#234 – Click-to-Canceled, Amazon’s secret Starfish project, and OpenAI’s browser launch

by | Jul 14, 2025 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

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And now onto your regularly scheduled programming…

In this week's edition I cover:

  • NVidia's $4 trillion milestone
  • The death of click-to-cancel
  • Amazon's secret Starfish project
  • OpenAI's web browser launch
  • xAI went rogue and Linda Yaccarino quit
  • Amazon Prime Day broke records
  • TikTok is NOT building a U.S. app
  • Cloudflare's new pay-per-crawl feature
  • TikTok's ambitions to be both Amazon and Douyin
  • eBay's new Auto Price Reduction tool
  • Canada investigates Amazon
  • Disney expands its shoppable TV features

All this and more in this week's 234th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

Stat of the Week

Nvidia became the first publicly traded company to briefly surpass a $4 trillion market cap last week, beating Apple and Microsoft to the record. The company's stock rose 2.76% on Wednesday to hit an intraday record that pushed its market cap above the $4 trillion mark for the first time, before finishing up the day slightly below.

1. The click-to-cancel rule is officially dead in the U.S.

The click-to-cancel rule has been cancelled faster than I can cancel a WP Engine subscription!

Last October I reported that the FTC adopted a ‘click-to-cancel' rule that would require businesses to make it just as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up for it, along with other subscription-related consumer protections.

Former FTC Chair Lina Khan said at the time:

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription. The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”

The new rules were set to take effect today on July 14th, but a federal appeals court struck down the rules last week, officially making them dead in the water. 

The US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit wrote:

“While we certainly do not endorse the use of unfair and deceptive practices in negative option marketing, the procedural deficiencies of the Commission's rulemaking process are fatal here.” 

So what went wrong?

The FTC is required to conduct a preliminary regulatory analysis when a rule has an estimated annual economic impact of $100M or more. The FTC initially claimed it did not surpass that threshold in order to fast track the rule into law, however an administrative law judge later found that compliance costs would in fact exceed $100M, and therefore the FTC didn't go through the right channels to implement the law.

The judges said the lack of a preliminary analysis meant that industry groups and businesses weren't given enough time to contest the FTC's findings, and that the FTC's tactics, if not stopped:

“could open the door to future manipulation of the rulemaking process. Furnishing an initially unrealistically low estimate of the economic impacts of a proposed rule would avail the Commission of a procedural shortcut that limits the need for additional public engagement and more substantive analysis of the potential effects of the rule on the front end.”

So, kind of like issuing too many executive orders?

Now what?

Does this ruling mean that we can expect the FTC to reintroduce the click-to-cancel rule the proper way?

They did not say. However, given that the FTC is now fully Republican run, and they are the ones who initially voted against the rule last year — I highly doubt it. I hope the FTC proves me wrong though!

2. Amazon’s secret Starfish project aims to become the world’s product source

Amazon is working on a secret project codenamed Starfish that aims to make it the best source of product information for “all products worldwide,” whether or not they are sold on Amazon marketplaces, according to documents obtained by Business Insider.

The document describes a project that uses AI models to “synthesize” information from various data sources, including external websites and images, and then generate “complete, correct, and consistent product information globally.” So like Google Shopping Index?

Starfish is part of the company's effort to simplify product listings for third-party sellers. Amazon began rolling out features a couple years ago to help merchants AI-generate stronger product descriptions from short inputs or individuals URLs, alongside AI tools that automatically generate product images and video ads.

The document explained: 

“Starfish enriches product data using LLM, improves Catalog at scale by filling missing information, correcting errors, rewriting titles, bullet points, and product descriptions to make them more relevant for the customer.” 

Manually creating listings is time-consuming for sellers, so speeding up the process could help encourage more merchants to sell their products on Amazon. The process of listing an item could become as easy as one-click to publish for third-party sellers.

Amazon's internal document estimated that Starfish is expected to collect product information from 200,000 external brand websites this year and contribute $7.5B in extra GMV in 2025 by driving better conversions and building a broader product selection. It could also help fuel Amazon's agentic AI ambitions, including the company's the new “Buy for Me” recommendation system for external products.

Amazon's ambitions are clear: It doesn’t just want to sell everything; it wants to know everything that's sold, anywhere.

