Hi Shopifreaks
It's only my second edition of 2025, and I can already tell you with confidence that this is going to be one of the biggest editions of the year!
Between a looming TikTok ban, tech companies adapting to the new political landscape ahead, and even more WordPress drama — I've got a jam packed edition for you today, so let's dive right in.
In this week's edition I cover:
- Amazon launches ad management as a service
- Meta ends fact checking on its platforms
- Automattic retreats from WordPress contributions
- eBay partners with Facebook Marketplace
- Best Buy launches a marketplace (again)
- The EU fines itself for breaking its own data rules
- The US awaits a Supreme Court decision on TikTok
- TikTok publishes its What's Next 2025 Report
- Amazon ends Try Before You Buy
- Shopify launches Partner Solutions Center for enterprises
- There's a Hitler chatbot on Facebook?
All this and more in this week's 208th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!
Stat of the Week
41% of companies worldwide plan to reduce workforces by 2030 due to AI, according to a World Economic Forum survey. Out of hundreds of large companies surveyed around the world, 77% also said they were planning to reskill and upskill their existing workers between 2025-2030 to better work alongside AI.
1. Amazon's new service lets retailers sell and manage ads on their own sites
Amazon announced a new program called Amazon Ad Retail Service that lets other retailers use its advertising technology to showcase ads on their own websites. The service enables retailers to manage product ads on their search, browse, and product pages to help customers with product discovery and purchase decisions. It's currently available to multi-brand retailers in the US with an e-commerce site or app.
Here's how Amazon Ad Retail Service works:
- A brand wants to advertise on your retail site — either promoting their products within your site or on a different online store.
- The retailer sends the advertiser to Amazon Ads console where their ad inventory is hosted.
- The brand manages their advertising through a familiar console.
- The brand also has the ability to advertise on other retail sites who offer ad inventory through its platform.
- Ads can incorporate availability, price, shopper search query, and the category or product being viewed.
- Retailers determine ad formats to fit the size of their templates, as well as where ads appear on their websites and how often they're shown.
- Retailers can also choose whether the ads lead visitors to the product page, displays a quick view of the product, or takes them directly to their cart to checkout.
- Retailers can make their ad offerings available via the Amazon Ads console and APIs to reach more advertisers.
- Amazon says that the service, which is hosted on AWS, operates on dedicated systems with access controls designed to ensure that retailer info is separate from Amazon info.
- It uses machine learning models to process contextual information like search queries and product attributes to serve relevant ads.
- Ad measurement takes place in AWS clean rooms to generate anonymized reports for the retailer and its advertisers.
- Retailers pay fees based on usage levels, but pricing has not been disclosed.
The service is currently in beta with iHerb, Oriental Trading Company, and Weee!, with additional brands like Tilly’s launching soon.
I see the appeal of having Amazon's ad tech powering your retail website's search and display ads, but let's also not act like selling / managing ads on a website is some incredible feat in 2025. Amazon has great tech, sure, but there are other solutions available that don't involve sending your advertisers to Amazon.
If I was a multi-brand retailer, I'd be concerned about two things:
- Sending my advertisers to Amazon Ads console, where I'd be ultimately helping to build a retail media network that collectively devalues the ads on my own website, and instead just makes me another cog in Amazon's wheel.
- Why would I want to display ads on my retail website that lead to products on other websites? The focus seems to be on “creating new advertising revenue streams” — but at what cost? Likely I paid to get that shopper on my website. Now I'm sending them away?
Juozas Kaziukėnas of MarketplacePulse nailed it on LinkedIn today. He wrote, “If a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water, which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger. That's Amazon.”
What are your thoughts on Amazon Ad Retail Service? What am I missing or not understanding about its benefits to retailers? Hit reply and let me know or join the convo on Mikael Brakker's LinkedIn post.
2. Meta ends fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram, & Threads
Meta is ending fact-checking on its platforms, and the world is freaking out as if fact-checking actually worked.
Mark Zuckerberg even admits that it was a flawed system. He said:
“I’m counting on these changes actually making our platforms better. I think Community Notes will be more effective than fact-checkers, reducing the number of people whose accounts get mistakenly banned is good, people want to be able to discuss civic topics and make arguments that are in the mainstream of political discourse, etc. Some people may leave our platforms for virtue signaling, but I think the vast majority and many new users will find that these changes make the products better.”
