#184 – SearchGPT, shocking Pinterest allegations, & WooCommerce’s future

by Shopifreaks | Jul 29, 2024 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks!

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And now, onto our regularly scheduled programming…

In this week's edition I cover:

WhatsApp's big milestone in the US
OpenAI's new AI search engine
Grizzly Research's shocking allegations against Pinterest
The rise of pollution around fulfillment centers
Walmart's first annual Adaptive Retail Report
WooCommerce's bold plans for the future
TikTok's deja vu plans to enter the EU
The WTO's new E-Commerce Joint Initiative
Meta, X, Tesla, OpenAI, and Andreessen Horowitz hoarding Nvidia chips
The rise of underconsumption among Gen Z
Zaxby's delicious e-commerce plans

All this and more in this week's 184th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

Stat of the Week

WhatsApp hit 100M monthly active users in the US, according to Mark Zuckerberg. This is the first time that Meta has released data about users in the US, where its recently ramped up its marketing push with ad campaigns, placements in Times Square, and TV spots emphasizing privacy and end-to-end encryption on the app.

1. OpenAI launches a prototype of its AI search engine

OpenAI introduced SearchGPT, a prototype of its new AI search tool that can access the Internet and provide fast answers (with sources) to your search questions. The company wrote in its announcement:

“SearchGPT will quickly and directly respond to your questions with up-to-date information from the web while giving you clear links to relevant sources. You’ll be able to ask follow-up questions, like you would in a conversation with a person, with the shared context building with each query.”

The search engine starts with a large textbox that asks, “What are you looking for?” and then returns formatted summary results with images, which the company is calling “visual answers.” From there, the user can ask follow-up questions or click the sidebar to open source links.

OpenAI stressed its commitment to publishers, which is a hot topic in the AI world right now. The company says that it is “committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators” and hopes to “help users discover publisher sites and experiences, while bringing more choice to search.”

SearchGPT aims to do this by “prominently citing and linking” to sources in searches with “clear, in-line, named attribution and links” for users to engage with.

Of course the big question on every publisher's mind is — will users actually engage with the source links?

After all, would there really be a need to click on the source link if SearchGPT just summarized the entire answer for you?

As part of its commitment to publishers, OpenAI says that it's also launching a way for publishers to manage how they appear in SearchGPT. The company says that SearchGPT will be completely separate from OpenAI's generative AI models, and that sites can still be surfaced in search results even if they opt out of generative AI training.

SearchGPT is currently limited to a small group of users and publishers to get feedback. You can join the waitlist here.

Will SearchGPT revolutionize how we search the Internet?

Maybe, but it still has a long way to go. The Atlantic's Matteo Wong caught a major error in the pre recorded demo video that ChatGPT published.

In the video, the user searched for “music festivals in boone north carolina in august,” and SearchGPT displayed the Appalachian Summer Festival, which it said runs from July 29th to Aug 16th.

Except here's the thing with that result… the festival actually started June 29th and is having its final concert on July 27th!

July 29th – Aug 16th are the dates that the website listed for when its box office would be closed.

Wong wrote, “Chatbots are supposed to revolutionize first the internet and then the physical world. For now they can’t properly copy-paste from a music festival’s website.”

OpenAI responded to the error by saying, “This is an initial prototype, and we'll keep improving it.”

2. Pinterest is in a death spiral and misleading investors on key metrics

In a new report, Grizzly Research alleges that Pinterest may be misleading investors by doctoring its key performance metrics. The research firm alleges that Pinterest is:

Buying fake traffic from bots and click farms
Relying too heavily on paid referral traffic from Google
Flooding the platform with ad spam to increase the ARPU
Building low value users to inflate KPIs
Artificially inflating metrics to keep CEO Bill Ready's exercise price for his options above $19.96 per share

A few key highlights from the report include:

