#231 – Shoppable PayPal Ads, Reddit UGC Ads, & Amazon’s Controversial AI Agenda

by Paul Drecksler | Jun 23, 2025 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

I can't control the news, and inevitably, some weeks are more interesting than others in the world of e-commerce.

That being said — today's edition is by far one of my favorites of the year!

Big news this week, so let's dive right in…

In this week's edition I cover:

ChatGPT bleeding into your vocabulary
PayPal's new shoppable ad format
Reddit turning your posts/comments into ads
Amazon's controversial AI agenda
The unfortunate rise of stablecoins
Klarna's new mobile phone plan
Costco's lawsuit that could change everything
Get ready for ads on WhatsApp
Amazon's first 4-day Prime Day
Salesforce “price updates”
eBay's 30 minute cancellation feature
The release of The OpenAI Files

All this and more in this week's 231st Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

PS: Does this newsletter bring you value each week? If so, please do me a favor and write a Google review, which goes a long way in helping me reach new readers. Thanks!

Stat of the Week

In the 18 months after ChatGPT was released, speakers used words like “meticulous,” “delve,” “realm,” and “adept” up to 51% more frequently than in the three years prior, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, who analyzed 280k YouTube videos from academic channels.

The study found that words like “prowess” and “tapestry,” which are favored by ChatGPT, are creeping into our vocabulary, while words like “bolster,” “unearth,” and “nuance” have declined in use. They forgot about “robust” — my personal dead giveaway that ChatGPT was involved!

1. PayPal launches fully shoppable ads

PayPal introduced Storefront Ads, a new ad format that turns open-web display ads into fully functional storefronts with built-in checkout via PayPal and Venmo. The ads, which feature prominent “Buy with PayPal” or “Buy with Venmo” buttons, let consumers purchase products without ever leaving the page they’re on, aiming to reduce friction and boost conversions.

Mark Grether, SVP & GM of PayPal Ads, said:

“Agentic commerce risks siphoning traffic and diluting retailers' brand experiences. Additionally, shopping is no longer something consumers do; it's something that comes to them. PayPal Storefront Ads gives merchants a powerful way to reach new customers and re-engage loyal shoppers by planting dynamic storefronts directly within the open web, creating a compelling, frictionless shopping experience anywhere.”

By combining checkout through PayPal and Venmo's payment flow with a storefront that lives inside the ad, shoppers will not have to leave the content they're viewing. After making a purchase, they're immediately returned to exactly where they left off.

The new ad format is powered by the PayPal transaction graph, which the company describes as a “repository of real, cross-merchant purchase signals that drive relevant advertising,” containing over 430M consumer and merchant accounts spanning across 200 markets.

Storefront Ads are expected to debut this summer in the U.S. as IAB-standard units — which are standardized digital ad sizes defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau — and then evolve into brand carousels and sponsored listings.

Personally, I love it!

Storefront Ads turn every webpage on the Internet into a marketplace for merchants who offer PayPal as a payment option. As a merchant, I'd much rather encourage customers to checkout right then and there, as opposed to leading them to an Amazon listing, where they may get distracted by other recommended items.

Lately it feels like PayPal has been at the mercy of e-commerce platforms and competing mobile wallets that prioritize their own one-click payment options over PayPal within their checkout experiences. However the launch of PayPal Ads in Oct 2024 opened a direct pathway for website visitors to go from 3rd party website to PayPal Checkout — without Shopify or other platforms serving as a middleman.

If PayPal Storefront Ads ever integrate with Honey, the company's browser extension that finds discount codes, PayPal will have created a full e-commerce ecosystem that takes consumers from discovery to checkout with a discount-code to close the deal.

2. Reddit can now turn your posts and comments into ads

Reddit, in celebration of its 20th birthday, is introducing new features for brands, including one that turns your organic posts and comments about the brand into advertisements.

The company introduced Reddit Community Intelligence™ at this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which it describes as:

“The collective knowledge from the billions of human conversations across Reddit. This engine powers products and insights that no other platform can deliver, turning Reddit's 22+ billion posts and comments into structured intelligence for smarter marketing decisions.”

The intelligence feature currently consists of two products:

Reddit Insights – an AI social listening tool that provides insights to help marketers plan campaigns and validate ideas. Effectively this feature is, “Here's a summary of what Redditors think about your brand.”
Conversation Summary Add-ons – dynamically integrates positive content from Reddit users directly below an advertiser's creative. This feature surfaces posts and comments from Reddit's archives that talk about the brand in a positive light, which means anything good you ever said about a brand can effectively become an ad.