The “Community Notes” system he mentioned will roll out in the US over the coming months, with plans to refine it throughout the year.
Meta has no immediate plans to end or modify its fact-checking program in the European Union, where stricter regulations like the Digital Services Act require platforms to combat illegal content and misinformation.
Zuckerberg later added about the rationale behind the change:
“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.”
I'm in favor of this change. Social media fact-checking was an absurd idea that gained traction during the 2016 US election, Brexit, and the pandemic as a means to classify content as “misinformation” before it even had time to be proven right or wrong, or even be properly discussed. The idea that a social network can effectively fact-check more than 5 billion posts and comments each day using algorithms and underpaid fact-checkers from Pakistan, Argentina, and Brazil was at best, silly, and at worst, a falsehood designed to placate the previous cultural and political climates. It's simply not possible.
Ian Bogost of The Atlantic said it well:
“The effort Facebook attempted under the name fact-checking was doomed. You can’t nitpick every post from every random person, every hobby website, every brand, school, restaurant, militia lunatic, aunt, or dogwalker as if they were all the same. Along the way, Facebook’s effort also tarnished the idea that fact-checking could be something more. The platform’s mass deployment of surface-level checks gave the sense that sorting facts from falsehoods is not a subtle art but a simple and repeating task, one that can be algorithmically applied to any content. The profession of journalism, which has done a terrible job of explaining its work to the public, bears some responsibility for allowing—even encouraging—this false impression to circulate. But Facebook was the king of ersatz checking. Good riddance.”
One thing I've always enjoyed about using Reddit is that the cream rises to the top in regards to accurate information. As soon as there's an incorrect statement made, the Reddit community dives into action and pushes the comment correcting the inaccuracy to the top of the post. And when that same incorrect statement is made on another subreddit via a different post, you can rest assured someone is going to link to the comment on the original post calling out the misinformation. While it's not perfect, the system works quite well in my opinion.
Plus, let's not forget that Meta isn't getting rid of its Community Guidelines. Just because fact-checking is gone doesn't mean you can't all of the sudden spout racism and hate speech on the network. That'll still likely get you banned. (Although there is certainly reasonable debate in certain communities about what's considered hate speech.) The difference now is that you won't get banned for having conversations or debates that are within Meta's Community Guidelines, which was happening before.
Not everyone agrees with me…
- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, criticized Meta’s decision to end fact-checking programs, stressing the “real world consequences” of unregulated online spaces. Türk cited the immense power of social media to “fuel conflict, incite hate and threaten safety” as mandating regulation.
- President Biden called the decision a “really shameful” choice and “contrary to American justice.”
- Chi Onwurah, UK's Labour MP, said the decision to replace professional factcheckers with users policing the accuracy of posts was “concerning” and “quite frightening.”
- Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmer said the decision was “very concerning” and “damaging for our democracy.”
- Many Meta employees are also criticizing the decision, expressing concerns about potential increases in misinformation and harmful content, particularly on immigration and gender identity.
Most importantly… what do you think about the decision to end fact-checking? Hit reply and share your thoughts.
3. Automattic retreats from WordPress contributions
I'll start out by saying that reporting on WordPress / Automattic / Matt Mullenweg these past few months has brought me no joy. WordPress has had a huge impact on my professional career during the past two decades, and I'm grateful for it and the community that built it. However like any relationship — there's either a reason or a season — and I'm ready to move on from it if need be.
When WooCommerce approached me last year about becoming one of our News Partners, I was ecstatic. When they decided not to move forward, I was disappointed. When all this WordPress drama began, I was relieved.
More than anything, I'm baffled why all this drama is happening. Can't Matt Mullenweg see that this is not the way to lead? Or do we get so caught down the rabbit hole of our own actions that it becomes impossible to back out?
Either way, here goes yet another update on the WordPress Drama:
Matt Mullenweg Automattic announced that it would be decreasing its contributions to WordPress, the open-source project, to instead focus on for-profit projects within Automattic, such as WordPress.com, Pressable, WPVIP, Jetpack, and WooCommerce.
The company wrote:
“We’ve observed an imbalance in how contributions to WordPress are distributed across the ecosystem, and it’s time to address this. Additionally, we’re having to spend significant time and money to defend ourselves against the legal attacks started by WP Engine and funded by Silver Lake, a large private equity firm.”
