Hi Shopifreaks
Before we begin, I want to take a moment to recommend Lexi Grant’s They Got Acquired newsletter if you're interested in stories and insights from entrepreneurs who’ve successfully exited their companies — or if you hope to have a successful exit yourself one day.
Lexi goes beyond the headlines to share what led to those exits, what founders learned along the way, and how they structured their deals. It's a smart, well-curated read that complements Shopifreaks if you're thinking about the long game. And it's one of my personal favorite newsletters!
As long-time readers of each other's publications, we decided to cross-promote this week to bring more value to our subscribers. You can subscribe to They Got Acquired here. Let me know what you think!
And now onto your regularly scheduled programming…
In this week's edition I cover:
- Three billion iPhones
- BigCommerce becomes Commerce
- Trump suspends de minimis worldwide
- Google Chrome adds AI store reviews
- TikTok integrates Buy with Prime
- The new TikTok Transparency and Data Security Act
- Google was indexing ChatGPT conversations
- Amazon reintroduces star-only ratings
- Cash App launches non-app P2P payments
- Walmart's beating Amazon on same-day delivery
- Figma's blockbuster IPO
All this and more in this week's 237th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!
PS: Do you think agentic AI is the future? If so, read my LinkedIn post about the HUGE thing that companies are missing about agentic checkout.
Stat of the Week
Apple shipped its three-billionth iPhone since its launch in 2007. The company shipped its one-billionth iPhone back in July 2016, nine years after the release of the first iPhone, and it's estimated that they shipped their two-billionth phone in 2021. That means that out of the roughly 9 billion people that have existed on the planet since 2007, one-third have owned an iPhone. Either that, or like 100M people have upgraded their iPhones 30x each. LOL, or something in between.
1. BigCommerce rebrands its parent company to just “Commerce”
BigCommerce’s parent company changed its name from BigCommerce Holdings, Inc. to Commerce.com, Inc. after acquiring the domain for $2.4M, unify its three brands to better position itself for the rise of agentic commerce. It also changed its stock ticker on the NASDAQ from $BIGC to $CMRC.
Commerce CEO Travis Hess wrote:
“Launching the Commerce brand is about more than a new name and logo. It is a clear declaration to our customers, partners, investors and team that we are doubling down on innovation to give brands, retailers, manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers the flexibility, connectivity and care to help them move faster, scale smarter and grow on their terms. Agentic commerce requires a new playbook, and Commerce is here to deliver it with an open ecosystem built for speed, intelligence and flexibility.”
For clarification… BigCommerce is still the e-commerce platform that will compete with Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento — and its previously acquired companies, Feedonomics and Makeswift, still exist. Initially when I read the news, I thought all three platforms were coming together, but that's not the case. This is more of a Google <> Alphabet or Facebook <> Meta scenario than a platform consolidation.
I predict… that major acquisitions (plural) are on the horizon. I feel like this move sets the stage for BigCommerce to acquire / acqui-hire as a holding company without being tied to their original e-commerce CMS path. Definitely an AI acquisition coming soon, if Meta doesn't pay $14B for every AI company first.
Something had to give, right? The other day a potential client e-mailed me about how they are moving from BigCommerce to Shopify and needed help with the migration. He wrote:
“We chose BigCommerce back in 2015 when it wasn't so obvious that Shopify was going to be the winner. Back then it felt like they were still neck and neck, but now it feels like we're missing out not being on Shopify.”
That's what merchants think about BigCommerce now!? That the race is over and Shopify won?!
While I think that the rebrand makes sense, it doesn't change the fact that BigCommerce (the CMS) has an uphill battle ahead to reposition itself as a platform for 2035, not a platform of 2015.
BigCommerce is betting big on Agentic Commerce. I hope it doesn't prove to be like Facebook betting big on the metaverse. However if agentic commerce does take off, I think that BigCommerce is positioning itself nicely to do the dirty work.
Juozas Kaziukėnas wrote a couple weeks ago:
“No one wants to be where the AI agents are shopping at – everyone wants to build AI agents that do the shopping.”