Publicis has been an early tester of the new tools for their clients The Hersey Company, Comcast, and Lucid, and claim to have experienced 19% higher CTR than standard image ads, boosted ad relevance, and deeper connections with communities (whatever that means).

On one hand: I think that Conversation Summary Add-ons are a unique way to surface user generated content about a brand or product, which can accentuate the brand and be helpful to the user.

On the other hand: I don't love the idea of Reddit turning my posts and comments into advertising assets. Then again though, those posts and comments were already public and easily accessible via search. As Redditors, we've always known that other people are going to discover what we share about a brand.

The one thing about Conversation Summary Add-ons that perverts the traditional Reddit experience is that the platform has always been a place to get real reviews. That's why people often search Google for “brand reviews + reddit” — so that they can bypass the affiliate fluff and manipulated reviews that surface to the top of Google. However now, I imagine that brands are able to handpick the positive posts and comments and leave the negative ones behind, which undermines and cheapens the Reddit experience.

Also, what's going to happen when Redditors inevitably discover that their posts/comments are being used in an advertisement and they subsequently delete or edit the content? (Because that will 100% happen.) Or when other Redditors join the boosted thread and contribute not-so-positive things about the brand. Is Reddit going to lock content that's currently being used in an ad campaign?

Redditors historically haven't embraced advertising on the platform, especially given that it's been forcefully thrust upon them in recent years after the company killed off third-party apps, but this is the first time Reddit has blatantly turned their own content into advertisements. So we'll see how this goes…

3. Amazon CEO tells employees AI is coming for their jobs, but also relocate

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is taking heat for a memo he wrote highlighting the company's AI achievements and noting that the use of AI will ultimately reduce its workforce.

The actual part of the memo that mentions this reads as follows:

“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

He went on to say:

“Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company.”

Employees did not react well to Jassy's statements.

Workers in Amazon's corporate offices tore into Jassy's messages across internal Slack channels, with some calling for a shift in the company's mindset, while warning of the risks of relying too much on AI. Messages included:

“There is nothing more motivating on a Tuesday than reading that your job will be replaced by AI in a few years.”
One person wrote that middle management in general could be replaced by Amazon's AI app and “no one would notice.”
“At least he said the quiet part out loud. We all knew it but now it's clearly part of the plan.”
In regards to depending on AI too much, one employee wrote, “It's dangerous, and it will have real consequences.”

At the same time, per the Financial Post, Amazon is ordering thousands of U.S. employees via one-on-one meetings to relocate to Seattle, Arlington, and Washington DC, which in some cases would require them to move across the country. One employee said their manager informed the team to either begin their relocation process within 60 days or submit their resignation, with no severance offered.

So Amazon wants me to relocate for a job that I'm actively being told will soon be replaced by AI? That'll be a no from me, dawg.

Honestly, the AUDACITY of Amazon simultaneously shilling both agendas to employees at the same time is through the roof!

Then again, perhaps Amazon is depending on that insecurity, and these “relocation requests” are simply another round of silent layoffs. Andy Jassy wrote in his memo about AI resulting in a reduced workforce in the future, but in reality, it's already begun.

What are your thoughts? Hit reply and let me know or join the conversation on LinkedIn.

4. Stablecoins are having a moment

On June 18, the U.S. Senate passed the bipartisan GENIUS Act to establish a federal regulatory framework for USD‑pegged stablecoins, marking a major milestone for crypto regulation.

What does the GENIUS Act require?

Issuers of stablecoins must back each coin with safe assets (USD, government money market funds, or other liquid assets) at a 1:1 ratio.
Issuers must publish monthly reserve disclosures and comply with anti-money laundering rules.
Issuers with over $50B in market cap must provide annual audited financial statements.
Legislation ensures that holders of stablecoins are given priority claims on reserve assets if an issuer goes bankrupt.

Banks, crypto firms, and tech companies are quick to make moves:

Coinbase is rolling out its stablecoin acceptance platform to merchants at scale, following its recent launch with Shopify.
JPMorgan Chase will introduce a digital deposit token called JPMD, designed for institutional clients as an alternative to stablecoins, offering on-chain settlement, cross-border payments, and eventual interest payouts.
Fiserv announced it will launch its own stablecoin, FIUSD, and broader stablecoin infrastructure by year’s end, at no extra cost to its 10,000+ financial institution clients and 6M merchants
JD.com began testing HKD-pegged tokens in Hong Kong's regulatory sandbox, aiming to go public in Q4. (That one's not happening in the U.S., but I just wanted to demonstrate that the stablecoin movement is now happening worldwide.)
It was also reported a couple weeks ago that Amazon, Walmart, Expedia, and major airlines are considering launching their own stablecoins.