“As part of this reset, Automattic will match its volunteering pledge with those made by WP Engine and other players in the ecosystem, or about 45 hours a week that qualify under the Five For the Future program as benefitting the entire community and not just a single company. These hours will likely go towards security and critical updates. Members of the ‘community' have said that working on these sorts of things should count as a contribution to WordPress.”
Was that last part a stab at me? I've said that…
Dr. Christopher Kunz of Heise Online put that reduction into context:
“Automattic currently donates 1430 hours per week, which means it intends to invest 97 percent less development time in the future. As the corresponding profile page on ‘Five for the Future' explains, these hours are split between almost one hundred employees in 17 teams across the WordPress ecosystem.”
Do I think Automattic's decision is fair?
Sure, why not? At this point, I'm losing capacity to care. And like many other professionals in the space, I'm losing confidence in the future reliability of WordPress as a CMS and debating whether to continue developing on it for new projects moving forward.
Many experts have argued that WordPress Core (the built-in features available in WordPress without plugins) has gotten too bloated, and that building Guttenberg directly benefited Automattic / WordPress.com anyway — so perhaps it's not a bad thing if WordPress open-source contributors only focused on security and critical updates, leaving advanced functionality development to plugin makers.
Others have speculated that this is the beginning of Automattic leaving WordPress.org (the open-source project) in the dust in retaliation, and developing all future WordPress features as for-profit under its WordPress.com arm.
Regardless, the whole move by Automattic feels like the company is extorting the community to get what it wants and taunting WP Engine to stop the fight that Mullenweg started. But like I said, I'm losing energy to care.
In other WordPress Drama news…
- Mullenweg deactivated the accounts of several prominent WordPress.org community members including Joost de Valk (creator of Yoast SEO plugin) and Karim Marucchi (CEO of Crowd Favorite) for sharing their visions for a new WordPress era in separate blog posts. Mullenweg referred to their plans as a “fork,” even though neither made mention of doing so in their posts.
- Mullenweg also deactivated the accounts of Sé Reed (CEO of a non-profit called WP Community Collective), Heather Burns (a former contribute to the WordPress who hasn't been involved in the project since 2020), and Morten Rand-Hendriksen (who also left the project several years ago, but has since talked about the need for proper governance, accountability, and conflict of interest policies).
- Mullenweg disbanded WordPress' sustainability team after Thijs Buijs announced that he was stepping down as Team Representative. Mullenweg replied to the announcement, “Today I learned that we have a sustainability team” and then talked about how they should have a different approach anyway. This guy can't lose…
4. ebay partners with Facebook Marketplace to display listings
eBay partnered up with Meta to enable eBay listings to appear on Facebook Marketplace in the US, Germany, and France. Yay, just what everyone always wanted… eBay listings polluting Facebook Marketplace!
The move comes in response to the European Union's Nov 2024 decision to fine Meta €797.72M for breaching EU antitrust rules by tying its Facebook Marketplace to its social network and imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads services.
eBay wrote in their announcement:
“There's no action required on your part. Simply keep listing on eBay as usual to enjoy the benefits of broader visibility and the chance to reach a new audience of buyers through Facebook Marketplace. The entire process, from product inquiries to payments, will continue to be securely handled through eBay. That means your transactions, order details, and seller protections will all remain unchanged.”
When an item from eBay sells through Facebook Marketplace, buyers will be redirected to eBay to finalize their purchase. All sales will be protected by eBay's Money Back Guarantee and other applicable eBay policies.
From what I understood in eBay's announcement, eBay sellers won't have the option to opt-in or -out of listing their products on Facebook Marketplace. The decision is totally up to eBay and sellers agree to it when they choose to list items on eBay.
Liz Morton of Value Added Resource added some context to the move:
“For those wondering why Meta would include the US in this trial when it is not under the jurisdiction of the EU Commission, there's an ongoing FTC case against Meta with similar antitrust and anti-competitive practice allegations and eBay specifically came up during discovery last year.”
“Including the US platform in this trial is likely an attempt by Meta to undercut those concerns or show they are already working to address them before the case heads to trial in April 2025.”
Fortune reported that eBay's stock price rose nearly 10% after the news was dropped on Wednesday, boosting the company's market cap by about $3B to $33B. It has since stabilized and is hovering around a 5% increase from where it started.
5. Best Buy to launch a third-party marketplace (again)
Best Buy is planning to launch a new third-party marketplace in the US in mid-2025, allowing brands to directly sell their products to Best Buy's customers (similar to how Amazon, Walmart, and other marketplaces allow third-party sellers).
