Five At Five: Walmart’s Plans For Flipkart

Welcome to Five at Five, your late look at some of the freshest payments news of the day. Today’s stories include the latest on the Walmart–Flipkart deal, and the discovery of a new group of affluent consumers. Google Maps is getting more personal, and Nintendo is taking advantage of consumer nostalgia. Finally, we look at Uber spending habits.

Walmart Said To Eye Flipkart IPO
Walmart could launch an initial public offering (IPO) of Flipkart — the Indian eCommerce player in which it just bought a majority stake for $16 billion — in as soon as four years. The chain’s investment in Flipkart includes $2 billion of new equity funding, which Flipkart will use to accelerate growth.

Bridge Millennials And The Threat To Physical Retail
Let us introduce you to a new demographic cohort: the first real generation of connected consumers with spending power. We called them Bridge Millennials. At 30 to 40 years of age, they are younger than Gen X-ers but older than most millennials. And they are affluent and well-educated.

Google Maps’ Latest Iteration To Product Exploration
The forthcoming exploration tools are geared toward personalization, aided by artificial intelligence. The tried and true features, focused on getting the routes that take users from point A to B, will still remain in place.

Nintendo Brings Back Popular Gaming System
The NES Classic will be available for sale again this summer. Nintendo had announced in September that both the NES and SNES consoles would return to market in 2018.

Data: Uber Customers In Top 32 US Cities Spend ~$50 Per Month
As far as the cities where Uber and Lyft users seem to spend the most, data found San Francisco leads the way — not that surprising, given that both companies are based in the city. Empower users spent $110 per month on Uber and $89 per month on Lyft.