Citigroup estimates that the stablecoin market will total about $1.6 trillion by 2030, a sevenfold increase from $230 billion in March.

So what's the benefit of stablecoins? Why is everyone hopping on the bandwagon?

Stablecoins enable near-instant, low-cost settlements, especially for cross-border transactions, which means no having to wait days for ACH or SWIFT transfers. It also reduces reliance on legacy payment rails like Visa, Mastercard, and wire transfers.

The benefits to issuers include reduced payment processing fees, plus the ability to hold and earn interest on customer reserves. For example, if Walmart issued $50B of stablecoins to customers and employees, it would earn interest on the $50B fiat sitting in its bank, as well as bypass high transaction fees by Visa and Mastercard when customers spend the coins within their ecosystem.

For consumers, this is quickly going to turn into one giant and annoying clusterfuck of various stablecoins that every company is pushing them to adopt. “Crap, I'm out of Expedia Bucks and I'm trying to buy this airline ticket.”

Meanwhile banks, rather than collectively work towards updating their archaic ACH and SWIFT payment rails, are jumping on the stablecoin bandwagon faster than Amazon is embracing AI. Is JPMorgan Chase aware that we could have near-instant, low-cost settlements in USD if their payments weren't running on a system BUILT IN 1972!

Rather than update our existing infrastructure to serve business and consumer needs for the next 100 years, we're allowing major institutions to build a private layer on top of it — and it's dumb. Privately issued stablecoins are not the solution to modernizing our financial digital infrastructure. A truly bipartisan movement would have introduced a bill aimed at upgrading the systems that USD runs on — propping up the stablecoin industry versus building it on top of a house of cards.

This isn't going to end well.

5. Klarna is launching a mobile phone plan

Klarna is entering the mobile market with an unlimited phone plan, beginning in the US and soon followed by a launch in the UK, Germany, and other countries.

The mobile plan will offer uncapped, unlimited 5G data, talk, and text for $40/month, with coverage on the AT&T network. Premium and international plans are expected to roll out later this year.

That's cool I guess, but does it come with a Gold Phone?

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski (or potentially his AI avatar) said:

“Klarna has saved consumers time and money, and reduced financial worry for over 20 years. With mobile plans we’re taking that one step further, as we continue to build our neobank offering. Consumers already know and love Klarna’s super smooth services and now, with one tap in the Klarna app, they’ll be up and running with their new phone plan — no hassle, no hidden fees, just great value.”

Klarna says that its research shows that half of Americans believe “switching phone plans is too difficult” — so it's promoting how effortless it is to transfer their number and activate their new plan within the Klarna app. However frankly, you could say the same of most MVNO-powered mobile networks, which are mostly all app-based solutions.

If you're unfamiliar with Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), they essentially allow any company to launch their own mobile network using major carriers' infrastructure. This is how Ryan Reynolds' Mint Mobile, Google Fi, and most recently Trump Mobile operate.

The upside for Klarna is… one more channel to monetize its 25M customers in the U.S. through its existing app. It's pretty smart.

The upside for customers is… I'm still trying to figure that one out. There are more than a handful of MVNO carriers that offer unlimited plans for $40/month or less. Why switch to Klarna? The company has yet to offer a compelling reason, but maybe one is coming soon, such as wireless customers tapping into additional rewards and incentives through the rest of Klarna's network.

6. Costco sued for charging different prices online and in-store

A new lawsuit against Costco could have major implications for all omnichannel retailers if victorious, raising the question, “Can I charge more online than in-store?”

A California woman is suing Costco for advertising “free shipping” on their website, but actually baking the cost of shipping into their product price. Sounds normal so far, right? Every retailer that offers free shipping is building it into the retail cost of their product. Nothing's actually free.

Here's the difference though…

Costco sold the couch for $250 more online with “free shipping” than the couch actually costs in their stores.

The suit claims that Costco’s online pricing model violates state and federal consumer protection laws, breaches contracts and warranties, and misleads customers through false advertising.

Costco informs customers on a page deep within its website that its online and in-store prices may be different, and that it doesn't price match between the two. However the plaintiff argues that the disclaimer is buried, and that the more prominent “free shipping” is misleading customers into falsely believing the online price is the same as the in-store.

