Bits & Bytes | Smarter Smartwatches, Alibaba Bets $1bn, Start-Up Capital

"Smartwatches Need to Get Smarter" (Re/Code)
"Unlike my phone, if I left my smartwatch at home one day, I wouldn't drive back to get it."

"Alibaba Teams With Nvidia in $1 Billion Bet on Cloud Computing" (Bloomberg)
"Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will work with Nvidia Corp. on cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and plans to enlist about 1,000 developers to work on its big-data platform during the next three years."

"Rocket Internet Fund Gives Start-ups Edge as Capital Dries Up" (Reuters)
"German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet has attracted $420 million to a new fund it hopes will speed up and simplify capital raising for its start-ups, potentially giving them an edge as investors become more cautious."

"Why the Social Media 'Buy Button' Is Still There, Even Though Most Never Use It" (The Washington Post)
"Why haven't buy buttons — or other features, for that matter — turned social-media sites into e-commerce heavyweights? And could that change down the road?"

"The Sharing Economy's New Frontier: Everyday Clothing Rental" (CBS)
"As a child, you were told not to speak to strangers, but as an adult, you can share almost everything with strangers: cars, homes, bicycles, movies, music, and more. It's called the sharing economy and this seemingly altruistic shift is big business."

"Retailers Are Thinking Mobile but Still Struggle to Track Conversions" (DigiDay)
"For retailers, mobile is front of mind, but they're still struggling with a fairly basic requirement: figuring out how much sales it's driving."