While Amazon and Shopify are (currently) taking more closed door / walled garden approaches to agentic commerce until the market finds an equilibrium, BigCommerce is like — All good. We'll be where the AI agents are shopping at.
It's a position that fits with their historic openness in other areas like payments and SaaS. And it could create a scenario where merchants are on Shopify, but also increasingly want to be part of the new Commerce ecosystem so that they can have the best of both worlds.
Exciting times for the company. A fresh start. I wish them the best of luck with the rebrand and the new direction. Also I can't afford to keep dollar cost averaging my $BIGC, so I'm hoping this is the right move. 🤣
What are your thoughts on the rebrand? Hit reply and let me know or join the conversation on LinkedIn.
2. President Trump suspends the de minimis exemption worldwide
President Trump ordered the end of the de minimis policy, which previously allowed foreign retailers to send packages valued under $800 duty-free to the US. The policy previously allowed goods worth under $800 to enter the country without paying duties and without the sender having to complete detailed customs paperwork. However as of Aug 29th, each shipment, no matter the value, will be subject to the tariffs placed on their country of origin.
In May, Trump eliminated the exemption for goods coming from China, which accounted for over 60% of incoming shipments, and on Wednesday, his executive order ended the de minimis exemption for goods from the rest of the world earlier than expected. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress in recent weeks repealed the exemption for all countries in 2027, but President Trump's order now eliminates the loophole much sooner.
President Trump said that the loophole had been used to “evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products that harm American workers and businesses into the United States.”
American travelers will still be able to bring back up to $200 in personal items and receive gifts valued at up to $100 duty-free, but a fixed tariff rate of between $80 to $200 per item will be applied to many D2C shipments until Trump finishes negotiating trade deals with each country.
A recent study estimated that the cost of eliminating the trade loophole to U.S. consumers could fall between $10.9B and $13B while “disproportionately” hurting “lower-income and minority consumers” who buy a higher percentage of cheap imports. However it did not address the potential positive economic impact of evening the playing field for domestic retailers, who in recent years have had trouble competing with the prices of direct-from-factory foreign retailers that haven't been subject to taxes.
Either way, consumers should expect near-term price hikes. When Trump ended the de minimis exemption for all imports from China, retailers like Temu and Shein raised prices. A Reuters investigation found that Shein raised prices on hundreds of clothing items in July by about 23%.
3. Google Chrome adds AI store reviews for U.S. shoppers
Google announced an update to its Chrome web browser that will introduce AI-generated store reviews to U.S. shoppers to help them determine the best places to make a purchase. The feature is available by clicking an icon to the left of the web address, which displays a pop-up informing the user about the store's reputation for things like product quality, shopping, pricing, customer service, and returns.
The feature generates the summaries based on reviews from partners like Bazaarvoice, Bizrate Insights, Reputation, Trustpilot, Yotpo, and other review platforms. Currently it's only available on desktop Chrome.
Google says the goal with the summaries is to provide a safer shopping experience, but really it's become obvious that Google is desperate to add AI features that no-one wants into their browser to better position itself against new AI-powered browsers like Perplexity's Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia, which are launching with native AI shopping features integrated from day one.
Google notes that it’s not using AI to create reviews, but simply summarizing them alongside the business’s star rating, based on product and store reviews.
The danger, however, for brands is that AI still sucks and often doesn't get it right.
It's hard enough to control your reputation on Google — with the company offering little to no recourse for removing fraudulent business reviews or appealing incorrect suspensions. Now companies may have yet another uphill battle to climb fighting incorrect or misleading AI summaries?
These are the dangers of AI-generated-everything. An incorrect AI summary could absolutely tank a brand, and who do they go to for support?
4. TikTok rolls out off-app pixels, Buy with Prime checkout, and “New Screen” ads
Several major stories about TikTok this week that I'll do my best to consolidate below…
1) Engaged Sessions – TikTok is testing a new advertising tool called Engaged Session to measure user behavior via pixels after they leave the app. This will allow advertisers to target users who spend at least 10 seconds on a website after clicking an ad.
