#209 – TikTok Returns, Trump Meme Coins, & Walmart’s New Look

by | Jan 20, 2025 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

Happy Inauguration Day! Depending on your political affiliation — either “congratulations” or “my condolences.”

Wherever you stand, one thing is for sure, we're in for a wild ride these next four years, for better or worse. 

This week, I have a couple things to share before we get started: 

1) Think you know a lot about Shopify? Let's find out! I published 15 Facts You Never Knew About Shopify's CEO Tobias Lütke on my blog and LinkedIn, courtesy of the newly released book, The Shopify Story, by Larry MacDonald. 

Larry is a freelance journalist for leading financial publications in Canada who has been reporting on Shopify since the early days. His book follows Shopify's rise from a small startup to one of Canada’s top companies. As a longtime Shopifreaks reader, Larry was kind enough to send me an early release copy of The Shopify Story a few months ago, which is available now on Kindle and paperback.

This is a non-paid endorsement. I just think it's a great book and learned a lot reading it, so Larry and I put together that blog post about Tobias Lütke to give you a sneak peek into The Shopify Story.

2) Did you see what went down with Stenn? News broke a few weeks ago that Stenn, the invoice and revenue-based financing fintech that was once a UK darling voted one of NBC's Top 250 Global Fintech Companies, went from being valued at $900M to insolvency in days.

HSBC, which funded Stenn's loans, began probing potentially suspicious transactions at the company earlier this year after US authorities unsealed criminal indictments in a money laundering case that included passing references to Stenn and its Russian founder and CEO Greg Karpovsky. HSBC ended up discovering transactions that were supposed to be with key counterparties, but were potentially bogus, and within days, the bank forced Stenn into insolvency. 

In a statement to the Financial Times, Karpovsky denied any wrongdoing and said he was cooperating with the administration.

Stenn's website currently says that the will not be seeking to fulfill additional lending requests for the time being, but that merchants should continue to fulfill their payment obligations as normal.

Stenn had been one of my News Partner since September, and while I do my best to perform due diligence on all my partners prior to working together, I clearly didn't see this coming! On paper, Stenn had all the accolades and was widely recognized as a reputable and credible fintech. The company's employees did not see this coming either, only discovering themselves one morning in December when a group of top managers were summoned to an impromptu meeting with Karpovsky and COO Andrey Gurdzhibek. 

I'd like to apologize to any Shopifreaks readers who got involved with Stenn as a lender and subsequently may have experienced interruptions to their financing as a result of its sudden shutdown. Needless to say, my partnership with Stenn has come to an end.

I reached out to my former contacts at Stenn for more information on the events that transpired, but their company e-mail addresses have been deactivated. Since my primary contact has scrubbed his LinkedIn profile of any reference of having worked for Stenn, I decided it was best to let him disassociate from the company in peace and pursue new endeavors, without bringing more attention to his previous involvement with the firm.

Okay, that was a lot to digest and we haven't even started this week's edition yet! So without further ado…

In this week's edition I cover:

  • The hidden cost of return-to-office
  • TikTok's back! But for good?
  • Donald Trump's meme coin
  • Walmart brings digital garments to Zepeto
  • Elon Musk is bringing back Vine
  • Walmart's fresh new look
  • commercetools goes omnichannel
  • Klaviyo's price hike
  • Amazon suspends drone delivery operations
  • Andy Jassy's new shadow
  • Google accused of sending data to China
  • Apple apparently doesn't know its profit margins
  • Amazon acquires Axio
  • eBay wants a piece of the auto sales business

All this and more in this week's 209th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

Stat of the Week

The average return to office worker spends an additional $561 per month on transportation, child care, pet care, and domestic assistance. That is comparable to the average two-person household's grocery bill in the US for the entire month. Workers who have been forced to return to office are also found to have higher burnout, stress, and turnover intentions, as well as lower trust in their organization, engagement, and productivity levels. 


1. TikTok is officially banned back in action!

On Saturday night, the US TikTok users (along with US citizens living outside the country like myself) woke up to a message from TikTok informing them that the app was no long available.