Pinterest is losing user engagement at steep rates, while driving users away with ever- increasing ad spam.
Pinterest focuses on “Monthly Active Users” as its predominant KPI metric [instead of Daily Active Users] to deliberately conceal the decline in user engagement and value.
For U.S. users, Pinterest engagement today is down to merely 18% of its peak.
Independent data clearly shows that Pinterest statistically makes up for its ongoing traffic losses in Western markets by strategically growing into mostly low-income countries to window-dress traffic statistics.
During a phase of crises in 2023, when Pinterest’s share price almost went below CEO Bill Ready’s exercise price for his options at $19.96 per share, visits to pinterest.com from global panel data estimates spuriously spiked up abruptly (from 370.6M to over 1B per month for desktop users globally). After Pinterest’s share price stabilized over $30, the spurious traffic spike dampened.
Our research points to this traffic spike being artificial, sourced from, we believe, click farms or bots.
To fight the decline, Pinterest increased its own advertising expenses to $145.6M in 2023 from $19.2M in 2018 (+658%), but this strategy is still not working to Pinterest’s benefit. Google data shows that Pinterest pays Google for search traffic, a strategy that no other mature social content site depends upon.
Since 2020, insiders have sold over 25.4 million shares, worth over one billion USD in total.
It is worth noting that Co-Founders Evan Sharpe and Benjamin Silbermann, as well as former CEO Todd Morgenfeld sold all their Pinterest shares.
We believe Pinterest is in a long-term death spiral: Western users leave, and then Pinterest sells more advertising space at cheaper prices to create revenue, which further reduces the overall content quality, and drives more users to abandon the service.
Grizzly’s model values PINS stock between $5.28 and $16 per share. (It currently sits at $37.85 at the time of writing this.)

It's important to note that Grizzly Research is a short seller that financially benefits from putting companies on blast and subsequently having their stock price drop. They're also not always right.

However, I'd love to hear Pinterest's response to the allegations, especially the one about buying fake traffic, but so far, I couldn't find any news about the company responding to or acknowledging the report by Grizzly Research.

What are your thoughts on Pinterest? Does it have a bright future or is it really in a “death spiral” like Grizzly Research said? Hit reply and let me know or join the conversation on my LinkedIn post.

3. E-commerce warehouses are driving up pollution

Satellite data shows a significant rise in pollution where e-commerce fulfillment centers are built, according to a new study by Gaige Kerr, an assistant research professor at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, that was published in the journal Nature Communications.

The study researched the locations of 150k large warehouses across the US and gathered data on nitrogen dioxide in 2021 from a European Space Agency satellite instrument that takes daily readings as it orbits around the planet. The study found:

Neighborhoods within 5 miles of warehouses saw a nearly 20% increase in levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—a pollutant regulated under the Clean Air Act that has been linked to health issues including asthma, respiratory infections, and chronic lung disease.
There's been a 117% increase in the total number of new warehouses built between 2010 and 2021.
Newly constructed facilities are bigger with more loading docks and parking spaces to accomodate more vehicles.
Truck traffic and NO2 pollution increased with the number of loading docks and parking spaces.
Clusters of warehouses are becoming more common.
Just 10 U.S. counties are home to 20% of facilities: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, and Alameda, California; Dallas and Harris, Texas; Cook, Illinois; Miami-Dade, Florida; Maricopa, Arizona; and Cuyahoga, Ohio.
Communities of color are more vulnerable to air pollution from warehouse traffic due to where the warehouses are built.
In 2021, Amazon operated around 175,000 delivery vans and more than 37,000 semi-trailers in the U.S.

The study gives scientists and health advocates and unprecedented look at pollution around warehouses, but the authors say that it might actually underestimate the problem because the satellite takes readings once a day in the afternoon, whereas warehouse traffic peaks in the mornings.

However the researchers are hopeful that a new satellite instrument from NASA that launched last year to monitor air pollution can provide more precise data in the future.

4. Walmart's State of Adaptive Retail Report

Walmart released its first annual Adaptive Retail Report, featuring results from a survey that examined consumer interest in technologies such as virtual try-ons and other commerce features. Below is a recap of the top four trends that the report revealed.

