<story><title>McDonald&apos;s Acquires Machine-Learning Startup Dynamic Yield for $300M</title><url>https://www.wired.com/story/mcdonalds-big-data-dynamic-yield-acquisition/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>It seems like when your company&amp;#x27;s revenue has been flat for over a decade, you should focus on improving your core offering of, you know, &lt;i&gt;food quality&lt;/i&gt;, and not find new ways to annoy customers with data mining and extreme personalization.&lt;p&gt;In 2009 Dominos realized their food sucked, committed to improving it, and have since been doing very well.  (Their stock has more than quadrupled.)  At some point McDonalds will need to do the same.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jonas21</author><text>As another commenter pointed out, Dominos is kinda the poster child for fast food companies driving growth by embracing technology. They started investing in online ordering back in 2007, and their stock has gone up more than 20x since then.&lt;p&gt;And if you look at how Dominos describes itself, they&amp;#x27;re clearly focused on technology (or at least want you to think they are). For example, half of their standard investor blurb is about technology:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Emphasis on technology innovation helped Domino&amp;#x27;s achieve more than half of all global retail sales in 2017 from digital channels, primarily online ordering and mobile applications. In the U.S., Domino&amp;#x27;s generates over 60% of sales via digital channels and has produced several innovative ordering platforms, including Google Home, Facebook Messenger, Apple Watch, Amazon Echo, Twitter and text message using a pizza emoji. In late 2017, Domino&amp;#x27;s began an industry-first test of self-driving vehicle delivery with Ford Motor Company – and in April 2018, launched Domino&amp;#x27;s HotSpots™, featuring over 200,000 non-traditional delivery locations including parks, beaches, local landmarks and other unique gathering spots.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.prnewswire.com&amp;#x2F;news-releases&amp;#x2F;dominos-pizza-announces-q4year-end-2018-earnings-webcast-300791397.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.prnewswire.com&amp;#x2F;news-releases&amp;#x2F;dominos-pizza-annou...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>McDonald&apos;s Acquires Machine-Learning Startup Dynamic Yield for $300M</title><url>https://www.wired.com/story/mcdonalds-big-data-dynamic-yield-acquisition/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>It seems like when your company&amp;#x27;s revenue has been flat for over a decade, you should focus on improving your core offering of, you know, &lt;i&gt;food quality&lt;/i&gt;, and not find new ways to annoy customers with data mining and extreme personalization.&lt;p&gt;In 2009 Dominos realized their food sucked, committed to improving it, and have since been doing very well.  (Their stock has more than quadrupled.)  At some point McDonalds will need to do the same.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crazygringo</author><text>What are you talking about? McDonald&amp;#x27;s has been.&lt;p&gt;They revamped their quarter pounders a ~year ago to be much fresher, tastier, juicier burgers. They serve more gourmet-style toppings now and a variety of cheeses. They&amp;#x27;re experimenting with new items like the morning &amp;quot;donut sticks&amp;quot; which are surprisingly good. The buttermilk chicken tenders are worlds beyond the old nuggets. And you can get breakfast all day, with eggs that are now fresh-cracked.&lt;p&gt;They still sell all their old stuff because people still love it. But if you think their menu hasn&amp;#x27;t been increasing in quality for those who want it, you haven&amp;#x27;t been paying attention. Some people prefer not to believe it.&lt;p&gt;But it&amp;#x27;s still McDonald&amp;#x27;s. People want and like McDonald&amp;#x27;s. They&amp;#x27;re not looking for fine dining.</text></comment>