3. OpenAI is reportedly launching its AI web browser in a few weeks

OpenAI is close to releasing its long anticipated AI-powered web browser that will challenge Google Chrome's estimated 68% market share, according to three Reuters sources.

The browser, which is expected to launch in the coming weeks, aims to use AI to fundamentally change how consumers browse the web, while giving OpenAI more direct access to user data like their browsing history and logged in services.

The sources said that OpenAI's browser is designed to keep some user interactions within a ChatGPT-like chat interface instead of clicking through to websites. The browser will integrate tools like OpenAI's “Operator” agent to automate things like auto filling forms, navigating websites, and summarizing content in real time. 

Raphael Kahan of YNet News wrote:

“Instead of being just a viewing pane for the internet, the browser becomes an active participant.”

OpenAI is building its browser in Chromium, the same open-source engine that powers Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera. The browser is part of OpenAI's strategy to weave its services across the personal and work lives of consumers, as opposed to a dedicated tool that users have to visit.

This could be a hit to Google.

Chrome plays a key role in Google's advertising business, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the company’s revenue. It helps Google target ads more effectively and profitably by providing user data, while also directing search traffic to Google’s own engine by default. Even a single-digit disruption in browser market share could result in billions of dollars of lost income for Google's search advertising business.

However I'll believe it when I see it.

OpenAI seems to be losing some momentum in recent months, so I'm cautious to believe that a web browser is just weeks away from release. Recent developments point to a company that’s facing internal and external challenges:

  • Major AI talent has been poached by Meta, including key researchers from OpenAI’s superalignment and safety teams, raising concerns about OpenAI's ability to retain top talent. (They'll need that talent to develop and maintain a browser.)
  • The company's plans to transition into a for-profit business have hit a wall, which could potentially impact its ability to fundraise and subsequently compete with Meta and Google for talent.
  • OpenAI's acquisition of the AI-powered coding startup Windsurf fell apart, and Google is instead hiring the startup's talent for their DeepMind team. (More on that in section #10.)
  • OpenAI’s next-generation models have faced delays, including GPT-5 and its recently promised open-source model.

So for those reasons, I’m skeptical that the browser will launch as quickly as the rumors suggest — but I’m rooting for them. I think that the market is in desperate need of disruption when it comes to browsers, operating systems, and Internet gatekeepers, and OpenAI is best positioned to be one of those major disruptors.

Would you use an OpenAI web browser? Why or why not? Hit reply and let me know. 

4. Grok 4 went full on Hitler and Linda Yaccarino quit

X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned last Tuesday, following two turbulent years of trying to positively spin Elon Musk's antics and belligerent behavior. Musk originally recruited Yaccarino in 2023 from NBCUniversal to mend fractured ties with advertisers like Apple and Google, which she was partially successful at doing in spite of Musk.

Yaccarino posted on X: 

“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏. When Elon Musk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.”

While unclear if directly related, just days before Yaccarino’s departure, xAI's Grok 4 chatbot made headlines for generating antisemitic content, including praise for Adolf Hitler and even calling itself “MechaHitler.” The dangerous behavior triggered immediate backlash, with Turkey banning Grok and Poland lodging a complaint with the EU. 

xAI was forced into immediate damage control mode — scrubbing posts, rolling back prompt changes, and issuing a public apology — which may have been the final straw for Yaccarino. Throughout her tenure, she had frequently clashed with Musk over agent autonomy, advertiser safety, and AI ethics. The timing of her exit, coming just after the most severe Grok incident to date, was likely no coincidence.

What came next after her resignation was kind of funny: 

  • X took away the blue check mark on Linda Yaccarino's profile! Now that's some top tier pettiness. However the check has since been graciously returned.
  • Linda's son, Matt Madrazo, who was hired by his mom to sell political ads on the platform in 2023, showed up for work the next day! Apparently he wasn't aware that he was a nepo-hire.

Who will be the next CEO of X?

Following Yaccarino's departure, the company has not yet announced who will fill the role.