Trend #1: Next-Gen Conveniences Powered by Curated Choices

Customers expect to be advised and guided through their shopping journeys with hyper-specific recommendations and ready to adapt offerings to match their needs.
52% of shoppers want a tool that recommends best products based on their actual space.
48% of shoppers want to receive suggested items based on their preferences, mood, local weather, and schedule.
38% of shoppers want a virtual personal shopper available to them.
42% of Gen Z and 44% of Parents are interested in receiving regularly purchased items through a subscription or auto-delivery service.

Trend #2: Multi-taskers Drive Everywhere Shopping

In the past six months, 8 in 10 shoppers have made an online purchase while also focused on another task.
56% have made purchases while watching TV.
21% admit to shopping online while doing daily tasks.
55% of Gen Z have made a purchase while browsing social media.
18% of shoppers have made a purchase while at work.
20% of Gen Z believe shopping through entertainment and social media platforms make their shopping experience more convenient and enjoyable.

Trend #3: Moving Beyond The Blend

Shoppers want online retailers to mirror the in-store experience, and vice-versa.
41% of online shoppers want to preview or try the product before buying.
45% of in-store shoppers want no checkout lines.
28% of in-store shoppers want to easily search for all available items or inventory.
49% of in-store shoppers desire a store-path mapping app.
50% are interested in phone-based self checkout, in-store.
43% of all shoppers want to buy products in-store, but have the retailer deliver and put the items directly in their homes. (I think we've had that one for a quite a while now with furniture and appliance retailers, right?)
58% of shoppers are not willing to wait more than a day for grocery delivery.

Trend #4: Channel Indifference Starts with Value

Competitive pricing, high quality items, and security of personal data are most important to shoppers, both online and in-store.
35% of shoppers want to blend online and offline channels for food shopping, but only about 25% are currently doing so.
54% of early tech adopters and Gen Z are shopping for food either entirely online, and 58% are using a mix of online and in-store shopping.
When Gen Z shoppers run out of an item, they are almost as likely to order for same-day delivery as they are to run to the store.

5. WooCommerce's big plans for the future

WooCommerce shared their roadmap for the future of WooCommerce (formerly Woo, formerly WooCommerce), emphasizing an improved line of communication with its developer ecosystem.

The company highlighted 7 important areas for innovation and 6 areas for improving developer and merchant experience.

Innovation

Stronger WooCommerce & Developer Communication – including a newsletter that seeks to keep developers up-to-date with its latest news and offer early previews of new features.
Upgraded Blog & Documentation – more guides, step-by-step tutorials, and best practices, while making it easier to navigate and find information.
Improvements to REST API V3 – with a focus on backward compatibility, reducing the backlog of issues and new feature requests, and improving API performance.
Improved Feedback Loop on Extensibility – with the goal of having a collaboration that results in a superior product that better serves developers and merchants.
100% Committed to a Block Based Future – to make WooCommerce easier for non-coders and to create a more adaptable shopping platform to build on.
Streamlined Onboarding – simplifying the process of setting up a store and getting online faster, as well as improving the workflow for developers who set up stores for merchants.
Modern Store Customization – WooCommerce is looking into creating fully optimized commerce-based themes that are specific to WooCommerce.

Future Improvements

Flexible product management
Optimized order management and fulfillment
Revamping merchant analytics
Accessible stores
Evolving checkout experience
Better integration of order confirmation with summary and shipping information

I'd also like to add a suggestion to that list (for WordPress in general) — the ability to drag-and-drop menu items within WP-Admin so that I can create a more personalized backend and bring front and center the links and shortcuts I use most frequently.

What improvements would you add to the lists of WooCommerce improvements above? Hit reply and let me know.

6. TikTok to enter Spain and Ireland, for real this time

TikTok is planning to launch its in-app shopping platform, TikTok Shop, in Spain and Ireland as early as October, restarting a stalled campaign to expand its e-commerce business in Europe.

The rollout will be smaller than previously envisioned plans, launching in just the two countries for now, but ByteDance insiders say the company has plans to bring TikTok Shop to other parts of Europe next year.

If this news sounds familiar… TikTok had previously attempted to make a bigger push into Europe a couple years ago, with plans to branch from the UK in 2022, but scaled back that rollout due to internal conflicts, and hadn't made a push since.