If you've been in the industry long enough and this news sounds familiar, it's because Best Buy previously attempted to run a third-party marketplace in the US from 2011 to 2016. The company eventually shut it down because it only brought in 1% of its revenue and created confusion among buyers who thought they could return products sold by third-party sellers to Best Buy stores. (Customers should have been allowed to return items to Best Buy stores. What a great differentiator that would've been for both buyers and sellers! Such a waste of a national retail footprint…)
Now Best Buy has apparently learned from its mistakes and is ready to re-enter the marketplace business in the US, this time in partnership with Mirakl, a software company that also powers third-party marketplaces for companies like Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Kroger.
It's important to note that Best Buy Canada has already been running a third-party marketplace with Mirakl in the country since 2016, so Best Buy US can pull from that almost decade of experience and data.
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told investors on an earnings call not to expect a huge marketplace that has everything. Instead, this will be a “curated, tailored marketplace to the customer that is coming to shop with us and those deeper assortments that you would hope you could provide.”
Best Buy says it has more than 200M online customers and generates more than 10B site views and 52M transactions per year. I hope it works this time! Brands can apply to sell on the marketplace here.
6. The EU fines itself for breaching its own data protection laws
The EU General Court ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission must pay damages to a German citizen for failing to comply with its own data protection regulations.
The court determined that the Commission transferred the citizen's personal data to the US without proper safeguards and ordered it to pay him €400 in damages.
Here's what happened:
- Back in 2022, a man used the “Sign in with Facebook” option on the EU login site to register for the “Conference on the Future of Europe.”
- The login transferred his IP address to Meta in the US, violating EU data protection rules which state that users' personal info can only be transferred outside the EU when those jurisdictions have been found to have equivalent safeguards to those in Europe. At the time, the EU had not assigned that status to the US.
- The court concluded that the action constituted a “sufficiently serious breach” of the rules, and warranted a financial penalty (albeit a small one).
- However the court rejected the man's second claim of €800 for infringing his right to access information when the Commission failed to reply to his request about the data transfer.
A Commission spokesperson said, “The Commission takes note of the judgment and will carefully study the Court's judgment and its implications.”
I've got to hand it to the EU on this one. Way to set an example that no-one's above the law!
7. The Supreme Court heard the TikTok case — now we wait
On Friday, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether or not to temporarily block the law requiring TikTok to divest to a US company or face a nationwide ban, marking a final chance for the company to make its case.
TikTok argued during the hearing:
- If Congress was truly concerned about data security, they'd also go after Shein and Temu, companies that also collect plenty of data.
- TikTok attorney Noel Francisco urged the court to block the law without making a determination about whether TikTok could succeed, which would push its enforcement into the domain of President Trump, who promised to save the app.
- “It’s not enough to say national security. You have to say, what is the real harm?”
- The law is a dramatic violation of the Constitution's free speech guarantee.
- “AMC movie theaters used to be owned by a Chinese company. Under this theory, Congress could order AMC movie theaters to censor any movies that Congress doesn't like or promote any movies that Congress wanted.”
- “Everybody manipulates content. There are lots of people who think CNN, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times are manipulating their content. That is core protected speech.”
- It’s not possible to disentangle TikTok US from ByteDance. It would take years to reconstruct a team that could maintain the source code, and it would need to get users around the world to sign up for an essentially new platform to share content.
- See my LinkedIn post demonstrating that last point.
The Department of Justice argued:
- TikTok could be used to build profiles on Americans and be used for “harassment, recruitment, and espionage.” It’s not just collecting info on the 170M Americans on the platform, but also their contacts that users have granted access to.
- “We saw Elon Musk buy Twitter in about six months.” — arguing that the court shouldn't buy the argument that TikTok hasn't been given enough time to sell. (Could they at least have the opportunity to plead their case in court before the clock starts ticking?)
- Foreign-owned newspapers are far different from social media because newspapers collect far less information than social media sites.
- “Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok” — they're just not fine with a foreign adversary gathering all this information on US citizens.
So what now?
Now, we wait for the Supreme Court to announce their decision.
In the meantime though…
- TikTok is promoting its sister app, Lemon8, as an alternative to TikTok via sponsored posts on TikTok featuring the app and highlighting automatic data transfer and follower integration between the two platforms.