Top bets on Polymarket include:

  • No CEO announced in 2025 (25%)
  • Elon Musk (21%)
  • Sriram Krishnan, the senior policy advisor for AI at the White House (13%)
  • Mahmoud Reza Banki, X's current CFO (11%)

Honorable mentions include:

  • Grok, X's AI chatbot (6%)
  • MrBeast (5%)
  • Sheryl Sandberg (3%)
  • Jack Dorsey (2%)

Who's your pick for the next CEO of X? Hit reply and let me know or join the conversation on LinkedIn.

5. Amazon Prime Day breaks new records

This is the first year that Amazon ran a 4 day Prime Day event, and there were rumors circulating around the Internet after a Bloomberg report last week that sales were down 41% on the first day year-over-year. But… the rumors weren't true. They were based on data from Momentum Commerce that was taken out of context, which led people to believe that Prime Day 2025 was gearing up to be a flop — which was far from the case.

Here are some real numbers later reported by major data analysts:

  • Amazon, which is notoriously secretive about revealing actual sales figures, reported that this year's Prime Day event “was bigger than any previous four-day period that included a Prime Day event, with record sales and more items sold during the four days.”
  • U.S. shoppers spent $7.9B across all retailers (not just on Amazon) on the first day of Prime Day, up 10% from last year, per Adobe data.
  • U.S. online spending during Prime Day's four days amounted to an estimated $24.1B, according to Adobe, surpassing its pre-Prime Day estimate of $23.8B.
  • Adobe said in a news release that spending for Prime Day amounted to “more than two Black Fridays – which drove $10.8 billion in online spending during the 2024 holiday shopping season – and sets a new benchmark for the summer shopping season.”
  • 53.2% of consumers made purchases on mobile devices, accounting for $12.8B of the spending.
  • Popular categories included Kids' Apparel (+250% MoM), Home Security Productse (+185%), School Supplies (+175%), and Games (+160%).

Walmart ‘s six-day deals event also started Tuesday, while Target Circle Week began on Sunday, and Best Buy kicked off a Black Friday in July promotion that began Monday, which also attribute to the record numbers mentioned above.

As a consumer, what was your best find? As a retailer, how were your sales this year? Hit reply and let me know.

6. TikTok is NOT developing a special app for the U.S. market

Last week I reported per Reuters that TikTok is building a new version of its app for users in the U.S., internally known as “M2,” with plans to launch to app stores on September 5th, according to unnamed TikTok employees. Users would eventually have to download the new app to be able to continue using the service, but the existing app was scheduled to work until March of next year.

Several days after the news circulated, TikTok published an incredibly short statement refuting the report:

“The recently posted Reuters story, which is based on anonymous uninformed sources, is factually inaccurate.”

That’s the entirety of the statement, and so far the only explanation TikTok has provided, so it’s unclear if the company is saying that the whole report is untrue, or if a particular detail in the report is incorrect.

Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today speculated: 

“My assumption would be that the White House has raised concerns about the story, and the suggestion that TikTok may be creating a different version of the app, which will then be part of its sell-off discussions. Maybe that’s rankled government negotiators, who would prefer to get TikTok as is, which is why TikTok has sought to correct the record on this front.”

“But it also hasn’t corrected the record, or clarified its stance. It’s just saying that there are errors of fact in the report, which includes a range of details about the project, and any one of those elements could be what TikTok is referring to.”

Or maybe there's currently no U.S. deal in the works and there never has been? At this point, it's anyone's guess.

7. Cloudflare is beta testing a pay-per-crawl feature to monetize AI scraping

Cloudflare is experimenting with a new “pay-per-crawl” tool that allows content creators to charge a fee to AI crawlers to scrape their websites.

The feature is currently in beta with a small number of publishers and content creators, who are each able to set their own prices that bots must pay before scraping content. Publishers involved in the beta can also choose which bots can access which parts of their sites, experiment with blocking all bots, or allow certain bots to access certain content.

Here's how it works: 

  • Pay per crawl integrates with existing web infrastructure, leveraging HTTP status codes and established authentication mechanisms to create a framework for paid content access.
  • Each time an AI crawler requests content, they either present payment intent via request headers for successful access, or receive a 402 Payment Required response with pricing.
  • Publishers can grant or deny free access to content or require payment at a domain-wide price.
  • Cloudflare acts as the Merchant of Record for pay per crawl and also provides the underlying technical infrastructure.
  • If the crawler doesn't have an existing billing relationship with Cloudflare (which most won't at this point because it's a new feature), Cloudflare blocks content access and notifies the crawler that there could be a paid relationship in the future.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said:

“Original content is what makes the Internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and it's essential that creators continue making it. AI crawlers have been scraping content without limits. Our goal is to put the power back in the hands of creators, while still helping AI companies innovate. This is about safeguarding the future of a free and vibrant Internet with a new model that works for everyone.”