The lawsuit brings in to question what obligations, if any, Costco and other omnichannel retailers have to maintain price parity between in-store and online.

In a previous similar lawsuit from 2024, Costco referred to the disclosures on their support pages, arguing that the “$0.00″ advertised shipping reflects the absence of an added fee beyond the online price — which makes sense to me.

I'm with Costco on this one, legally speaking. However…

Given that this seems to be a recurring issue for Costco in particular, would it make sense for them to transparently display the difference between in-store and online pricing?

It could actually work to their advantage:

🛋️ BIG BLUE COUCH
Online: $2,499 Free Shipping
In-Store: $2,149 Pickup Only

They could still allow the customer to purchase the couch online at the in-store price, and simply reserve it for them in-store for 48 hours to pick-up, during which they'd probably buy some more stuff while there. While I don't think this should be required of Costco, it could be a win-win solution.

What are your thoughts? Is Costco in the right or wrong? Hit reply and let me know or join the conversation on LinkedIn.

7. WhatsApp introduces paid channels and ads

WhatsApp is introducing new features to its Updates tab, which is home to both Channels and Status, including:

Channel Subscriptions – users can now support channels with paid subscriptions to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee.
Promoted Channels – admins can now boost their Channel's visibility in the directory with paid placement.
Ads in Status – brands can now purchase advertisements in Status updates, similar to how ads appear within Facebook and Instagram Stories.

It's great timing, because just this morning I woke up and thought to my self, “My WhatsApp could sure use some ads!”

Meta says the ads in Status and Channels will use limited info like your country, city, and language, as well as the Channels you're following and how you interact with other ads, but it will never use your personal messages, calls, or groups to determine what ads you see.

The company also stressed that it will never share your phone number with advertisers — which why would they give up that valuable asset when they can instead perpetually charge advertisers to reach you via WhatsApp instead?

Over 1.5B people are currently using the Status and Channels features every day, according to Meta. It describes the move as a “natural progression”, despite the criticism that the injected ads will inevitable draw.

The embracement of ads is quite the change from the company's original mission, which you can read about in a 2012 blog post from the original founders entitled Why we don't sell ads. However, it was all but guaranteed when an advertising company acquires you.

8. Amazon Prime Day is four days this year

Amazon is expanding its Prime Day sales event to four days for the first time this year because “members have told us they just need more time to shop the deals.” Amazon originally launched Prime Day as a on-day event in 2015, before turning it into a two-day event in 2017, which it's run as since. The sales event is scheduled for July 8th thru 11th.

I say — why stop at 4 days? Why not a month? Temu made their Prime Day year round…

Amazon is also heavily pushing its new AI shopping tools during the event such as Rufus, which delivers personalized deal recommendations, Interests, which create custom prompts for customers based on their previous purchases, and Shopping Guides, which make it easy to research product categories.

As for other major sales events this summer:

TikTok Shop will run its “Deals for You Days” from July 7th–19th, overlapping with Amazon's 4-Day Prime Day on both ends. The event offers up to 50% off across various categories and includes a new live price match guarantee, promising cash back if shoppers find lower prices elsewhere on featured livestream products.
Walmart Deals Summer Sales Event is running for six days this year both online and in-store from July 8th to 13th for all customers, and beginning July 7th for Walmart+ members. The event features savings across electronics, home, toys, back-to-school supplies, and fashion.
Target Circle Week is set for July 6th through 12th this year with early access to deals for Target Circle 360 members starting July 5th. Target announced that it is maintaining its 2024 prices on key back-to-school items. That sucks Target! Things were way too expensive in 2024. LOL.
Best Buy's Black Friday in July will run from July 7th to 13th, offering deals on TVs, laptops, headphones, video games, and electric bikes. The company is also offering “Doorbusters” for the first time during the event, building off the popularity of the promotion from its Black Friday sale last fall.

Happy shopping!

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Salesforce is raising prices for several of its products by an average of 6% on August 1st, justifying the price “update” by the platform's increased AI capabilities that few want and less use. (Why is every “increase” in price called an “update”?) Salesforce also made generally available new SKUs of Agentforce, its platform for building and rolling out AI agents, which are replacing similar named Einstein products, it's old and now disfavored branding for all of the company's AI tech.

Meta introduced new generative AI tools at Cannes Lions aimed at advertisers and agencies, enhancing branding, video production, and customer engagement. Highlights include new Advantage+ features that let advertisers integrate logos, colors, fonts for brand consistency, upgraded video generation from static images, and AI-powered business assistants integrated into ad formats like Instagram Stories and Reels. Meta also unveiled tests for creative sticker CTAs that integrate company slogans and virtual try-on features using generative AI, pushing deeper into personalization and creative automation.