Even as of two months ago, I reported that TikTok put on hold its plans to launch its e-commerce business across major European markets, with plans to instead focus on growth in the US where it's currently fighting a divest-or-ban law.

However now they're really going to do it? I guess we'll all find out together in October.

TikTok recently reported that there are now 15M sellers in the app, and that TikTok is now the second largest online beauty and wellness retailer in the U.K.

7. Eighty countries, excluding the US, struck an e-commerce deal

80 World Trade Organization countries reached an agreement known as the E-Commerce Joint Initiative, which governs global e-commerce, but failed to bring the US on board. The agreement aims to make trade faster, cheaper, fairer, and more secure for businesses, workers, and consumers.

EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis posted on X, “We negotiated the first global rules on digital trade,” which the EU hailed as “historic news” and Britain as “groundbreaking.”

The rules include:

Committing all participants to making customs documents and processes digital.
Recognizing e-documents and e-signatures.
Putting in place legal safeguards against online fraudsters and misleading claims about products.
Seeking to limit spam and protect personal data.
Offer support to least-developed countries.

The US said that the new rules were an important step forward, but that they still fell short and more work was needed, including on wording about exceptions due to essential security interests.

Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey also had reservations, adding that in most cases, they were on minor points.

Making the accord a formal WTO agreement would require consensus among all WTO countries, so there still could be a long road ahead to make the rules official.

8. Tech companies are hoarding Nvidia GPU chips

Nvidia's H100 GPU is estimated to cost between $20,000 and $40,000, and a handful of tech companies are hoarding these coveted chips to power their entrances into AI.

Meta, which just announced the release of Llama 3.1, trained its new model using 16,000 of Nvidia's H100 GPUs, which equates to around $640M of chips. Earlier this year, Meta said that it was aiming to have a stash of 350,000 chips, or around $7B -$14B worth.
Elon Musk also needs H100s for X and xAI, and recently boasted that xAI's training cluster is made up of 100,000 H100s.
Then there's Tesla, which is hoarding 85,000 chips valued between $1.7B – $3.4B. Musk was recently sued by Tesla shareholders for allegedly redirecting 12,000 of the H100s intended for use by Tesla to xAI instead.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly hoarding more than 20,000 of the GPUs, which it is renting out to AI startups in exchange for equity (which is pretty brilliant).
OpenAI hasn't confirmed how many H100s they are sitting on, but The Information reports that the company rents a cluster of processors dedicated to training from Microsoft at a steep discount as part of Microsoft's investment in OpenAI.

The H100s are in such high demand that people are being paid to sneak them into China to bypass US export controls. There are even a few H100s for sale on Amazon, including one for $28,499 with free Prime shipping (and the reviews are hilarious).

When we look back at this H100 frenzy in hindsight, will it prove to be like the Covid GPU shortage? But instead of gamers and crypto miners paying top dollar for RTX 3080s, it's tech companies paying top dollar for H100s?

Something tells me we'll be seeing a surplus of listings for H100s on sale for $3,500 in the not-so-distant future.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Gen Z is promoting an underconsumption trend, which involves only buying what you need and rejecting influencer marketing. Is that a trend? That's been my life. LOL. Creators who embrace the trend are sharing videos of minimal or secondhand clothing in their closets, a handful of beauty products on their counters, and no Stanley cups in their cupboards.

Britain will soon lay out new plans to regulate BNPL firms and is looking to “work closely with all interested stakeholders” on the matter. The government first set out plans to regulate the sector in 2021, but was followed with multiple delays to the roadmap possibly due to political instability mixed with lobbying from big BNPL firms.

Southwest Airlines is partnering with TikTok creators in key markets like Hawaii and Orlando to highlight travel inspiration and offer an easy way to book flights on its airline. The partner content will feature a “Book Now” button to make it easy for TikTok users to take action when they're inspired.

Walmart is expanding its autoimmune-focused specialty pharmacy business with 25 locations throughout Alabama, Idaho, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, focusing on pharmaceuticals for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and other gastrointestinal disorders and dermatological conditions. In April I reported that Walmart closed its healthcare clinics and sold its telehealth business to focus on the commerce-side of health versus the care-side.