Cloudflare's announcement comes after rolling out a feature last September that allows website owners to block all AI crawlers in a single click, which over 1 million customers have chosen to do. Moving forward, the company says that any new customers (including free users) who sign up for Cloudflare services will have their domains set to block all known AI crawlers by default.

8. Does ByteDance want TikTok Shop to be Amazon or Douyin?

When ByteDance officially launched TikTok Shop in the U.S. back in 2023, it went on a hiring spree, poaching dozens of Amazon workers to its Bellevue, Washington offices, which were conveniently located a few blocks from Amazon headquarters.

By the end of 2024, TikTok employed more than 1,700 workers at its offices, with so many having come from Amazon that former staffers told Business Insider its early staff meetings sometimes felt like Amazon alumni reunions. One employee who came from Amazon told Business Insider that 75% of their 2023 TikTok Shop orientation group had previously worked a few blocks at Amazon.

Amazon was frequently brought up at TikTok team meetings in the early days too, with staffers routinely sharing insights about Amazon's business strategies, even revealing documents taken from their former employer at times.

At first, TikTok aimed to embrace the qualities that grew Amazon into a behemoth that controls 40% of total U.S. e-commerce spend. However as the new U.S. team began to fall short of its e-commerce goals, the tide began to turn. 

Dan Whateley of Business Insider shares:

  • ByteDance began stripping U.S. executives' autonomy through changes to their reporting structures.
  • U.S. team managers left the company and were replaced by Chinese leadership who “weren't tapped into the Amazon playbook.”
  • TikTok Shop leaders began focusing on replicating the success of ByteDance's Chinese sister app, Douyin.
  • Former staffers said the new leaders were fixated on livestream selling, which worked in China, but did not translate as well in the U.S. market.
  • The same person said that leadership wanted “U.S. representation and experience, but they didn't want to take a U.S. strategy.”
  • A second former Shop worker said, “It was a constant struggle between ‘copy Amazon' and ‘copy Douyin.'”

With recent rounds of layoffs at TikTok's US e-commerce division, the company is now betting TikTok Shop's future on the Douyin playbook. The company is following a similar strategy in Latin America.

Check out the full story on Business Insider to learn more about the opposing dynamics at play within TikTok Shop and what the future may hold for the platform.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Amazon Web Services is planning to debut an AI Agent Marketplace on July 15 at its NYC Summit, which will allow startups to sell AI agents directly to AWS customers. Anthropic, which already counts Amazon as a major investor, is one of the first partners. The marketplace will function similarly to SaaS platforms, enabling customers to browse and install agents based on use case, while AWS takes a revenue share. The move positions AWS to compete with similar offerings from Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce, and gives Anthropic broader reach for its Claude-powered agents and APIs.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company is indefinitely delaying the release of its open model, which had already been pushed back a month earlier this summer, for further safety testing. The open model was supposed to be available for developers to freely download and run locally, with similar reasoning capabilities to the company's o-series. Altman posted on X, “We need time to run additional safety tests and review high-risk areas. we are not yet sure how long it will take us. While we trust the community will build great things with this model, once weights are out, they can’t be pulled back. This is new for us and we want to get it right.” Replies on X mocked Altman for the delay and said that it must've been because Grok 4 came out and OpenAI realized their model couldn't hold a torch. Yeah, I'm sure…

eBay is testing an Auto Price Reduction tool that lets sellers automate price drops on their listings over a specified period of time, while also setting a minimum price floor. The feature resembles the company's short-lived “Easy Pricing” tool from 2018, which was quietly removed and only shown to new or occasional sellers. Currently, the new tool is not fully available to all accounts, with some users only seeing a simplified version locked to 7-day intervals, whereas other sellers are able to set their time intervals to every 3, 5, 7, 14, or 30 days.