According to an e-mail sent to advertisers, the new tool is designed to “bring high-intent users to your website” while providing engagement metrics like Total Engaged Sessions and Cost Per Engaged Session, similar to third-party analytics tools offered by Google and Adobe.
TikTok told some ad buyers that Engaged Session would be available on July 31st (a few days ago), but the feature has still not been rolled out publicly or formally announced yet. The company has only commented that they regularly test new features to get feedback, and “some of the tests don’t always end up as final products.”
2) Out of Phone Partners – TikTok is also adding partners to its “Out of Phone” advertising program, which brings its video ads to billboards, in-store displays, cinema promos, and other screens in shopping malls, taxis, and water-refilling stations.
In addition to ReachTV, GSTV and Vevo, TikTok will now begin offering ad placements with Curb, Westfield Malls, Rockbot, and Hope Hydration, which will allow the company to run brand promotions in over 15,000 taxicabs for millions of passengers annually via Taxi TV and tens of thousands of screens at shopping malls and other consumer-centric locations.
Dan Page, head of TikTok’s New Screens Team, told MediaPost in 2023, when the company first launched Out of Phone:
“Our goal is to make TikTok ubiquitous. There are over two billion ‘New Screens’ outside of mobile and our goal is to be on all of them.”
3) Buy with Prime – Last but not least… TikTok integrated Amazon's Buy with Prime checkout system into its advertising platform, allowing users to complete purchases directly within the app. The integration enables seamless in-app selling for brand owners with Amazon's Buy with Prime or Multi-Channel Fulfillment integrated into their websites.
Liran HirschkornLiran Hirschkorn, CEO of Incrementum Digital, said:
“Amazon tried to crack social commerce for YEARS. Amazon Inspire was a disaster. Amazon Live is still a ghost town. They kept trying to force entertainment onto a utility-first platform. Meanwhile, TikTok Shop is absolutely exploding. I'm seeing brands do $40K-$50K per livestream. So Amazon thought if we can't beat them? Let's become their backend. Smart move.”
5. U.S. Senator unveils bill allowing TikTok to remain the U.S.
Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) unveiled a draft version of the TikTok Transparency and Data Security Act that would create an exemption to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which is commonly referred to as the “divest or ban act.”
The new bill would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States if it:
- Stores data on U.S. users in the country.
- Allows researchers and the public to access certain metrics about publicly posted content.
The original divest-or-ban act gave TikTok a January 19 deadline for divesture, but President Trump has since extended that deadline three times, and the current deadline is September 17th.
Markey's offices wrote in a statement:
“These conditions are intended to address the biggest concerns with ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok — the potential for ByteDance to manipulate TikTok’s algorithm to support Chinese interests and to use TikTok’s user data in a manner harmful to the United States.”
Last year, Markey argued against a ban on the app, saying the move “could and likely will result in widespread censorship,” but he ultimately voted in favor of the package of bills that included the ban.
Why just TikTok? Why did we start making laws that target just one company? Why not create a bill that applies to ALL social media or foreign owned apps that operate in the U.S. so that everyone is playing on an even field? I feel like our government is being reactive instead of proactive in this area, and I don't care for it.
6. Google is was indexing ChatGPT conversations
Fast Company exposed last week that Google was indexing ChatGPT conversations that users have shared via public links, exposing personal exchanges intended to be shared just with friends and family.
Nearly 4,500 conversations came up in Google search results, which is likely a fraction of the exposed chats given that Google probably didn't index all of them.
OpenAI claims that shared chats were only indexed if users opted-in, but most users had no idea that they had done so, leading their sensitive conversations about mental health struggles or personal trauma to become publicly searchable.
The finding is concerning given that nearly half of Americans say they've used AI chatbots for psychological support in the last year, primarily for help with anxiety, depression, and other personal issues. Although ChatGPT doesn't include the name of the user, oftentimes users revealed personal details or identifying information in the chats themselves.
I just have one question… OpenAI, are you fucking stupid?
Didn't Meta just take heat for doing almost the exact same thing back in June? At no point did one of OpenAI's overpaid engineers stop and think two months ago, “Well wait a minute boss…”
An OpenAI spokesperson said:
“ChatGPT conversations are private unless you choose to share them. Creating a link to share your chat also includes an option to make it visible in web searches. Shared chats are only visible in Google search if users explicitly select this option.”
