its headquarters plan in the city, many thought it would discourage other players from considering the location, instead, interest has grown. Google, Apple, and Spotify have acquired office spaces in the last two years and others with existing presences are looking to expand.  

In an emailed statement, a Facebook spokeswoman said, “It’s hard to predict future growth, but we believe New York is a vibrant market with a tremendous pool of talent.”      

Closing

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Thanks for listening to this latest episode of the Retail E-Commerce Briefing. See you tomorrow.