Zaxby's is establishing a loyalty and e-commerce division and hired Chris Kung to oversee the team. Hung previously worked for Dollar General where he helped the company create its myDG loyalty program and grow e-commerce sales 40x. I don't know about you, but I could certainly go for a Chicken Fingers Plate meal with a side of Zax sauce right now after reading that news!

Hong Kong is hosting its first e-commerce festival called “E-commerce Easy” to boost online retail sales and promote local brands. The event is part of the government's Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading & Domestic Sales, which supports businesses in expanding their reach.

Cameo was fined $600k for failing to comply with the FTC's rules about celebrity product endorsements. However, the company, which was once valued at $1B several years ago, can't afford to pay the fine, so New York and the other 29 states involved in the investigation are accepting $100k to be split between them. They should have just bartered for some free celebrity endorsements at that point! “Hi, I'm Kevin O'Leary, and I think New York is great!”

Spain is aiming to become a hub for the European data center industry, recently endorsing plans by Amazon and Microsoft to construct new data centers in the country. However Spain's government believes that the tech industry is overestimating by at least 3X what the country's demand for data center capacity will be in the next 5-7 years, and is leveraging its grip over the power grid to prevent companies from building too many data centers. The government is also steering data centers away from densely populated cities, and pushing them towards large swathes of sparsely occupied land.

TikTok Shop's Deals for You Days event made up 37% of Chinese e-commerce sales in the US during the week ending July 11th, according to a report from Earnest Analytics. In comparison, Temu made up 37.2% and Shein sales comprised 25.8%. The spend per customer reached a historic high of $52 on the platform, which is still lower than the $71 and $72 spent per shopper on Shein and Temu. People spend $72 on Temu? That must be enough to fill a shipping container!

Last week I reported that Meta was in talks to purchase a 5% stake in EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Ray-Ban and about 40+ other eyewear brands, to give the company further control over the roadmap for its smart glasses. However Google is saying, “Not so fast!” The Verge reports that Google recently approached the eyewear company about integrating its Gemini AI into future smart glasses.

Amazon and the Better Business Bureau, which is apparently still relevant in 2024, filed a joint lawsuit against ReviewServiceUSA.com for allegedly selling fraudulent positive reviews on Amazon product pages and BBB profiles. The lawsuit alleges that the review site used counterfeit customer accounts to post fake positive reviews aimed at inflating listings. The review site is currently down at the time of writing this.

Marqeta, a card issuing platform, is partnering with Visa and Affirm to provide Visa Flexible Credential, a single card product for different payment methods, in the US. The solution allows cardholders to decide whether they leverage debit, credit, BNPL, or rewards points to make payments using the same card.

Mexico's delivery workers are finding it more appealing to deliver packages than food orders as the popularity of Chinese e-commerce platforms grows within the country. These platforms are hiring local logistics companies to deliver their wares, and gig workers are being drawn by the high volume of deliveries and shorter wait times to pick up the packages (compared to waiting on an order at a restaurant).

Billie, a B2B payments platform and provider of BNPL solutions, is now available via Stripe, making it the first B2B BNPL solution available on the platform in Europe. During the next few months, a select number of e-commerce stores and marketplaces selling to businesses in Germany, France, and the Netherlands will be able to test the solution before opening it up to all businesses later this year.

Google Merchant Center Next, the updated version of GMC that the company announced at Google Marketing Live in 2023, is now coming to all merchants this month. Next will offer merchants a refreshed UI, reinvented features, and new experiences. Some merchants are already reporting that Next's AI features are falling short, especially when it comes to supplemental feeds and accurately pulling in products.

Three Walmart customers have filed a class action lawsuit against the retailer for allegedly sharing their video viewing information with Meta in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act. According to the lawsuit, the shared data includes users' Facebook ID and the titles of specific video materials that were purchased by customers, and that Walmart disclosed this information without obtaining consent first. The plaintiffs are seeking an award of $2,500, a judgement against Walmart, and unlimited Marketside Chocolate Chip Cookies for life. (Well, that's what I would've asked for.)