Amazon is exploring ways to collaborate with third-party AI shopping agents while simultaneously developing its own tools to reduce reliance on those same services. As external agents like OpenAI’s Operator gain traction, Amazon is considering building a system that allows such agents to speak with its platform, providing real-time data like inventory and shipping details — similar to what OpenAI has done with eBay and Instacart. At the same time, Amazon is tightening legal policies around agent access and pushing its own AI tools like Rufus and Buy for Me to keep users on-site and protect its $56B advertising business. My guess is that Amazon will forge deals with third-party AI platforms that allow access to their platform, but limit availability to all features in order to give its own AI tools a competitive edge.

President Trump officially issued his third executive order delaying enforcement of the law that bans TikTok in the U.S. unless ByteDance sells a controlling stake of the app to American-owned companies. Trump told reporters that China was holding up the sale and that ultimately it required President Xi's approval. Ars Technica reporter Ashley Belanger says the extension suggests that “China may have an upper hand in TikTok negotiations, and perhaps TikTok is losing its sheen as a US bargaining chip in Trump's bigger trade war.” TikTok has now had over a year to divest.

TikTok refuted Rep. Brad Sherman's claim that its owners were buying $300M in TRUMP memecoins to bribe President Trump into extending its deadline to divest or face a ban in the U.S. The allegations potentially stem from a press release by GD Culture Group, a Nasdaq-listed AI company that has nothing to do with TikTok or its parent company ByteDance (that we know of), which announced that it would commit $300M of its corporate funds into investing in both TRUMP memecoins and Bitcoin. TikTok called the allegation “patently false and irresponsible.”

Amazon is implementing a new standalone policy on June 30, 2025, strengthening its existing ban on selling stolen goods in response to new government regulations. While the policy doesn’t change Amazon’s enforcement approach, it formalizes sellers’ obligations to verify the legitimacy of their supply chains, sparking renewed debate over the legality of retail and online arbitrage on Amazon, as well as calls for the platform to crack down on fraudulent buyer behavior and listing hijackers.

The Chinese government is seeking to centralize the process of identity checks with a new virtual ID that will allow users to sign in across various social media apps and websites — kind of like a state-run “Sign in with Google.” The rules for the new system were released in late May and will be implemented in July. Critics of the new system argue that a centralized system like this will make it much easier for the government to wipe out a user's presence across multiple platforms at once. The Chinese government defends the virtual ID as a “bullet-proof vest for personal information,” claiming that the system can greatly reduce the risk of personal data leaks. For now the virtual ID is strictly voluntary, but the government is strongly encouraging various industries and sectors to integrate with it.

eBay is testing a feature that gives buyers 30 minutes after payment to cancel or update their orders, including address or payment details. While potentially helpful for buyers, sellers are raising concerns about delays in order notifications that could lead to overselling, especially for one-of-a-kind or cross-listed items. eBay has not confirmed full rollout details, and sellers are calling for added protections if the change becomes permanent.

Two nonprofit tech watchdogs have released The OpenAI Files, a 50+ page interactive report highlighting concerns about OpenAI’s governance, leadership, and potential conflicts of interest. Led by Tyler Johnston of the Midas Project and in collaboration with the Tech Oversight Project, the report compiles legal filings, disclosures, and media reports to map OpenAI’s corporate evolution and financial entanglements. It also outlines CEO Sam Altman’s extensive investment ties to companies doing business with OpenAI. The report is available at OpenAIFiles.org.

TikTok Shop is looking to enter Japan as soon as this month, a market which has been dominated by Amazon Japan and Rakuten up until now. The app currently has over 33M monthly users in the country, with an average screen time of 96 minutes per day, according to the Japan External Trade Organization. In preparation of TikTok Shop's launch, many agencies are launching services that specialize in assisting merchants on the platform. I can only imagine the taglines: “Experts in TikTok Shop optimization since June 2025.”

Speaking of TikTok… the company is rolling out new generative AI tools under its Symphony suite, including Image to Video and Text to Video, to help brands rapidly produce short-form content, and Showcase Products, which introduces digital avatars that can hold goods, model clothing, and show off an app on a phone screen. Several of the tools will be directly accessible within Adobe Express and WPP Open.