- TikTok users are flocking to Xiaohongshu, known as “Rednote” in English — which is a Chinese app that's a cross between Instagram and Pinterest. The app surged to the number-one spot for free apps in the US App Store.
8. TikTok releases its What's Next 2025 trend report
Amidst all the drama surrounding a potential ban in the US, TikTok is still moving full steam ahead. The company released its annual What's Next 2025 report sharing insights about top trends and strategies that we're going to see on its platform this year.
Funny enough it didn't mention the US ban anywhere in the report. Here's what it did mention:
- A wider pool of creators will enable brands to build relevance across niches. It's not about the loudest voice, but about increasing the number of creators engaging with their brand.
- Content that sparks conversations with consumers, such as street interviews and behind-the-scenes moments, will build genuine trust with brands.
- Consumers will pay more attention to the brands that consistently engage with them. Brands are connecting with viewers via supportive and joyful messaging to create year-round soft-sell moments.
- Creators will continue sharing their niche POVs to connect with global audiences. People are fostering new communities as users build more inclusive and empathetic global relationships.
- Female inclusivity will be integral to brands' bottom lines. Topics such as pay transparency, asmr hairstyles, affordable dupees, and designer splurges are celebrated by women on TikTok.
- Creators are redefining traditional life-stage marketing with more intimate personal goals related to student debt, homeownership, mental health, and personal growth.
- AI will give brands a creative edge by enabling faster ideation and production. Users and brands are embracing AI for tasks like styling outfits, visualizing dream home renovations, and sparking script ideas.
- Brands will explore fresh ways to remix their content to expand their identity. With traditional seasons fading due to on-demand shopping, marketers can experiment with various messages and formats without audience fatigue.
- The comment section is the new focus group. Brands on TikTok are using real-time feedback from comments to innovate, update products, or add new flavors, giving users a voice in product development, building trust, and turning them into loyal advocates.
Sounds like an exciting year ahead for TikTok. Will US creators and small businesses be able to continue to participate? We'll find out soon…
9. Other e-commerce news of interest
Amazon is shutting down its Try Before You Buy program at the end January, a service that allowed customers to choose up to six items to try on and send back whatever they didn't want within a week for free, only being charged for the items they decided to keep. Amazon says that new AI-powered features like virtual try-on, personalized size recommendations, review highlights, and improved size charts help make sure customers are finding the right fit without the need for the service.
TikTok revealed that it's in the process of launching its first e-commerce product exclusively for travel brands called Travel Ads, aimed at helping brands find people on its platform who are in the market to book a trip. The product is currently being tested with a select number of brands, with plans to roll it out for general availability in the near future. Travel content continues to grow on TikTok, with posts containing hashtags that include the word “travel” up 250% YoY, with the specific hashtag for #luxurytravel receiving 27M views in the last month alone.
Shopify launched the Partner Solutions Center, which features pre-built partner solutions that are designed to meet the complex commerce needs of Enterprise merchants. Initial offerings include an analytics package from Accenture, a Salesforce Service Cloud Accelerator from Astound Digital, a Next Generation Retail Commerce Delivery Model from Deloitte Digital, and more. Shopify says that by collaborating with global system integrators, agencies, and independent software vendors, the Partner Solutions Center will empower merchants to launch new commerce capabilities faster than ever. It kind of sounds like an Enterprise app marketplace (using the word “app” very liberally in this context) that'll have the same impact on Enterprise brands as the Shopify App Marketplace had on SMBs.
Shopify acquired the domains shop.ca and shop.us from Emerge Commerce, a Toronto-based e-commerce aggregator, for $375k USD ($536,000 CAD). Emerge originally purchased the domains to run a platform that provided coupons alongside retail content and shopping guides, but the websites had not generated revenue in quite some time, so they found it to be a better business decision to sell them to Shopify instead. The domains now redirect users to Shopify's pseudo-online marketplace, Shop App.
Amazon delayed its full return-to-office plan at more than 40 office locations due to lack of space, according to an internal list leaked to Business Insider. Amazon's original policy pivot required employees to work from the office five days a week again beginning January 2nd, but apparently the offices aren't ready. I previously reported on this news last month, but it wasn't yet known that the office space shortage affected 40 different locations. Amazon claims that the Business Insider article is incorrect and misleading, and that only a “relatively small number” of offices aren't ready (like 40 offices?).