The message read: 

“Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

Other Bytedance apps including CapCut, Lemon8, Gauth, and Marvel Snap displayed similar messages and also became unavailable to many US users Saturday evening.

By Sunday afternoon, US TikTok users had regained access to the app and a new message greeted them: 

“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.”

So much has gone down (and is still going down) with TikTok over the past few days that it's been hard to keep up!

Here's a brief look at recent TikTok-related happenings: 

  • Everything kicked off on Friday when the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law mandating that TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divest its US operations by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the United States.
  • US lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill to ban TikTok began facing fierce backlash online, with users flooding their TikTok posts with angry comments, rightfully accusing them of hypocrisy.
  • By Saturday, all of ByteDance's owned apps had been shut down in the US. 
  • Web searches for “VPN” spiked in the minutes after US users lost access to TikTok, according to Google Trends.
  • TikTok users flocked to the Chinese social app RedNote in defiance of the TikTok ban, an exodus that was apparently fueled by RedNote teaming up with US influencers to promote the app.
  • Apple published a statement and a support document listing all affected apps that are inaccessible in its US App Store.
  • Michael Longfellow joined SNL “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che to offer a final plea to save TikTok after the app officially went dark. In response to there being data privacy concerns with the app, Longfellow said, “Who cares about my data? Oh no, China knows I like thick Latinas. Who doesn’t? Give me a break.”
  • YouTube, Meta, Snapchat, and other digital platforms began racing to claim TikTok's ad dollars with incentives and discounts.
  • Instagram announced a video editing app called Edits that is meant to rival CapCut, which went offline along with TikTok on Saturday. Edits is available for preorder on the iOS App Store.
  • Mark Cuban said he’d be open to financing an alternative video-sharing platform that is built off the protocol developed by microblogging site Bluesky.
  • Everyone and their brother began clamoring to make a bid for TikTok (even though it's never been for sale) including Perplexity AI, Frank McCourt (who hasn't shut up about it for months), Activision Blizzard's former CEO Bobby Kotick, and even MrBeast.
  • Rumors circulated that Chinese officials were plotting a secret plan to sell TikTok to Elon Musk — however TikTok quickly denied the report, calling it “pure fiction.”
  • It was revealed that Meta spent a record high $7.6M on lobbying the federal government in the first quarter of the year to advance the legislation that would later ban TikTok.
  • Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok's threat to “go dark” ahead of the inauguration a “stunt” and said there was no reason for TikTok to shut itself down before President Trump was sworn in.
  • Trump said on Saturday during an interview with NBC News's moderator Kristen Welker that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to avoid a ban, but had not made a final decision.
  • By Sunday, TikTok began restoring its services after Trump said he would revive the app's access in the US when he returns to power on Monday. Trump said he would “extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
  • The President-elect also said that his executive order would protect from liability any companies that helped keep TikTok accessible before the order is issued.
  • However there's apparently a catch: Trump wants TikTok to operate under 50% US ownership in a joint venture.
  • TikTok advertisers started seeing their US campaigns resume on Sunday after traffic had plummeted to zero on Saturday.

Now what? For the moment, we celebrate! 🎉

TikTok remaining available in the US is a major win for creators and small businesses around the country, and I celebrate their victory alongside them. TikTok is hands down the best social media and entertainment platform by a landslide, and opened a new era of organic virality for small business owners and creators, after Meta and Google made social media pay-to-play.

All I can really say now isfollow me on TikTok! I mostly post videos of my adorable baby girl, Mia, along with some videos about living in Ecuador, but who knows — maybe now that TikTok is here to stay, I'll start posting more often. See you there!

How do you feel about TikTok getting a pass from President Trump? And how confident are you that TikTok is actually here to stay? Hit reply and share your thoughts. 

2. Donald and Melania Trump launch meme coins

Ahead of today's presidential inauguration, incoming first couple Donald and Melania Trump launched a pair of meme coins that are already worth billions of dollars in market cap. Both coins are trading on the Solana blockchain.

On Friday, Donald Trump launched $TRUMP coin, which skyrocketed over the weekend and was trading at more than $75 by Sunday afternoon. The coin now trades around $48 at the time of writing this, representing a market cap of over $10B. There are 200M $TRUMP currently available, which will grow to a total of 1B $TRUMP over three years.