I asked ChatGPT just now:
“What percentage of people read the fine print when they click a checkbox on the Internet?”
It replied:
“Studies consistently show that less than 10% of people read the fine print (terms and conditions, privacy policies, etc.) before clicking a checkbox on the Internet. [Followed by some studies.] In short: almost nobody reads the fine print.”
A couple days later, OpenAI pulled the feature that let Google index private chats, even when shared, because they suddenly came to the conclusion that it “introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to.”
However don't think for a second that your chats are private now. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned earlier this month that users shouldn’t share their most personal details with ChatGPT because the company “could be required to produce” the information if requested to do so by a court.
7. Amazon reintroduces star-only ratings on products
Amazon customers can now leave star-only ratings without writing any text reviews, beginning today, August 4th. Amazon calls it a “simplified seller feedback experience” and says that increased rating submissions will “give customers more information to confidently make purchase decisions,” but critics argue that the absence of written reviews is damaging to both sellers and buyers alike.
For sellers… they lose the ability to accurately appeal star-only reviews because there's no incorrect or misleading statements to contest.
For buyers… they end up seeing more star ratings but less helpful information.
For me personally as a shopper… the difference between seeing several hundred star ratings vs several thousand ratings is negligible in my decision making process, and I'd lean towards wanting more review content like photos, videos, and detailed written reviews over more star ratings.
At some point the statistical relevance of having more star ratings becomes inconsequential and “4 stars” is “4 stars” when it comes to judging a product based on its aggregate rating.
Amazon already tried star-only ratings in 2023 and eventually reversed course after massive seller backlash, which it began to experience again this time around.
However the company feels confident that its decision will actually help sellers. It wrote:
“Our preliminary tests show that this simpler process helps sellers collect more ratings faster. We also found in our tests that many of these star-only ratings come from customers who have had positive order experiences but previously did not provide written feedback, which in turn may lead to an increase in the average seller ratings for many selling partners.”
In response to abuse, Amazon wrote:
“Customers will be required to select a reason before they can submit any rating below four stars. We’ll review this reason to ensure it meets the seller feedback eligibility criteria. For example, if a customer leaves a low rating because they are dissatisfied with a product, we'll automatically omit it because it is not relevant to your performance as a seller. We’ve also implemented solutions that allow us to automatically detect and remove abusive feedback, without any action required from you.
1 star idea, Amazon. No feedback.
8. Cash App launches peer-to-peer group payments that don't require the app
Cash App launched a new peer-to-peer feature called Pools that lets users take group payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay — even if contributors don't have Cash App themselves — marking the first time the company has offered out-of-network payments.
Pools allows users to create and manage a shared balance for group payments such as splitting a dinner bill or collecting funds for a trip, with only the fund organizer needing Cash App to create the money pool. Everyone else can be invited to contribute funds via shareable links sent by text message or e-mail.
There are currently no fees for using Google Pay or Apple Pay to contribute to a Cash App Pool for either the organizer or the contributor, as long as the payment is not made using a credit card. If a contributor is using a credit card, the fees will be displayed prior to submitting payment.
Cash App also noted in its terms of service that Pools cannot be used for commercial sales, political campaigns, cryptocurrency transactions, or for raising money for charities.
Pools are currently available to a select group of Cash App customers, with broader availability planned in the coming months.
The move reminds me of Instacart's launch of Fizz app earlier this year, which lets users split the cost of food and drink delivery, even if they don't have the app. I think it's a brilliant way to bring new users into the Cash App ecosystem, and in general, I support features that bring interoperability between payment apps.
9. Other e-commerce news of interest
Walmart now leads Amazon in same-day delivery, particularly in groceries, with 48% of grocery-only customers choosing same-day delivery versus 36% for Amazon. Even among customers who purchased a mixed cart with both grocery and non-grocery items, Walmart was the preferred same-day provider for 41% of respondents, beating Amazon’s 29%. One other notable discovery from the study is that 21% of Walmart's grocery customers didn't use delivery at all, instead opting for pick-up from their nearest store.
Speaking of the rivalry… Amazon's decision this summer to expand Prime Day from two days to four days actually benefited Walmart by giving customers extra time to compare deals across marketplaces, according to data from Bloomberg Second Measure. The study found that spending on Walmart's weeklong sales event grew 24%, or six times faster, than Amazon Prime Day's annual growth, and that 8% of Prime Day customers also shopped online at Walmart, up from 5% in 2024.
USPS is expanding its Packageless Returns service, allowing customers to return items without packaging by using self-service polybags and QR codes. The service was first explored in a limited trial in 2019 at 53 post offices in Dallas, but now folks are seeing the stations popping up in other post offices around the country. Some sellers are pointing out the potential misuse of these free poly mailers, which lack USPS branding and could be exploited for non-return purposes, such as shipping eBay purchases.
Amazon is experimenting with an always-visible cart on desktop browsers that displays a live item count, product thumbnails, and real-time updates, as spotted by CRO expert Sagrika Agrawal, who questioned in her post whether the feature will eliminate “did it add?” anxiety or reduce impulse purchases and lower AOV due to constant spending visibility. Linda Bustos of eCom Ideas mentioned in the comments that the always-visible cart has been previously spotted on Temu as well.
Etsy increased its overall marketing spending by 16% to $212M in Q2, but has simultaneously been decreasing its spend on television ads from about one-third at the end of last year to less than a tenth by the end of 2025. The company is instead investing more heavily in search, paid social, and influencer marketing as part of its effort to attract more customers and prioritize near-term sales over long-term brand building. The company is also allocating more of its advertising budget to its fashion resale site Depop to establish a presence in the market.
The U.S. Trade Representative launched a formal investigation into Pix, Brazil's state-run electronic payments platform, for being “discriminatory” and “restricting U.S. commerce,” which it says could be harming American companies like Google Pay and Apple Pay by cutting into their potential market share. Pix, which was developed by Brazil's central bank, is a public payments system that reduces transaction costs and is currently used by 75% of Brazil's population, or around 160M people, versus the 6.6% that use Apple Pay and 9.7% that use Google Wallet. Frankly, the U.S. shouldn't be investigating Pix, they should be studying it so that they can develop something similar.
eBay is scrapping its U.S. Seller Incentive, which allowed sellers to offset transaction fees by driving affiliate traffic to their own listings. Sellers received an abrupt notification that the incentive will end on August 1, 2025, with the updated Network Agreement already reflecting the removal. Sellers will still be able to earn standard affiliate commissions by joining eBay's new Ambassador Program, however, those payouts typically fall short of covering full seller fees, marking a significant expense for sellers who leveraged the incentives to make commission-free sales.
BigCommerce and Feedonomics are deepened their partnerships with Google Cloud to deliver new capabilities for merchants to improve product discoverability and increase conversations across the Google Cloud ecosystem. Upgrades include Feedonomics Surface, which optimizes and delivers product data directly to Google Merchant Center with AI-enriched product data, and advanced developer tools, which combine BigCommerce's Model Context Protocol with Google's Agent Development Kit so that developers can build commerce agents for automation, personalization, and operational efficiency.
Perplexity AI and Gannett, the publisher that owns USA Today and thousands of local newspapers, formed a strategic partnership that will allow Perplexity to license content from Gannett's publications, marking Gannett's first-ever AI partnership and one of the Perplexity's largest U.S. media deals. Perplexity's publisher program faced scrutiny a few months ago after the BBC threatened the company with litigation for allegedly using its content without permission, and the AI firm is still fighting a lawsuit filed law year by Dow Jones and NYP Holdings, which are accusing it of “massive amount of illegal copying of publishers' copyrighted works and diverting customer and critical revenues away from those copyright holders.”
Google’s John Mueller re-posted the results of an experiment that tested if e-commerce sites were accessible by AI Agents and commented that it may be useful to check if your online store works properly for AI agents that are shopping on behalf of customers. The original post by Malte Polzin showcased a test of Switzerland's top 50 e-commerce websites to see which ones were open for business for AI agents. Reasons why some stores failed the test include CAPTCHA preventing the agents from shopping, Cloudflare blocking the agents, or the stores themselves blocking access.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed during the company's Q2 earnings call that the company is exploring ways to bring ads to Alexa Plus, its new gen-AI powered voice assistant. He said “there will be opportunities, as people are engaging in more multiturn conversations, to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery, and also as a lever to drive revenue.” He also hinted that Alexa Plus, which is currently free for Prime members and $19.99/month without Prime, could one day cost more as Amazon adds new functionality. Hasn't Alexa been a “colossal failure” since it debuted in 2014? I'm sure adding advertisements and raising the price will help users love it.
eBay is introducing a Secure Purchase vehicle buying experience to their platform, offering a simplified solution for managing payment, financing, registration, ownership transfer, and vehicle transport. The service verifies both seller and buyer, automates paperwork, and handles the transfer of funds upon delivery of the vehicle. The new capabilities follow eBay's acquisition of Caramel earlier this year and so far haven't been well received during their beta testing phase in previous months, with users complaining about broken functionalities and the inability to complete purchases. Yet somehow eBay share price goes up.
Amazon informed sellers that it will stop offering prep services beginning January 1, 2026, following its discontinuation of prep services for sharp objects this past April. Amazon says that since originally introducing the services, it has seen significant improvements in seller packaging capabilities and no longer sees a need for the services as the “vast majority of Amazon sellers now handle their own packaging, including prep and item labeling.”
Instagram users now need a public account with a minimum of 1,000 followers to go live on the platform, because Meta has long since abandoned its original mission of connecting friends and family, and now only cares about eating TikTok's lunch. Until now, any Instagram user had the ability to go live, regardless of their follower account or whether their account is public or private, and many regular users enjoyed going live with their friends for fun. The change brings Instagram's live feature in line with TikTok's, which also requires at least 1,000 followers to go live. In comparison, YouTube requires channels to have a minimum of 50 subscribers.
Reddit is pausing its plans to allow users to make subreddits with content behind a paywall, which the company had announced last year. CEO Steve Huffman said on Thursday's earnings call that “to stay focused on what matters most, we're shifting resources away from a few areas, such as work on the user economy. This includes what some have referred to as paid subreddits. It's still an opportunity we believe in, but right now, we're all-in on strengthening our core product, making Reddit the go-to place for search, and accelerating international growth.” They could start with fixing their crappy mobile app?
The EU accused Temu of breaking its digital rules by not “properly” assessing the risks of illegal products or doing enough to protect European consumers from dangerous products. The European Commission said in its preliminary finding, “Evidence shows that there is a high risk for consumers in the EU to encounter illegal products on the platform.” Temu will now be able to respond to the EU regulator's findings and defend itself, but if confirmed to be in breach, could be slapped with a fine as high as 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover.
Meta is also under fire in the EU, with Italy's antitrust authority launching an investigation into the company over allegations that it abused its dominant position by installing its AI tool on WhatsApp without user consent, a move that might harm its competitors. So how about Google forcing its AI Overviews on everyone without consent? Is that an abuse of its dominant search position? What if OpenAI launched a social network directly within its ChatGPT interface? Is that an abuse of its dominant AI position? I respect the EU for actually having and attempting to enforce anticompetitive laws, but sometimes it feels like they're trying too hard to pigeonhole existing tech companies into one lane.
Strike 3 Holdings, a copyright company, and Counterlife Media, an adult film studio, filed a lawsuit against Meta for allegedly torrenting nearly 2,400 copyrighted movies for its engineers' breaktime AI research. According to the suit, the companies discovered by tracing IP and e-mail addresses that Meta began downloading and seeding their content via BitTorrent as far back as 2018 (are they sure that was AI related back then?), and due to the seeding, engaged in “methodical and persistent distribution of those works” to other parties, including potentially minors. At least one of the 47 IP addresses associated with Meta belonged to a residential home of a Meta employee. LOL, working from home?