Temu entered into a cloud-hosting deal with Oracle to localize its U.S. user data as it faces lawsuits and political scrutiny over potential ties to China’s government — a similar playbook that the U.S. is using against TikTok. Can Temu get an extension too, Trump? Critics argue that data storage agreements like this do little to dispel fears of Chinese government access. Hours before Temu confirmed the Oracle agreement, Nebraska filed a lawsuit accusing the company of using malware to siphon off users’ personal data, which Attorney General Mike Hilgers claims might end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

Sam's Club started delivering its Member's Mark 16-inch pizzas, salads, bakery items and other products after an overwhelming amount of requests from users. The pepperoni pizza costs $8.98, which is substantially less than the cost of most pizzas that size from franchise or local pizzerias. The company is offering pizza delivery as a means to introduce customers to its broader delivery services. CFO Todd Sears explained that oftentimes pizza is the first time customers have ever ordered a delivery through Sam's Club.

Facebook announced that all videos on its platform will soon be shared as reels no matter their length or orientation as a means to streamline its video offering. Up until now, users have been able to share both video posts and reels, but now the company is renaming its “Video” tab to the “Reels” tab, and users won't have to choose between the two formats. Instagram took a similar move with new video posts under 15 minutes back in 2022.

Last week I reported that Meta is forming an AI Superintelligence Team with Mark Zuckerberg personally overseeing recruitment, offering compensation packages and signing bonuses reaching tens of millions of dollars. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on an interview podcast that “none of our best people” had taken Meta's offers, but Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth later revealed that OpenAI had been countering their crazy offers. Bosworth also told CNBC that the market rate he's seeing for AI talent has been “unprecedented.” It was also reported by CNBC that Meta recently tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, the AI startup launched by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, but when Sutskever refused the offer, Mark Zuckerberg moved to recruit the company's CEO and co-founder Daniel Gross instead, now planning to hire Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to beef up the company's AI team.

Last week Value Added Resource reported that Etsy was cracking down on 3D and laser printed items via updates to its creativity standards. This week they surfaced even more unannounced changes including a major overhaul of Etsy's Services policies, which now allow certain tailoring, repair, and modification offerings that previously had been prohibited. Several new digital services have also been added to the list of allowed services such as logo/brand design, music/audio production, video editing, and illustration work sold as digital files. Is Etsy becoming Fiverr? Didn't they already fail at trying to become Amazon? My only guess is that Etsy is looking to open the door for these digital services to be product add-ons as opposed to standalone services, but they didn't specify. For example, I've ordered custom onesies off of Etsy for my friends' babies and submitted the design myself, however, I could see a “Custom Design” option as an upsell being a new thing — which encompasses the graphic design and illustration addition to the digital services.

Good news for French perverts… Pornhub is accessible in France again, following a suspension of the country's controversial age verification law which went into effect earlier this month, requiring that porn sites install a third-party technical system to verify users' ages. On June 16th, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the law until it's deemed legal under EU law, which says that a country can't regulate a company based in another EU state unless a specific notification process is followed. So while France might have forgotten to dot a few i's and cross some t's in the paperwork, it's expected that the law will soon go into effect, and Pornhub will have to choose to abide by it or end service in the country again.

Is France and the rest of the EU becoming too strict with their digital laws? That's what Germany’s e-commerce association Bevh said when urging the EU to reassess its Digital services Act, which it claims unfairly targets large online marketplaces with stricter rules meant for social media platforms. Bevh argues that platforms like Amazon and Zalando face excessive regulation compared to physical retailers, despite already being governed by extensive consumer protection and product safety laws. The group voiced its concerns before the European Court of Justice, warning that current VLOP requirements could stifle innovation and disadvantage ecommerce across Europe.

Amazon UK is under investigation by the UK's grocery industry watchdog over allegations that the company is failing to pay its suppliers on time. The Groceries Code Adjudicator, which is responsible for regulating the relationships between the UK's 14 largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers, said it had “reasonable grounds” to suspect that Amazon had breached a part of the groceries supply code of practice, which mandates that there should not be delays in payments made to suppliers. GCA is calling on suppliers to send in evidence by August 8th.

The BBC is threatening legal action against Perplexity AI to protect its content from being scraped without permission after gathering evidence that Perplexity's model was trained using its content. The publication sent a letter to CEO Aravind Srinivas threatening an injunction against the company unless it stops scraping all BBC content and deletes any copies of material it holds unless it provides “a proposal for financial compensation.” Perplexity told the FT that the BBC’s claims were “manipulative and opportunistic” and that it had a “fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet and intellectual property law”.