The coin's website says the meme coin is not politically affiliated, however, 80% of its supply is held by Trump Organization-affiliate CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which are both subject to a three-year unlocking schedule – so they cannot sell all of their holdings at once.

Two days later, Melania Trump launched her coin $MELANIA, which spiked to around $12 a day later, and currently trades for around $7.50 each, representing a market cap of $7.6B. Melania's coin launch announcement initially sent $TRUMP coin nosediving to $40, but it has since slightly recovered.

$TRUMP is the first cryptocurrency endorsed by the incoming president (or any President for that matter), who once trashed Bitcoin as “based on thin air.” However Trump has since changed his tune on crypto and promised during the election to make America the “crypto capital of the planet.”

$TRUMP coin was announced on Friday, the final business day before the resignation of Gary Gensler, the outgoing chairman of the SEC who strongly opposes the crypto industry.

Anthony Scaramucci, a former Trump official turned critic, said in a post on X:

“Most dangerous thing for country about Trump coin is what comes next. Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks. Every favor – geopolitical, corporate or personal – is now on sale, right out in the open.”

Coinbase and Binance announced that they plan to open trading for $TRUMP coin in the near future, and the coin is already available on exchanges including Robinhood, Bitget, KuCoin, and Kraken. Several crypto developers criticized these exchanges for introducing $TRUMP coin so quickly to their platforms, while other reputable coin projects with actual utility have been waiting years for approval. 

Redditors were quick to point out that the $TRUMP trading chart vaguely looks like a profile of Donald Trump himself. 

🔥 Partner News

Omnisend released its Year in E-mail 2024 review. After sifting through over 23M e-mails, the report brings serious stats like clicks, open rates, and subject line lengths, as well as some “outside-the-box” stats like top emojis used, % of e-mails mentioning Taylor Swift, movies, and fictional characters, and how many e-mails depicted images of dogs vs cats. Plus a list of cliche phrases like “Feeling lucky” and “Hot deals” that need to be retired in 2025. Check out the full report here.

3. Walmart lets your digital avatar match your real-life outfits

Walmart launched Zepeto's first-ever e-commerce experience for physical goods. Zepeto, if you're unfamiliar, is a digital avatar creation platform that allows users to create and share virtual experiences using digital representations of themselves.

Now Zepeto's 20M monthly active users can view virtual Walmart clothing items and use the app to log into their Walmart accounts and order physical versions of the same items. The two companies will share revenue from the product sales, but the actual distribution is unknown.

Conversely, purchases of select physical garments in brick-and-mortar Walmart stores will also come with free downloads of their virtual equivalents on Zepeto.

Since Oct 2024, Zepeto users have been able to make their own avatars try on and purchase virtual recreations of garments from Walmart's No Boundaries brand, but up until now, they haven't been able to purchase corresponding physical garments through the platform.

Prior to that, Walmart first partnered with Zepeto in August 2023 with its private label clothing brand Scoop, taking over the “Runway Z” fashion space within Zepeto's virtual world.

Other retailers including Ralph Lauren and Roots have also engaged in digital commerce via Zepeto.

This isn't Walmart's first entry into the metaverse:

  • In April 2024, Walmart partnered with Roblox to open the platform's first e-commerce experience for physical goods.
  • In May 2024, Walmart opened its own virtual world platform called Walmart Realm that features e-commerce experiences.

4. Elon Musk may be bringing back Vine, the beloved 6-second video app

Elon Musk confirmed that his team is looking into bringing back Vine, the six-second video app that Twitter acquired in 2012 before it officially launched, and then subsequently shutdown in 2017 because Twitter historically has quit everything too early.

Musk originally floated the idea of bringing back Vine last April in an X poll that received over 2M votes, with almost 70% of users saying “YES” to the idea, but not much has been said about it since.

In the meantime, X shared yesterday that “an immersive new home for videos is rolling out to users in the US” with the launch of a dedicated video tab in the mobile app. The company shared a screen capture video of what that will look like. 