Amazon is halting some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, according to an internal memo, which said that the company is in the process of “winding down outdated programs and materials” as part of a broader review of hundreds of initiatives. In 2020, Amazon set a goal of doubling the number of Black employees in VP and Director roles, later announcing the same goal in 2021 and pledging to hire 30% more Black employees for product manager, engineer, and other corporate roles.
Meta made similar announcements last week, informing employees that it plans to end a number of internal programs designed to increase the company's hiring of diverse candidates. The company will suspend its current approach to considering qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for open rules, as well as its equity and inclusion training programs. Meta's Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams will move into a new role focused on accessibility and engagement. To be fair, Meta hasn't had the best luck with its diversity programs. Remember their former global diversity executive, Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who embezzled over $4M from the company by paying her friends and family for fake services that were never rendered? Plus, it sounds like diversity won't be much of an issue when AI takes over everyone's position at the company… (scroll down a few stories).
Squared shipping packages are making a comeback because they're easier to transport, especially for automated robots, which generally do better with items that are perfectly dimensionalized. Many brands are also transitioning to rigid square or rectangle packaging for the products themselves, not just their shipping packages, including items like pet food and laundry detergent, which traditionally used flexible packaging.
Uniqlo, a Japanese casual wear retailer known for its minimalist, high quality, functional designs, agreed to stop using gig economy apps, like Temper and YoungOnes, to hire temporary workers, over concern that workers hired through the apps were left with little or no protections that are available to other workers hired through more traditional channels. The retailer told The Guardian that it would only hire for temporary and permanent positions either directly or through other channels that ensure staff are eligible for employment benefits.
China's State Administration for Market Regulation announced its intentions to tighten oversight of online platforms and livestream e-commerce as part of a larger initiative aimed at fostering fair competition and providing better protection for smaller businesses. At a press briefing, the regulatory body revealed that the government plans to introduce more stringent measures to enhance the transparency of platform regulations, reduce the operational costs for merchants, and address the growing concerns within the e-commerce ecosystem.
Amazon is paying $40M to license a new documentary on incoming first lady Melania Trump, who will also serve as executive producer on the film. The price tag includes the film itself, a smaller-scale theatrical run before being featured on Prime Video, and a supplementary docuseries. The documentary will be directed and produced by Brett Ratner, who was forced out of Hollywood at the peak of the #MeToo movement. It is unclear how much Melania will be paid for her contributions.
Mark Zuckerberg revealed on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience that Meta and some of the biggest companies in the tech industry will start automating the work of midlevel software engineers this year and eventually outsource all coding on its apps to AI. It may initially be an expensive endeavor, but Zuckerberg said that Meta will reach the point where all of the code in its apps and the AI it generates will also be done by AI. So one question… how will midlevel software engineers become senior software engineers without jobs?
Your brand name on Amazon can now match your product name, veering from a long-time rule that didn't allow duplicate words in titles, even when the word was part of the brand name. This will allow, for example, The Bean Coffee Company selling a 16 oz Ground Coffee Bag to use the title, “16oz Ground Coffee Bags from The Bean Coffee Company.”
TikTok is hosting its second annual Global Live Fest on Jan 16th in London, bringing together creators from around the world and featuring musical performances from artists who have come up on TikTok Live. Zara Larsson is set to headline the event, which will be hosted by Jason Derulo and livestreamed to users.
X launched a standalone iOS app for its Grok chatbot in beta across the US, Australia, and India. The app offers features such as text rewriting, paragraph summarization, Q&A capabilities, and image generation based on text prompts. The company is also preparing a dedicated site, Grok.com, to make the chatbot accessible on the web. Previously Grok was only available to X users until now, and only to X Premium users until this past November. I haven't used Grok much, but all I can say is that Grok doesn't give a f…
Kohl's is closing its Inland Empire e-commerce fulfillment center as well as 27 retail stores across the country by April, with plans to also close its San Bernardino fulfillment center when the facility's lease expires in May. The company claims that it has increased efficiencies with new technology in recent years, allowing it to maintain its ability to fulfill orders with less facilities. (Uh huh…) The company's CEO Tom Kingsbury will step down from the position on Jan 15th, to be replaced by Ashley Buchanan, former CEO of Michaels Companies.
Meta has stopped selling its remaining inventory of Quest Pro devices, following its announced plans to discontinue selling the high-end headset two months ago at either the end of the year or when it ran out of stock. The Quest Pro sold for between $1,000 and $1,500 over the short course of its life, and now its product page encourages users to consider the Meta Quest 3 instead, which sells for $500.
Flipkart appointed Kabeer Biswas, the co-founder of Dunzo, an Indian hyperlocal delivery platform, to lead its quick-commerce service, Minutes. The move follows previous discussions about acquiring Dunzo, which were ultimately hindered by the delivery platform's ownership structure and Reliance Retail's significant investment.
Zalando, a European e-commerce company specializing in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products, expanded its partnership with Klarna by introducing its Pay in 3 installment payment option to five new European markets including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Poland, and The Netherlands. The expansion follows Klarna's launch in France, Italy, and Spain in 2024.
PhishWP, a WordPress plugin designed by Russian cybercriminals, has been found to turn WordPress websites into phishing pages by creating fake online payment processes that impersonate trusted checkout services like Stripe and stealing customer payment data. Instead of processing payments, the plugin sends credit card numbers, expiration dates, CVVs, billing addresses, and other billing info to a Telegram account controlled by the criminals. The plugin is being installed on both legitimate, but compromised WordPress websites, as well as fraudulent sites.
TikTok's Los Angeles-based employees are being told to either continue their work from home or use their personal or sick days if that's not possible, amid the wildfires that have burned over 45 square miles and put nearly 180k people under evacuation orders. The company's Culver City office itself is not under mandatory evacuation orders at this time, however, the office remains closed due to power outages caused by high winds, and the Palisades Fire is close enough that smoke can be seen out of the office windows.
Poshmark teamed up with Loop Returns for a new program that will allow shoppers to sell unwanted items that they can't return to the original merchant on Poshmark's platform. When US merchants that use Loop Returns enable this feature for their customers, shoppers initiating a return will see a “Resell on Poshmark” button next to items that aren't eligible for a traditional return — for example if they are final sale items or outside of the merchant's return window. One click will produce a complete, pre-filled listing on Poshmark with the item details. Brilliant partnership!
Bukalapak, an Indonesian e-commerce marketplace, said that it would stop selling physical items on its marketplace soon, amid tough competition from TikTok's Tokopedia and Sea's Shopee in the country. Moving forward, the company will only sell virtual products ranging from mobile phone credits to streaming vouchers. Customers have until Feb 9th to make last orders for certain items.
Amazon began testing its quick commerce offering, Tez, in India with employees in some Bengaluru neighborhoods. The company is also starting to onboard dark stores across the busiest areas of the city, according to ET sources. Walmart-owned Flipkart's quick commerce service, Minutes, is set to hit around 150 dark stores this quarter and is expanding aggressively, so Amazon has some catching up to do.
Albertson's launched a new e-commerce campaign that will run through Feb 26th featuring a series of 15-second and 6-second videos spotlighting the benefits of online shopping with the grocer. The videos, which will run on YouTube and Instagram, highlight Albertson's guaranteed product freshness, online deals and rewards, speedy delivery, and streamlined shopping experience through its BOPIS option.
Meta was discovered to be hosting AI chatbots imitating Hitler, Jesus, Taylor Swift, and other personalities that violated its policies, according to a NBC News investigation. Many of the characters used slight misspellings and images loosely resembling the people they were meant to represent, such as “Taylor Swif” which featured a brunette woman playing a guitar. Meta took down the individual accounts that were highlighted by the investigation, but other AI characters resembling the same people are still active.
10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions
Whatnot, a California-based live-streaming marketplace for buying and selling collectibles, raised $265M in a Series E round co-led by Greycroft, DST Global, and avar, at a $5B valuation. In 2024, Whatnot's annual GMV for livestream sales surpassed $3B. The company plans to use the funds to release new tools aimed at helping sellers manage inventory and orders, and expanding into new markets and audiences. Liz Morton of Value Added Resource noted that “The not so silent elephant in the room about the future of live shopping is the upcoming TikTok ban, which if upheld will leave a not insignificant amount of US sellers and influencers looking for a place to continue live streaming. In the current landscape, Whatnot is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the possible TikTok seller influx.”
Pipe17, a Seattle-based AI platform that connects e-commerce systems, enabling seamless order, inventory, and fulfillment management, raised $15.5M in a Series A round led by LFX Venture Partners, bringing its total amount raised to $25M. Pipe17's platform is designed to help D2C retailers provide the type of consistent delivery experience that consumers have grown to expect from bigger marketplaces by synchronizing order, pricing, and inventory data in real time across ERPs, 3PLs, commerce platforms, marketplaces, and physical stores. The company plans to use the funds to build and scale its infrastructure.