Canada’s Competition Bureau is moving forward with its investigation into Amazon’s Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy, examining whether it constitutes an abuse of dominance under the Competition Act. The agency obtained a federal court order requiring Amazon to hand over records as it investigates whether the pricing rules, which let Amazon penalize sellers for pricing items higher than on other platforms, limit competition, raise seller fees, and suppress rival marketplaces. The bureau is also separately reviewing Amazon’s marketing practices for potential deceptive claims affecting product rankings.

Revolut is stepping up its “super app” ambitions with the launch of a secured credit card in the U.S., a new Stocks & Shares ISA in the U.K., and a remittance partnership with Ant Group to send money to China via Alipay. Super apps have struggled to scale in the U.S. due to market fragmentation, but analysts say Revolut’s younger, tech-forward user base may be more open to consolidating services. The company still operates via partner banks in the U.S. and has not commented on reports of Abu Dhabi exploring an investment stake.

Condé Nast and Hearst signed multi-year agreements with Amazon to license their content for use in its AI shopping assistant Rufus, just six weeks after The New York Times signed a similar deal. The agreements expand Amazon's access to structured, SEO-optimized editorial content that is ideal for powering product recommendations and search queries like “best moisturizer” or “what to wear to a wedding” from publications like Vogue, GQ, and Cosmopolitan. The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but the first activations of Rufus are expected to go live during the summer.

Meta is unlikely to offer more changes to its pay-or-consent model in the EU, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, which means it'll likely get hit with additional EU antitrust charges and hefty daily fines of up to 5% of global revenue. The European Commission warned Meta in June that its limited compliance would trigger further enforcement, and the company was fined €200M for violations between November 2023 and 2023. Despite the pressure, Meta says its current changes exceed DMA requirements and accuses regulators of targeting its business model unfairly. Do you think Meta also relying on President Trump to bully the EU into not fining them?

Disney is expanding its shoppable TV features with digital storefronts powered by Shopsense, which allow Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN viewers to shop for products seen on, or inspired by, the content they are watching.  The first partner, Calia activewear from Dick’s Sporting Goods, launched a curated storefront tied to a Project Runway episode. Disney also introduced a “virtual concession stand” in partnership with Gopuff, allowing viewers to order snacks during shows and sports events. These commerce efforts integrate with Disney’s Clean Room and retail media tools like Walmart Connect to enable data-driven, closed-loop ad targeting and measurement.

The FTC sent warning letters to Amazon, Walmart, and several other companies, reminding them to comply with its “Made in USA” requirements, including enforcing its rules with 3rd party sellers. The letter said, “Companies that falsely claim their products are ‘Made in the USA' can expect to hear from the FTC,” warning of potential legal action and civil penalties. The FTC Act and the Made in USA Labeling Rule require that products advertised as “Made in the USA” must be “all or virtually all” made in the United States.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission is opening a fresh investigation into TikTok, just a couple months after slapping the platform with a €530M fine over data transfers to China, after the company contradicted previous claims and admitted that limited European user data had been stored on servers in China. The DPC is now examining whether the platform violated the EU’s GDPR. TikTok maintains the data has since been deleted.

OpenAI added Shopify as a third-party search partner to help power their shopping search, which shows shopping-rich results. The addition of Shopify was not formally announced, but quietly added to OpenAI's search documentation alongside Bing. Currently OpenAI's shopping search is returning results from a variety of platforms including Shopify, Turbify (formerly Yahoo Stores), Amazon, and others.

Ready for some news about fonts? Wix partnered with Monotype Imaging Inc, a type design and technology company, to extend its font library, offering users a broader spectrum of high-quality typefaces for their websites. Meanwhile, TikTok launched its own font called “TikTok Sans,” enabling users to take its familiar TikTok style text to other platforms and tools. The company wrote, “Inspired by and made for our global community, TikTok Sans blends seamlessly with your go-to fonts, giving you the flexibility to create high-quality videos with that signature TikTok look and feel.” Right now Mark Zuckerberg is having an all hands on deck meeting with Meta leadership screaming, “We need a font!”

Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is teaming up with the online shopping platform ChaChing to introduce a marketplace called Price Fighter that redirects a portion of selling fees back to customers. Sellers on Price Fighter pay a flat 5% platform fee and then decide what they're willing to pay per sale. ChaChing, in turn, will cover a portion of each shopper's purchase up to $500 per user per month. It's an interesting concept in theory, but some of the products were being sold up to 50% higher than on Amazon, which kind of negates any cashback.

