MCOMMERCE: OfferUp, the mobile secondhand marketplace, has often been compared to Craigslist because of its ambitions to selling anything and everything locally. At first glance, the comparison seems to fit: both companies connect buyers and sellers to facilitate commerce for used goods. While that’s true, that’s where comparisons should end. OfferUp is a distinctively mobile marketplace, from how it lists items to its in-app messaging. The product, as it stands today, currently makes no revenue but that’s by design.

MEDIA: With live sports, Amazon could offer programming viewers can’t get from rivals like Netflix, and erode the traditional media companies’ hold on some of the most valuable TV fare. Seattle-based Amazon already spends billions of dollars a year to offer TV shows and movies on demand and has been exploring the creation of a live online pay-TV service since late 2015. “Amazon has been leaning forward on sports. They want to be a new age MSO,” said Tennis Channel Chief Executive Officer Ken Solomon.

MEDIA: News entrepreneurs have flocked to venture capital funding without considering all the costs. There are better ways of funding that are less expensive and will create more viable businesses. Venture capital is expensive capital. You have to give up a lot of equity and control in exchange for it. And in the news business there’s the added “cost” of editorial conflicts of interest. The VC industry emerged to support very cost-intensive industries, like semiconductors.

MEDIA: Unless you are Mark Zuckerberg or any of Facebook's other senior executives, you don't need me to tell you that the image above-- Nick Ut's "The Terror of War," known popularly as "the Napalm girl" -- is one of the most iconic and important war photographs ever published. Earlier this week, Facebook took the frankly unfathomable step of demanding that Aftenposted editor Espen Egil Hansen censor a copy of the Napalm Girl photograph that he'd posted on his account. Specifically they suggested that he “either remove or pixelize” the girl. I wish I were joking. 

ECOMMERCE: People put up with the impersonal experience of massive marketplaces like Amazon for the discounts, the ability to deliver within 24 hours, and other “super powers that compensate for the lack of authenticity,” Perry said. What sets small business owners apart is that they care about the purchase, the conversation, and who you are.While bots offer small business owners greater efficiency that allows them to compete with the Amazons of the world, Perry said he doesn’t know if the potential loss of human “authenticity” is going to take away their edge.

ECOMMERCE: The next generation of global leaders in innovative e-commerce are set to come from Asia, according to Simon Eaves, senior managing director for products and digital customer lead at Accenture Consulting. Speaking exclusively to Campaign Asia-Pacific at the M2020 conference in Singapore, Eaves said the gulf between APAC consumers and Western markets regarding e-commerce was the starting point. “They are almost mobile by definition, which opens up a wealth of opportunity,” he said, “and it’s the intensity with which they are open to online relationships.

ECOMMERCE: Once shunned by the fashion community for its downscale feel and reputation for cut-rate prices, Amazon is becoming an important partner for an expanding list of apparel, footwear and accessories companies. To win over the brands, Amazon has promised to hold the line on discounting, people familiar with the discussions have said, a departure from how it has gained market share in books, electronics and other categories. With Lands’ End, Amazon agreed to respect the company’s pricing, according to a person familiar with the situation.

ECOMMERCE: Hudson’s Bay, No. 75 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, reported its online sales grew 81.4% year over year during the fiscal second quarter of 2016 ended July 30, while digital comparable sales, which is e-commerce revenue excluding Gilt, grew just 1.4% year over year. Hudson’s Bay declined to provide a specific dollar figure for its online sales growth. Through the first half of 2016, Hudson’s Bay’s digital sales grew 86.9% year over year, with comparable sales growing 5.5%. 

BRAND: The 37-year-old funnyman — who starred on social media three years ago dancing in his Tommy John underwear — on Thursday announced he has invested in the company. “Instead of being a paid endorser, he paid us to become a partner,” Tommy John founder Tom Patterson told The Post. After an employee spied Hart in his Tommy Johns on Instagram, he told Patterson — who quickly sent the actor and comic a few complimentary pairs. Patterson, who heads the privately held company, didn’t give the exchange another thought.

BRAND: Back in April, Nike pulled the plug on its FuelBand fitness tracker after four years of trying to make a go of it in the wearable tech market, a move that some saw as paving the way for an Apple Watch integration. Nike offered rebates to anyone who purchased a FuelBand between 2012 and 2015 in a $24 million settlement over false FuelBand claims. Cue the Apple Watch Nike+, a running watch that offers “run-tracking functionality,” a “breathable” watchband and is sweat-resistant.

BRAND: Earlier this year, we talked to Gatorade senior vice president and general manager Brett O’Brien about his brand strategy, its transition from primarily a beverage brand to what they're calling a "sports fuel company," and more. Since 2014, the brand has had an internal innovation unit to look beyond bottle shapes and new flavors and toward a higher mission. We've had a close look at some of the company's upcoming products, a direct result of this newfound commitment to innovation. [VIDEO]

RETAIL: Kroger is hitting the reset button.The high-flying grocery chain, whose shares have risen 184 percent in the past five years, cut its full-year earnings outlook on Friday after second-quarter results missed forecasts. To preserve cash, it said it would also pull back on capital spending by $500 million. The moves elicited little more than a shrug from investors on Friday, with shares flat on the news. That's likely because the grocer's warning comes a bit late: