#207 – Net neutrality, AI Profiles, & Honey’s getting sued

by Shopifreaks | Jan 6, 2025 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

Well, well, well…. 2025. Here we are!

Who knew 25 years ago, when our evenings were spent talking with friends on AIM and ICQ and Y2K was set to destroy the world as we knew it, that a mere two and a half decades later we'd be talking to AI chatbots, buying groceries online, and driving electric cars?

As Bob Dylan famously sang, The Times They Are A-Changin'.

Luckily you've got me to help you keep up with those changes! At least in the world of e-commerce…

To all my new readers, I hope you've been enjoying the newsletter since subscribing. If you have been, I'd greatly appreciate if you took a minute to write a review for me on Google. Your reviews go a long way in helping me reach new readers and grow this publication.

Happy new year everyone!

And now onto the first edition of 2025 where I cover:

A major blow to net neutrality
Creators are suing Honey
Meta ditches its AI characters
Shopify's $60M lawsuit over platform failures
X Money and X TV
An update on the Bench fiasco
New US data laws
Apple's $95M Siri settlement
A new day for WhatsApp Pay in India
Executive shakeup at TikTok

All this and more in this week's 207th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

PS: As many of you know, I've got an earned media experiment going on with Linkifi for the past six months to help complement my SEO efforts. Last week the Linkifi team landed my third feature and do-follow link on HubSpot. Learn more about the experiment and take a look at the results so far on my live case study.

PPS: I recently joined Fahad Sheikh and Asim Bawany from the Shift Click podcast by Codup to discuss the biggest e-commerce news stories of 2024 and how their impact will shape the industry in 2025. We unpacked PayPal's latest play to outpace Stripe, Temu's entry into the US market, the feud between WordPress and WP Engine, and more. You can listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Stat of the Week

PayPal's Honey lost more than 3 million Chrome installs in two weeks since MegaLag's investigative video shining a light on how Honey scams influencers and brands. The browser extension went from 20 million installs to 17 million. As the new lawsuit progresses (more in that in story #2 below), I imagine the negative press will drive that install count down even farther.

1. Net neutrality efforts hit with a major blow

A federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s landmark net neutrality rules, ending a nearly two-decade effort to regulate broadband Internet providers as utilities.

Backstory: Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers must treat all online content equally, without blocking, throttling, or prioritizing specific websites or services. It gained prominence in the early 2000s, leading to the FCC to adopt Open Internet rules in 2015 under the Obama administration, aimed at preventing ISPs like Verizon or Comcast from blocking or degrading the delivery of services from competitors like Netflix and YouTube. The rules were later repealed in 2017 during the Trump administration, and efforts to reinstate Net Neutrality have continued since then without success. President Biden signed a 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules.

Who was for net neutrality? Major tech companies like Google, Facebook and Netflix, as well as many (most?) consumers saw the rules as a necessary restraint on corporate power / greed and a campaign to keep the Internet open and fair.

Who was against net neutrality? Evil cable and telecom companies opposed the rules because they saw them as regulatory overreach and feared that classifying broadband providers as “common carriers,” like phone companies, opened the door to utility-style regulation and government price setting.

Flash forward to last week: The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati ruled that the FCC lacks the authority to reinstate rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing or blocking access to certain Internet content. A three-judge panel referred to a Supreme Court decision from June, called Loper Bright, which overturned a 1984 rule that let government agencies have the final say on regulations.

Brendan Carr, Trump's pick as the incoming FCC chair, has been a strong critic of net neutrality, contending that the rules represent an excessive overreach of government authority, potentially stifling innovation and deterring investment in broadband infrastructure.

Evan Swarztrauber, a former policy adviser to Carr, said that the court's opinion “puts to bed an issue that unnecessarily sucked up a lot of oxygen in tech and telecom for two decades now,” and that “the work to unwind the Biden administration's regulatory overreach will continue.”

Seriously guys? Consumer protection laws are considered “regulatory overreach” now? Creating an even playing field for all tech companies, streaming networks, and publications to reach consumers who are paying for that fair access “stifles innovation”?

Here's my question to net neutrality opponents: If preventing ISPs from blocking, throttling, or prioritizing specific websites or services stifles innovation, how does allowing them to do so foster innovation? Seriously, hit reply and give me an answer if you've got one. I've been waiting two decades to hear a good one.

The court’s decision doesn’t affect state laws on net neutrality in California, Washington and Colorado, and I encourage other states around the country to create their own Internet consumer protection laws to fill the gaps. Telecom companies have proven time and time again that they can't be trusted to do the right thing on their own, nor can they be trusted to be stewards of taxpayer subsidies to build out infrastructure. The Internet is as necessary of a utility as electricity, water, and public roads and should be governed as such in our country.

Democrats at the FCC are calling on Congress to create laws promoting net neutrality, signaling that the issue may not be over yet, despite the recent blow to the efforts. For anyone who's ever said, “I agree with the principle of net neutrality, but Congress never gave the FCC the power to create those regulations!” — now is your chance to support Congress passing the laws themselves.

2. Content creators are suing Honey

Two weeks ago I reported (story #6) on The Honey Influencer Scam.

Quick Recap: MegaLag, a New Zealand YouTuber who creates investigative and technology-focused content, published a video entitled Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam, investigating the money-saving browser extension Honey, which was acquired by PayPal for $4B in January 2020.

Honey works by automatically searching for and applying coupon codes at checkout, helping users save money without having to scour the web themselves for promo codes. However MegaLag revealed that:

Honey replaces original affiliate tracking cookies with its own by exploiting “last-click attribution,” effectively stealing commissions from content creators.
The extension selectively displays lower-value discount codes, withholding better deals from users to favor its merchant business partners.
Despite promises of finding the best online deals, Honey actually collaborates with merchants to control which discounts are shown, limiting consumer savings.

Flash Forward Two Weeks: Content creators have filed two class-action lawsuits against PayPal, alleging that Honey took away some of their affiliate earnings by improperly claiming credit on sales.

The lawsuits ask the US District Court in Northern California to consider what's fair play in the world of affiliate marketing.
Plaintiffs allege that Honey would take credit for driving online sales it didn't actually help with, and that even if Honey couldn't find a coupon, it would still get the last click, taking commissions away from a content creator who had linked to the product and earned the sale for the merchant.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages and injunctive relief, requiring Honey to change its affiliate practices.
If the lawsuits are certified as class action, other creators could also sign on to the suits.

A spokesperson for PayPal disputed the allegations in the lawsuits and said that the company would defend against them vigorously.

The spokesperson said, “Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution, which is widely used across major brands,” and that the extension has helped “millions of shoppers with additional savings on their purchases whenever possible” while helping merchants “reduce cart abandonment and comparison shopping.”

In other PayPal lawsuit news… Nisha Desai, the founder of venture firm Andav Capital, is suing PayPal, alleging that she was excluded from the company's diversity and equity program because she is Asian. In 2020, PayPal made a $530M commitment to support more Black and minority-led businesses in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, and Desai claims that she applied to be considered for the fund, but was overlooked because she is Asian, as the program sought to exclusively focus on Black and Hispanic businesses. Desai says that PayPal’s head of public policy and research explicitly told her in a July 2020 meeting that the program gives preference to Black and Hispanic-led firms “over other races and ethnicities, including Asian Americans,” and that “Asian Americans might be minorities, but they’re the wrong kind of minority.”

3. Meta removes its “creepy and unnecessary” AI characters

Last week I reported that Meta was aiming to have Facebook filled with AI-generated characters to drive up engagement on its platform, as part of its broader rollout of AI products.

Meta VP of product for gen-AI, Connor Hayes, said, “We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do. They'll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform… that's where we see all of this going.”

Well, that was short-lived…

Meta has since removed all of its AI characters from its platforms after widespread user backlash. Here's a recap of what went down:

Since 2023, around a dozen AI Facebook and Instagram accounts created by Meta have existed on the platform.
Originally they were launched alongside celebrity AI characters, as part of a project that was later scrapped in July 2024.
The noncelebrity AI profiles remained online, but most stopped posting content.
The AI accounts never attracted much attention, until a couple weeks ago when The Financial Times published a story about Meta's plans to further integrate user-generated AI profiles.
In the wake of the FT article, users resurfaced some of the AI characters, particularly one named “Liv” depicting a “Proud Black queer momma” who solicited messages from human users.
Karen Attiah, a Washington Post journalist, started chatting with Liv and posted a series of screenshots of its responses.
Response included, “My creators admitted they lacked diverse references. You’re calling me out — and rightfully so. My existence currently perpetuates harm. Ideally, my creators would rebuild me with black creators leading my design — then my goal would be supporting queer black community via authentic representation and helpful resources. Does that redemption arc seem possible?”
In its statement, Meta said that it removed the AI characters because a bug prevented some people from being able to block them.

While the Meta-generated AI accounts are now gone, users can still generate their own AI chatbots, and there are tons of them to talk to within Messenger's AI Studio. Meta includes a disclaimer on all its chatbots that some messages may be “inaccurate or inappropriate,”, but it's unknown whether the company is moderating the messages to ensure they are not violating policies.

Honestly, thanks Meta, but I'm good. ChatGPT is enough interaction with AI chatbots for me for the moment.

4. Shopify faces a $60M lawsuit over critical platform failures

Shopify is facing a $60M lawsuit brought by Redline Steel, a US-based home decor brand, which accuses the company of severe technical mismanagement and negligence that allegedly led to the collapse of its operations.

The lawsuit highlights several critical failures by Shopify including:

Meta Pixel Mismanagement — According to the lawsuit, Shopify's 2021 integration of Meta's sales channel introduced significant errors such as caching issues that routed data through outdated Pixels, making it impossible for Redline to track purchases accurately, rendering its advertising campaigns ineffective.
DNS & IP Address Discrepancies – The lawsuit highlights discrepancies in Shopify's DNS settings, which affected Redline's website accessibility. The mismatch, along with Shopify's failure to resolve its shops.myshopify.com subdomain for an extended period of time, disrupted Redline's domain connections during a critical period and added to the company's' operational challenges.
Breach of Contractual Obligations – The lawsuit claims that Shopify failed to uphold its contractual obligations to notify merchants of critical updates, resolve misalignments between its managed DNS settings and network configurations, and properly manage integrated tools like Meta Pixel.

If Redline's allegations are proven in court, Miller Victor of TechBullion says “they could signal broader systemic flaws in Shopify's infrastructure, potentially affecting millions of users worldwide.”

Victor notes that the lawsuit is likely to draw increased scrutiny of Shopify's technical infrastructure and customer service practices, and pressure the company to improve its technical infrastructure, enhance communication with merchants about critical updates and issues, and provide more robust support to address technical problems.

5. X to introduce X Money and X TV in 2025

X is set to further transform itself in 2025 with the introduction of financial services under “X Money” and a streaming platform called “X TV,” according to CEO Linda Yaccarino.

Yaccarino revealed the company's 2025 roadmap in a New Year's post on X, highlighting plans to connect users “in ways never thought possible” with services aimed at expanding X beyond social media.

Here's what Yaccarino says to expect from X next year:

X TV – speculated to stream live sports and media, rivaling established streaming services while having an integrated platform for conversing about the content.
X Money – expected to introduce financial and payment services such as peer-to-peer transactions and e-commerce integrations.
X AI – the integration of Grok is set to enhance user experience and personalization on the platform

Business Today wrote, “The move to diversify X’s offerings mirrors the functionality of China’s WeChat, which combines messaging, payments, e-commerce, and media in a single platform. X’s evolution could challenge competitors like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, which are also exploring AI and expanded functionalities.”

6. An update on the Bench fiasco

Last week I reported (story #3) that Bench, a Canadian accounting software platform that helps customers store and manage their bookkeeping and tax reporting documents, abruptly shut down, leaving their customers without access to their data.

I noted that something fishy went on, as it's extremely unusual behavior for a 15 year old company that's raised $113M to shut down immediately and fire all their employees without notice. Bench customers were reporting on social media that the company was collecting money and requiring that customers sign new contracts as recently as a day before shutting down.

Here's an update on that story:

The company abruptly shut down because it ran out of money.
A bank had called in Bench's venture debt, forcing the shutdown.
Bench told unsuspecting staff the company was insolvent.
Bench's major investors spent last weekend negotiating a quick sale to Employer.com for an undisclosed sum.
The customer portal was restored after 72 hours of downtime.
The company is trying to rehire many of the hundreds of staff it laid off.
I'd imagine holding onto talent is going to be a major challenge moving forward, even after the acquisition, as every employee knows chops are coming.
Customers are pissed and lost trust in Bench, and in VC-backed online bookkeeping tools in general, wondering if they should continue to trust their most sensitive business data to startups as opposed to legacy service providers.
Every Bench-alternative came out of the woodwork this past week hawking their wares, attempting to capitalize on customers' distrust of the company.

One thing that's yet to be answered is — how could Bench have let it get this far?

Your venture debt doesn't just suddenly get called in. The money doesn't just suddenly run out.

I'm guessing this could have been avoided, but there was either ego, naivety, delusion, or all the above at play here, and poor planning left Bench with not enough cash in the bank to keep the lights on.

$113M in funding was evaporated. I bet Employer.com got a deal of a lifetime, as Bench had absolutely no room for negotiation at this point.

7. US companies no longer allowed to send bulk data to certain countries

The US Department of Justice issued a final rule on Executive Order 14117, which President Joe Biden signed in February 2024, preventing the movement of US citizens' data to a number of “countries of concern,” which not-surprisingly includes China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.

The Executive Order is aimed at preventing countries that are considered hostile to the US from using the data of US citizens in cyber espionage and influence campaigns, or from building profiles of US citizens to be used in social engineering, phishing, blackmail, and identify theft campaigns.

The types of prohibited data are:

Personal identifiers such as social security numbers, driver’s license, or other government ID numbers.
Precise geolocation data such as GPS coordinates.
Biometric identifiers such as facial images, voice patterns, and retina scans.
Human genomic, epigenomic, proteomic, or transcriptomic data.
Personal health data such as height, weight, vital signs, symptoms, test results, diagnosis, digital dental records, and psychological diagnostics.
Personal financial data related to an individual’s credit, debit cards, bank accounts, and financial liabilities, including payment history.

Isn't most or all of that data available for purchase from data brokers, many of which are not US-based and therefore not required to follow these new rules? And can't those countries simply buy the data from those brokers and/or steal it from insecure systems that have already purchased or acquired the data by other means?

I understand that the order can certainly help curb the exodus of American data to hostile countries, but shouldn't we be moving towards a goal of preventing ANY company or country (USA included) from having such personal data on US consumers?

The DOJ says that the banned countries have “engaged in a long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of US persons,” and that these nations could, “access and exploit Americans’ bulk sensitive personal data and certain U.S. Government-related data.”

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said, “This powerful new national-security program is designed to ensure that Americans' personal data is no longer permitted to be sold to hostile foreign powers, whether through outright purchase or other means of commercial access.”

The final rule will come into effect in 90 days. Companies that violate the order will face civil and criminal penalties.

8. Apple agrees to pay $95M to settle Siri privacy lawsuit

Apple agreed to pay $95M to settle a 5 year old lawsuit accusing the company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using iPhones and other Siri-enabled devices.

The Wood Law Firm, which specializes in class-action lawsuits, originally filed the complaint against Apple in August 2019, shortly after The Guardian published an article alleging that Siri's microphone had been turned on to record conversations without the users' knowledge.

Apple had issued a September 2014 software update that was supposed to activate Siri only when the user says, “Hey, Siri,” but The Guardian story alleged that the virtual assistant was listening and recording conversations at other times to help improve the company’s technology.

Later, the lawsuit raised allegations that Apple shared the conversations that Siri secretly recorded with advertisers to improve consumer targeting.

Apple apologized for the practice back in 2019, but isn't acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by the US District judge overseeing the case.

If approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices could file claims and receive up to $20 per device on up to 5 devices. (LOL, that's how much our privacy is worth?) However only 3% to 5% of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, according to estimates in court documents.

If the case had gone to trial and the lawsuit's allegations were proven to be true, Apple may have violated federal wiretapping laws and other statutes designed to protect people's privacy. Lawyers asserted that Apple's misbehavior was so egregious that the company could have been liable for $1.5B in damages if it lost the case.

“Hey, Siri… that's a lot of money.”

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

India removed its restrictions on WhatsApp Pay, allowing the messaging platform to roll out its payment service to all users in the country. The decision lifts the previous 100M user cap on WhatsApp Pay put in place in 2022, which succeeded a 40M user cap put in place in 2020. India initially imposed restrictions on WhatsApp Pay to ensure a gradual and secure integration into the country's digital payments ecosystem, aiming to prevent market concentration by WhatsApp, which boasts 500M users in the country, and ensure the stability of its UPI system.

TikTok's North American head of ad sales, Sameer Singh, is leaving the company at the end of February, according to an internal memo reviewed by ADWEEK, as the company faces a potential US ban set to take effect on January 19th. Singh joined ByteDance in 2019 and has been a central figure in steering TikTok's North American ad business. TikTok says it plans to immediately begin the search for a replacement.

TikTok Shop added 10 new collectible categories including comic books, manga, fun zines, and sports memorabilia. To list collectibles for sale, TikTok Shop requires merchants to provide details on the condition of the item and its authenticity, and the company says it is implementing “strict standards on acceptable authenticators” to prevent the sale of fake foods.

The USPS is beginning to accept mail and packages bound for Canada, starting today, after temporarily suspending service mid-November due to a Canada Post employee strike. The strike ended December 17th, with government officials ordering Canadian Union of Postal Workers back on the job after 4 weeks of striking that shut down shipping during the busy holiday season.

OpenAI said back in May that it was developing a tool to be delivered “by 2025” that lets creators specify how they want their works to be included or excluded in its AI training data, but seven months later, the feature has yet to be released, and OpenAI has never publicly mentioned Media Manager since. TechCrunch sources said that the tool was rarely viewed as a priority internally, with one former OpenAI employee saying, “To be honest, I don't remember anyone working on it.” OpenAI is currently fighting class action lawsuits filed by artists, writers, YouTubers, computer scientists, and news organizations, who are claiming that the company trained on their works illegally.

Thousands of video ads on Facebook and Instagram promoting fuel filters being modified into gun silencers have persisted on the platforms for years, despite Meta's policies towards banning ads for gun products, driven by a single network of more than 100 pages and profiles. Silencers are heavily regulated under US federal law and purchasing one legally requires submitting fingerprints, passing a background check, paying a fee, and registering the device, but the ads don't mention these stipulations, marketing silencers to buyers who may not understand the legal risks. Meta told WIRED that the ads and associated accounts have been removed, but a quick search of Meta's Ad Library revealed that nearly identical ones had already been published. Moderating advertisements is like playing a game of whack-a-mole for Meta.

Pro-Luigi Mangione content is filling up social media platforms, and platforms like YouTube, Threads, Facebook, and Reddit are banning accounts of users posting content that glorifies the suspected murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson or that trivializes his death. Social media users, some who are merely talking about Luigi and having their content taken down, are confused about what is or isn't allowed on the platforms.

3.3 million POP3 and IMAP mail servers are currently exposed to network sniffing attacks, due to being without TLS encryption, according to new research from ShadowServer. Without TLS, passwords for mail access could be intercepted due to credentials and message content being sent in clear text, which exposes hosts to eavesdropping network sniffing attacks. Almost 900k of the sites were in the US, with over 500k in Germany and 380k in Poland.

Digital Commerce 360 put together its annual recap of which major North American retailers either filed for and/or emerged from bankruptcy in 2024. The list includes Big Lots, The Body Shop, Conn's, The Container Store, Express, Joann, Party City, Ted Baker, Tupperware Brands, Parts ID, Vitamin Shoppe, and Zulily. Speaking of Zulily…

Amazon will be forced to defend itself in an antitrust suit brought against the company by Zulily, which alleges that Amazon created an illegal monopoly and used its dominance to crush competition. A Washington judge refuted Amazon's please to dismiss the case, which shuttered in December 2023 and relaunched in September 2024 following Zulily's acquisition by Beyond, Inc. The judge confirmed Zulily's claims that Amazon's “anti-discounting” practices qualify as anticompetitive under federal antitrust laws , but granted Amazon's motion to dismiss several other elements of the case, including a claim that Amazon is spearheading a conspiracy with retailers and wholesalers, as well as a deceptive practices claim under Washington state law.

Alibaba Cloud is cutting prices on its visual language model Qwen-VL by up to 85% to win more business, in a move that demonstrates how competition among China's AI tech companies is heating up. Major Chinese tech firms including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, JD.com, Huawei and ByteDance have all launched their own large language models over the past 18 months, looking to capitalize on the hype around the technology.

Venezuela's Supreme Court issued a $10M fine against TikTok for not implementing measures to prevent viral video challenges that have led to the deaths of three Venezuelan children. The judge said that TikTok acted in a negligent manner and gave it eight days to pay the fine, while ordering the company to open an office in the country that would supervise content so that it complies with local laws.

Meanwhile in the USA… A lawsuit brought against TikTok by the state of Utah revealed that TikTok has long been aware that its video livestream feature has been misused to harm children in what Utah calls “an open-door policy allowing predators and criminals to exploit users.” The state's attorney general says TikTok conducted an internal investigation in which it discovered that adults paid teens to “strip, pose, and dance provocatively” using its livestream feature, and that TikTok Live was used to launder money, sell drugs, and fund terrorist groups. TikTok says that Utah's lawsuit “ignores” the proactive measures the company has taken and instead “cherrypicks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community.”

eBay is losing its Senior Partnership US Motors Events Manager, Sarah Burgess, to Walmart, where she will be taking on a Senior Management Business Development role in Parts and Accessories for Walmart Marketplace. Motor Parts and Accessories is one of eBay's largest categories with over $10B in annual GMV, and Burgess was a key figure in the division at the company.

Vietnam is scrapping its import tax exception on low-value imported goods valued at less than VND1 million ($39.30), starting February 18th. The Ministry of Finance noted that the current exemption is outdated in the context of e-commerce and that the change would promote fairness and encourage the consumption of locally produced goods.

India's e-commerce funding declined to $1.5B in 2024, representing a 42% drop from 2023, despite a 6% increase in deal count. D2C startups dominated with $840M raised, followed by B2C at $492M and B2B at $127M. The median ticket size for e-commerce startup investments in 2024 was $1.8M, down 10% from $2M in 2023.

WeChat and TikTok secured approval to continue the operation of their apps in Malaysia, becoming the first companies to fulfill new license requirements meant to enhance online safety in the country. Both companies obtained licenses under requirements for Internet messaging and Social Media companies unveiled last year. Telegram is expected to secure a license soon, and Meta has begun the application process. Neither X nor YouTube have submitted license applications yet.

E-Trade, the online stock trading platform owned by Morgan Stanley, is considering adding cryptocurrency trading in a move that would make it one of the largest mainstream financial firms to offer the service. E-Trade is considering adding the service because it expects the regulatory environment to be more friendly to crypto under Donald Trump's administration.

UK lawmakers are summoning Shein and Temu for questioning over labor practices, aiming to ensure adequate protection against importing products produced with poor labor standards, including forced labor. The cross-party Business and Trade Committee, chaired by former Labour Minister Liam Byrne, is calling on Sheins' general counsel for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Yinan Zhu, as a witness, as well as Temu's senior legal counsel, Stephen Heary, and senior compliance manager, Leonard Klenner, to provide evidence.

ByteDance is planning to spend $7B on Nvidia's most powerful GPUs to fuel the development of its AI models, bypassing US restrictions on the export of advanced computer chips to China by renting access to them via data centers located outside of mainland China. The Information sources revealed that ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is personally negotiating with data center operators across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, trying to secure access to the Nvidia's next-gen Blackwell GPUs, which are expected to become widely available later this year.

Americans are defaulting on their credit cards at the highest rate in 14 years, according to a report by The Financial Times. During the first three quarters of 2024, banks wrote off $45.7B in debt, up 46% from the same period a year ago, and although fourth quarter numbers aren't available yet, surveys from Lending Tree suggest that the problem might be growing worse, with 36% of Americans taking on debt over the holiday season.

A $78 Walmart knock-off of the infamous Hermès Birkin bag, which has a starting retail price of $10,000 and a resale value as high as $300,000, is going viral on social media. Walmart's Bestspr Platinum Lychee Tote gained traction after a TikToker joked, “For $80, you can pretend you got a Birkin,” showcasing the bag which looked almost identical to the original, other than not having the Hermès logo. Hermès is known for protecting its IP and has a long history of legal battles against counterfeiters and inspired designs. The bags have since been removed from Walmart's marketplace.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Alibaba agreed to sell its 72% holdings in Sun Art Retail Group, a Chinese hypermarket and supermarket operator that operates under the Auchan and RT-Mart brands, to private equity firm DCP Capital for $1.6B, marking its second sale of a high-profile physical commerce asset in the past 30 days. Bloomberg estimates that Alibaba will incur about $3B of losses from the sale of the stock. Two weeks ago I reported that Alibaba is selling its department store arm, Intime, to Youngor Fashion Co, for around $1B, as the company pivots to focus more on its core e-commerce operations and cloud-computing business.

Later, a Vancouver-based influencer marketing and social media management platform, is acquiring Mavely, a Chicago-based social influencer app that helps creators and influencers earn commissions by promoting and selling products from top brands, for $250M. Later's CEO says that the acquisition enables the platform to deliver “a seamless, full-funnel experience for marketers–offering ROAS based campaigns and driving predictable, attributable outcomes.”

Grab, a Southeast Asian super app that offers ride-hailing, food delivery, parcel delivery, and financial services, acquired an equity stake in Nham24, a Cambodian food delivery and e-commerce platform, for an undisclosed amount. The deal aims to bring Grab's technology to Nham24 and create new growth for its on-demand services in Cambodia. Both Grab and Nham24 apps will continue to operate independently for the foreseeable future.

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PAUL

Paul E. Drecksler
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PS: I can't stop buying land in the arctic. I'm afraid I may have buy polar disorder.