Vayu Robotics, a Bay Area robotics startup, unveiled its first AI delivery robot that uses a mix of AI and low-cost passive sensors, which remove the need for expensive LiDAR technology that many autonomous vehicles use. The company explained that when you put LiDar on a robot, the cost goes up by $15k, which makes it expensive for applications like delivery, and that its new robots are easier and cheaper to manufacture, which will reduce the cost of fulfillment for D2C companies.

Alibaba teamed up with BigCommerce to allow its merchants to more easily buy from Chinese suppliers and manufacturers on its website. The new app helps BigCommerce's customers better navigate Alibaba.com, the company said. So here's a question… If there's an app that helps merchants navigate Alibaba's website better, why not just make that app available on Alibaba's website directly for everyone?

Meta claimed that its new AI model, Llama 3.1 405B, is the first open-source system that will rival products from OpenAI and Anthropic across a range of tasks. If true, it would mean that one of the most powerful AI models in the world is now available without an intermediary charging for access or controling what the technology is used for. The AI model is currently available for users in 22 countries through Meta.ai.

X is working on a feature that will let users disable links in their post replies as a means to reduce the amount of spam that users see. The feature is not yet available to most users, and it's unclear if it will only be available to Premium users. While reducing spam is good, Fortune comments that it could also prevent the free flow of information, as people often backup their points with legitimate data sources.

Alibaba is looking to compete against Shein and Temu by offering shipment subsidies to certain sellers on Tmall and Taobao, enabling them to sell their goods directly to customers in several countries outside of China. Alibaba will manage the cross-border logistics, and qualified merchants will only need to transport requested items to a designated consolidation warehouse in China.

Swiggy, an Indian food delivery and quick commerce startup, is pivoting its Shopify alternative, Swiggy Minis, into a link-in-bio service, similar to LinkTree, with the intention of catering to service providers like nutritionists and fitness trainers. The Swiggy Minis service will now act as a landing page that sellers can point their target customers to from their social media pages.

In other Swiggy news, Amazon India is rumored to have approached the company for a potential deal to buy a stake in its quick commerce business, Instamart, prior to Swiggy's IPO. There's currently no official offer on the table yet, but Amazon will need to move quickly for a chance of the talks going to the next stage.

Jack Dorsey wrote a note to Block employees this week announcing that the company is getting an overhaul to its internal reporting structure that will blow up the boundaries between various business lines, grouping employees together instead based on roles like engineering, design, and sales. Dorsey said that the move would take Block back to how it started as a company and is intended to address its three problems of “collaboration, craft, and flexibility.”

Meta is set to be hit with its first EU antitrust fine for tying its Marketplace service with its Facebook social network, which comes a year and a half after the EU accused Meta of giving its classified ads service an unfair advantage by bundling the two services together. The EU competition watchdog said that Meta abused its dominance by unilaterally imposing unfair trading conditions on competing online classified ads services that advertised on Facebook or Instagram. Meta could face a fine of as much as $13.4B, or 10% of its 2023 global revenue.

In other Meta vs EU news… Meta has been given until September 1st to respond to consumer protection concerns in the EU over the binary “pay or consent” choice it gave users last November. If Meta does not take the necessary steps to solve the concerns raised by the EU by proposing solutions, authorities can decide to take enforcement measures, including sanctions.

TikTok received a £1.87M fine by the UK for failing to provide Ofcom (the UK's regulatory and competition authority) with accurate information about its parental controls, disrupting the publication of its child safety transparency report. Firms are required by law in the country to respond to all statutory information requests from Ofcom in a timely manner. The information was supposed to inform a planned report highlighting the safety measures they have in place to protect children from harmful content.

X turned on an AI opt-out setting, which indicates that it intends to use millions of users' posts and interactions to train Grok, its AI assistant being developed by another one of Elon Musk's companies. Users can opt out of having their data collected by Grok, and there's also an option to delete your Grok conversation history.