UPS acquired Frigo-Trans, a German provider of complex healthcare logistics solutions across Europe, and its UK-based sister company BPL, for an undisclosed amount. The deal extends its UPS Healthcare division's ability to offer end-to-end capabilities for its customers, who increasingly need temperature-controlled and time-critical logistics solutions around the globe. The acquisitions fit into UPS' long term strategy to double its healthcare revenue from $10B in 2023 to $20B by 2026.
Frank McCourt, his Internet advocacy group Project Liberty, and a consortium of investors that include Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary, submitted an official proposal to purchase TikTok to its parent company ByteDance on Thursday, a day before the Supreme Court heard arguments in the TikTok ban case. The value of the deal was not made public, however, McCourt previously said that he values TikTok at $20B, a far cry from the $268B valuation that ByteDance gave itself during a share buyback in December 2023. O’Leary told Fortune regarding the timing of the bid, “We were concerned that the Justices were going into their considerations for the Friday hearing under the assumption that the company claimed there were no American buyers.” New flash guys — if ByteDance were to sell TikTok (which it's not going to), there are MULTIPLE potential buyers — meaning real ones, not Frank McCourt and Kevin O'Leary — who would be submitting actual bids for the platform, and $20B wouldn't even cover the down payment…
Dataships, a Dublin-based startup specializing in data privacy software and services, raised €6.8M in a Series A round led by Osage Venture Partners. Dataships' software automates GDPR and CCPA compliance for e-commerce businesses, making it easier for merchants to grow their marketing lists without breaching data privacy regulations. The funds will be used to enhance its platforms features, market expansion within the e-commerce sector, and scaling its support and engineering teams.
Nevermined, a Luxembourg-based AI payments startup that sees itself becoming the “PayPal for AI,” raised $4M in a round led by Generative Ventures. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of its decentralized infrastructure for AI-to-AI transactions, enabling AI agents to engage in automated commerce by offering developer tools for managing payments, tracking usage, and the creation of credit systems for users.
PrettyDamnQuick, a Tel Aviv-based e-commerce delivery management platform that optimizes shipping and fulfillment for online retailers, raised $25M in a Series A round led by Peakspan Capital. The company will use the funds to expand market presence and expand development of its checkout and shipping personalization engine, which helps mid-sized D2C brands boost revenue and compete more effectively with global marketplaces and retailers.
Devsinc, a Pakistani software development and IT consulting company specializing in custom solutions and digital transformation, acquired Alchemative Group, a Dubai-based provider of e-commerce and digital retail solutions. The agreement includes the company's UnumPay platform, which simplifies payment processing and checkout experiences for businesses in the region, and marks Devsinc's expansion into UAE’s $7B digital retail market.
Ras Luxury Skincare, an Indian beauty brand specializing in 100% natural, organic, and cruelty-free skincare products, raised $5M in a Series A round led by Unilever Ventures, with participation from Amazon Venture Fund. The funds will be used to expand its retail presence, hire new staff, R&D, and improving its marketing and infrastructure.
JeelPay, a Saudi Arabian fintech that specializes in BNPL services, focusing on education financing through its “study now, pay later” scheme, raised $6.6M in a Pre-Series A round led by Joa Capital and AlJazira Capital. The company's education financing allows parents to pay tuition fees for their children installments — which sounds like a fancy way to say “student loans.” JeelPay plans to use the new funds to support development of new financing solutions and partnerships within the education sector.
Just Eat Takeaway completed its $650M sale of Grubhub to Wonder, the food startup founded and led by Marc Lore. Although the deal has an enterprise value of $650M, Grubhub is coming to the table with $500M of debt, which means Just Eat Takeaway will only walk away with around $50M, a small fraction of the $7.3B valuation that Grubhub had when the company first bought it in 2020. The deal was first announced in November 2024.
The ClearScore Group, a London-based fintech offering free credit scoring, financial insights, and product recommendations, acquired Aro Finance, a New York-based fintech that provides businesses with cash flow management and working capital solutions, for an undisclosed amount. The deal brings Aro's expertise in identifying financial behavioral patterns through opening banking to ClearScore's technology platform, which serves nearly 24M users worldwide.
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PS: What does Jeff Bezos do before bed? He puts his pajAmazon.