Intel is planning to outsource a substantial portion of its marketing work to Accenture, a global consulting firm, with AI to play a central role in the transition. The move is expected to result in significant layoffs within its marketing division, with most affected employees expected to learn if they still have a job by July 11th. Intel is also reportedly preparing to lay off up to 20% of its Intel Foundry workforce in July, affecting more than 10,000 employees and marking one of its largest job cuts in history. Intel's workforce has steadily declined from nearly 125,000 employees in 2023 to less than 109,000 by the end of 2024, and counting.

eBay's VP of Design, Aaron Carámbula, is leaving the company after 2.5 years to rejoin Meta, where he previously served various roles for more than a decade prior to working at eBay. Carámbula says he looks forward to “supporting the next evolution of Facebook.” eBay has not yet announced a replacement.

Kroger announced plans to close approximately 60 underperforming stores over the next 18 months as part of its effort to streamline operations and improve efficiency. At the same time, the company is ramping up its e-commerce efforts, creating a dedicated digital business unit and reporting 15% growth in online sales for Q1 2025. Leadership emphasized on a recent earnings call that the closures will not impact full-year guidance, as savings will be reinvested into enhancing customer experience and accelerating digital growth, likely fueled by its need to compete with Amazon's grocery efforts.

X is suing to block New York’s Stop Hiding Hate Act, which entered into effect last week, claiming it violates the First Amendment and is a “carbon-copy” of a similar California law already struck down in court. The law requires social media platforms to disclose how they moderate hate speech, which X argues is a veiled attempt at censorship and just another attempt by the government to “eliminate” certain speech it didn’t like. New York lawmakers behind the bill say platforms like X have become “cesspools of hate” and accuse Musk of using free speech as a shield against accountability.

Santa Monica launched a citywide e-procurement platform powered by Glass’ G-Commerce software to consolidate departmental purchasing into a centralized system. Since initial testing began in May 2024, the platform has been adopted by over 10 departments and is expected to handle $3M annually in transactions, primarily through government-issued credit cards. City officials say the new system improves compliance, transparency, and efficiency, and offers real-time tracking, automated approvals, and vendor analytics across mobile and desktop devices.

A TikTok influencer with over 2.6M followers named Le Van Hai was arrested for his involvement in selling over 800,000 counterfeit food and cosmetics products on his TikTok channel over the past two years. Investigators found that items were not as they were advertised to be, such as a syrup touted as a remedy for stimulating children's appetites actually having less than 70% of vitamins that were advertised on the labels. His TikTok account has now been suspended and a police investigation is seeking to learn the full extent of the operation.

A crypto user lost $6.5M after purchasing a tampered cold wallet via Douyin, China’s TikTok equivalent, which had its private key compromised before shipping. Blockchain firm SlowMist reported the wallet appeared factory sealed but was drained just hours after funds were transferred. The case mirrors past scams involving counterfeit wallets and highlights the risks of buying cold wallets from unofficial sources. So this is why the Winklevoss Twins store their private keys on paper?

LeBron James humorously teased retirement in a new “What's Next?” commercial for Amazon's upcoming Prime Day. James reportedly collaborated closely with Amazon ion creating the 60-second spot, from brainstorming comedic bits to picking Phil Collins' song “In the Air Tonight” as the music. The growing relationship between James and Amazon is leading to speculation that he could eventually join Prime Video's upcoming coverage of the NBA.

🏆 This week's most ridiculous story… A 26-year-old crypto TikTok influencer was kidnapped on his way home last week and beaten by his captors who demanded €50k in cryptocurrency. However it turns out, he barely had any crypto! The kidnappers must've felt sorry for him and his low account balance because they let him go without payment. Turns out anyone can be a crypto influencer — no cryptocurrency required.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Wix acquired Base44, a six-month-old AI platform that lets users build functional software using natural language in a chat-based interface, for $80M in cash. The company was comprised of Israeli founder Maor Shlomo and only eight employees, who will collectively receive $25M of the $80M as a retention bonus. In just six months, Base44 grew to 250,000 users, and the company was generating close to $200k per month in profit. Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami called the acquisition a milestone in the company’s mission to expand AI-driven creation tools.

Apple is considering acquiring Perplexity AI, according to Bloomberg sources, to get more AI talent and to be able to offer an AI-based search engine in the future. Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions has reportedly already talked about the idea with top decision-makers in the company, but Apple has yet to talk to Perplexity about a bid even though the two companies have met several times over the past few months. It could be a good move for both companies, given that Perplexity AI, like all AI companies, will inevitably need major funding to continue its operations, and Apple is currently being sued by a group of its shareholders for overstating its AI progress.