Wag, the San Francisco-based company that paired pet owners with dog walkers and sitters that was once worth $650M, filed for Chap 11 bankruptcy, and as of last week, is now valued at less than $6M. The company's gig-work, pet insurance, and its veterinary tool “Furscription” will remain open in the meantime. If a judge approves Wag's restructuring plan, it will take the company off the public markets and into the private hands of a company called Retriever. Wag blames COVID for a sudden rapid decline in its monthly revenues many years ago, as a result of its clients being home with their pets during the lockdown and then subsequently working from home for many years after. It also had a shitty debt deal from 2022 that put financial pressure on the company.
TikTok is launching a new version of its app called “TikTok Pro” in Germany, Portugal, and Spain that features its new “Sunshine Programme,” which allows users to support charitable organizations by earning “virtual sunshine” and subsequently interacting with charity-related content, such as liking or reposting videos, following charity accounts, and searching for charitable causes. They can then use their acquired virtual sunshine on a charity, after which TikTok will make a donation to the organization. TikTok Pro functions the same as the regular TikTok app for the most part, but lacks livestreams, shopping features, or ads. Why not simply launch the feature within the native app?
In other TikTok news this week… TikTok launched new parent control features that allow parents to link their accounts with their teen's account to customize safety settings. It also launched a “Creator Care Model,” which automatically filters all comments identified as offensive, inappropriate, or profane, based on the creator's history of blocking accounts and deleting certain types of comments. Lastly, the company launched a Footnotes feature, which enables users to contribute supplementary information to videos that helps viewers understand complex topics or offer more profound insights like relevant statistics.
Apple CEO Tim Cook held a rare all-hands meeting with staffers at the company's on-campus auditorium last week, telling them that the AI revolution is “as big or bigger” as the Internet, smartphones, cloud computing, and apps, and that “Apple must do this… We will make the investment to do it.” He also pointed out how the company has “rarely been first” in categories like personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and MP3 players, but that it eventually made the “modern” versions of all those. “This is how I feel about AI.”
Last week I reported that Delta was facing backlash over its pilot program that uses AI to determine how much you personally will pay for a ticket, as opposed to offering static prices to all customers. This week Delta says “You got it all wrong!” The company came forward to break down exactly how the AI pricing works to dispute what it claims are “incorrect” characterizations of its technology. Delta claims that “prices are not targeted to individual consumers” and that its AI tech is simply to “streamline the process by which we analyze existing data and the speed and scale at which we can respond to changing market dynamics.” Uh uh, sure Delta.
Ground delivery costs reached a record high in Q2 as FedEx and UPS hiked surcharges while simultaneously decreasing discounts offered. Per-package ground delivery rates were 32% above the index's January 2018 baseline in the most recent quarter. In response to the rising prices, many shippers have shifted some lower-value, lightweight packages to slower, but cheaper shipping services.
In other shipping news this week… UPS is exploring the possibility of reuniting with the U.S. Postal Service for its Ground Saver service, which previously relied on USPS for last-mile deliveries, offering low-cost shipping in exchange for slower delivery speeds. After taking the volume in-house earlier this year, UPS faced unexpected costs and operational challenges, leading to an $85M hit in Q2. Reuniting with USPS could help the courier restore service to P.O. Boxes and outlying regions while alleviating delivery stop inefficiencies.
🏆 This week's most ridiculous story… Mark Zuckerberg laid out his vision for “personal superintelligence” in a blog post, in which he acknowledged that “superintelligence will raise novel safety concerns” and that the company will “need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source.” bahahahaha! When has Mark Zuckerberg ever cared about the safety of his users or society? This comes down to the fact that Meta is investing a BAGILLION dollars in hiring AI engineers and building AI data centers and it'll eventually need to recoup those expenditures. Frankly I don't even blame him for moving away from the open source AI model, but let's not pretend for even a second that the move is about user safety. Moving away from the open source model is clearly and undoubtedly about monetizing the company's IP. Own it, Zuckerberg. No-one expects any better or worse of you at this point.