Microsoft Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff said during a presentation last week that AI tools are boosting productivity within the company in every department from sales and customer service to software engineering, and that the company saved more than $500M last year in its call centers alone with AI tools. He also said that AI is generating 35% of the code for Microsoft's new products and accelerating launch times. Microsoft has announced cuts of about 15,000 employees this year, with the most recent layoffs last week targeting customer-facing roles like sales.

Speaking of AI taking your jobs… Indeed and Glassdoor, which are owned by the same parent company, Recruit Holdings, are laying off 1,300 people, bringing its total number of layoffs to 3,200 in the past two years. In a memo announcing the cutbacks, Recruit CEO Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba said, “AI is changing the world, and we must adapt by ensuring our product delivers truly great experiences. Delivering on this ambition requires us to move faster, try new things, and fix what's broken.” He then told affected employees to check out Indeed.com if they're looking for a job soon. (Just kidding about that last part, but I wouldn't put it past them.)

X said the Indian government ordered the company to block 2,355 accounts in the country, including Reuters, within one hour of receiving the notice, without requiring any justification for the request, or risk criminal liability. A statement by X said that the move is the latest development in an ongoing censorship legal battle between X and the Indian government, but India's Press Information Bureau told Reuters that no government agency had required blocking the account and that it was working with X to resolve the issue. Did X get trolled by a fake e-mail from the Indian government?

Last week I reported that Nintendo pulled its products from Amazon.com after a disagreement over unauthorized sales, which resulted in Amazon missing out on the recent debut of the Switch 2. This week The Verge reports that Amazon finally has listings for the Switch 2 in the U.S., but right now, customers can only register their interest for an invitation to purchase the console. Amazon says that they won't be able to grant all requests, but if a customer is invited to purchase, they will get an e-mail with a link to purchase that's valid for 22 hours. I guess they worked out whatever issue both companies denied.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is launching a new messaging app called Bitchat that doesn't need the Internet or phone numbers to operate. Instead, the app relies on Bluetooth mesh networks, which allow devices to communicate with one another without the need for Wi-Fi or other Internet infrastructure. Dorsey published a whitepaper for the project, which he described as a provider of “ephemeral, encrypted communication without relying on internet infrastructure, making it resilient to network outages and censorship.” The beta version of Bitchat is already full with 10,000 downloads after Dorsey made it available via Apple’s TestFlight.

In lawsuits this week… Etsy is facing a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the company allowed third parties to collect personal information from the site's users through the use of pixel trackers from Google, Meta, and Microsoft, violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act and other state laws. Meta is facing a class action lawsuit alleging it of enabling and facilitating a stock manipulation scheme that used the company's social media platforms to extract millions of dollars form victims. A San Francisco judge ruled that Don Lemon, who was supposed to host exclusive content on X before Elon Musk abruptly cancelled the partnership, has met the threshold to continue his lawsuit against X on claims including fraud, misappropriation of name and likeness and breach of implied contract. DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse filed a declaratory judgement lawsuit against Sony Music, Universal Music, and BMG seeking court protection from copyright infringement claims, after receiving demand letters from the music companies accusing it of copyright infringement for using Warner Music Group songs in its social media posts. 

OpenAI hired four high-profile engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta, I guess to make up for some of the engineers that Meta has poached in recent weeks. The new hires will join the company's scaling team, which manages the backend hardware and software systems and data centers, including Stargate, a $100B supercomputer project, backed by Microsoft, designed to power future generations of artificial general intelligence.

Walmart Canada appointed Andrew Go as its new VP of E-commerce, tasked with leading the country's c-Commerce portfolio including marketplace, digital experience, omni operations, and Walmart fulfillment services. Go previously held the positions of Senior VP Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, and Senior Chief Digital and Data Officer for Staples Canada, and brings experience in digital transformation and omnichannel leadership

Wix plans to invest millions of dollars more into its Ukrainian operations in 2025, including expanding its Kyiv design team, while other tech firms are scaling back in the country during the war. Wix President Nir Zohar told Forbes Ukraine that the country is more than an offshore development for Wix, it's the company's largest innovation center outside of Israel with nearly 600 employees in the country. Since 2013, Wix has invested over $200M in the region, and as part of its 2025 growth plans, is building a new Kyiv-based design team targeting 50 hires.