Polar, a monetization platform built to empower one-person unicorn startups, raised $10M in a round led by Accel, with participation from Shopify's CEO Tobias Lütke and President Harley Finkelstein. Polar hopes to stand out from other payment infrastructure platforms by focusing on the needs of developers, acting as their “Merchant of Record” responsible for handling billing and taxes so that they can sell digital products and subscriptions globally from day one. Since launching in Sep 2024, the startup has grown to 18,000 customers, most of them being developers monetizing software.

Canva, an Australian web-based design platform, is in talks to arrange a sale of $400M to $500M in shares held by current and former employees that would value the company at $37B, just shy of its peak valuation of $40B four years ago. The sale comes as the 13-year-old startup continues to increase its revenue and generate cash, now on track to generate $700M in free cash flow this year. The sale resembles moves by other private companies like Stripe and SpaceX, which have also let employees and early investors cash out in lieu of doing an IPO.

Cluely, a startup that helps users cheat on job interviews, exams, and sales calls, raised $15M in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz at an estimated $120M valuation, just two months after it raised $5.3M in seed funding from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures. The startup was co-founded by two college students who were suspended from Columbia University for developing an undetectable AI-powered tool called “Interview Coder” to help engineers cheat on technical interviews. Earlier this week, Cluely threw a large after-party following Y Combinator's AI Startup School event, but the police shut it down after more than 2,000 people tried to enter the venue. Two college dropouts who promote cheating and party their asses off? I'm sure they will be excellent stewards of this freshly raised capital.

South Korea is investing 100 trillion won (around $735B) and appointing its first-ever senior presidential secretary for AI to establish a dedicated AI policy unit, aiming to pursue a “sovereign AI” initiative rooted in Korean culture. On the same day, SK Group unveiled plans to build South Korea's largest AI data center in partnership with AWS, who will both jointly invest several billion dollars into the project. Through these moves, the country is making a concerted push to secure its place among the world's top AI superpowers.

Microsoft is considering walking away from negotiations with OpenAI over its corporate restructuring, which would convert the company from a non-profit into a for-profit entity. The two companies remain in daily talks but have clashed over Microsoft's future equity stake and access to OpenAI's technology, with Microsoft signaling it is content to rely on its current contract through 2030. Without a deal, OpenAI risks losing billions in investor funding, including $10B from SoftBank, as it faces legal, regulatory, and infrastructure challenges tied to its growth.

Razorpay, an Indian fintech that provides payment processing, banking, and payroll solutions, invested $30M and acquired a majority stake in POP, an Indian consumer payments platform. The deal further Razorpay's entry into loyalty, engagement, and commerce enablement and complements its earlier acquisition of PoshVine, a loyalty and rewards management platform. POP will use the funds to strengthen product innovation and accelerate merchant partnerships across D2C and lifestyle categories.

Amazon is investing $233M in its India business to further build out its operations infrastructure, develop new tools for its delivery network, and improve worker safety and well-being programs. The investment helps Amazon double down on its efforts to delivery to all pin-codes in the country, enhances its processing capacity, improves fulfillment speed, and increases efficiency across its operations.

Supermetrics, a marketing intelligence platform that helps businesses collect, analyze, and report data from various marketing channels in one place, acquired Relay42, a real-time customer data platform that enables businesses to unify, activate, and personalize customer journeys across multiple channels, for an undisclosed amount. The combined entity will create an end-to-end marketing intelligence platform that connects data performance, customer behavior, and revenue outcomes in a single system.

Blue Yonder, a supply chain management platform that uses AI to optimize demand forecasting, inventory, and logistics operations, acquired Inmar Post-Purchase Solutions, a platform that helps retailers manage returns, logistics, and customer communication after a sale, for an undisclosed amount via its subsidiary Doddle, which Blue Yonder acquired in October 2023. As part of the deal, IPPS has become Blue Yonder Reverse Retail Operations. LOL, they couldn't have used the opportunity to shorten the name?

Alpine IQ, a customer data and marketing platform designed for cannabis retailers, acquired Terpli, an AI-powered budtender platform that helps cannabis retailers personalize product recommendations, for an undisclosed amount. The move expands Alpine IQ's platform capabilities by integrating Terpli's recommendation engine into its existing loyalty, e-commerce, and mobile app ecosystem.