10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions
Figma, a San Francisco-based collaborative web design platform, held its blockbuster IPO on Thursday, closing at $115.50, up 250% from its $33 IPO price, which had already been raised from its original target of between $25 and $28. The company was worth more than $65B on a fully diluted basis by the end of the day. The IPO came less than two years after rival Adobe dropped its planned $20B acquisition of Figma after facing regulatory pressure from U.S. and EU officials. Former FTC chairwoman Lina Khan posted on X about how the IPO is “a great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be bought up by existing giants, can generate enormous value.”
Global-e, an Israeli cross-border e-commerce platform that enables retailers to sell directly to international customers with localized checkout experiences, acquired ReturnGo, an Israeli returns management platform, for an undisclosed amount. Global-e said that the acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on its revenue or financial results, indicating that the deal was more about acquiring ReturnGo's tech, which it plans to integrate into its platform, than its revenue or clients.
Calo, a Middle Eastern meal subscription and food delivery service that offers healthy, portion-controlled meals, raised $39M in a Series B round led by Aljazira Capital. The company, which delivered more than 10M meals last year, plans to use the funds to further expand into territories like the U.K., explore different partnerships in physical spaces like retail stores and kiosks, and for acquisitions. Last year it acquired two meal delivery services, Fresh Fitness Food and Detox Kitchen, in the U.K.
Fable, a San Francisco-based startup that's building a platform called Showrunner, which it calls the “Netflix of AI,” received an undisclosed investment from Amazon's Alexa Fund. Showrunner lets users type in a few words to creates either scenes or entire episodes of a TV show either from scratch or based on an existing story-world someone else has created. The platform has been in a closed beta alpha test with 10,000 users, but soon plans to charge up to $20/month for creating content, though the content will be free to view.
fal, an AI infrastructure company that enables developers to deploy and scale AI models into production-ready APIs, raised $125M in a Series C round led by Salesforce Ventures and Shopify Ventures, bringing its total amount raised to $197M. The platform now supports more than 1M developers and 100+ enterprise customers including Quora, Canva, Perplexity, and Shopify. Its revenue has grown more than 50% in the last two months.
Flexport sold the Convoy digital freight platform to DAT Freight & Analytics for a rumored $250M, delivering what it called a “massive return on investment” after acquiring the assets less than two years ago for roughly $16M. CEO Ryan Petersen said that while Flexport rebuilt and expanded the platform’s reach, its future success required being a neutral infrastructure layer. The move allows Flexport to refocus capital and resources on its core global freight operations and upcoming AI-powered product launches.
JD.com made a bid to acquire Ceconomy, German consumer electronics retail group that operates brands like MediaMarkt and Saturn, for €2.2B, representing a premium of 23% over Ceconomy’s traded price of €3.75 per share. Under the deal, JD.com will support Ceconomy's digitization of its more than 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores across 11 European markets and help the company strengthen its logistics networks and supply chain management. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory clearances, is set to be completed in the first half of 2026.
NiCE, a global provider of AI-powered customer experience software, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cognigy, a German platform that enables enterprises to deploy AI agents that think, adapt, and act independently to deliver human-like service in over 100 languages, for $955M. The deal combines Cognigy’s agentic AI capabilities with NiCE’s CXone Mpower platform to automate complex customer interactions and extend AI-driven workflows, while enhancing NiCE’s European presence.
Augmodo, a real-time inventory and task tracking platform that uses spatial AI to improve efficiency and convenience for retailers, raised $37.5M in a Series A round led by TQ Ventures. The funds will be used to expand its AI-driven retail inventory tracking platform, which uses wearable Smartbadges to passively collect data in stores, creating real-time digital maps of retail environments.
Palo Alto Networks, a California global cybersecurity company that provides firewall protection, cloud security, and threat detection solutions for enterprises and governments, acquired CyberArk, an Israeli identify security firm, for $25B in cash and stock, marking the second-largest exit in Israel's cybersecurity history after Google's acquisition of Wiz. The deal adds CyberArk’s identity management solutions to Palo Alto’s expanding cybersecurity platform to expand its ability to detect AI-driven threats.
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Paul E. Drecksler
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PS: This is my impression of Amazon at practically every keynote speech and earnings call…