Temu raised prices for customers in Pakistan by up to 300% following the government's decision to impose new taxes on online sellers last month. Under the country's new Digital Presence Proceeds Tax Act, a 5% tax is now imposed on goods sold in Pakistan by foreign companies. Additionally, large platforms like Temu and AliExpress must also pay an 18% sales tax to bring their pricing in line with local businesses. In comparison, domestic manufacturers already pay an 18% sales tax plus 35% income tax when selling products, which previously foreign platforms did not. A Reddit explained that Temu raised prices drastically to account for the unknown, but should begin to find an equilibrium once they begin to get product-specific data on how much are taxed.

Flagship, a company that helped creators launch branded product lines and storefronts beyond traditional merch, is shutting down its e-commerce marketplace on July 16th. CEO Youssef Ahres told Adweek, “Most creators—even highly effective ones—prefer creating content over running a storefront, and it was harder than expected to get them excited about promoting new or unfamiliar brands.” The company is now pivoting its business around an AI-powered search engine called Radar that connects brands with creators.

58% of Amazon Prime members purchased groceries online from Walmart during the previous 12 months, while only about 52% bought groceries from Amazon. In comparison, 79% of online grocery shoppers who subscribe to Walmart+ made online grocery purchases from Walmart, leading researchers to believe that consumers currently prefer buying groceries from Walmart over Amazon.

🏆 This week's most ridiculous story… Amazon was short-handed in its warehouses during its recent Prime Day event, so it put out a request to thousands of corporate staff members in New York City to volunteer to assist with grocery delivery. The staff members were asked to work two-hour shifts in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood, where Amazon operates a warehouse for Amazon Fresh, picking order items, preparing them for deliveries, and packing boxes on receiving carts. The manager who sent the Slack message noted that the effort would help “connect” warehouse and corporate teams. I'm pretty sure Michael Scott already tried that once. Is it ridiculous that corporate staffers were working in the warehouse? No, not at all. Frankly, it should be part of the job to work shifts in the positions you're tasked with overseeing. The ridiculous part was how Amazon tried to frame the story. They understaffed their warehouse and then tried to play it off as a team builder exercise. 

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

OpenAI's deal to buy the AI-powered coding startup Windsurf for $3B is dead, and Google will instead hire the company's CEO Varun Mohan, cofounder Douglas Chen, along with some of its R&D employees to work for its DeepMind team, focusing on its agentic coding efforts. Google will not have any control over or stake in Windsurf, but will take a non-exclusive license to some of the company's technology. It did not reveal how much it spent to hire the Windsurf team.

Meta completed its acquisition of PlayAI, a Palo Alto-based startup that provides users with an AI voice cloning tool, for an undisclosed amount. The entire PlayAI team is set to join Meta next week, according to an internal memo that was reviewed by Bloomberg. The memo said that the PlayAI team’s “work in creating natural voices, along with a platform for easy voice creation, is a great match for our work and road map, across AI Characters, Meta AI, Wearables and audio content creation.”

OneText, a “text-to-buy network” that enables shoppers to complete purchases via text message, raised $4.5M in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures, Coatue, Citi Ventures, and others. By using SMS, OneText's platform doesn't require a merchant to replace their website's existing checkout and instead integrates with a brand's existing processor to complete transactions, securely vaulting customers' payment information after their first purchase and allowing them to reorder with a single reply. Awesome tech, but keep your toddler away from your SMS app!

Rekaz, a Saudi-based platform that enables service businesses to manage clients, scheduling, and subscriptions, raised $5M in a round led by COTU Ventures. The company, which is used by over 7,000 businesses that have processed more than 1M appointments and subscriptions, will use the funds to deepen product development, enhance AI capabilities, and grow its presence across the Middle East.

Amplitude, a San Francisco-based analytics company that helps businesses track user behavior across digital platforms, acquired Kraftful, a fellow San Francisco-based startup that helps product teams turn customer feedback from sources like app reviews and support tickets into actionable insights, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will enable Amplitude to give marketers and product teams a complete picture of their customers so that they can create better products and digital experiences. 