Dialpad, a business communications service provider, released a new version of its AI Sales platform, which leverages more than 6B minutes of business conversations to coach sellers better through the sales process. AI Sales eliminates the need for multiple disjointed tools to deliver intelligence to sellers such as how to handle objections and accurately position their solutions against the competition. Someone should make an AI Buyers platform that argues with Dialpad's AI Sales to get the best deal.

Meta is introducing a hands-off way for marketers to include all available offers listed on their site into their ad campaigns across Facebook and Instagram. The company's new ad setup process automatically detects offers based on the URL entered for the ad campaign, and then automatically showcases any discounts and promotional codes embedded in the site.

Amazon's AI-powered paid version of Alexa that is rumored to cost up to $10/month could arrive in the next few weeks, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. An employee who works on the Alexa team told the WSJ that the division is racing toward the deadline to launch the subscription even though “the technology isn't there.”

Three out of five Americans think the US is in a recession, according to a recent survey by Affirm, with respondents indicating that the downturn started in March 2023. However, technically, no recession has taken place, according to the traditional definition which requires that GDP would need to fall for two successive quarters for this to happen. So does that just indicate that inflation has been outpacing the recession by boosting GDP?

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Cohere, a Toronto-based enterprise-focused generative AI startup co-founded by ex-Google researchers, raised $500M in a Series D round led by PSP Investments, at a $5.5B valuation. The funds will be used to further develop its models with a focus on data privacy and security, multilingual accuracy, and capabilities like retrieval augmented generation. A day after announcing its fresh funding round, the company laid off 20 employees, or about 5% of its 400-person workforce, which CEO Aidan Gomez said was a “necessary step to ensure that we have the right people in place to remain highly competitive and at the forefront of the industry.”

Greenely, a Swedish energy tech startup that offers energy consumption analytics and optimization services that allow customers to achieve savings on their electricity consumption, raised €8M in a Series A round led by Korys, bringing its total amount raised to €15M. The platform allows smarter EV charging when the energy price is low, and customers with home batteries and solar panels to sell surplus energy when the electricity price is high and store it when it's low, among other optimizations.

Stord, a supply chain optimization company that offers fulfillment, warehousing, and transportation for B2C and B2B merchants, is acquiring the e-commerce fulfillment services operations of Pitney Bowes, for an undisclosed amount. This is Stord's second e-commerce acquisition in four months following its purchase of ProPackLogistics in April. Pitney Bowes said in May that it was accelerating a strategic review of its Global E-commerce segment, which has been under pressure from activist investors for several months.

Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings received approval from the fair trade regulator CCI to acquire a 76% stake in Frontizo from Zodiac Wealth Advisors. Frontizo's subsidiary, Appario Retail, is engaged in retail and wholesale sales in India and offers products to customer on the Amazon India Marketplace.

Posh, a platform that works like TikTok for events where you scroll vertically to find an event you are interested in, raised $22M in a Series A round led by Goodwater Capital, bringing its total amount raised to $31M. The company will use the funds to expand its team from 26 to 40 in product and go-to-market areas, as well as update its app with better suggestions for relevant events.

IntelePeer, an AI communication automation provider that automates customer service interactions, raised $140M in new equity and debt in a round co-led by Savant Growth and VantagePoint Capital Partners. Since launching, the company says it has automated more than 600M customer interactions and lowered the cost more than 10X for its clients.

Vajro, a mobile app builder for e-commerce stores, acquired HouseParty, a Shopify app specializing in community building and engagement for brands, at an undisclosed price. The move enters Vajro into the loyalty arena, where it aims to create an ecosystem that enhances customer loyalty and retention for e-commerce brands.

The Floorr, a platform for personal shoppers and stylists to manage and expand their businesses, raised $1.7M in a pre-seed round led investors Carmen Busquets and Nigora Tokhtabayeva. The company offers tools for conducting sales, hosting tailored styling sessions, creating mood boards, and engaging in chats with clients. Alongside their funding round, The Floorr introduced a new styling tool called “Styling Sessions” that allow stylists to create complete outfit looks with products from its marketplace or by uploading images.