Shein confidentially filed for an IPO in Hong Kong last week, marking its third attempt at going public after failing to secure regulatory approval in the U.S. and U.K. The move is meant to apply pressure on U.K. regulators, which have previously failed to agree with Chinese regulators on the appropriate language for the risk disclosure section of the company's prospectus, according to the Financial Times.

Jahez, a Saudi Arabian food and goods delivery platform, agreed to acquire a 75% stake in Snoonu, a Qatari e-commerce platform, for $225M. The deal aims to further Jahez's plans to expand its regional footprint and strengthen its presence in Qatar and is expected to close in the second half of 2025.

Bazaar Technologies, a Pakistan-based B2B e-commerce platform that helps retailers procure inventory, access financing, and manage their businesses, acquired Keenu, a Pakistani digital payments platform that provides POS terminals, mobile wallets, and merchant services to enable cashless transactions, for an undisclosed amount. The move aims to strengthen Bazaar's fintech services as the company aims to create a comprehensive shopping and payment ecosystem in Pakistan.

BrandBucket, an online marketplace that sells curated, brandable domain names for startups, acquired Novanym, a brand name generator and marketplace that offers professional created, brandable business names with available .com domains, for an undisclosed amount. The move aligns with BrandBucket's strategy of presenting premium domains to founders at the earliest stages of company formation, while expanding its global network that drives traffic and sales for its sellers. 

Didomi, a French platform that helps organizations collect, store, and leverage user choices across multiple channels, acquired Sourcepoint, a New York City-based privacy platform that helps publishers, advertisers, and technology providers manage consumer privacy preferences and comply with global data privacy regulations, for an undisclosed amount. The deal will unite the two company's privacy technology and combine their global talent team and complementary solutions, as Didomi aims to become the authority on privacy-respecting data collection, utilization, and attribution. 

Privy, an e-commerce marketing platform that helps store owners grow their e-mail and SMS lists and drive sales through pop-ups, banners, and automated messaging, acquired Emotive, a conversational SMS marketing platform that enables e-commerce brands to engage shoppers through two-way text conversations, for an undisclosed amount. With the acquisition, Privy now offers a unified platform where merchants can manage e-mail campaigns, SMS automation, onsite pop-ups, and real-time 1:1 conversations from one place, eliminating the friction of disconnected tools.

Bought, a Finnish P2P retail sales platform that enables users to buy and sell products directly from each other, acquired Netflea, a discontinued marketplace that had over 200k users across 13 European markets before ceasing operations earlier this year after its parent company entered into bankruptcy and shut down the platform, for an undisclosed amount. Bought does not plan to relaunch the marketplace, but will instead offer its users the opportunity to automatically transfer their purchase and sales history to the new Bought app.

GlobalData, a UK-based data analytics and consulting company that provides industry intelligence, market research, and forecasting, acquired Stylus, a global trend forecasting and innovation research company that helps businesses anticipate consumer behavior, product trends, and industry shifts, for an undisclosed amount. Through the acquisition, the company aims to bolster its consumer innovation intelligence offering and increase its ability to help brands create products, predict change, and make more informed business decisions. 

Zalando, a European fashion retailer that serves more than 50M customers across 25 countries, strategically combined with ABOUT YOU, an international e-commerce group that offers over 4,000 brands to over 12M active customers. The two founder-led companies plan to build a pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce that covers a larger share of the European fashion and lifestyle e-commerce market. The deal was announced at the end of last year and recently was granted clearance by the European Commission.

The FCC greenlit T-Mobile's acquisition of US Cellular and some of its network infrastructure for $4.4B. The approval comes after T-Mobile committed to eliminating diversity and inclusion programs to win favor of the commission. The deal gives T-Mobile, which is already the largest U.S. wireless carrier, 4.5M more customers across 21 states and allows it to incorporate some of US Cellular's spectrum licenses and leases into its nationwide network. I remember selling Verizon cell phones 20 years ago, back when T-Mobile was still a relatively small player with around 12% market share. Now they've grown / acquired to be the largest wireless provider in the U.S., with over 35% market share, just ahead of Verizon's 34% and AT&T's 27%. Quite the underdog story!

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PAUL

Paul E. Drecksler
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