Previously, X users had to click on a video and then scroll up or down to see more content. The new video tab exists in the app's bottom bar represented by a play button icon, which cuts out having to choose a starting video.

Guess who also launched a dedicated video tab?

Bluesky! The company said on Sunday that it is launching a custom feed for vertical videos in its app alongside a trending videos section in the Explore tab.

Bluesky also acknowledged developers building TikTok alternatives on AT Protocol, the decentralized protocol that powers Bluesky, such as Tik.Blue, Skylight.Social, and Bluescreen.Blue, which are in early stages of development.

5. Walmart reveals a fresh new look

Walmart revealed its plans for an updated look to its brand that will roll out on its website and mobile app later this month. It's 4,600 US stores will get refreshed over time.

The company noted key features of the brand’s refresh:

  • The wordmark is inspired by Sam Walton’s classic trucker hat and brought to life with a modern, custom font that differentiates Walmart from the crowd.
  • The spark exudes the energy of Walmart and remains a beacon that guides customers through all facets of the Walmart experience.
  • The color palette — True Blue and Spark Yellow — leans on the retailer’s most recognizable tones and its heritage of blue, while ushering in new updates to keep the brand fresh.
  • The tone is relatable, approachable and representative of the millions of customers that shop with Walmart, whether conveyed through its brand voice, illustrations or photography. 

Daniel Sodkiewicz of GeekSeller shared a side-by-side look at the old versus new branding if you'd like to see the differences in action.

I think it looks great! Subtle but noticeable differences to their icon and logotype. Undoubtedly, they spent a small fortune on branding consultants to come up with the change — but hey, we're talking about it, so it must be working.

Danny Baker commented:

“As the former head of visual design at wm dotcom, this is a great refresh. This definitely feels more contemporary and approachable, not trying too hard, either. The font is so much better than Bogle/Brandon Grotesque for this brand. The blue is a happier color, too. Overall, this should go at least another 20 years.”

What do you think of Walmart's new branding? Hit reply and let me know. 

6. commercetools releases InStore app for omnichannel selling

commercetools announced Instore, a new application that brings its composable commerce capabilities into physical stores. With the addition, the platform now lets enterprise retailers power their online and offline shopping experiences with a single platform.

Key benefits of commercetools InStore include:

  • A unified backend to manage pricing, promotions, products, carts, and orders across all channels. 
  • The ability to replace multiple systems with one solution to reduce operational expenses. 
  • Cross-channel customer journeys to improve loyalty and revenue. 
  • Handles physical devices like cash drawers, safes, printers, payment devices, and scanners.
  • Processes refunds without receipts purchased in any channel.
  • In-store features like mobile checkout, personalized recommendations, and real-time inventory tracking.
  • Improved in-store customer service, as associates are equipped with tools to help customers based on their profile and purchase history.

Sounds great, but I questioned one statement on InStore's landing page

“commercetools is the first and only commerce platform to seamlessly unify digital and physical store operations. Our powerful industry-leading solution enables you to consolidate all your product information, customer data and sales transactions onto a single backend, managing updates in real-time and providing accessibility across all customer-facing channels.”

First and only? Don't Shopify and other e-commerce platforms already offer integrated online stores & POS systems?

I was confused until Kelly Goetsch, COO of Pipe17, explained on LinkedIn: 

“It’s fundamentally different from all the other POS offerings, in that it allows retailers to use existing legacy POS (think NCR, Toshiba, etc.) and have those systems call back to commercetools APIs from the store. One channel, no re-training cashiers, no finicky iPads. Nobody has done this yet! Now commercetools truly has the only real omnichannel commerce product on the market.”

In other words, commercetools isn't locking merchants into their proprietary POS system with InStore. Very cool! Thanks for the simple explanation, Kelly. 

In other commercetools news this week… The company appointed Shiri Mosenzon Erez as chief product officer and Eric Speciel as chief customer officer. Shiri brings over 15 years of experience to the role, having previously served as chief product officer as Ocado Technology, where she led advancements in ecommerce logistics and supply chain solutions. Eric has more than 15 years of experience leading global SaaS companies such as PTC Zuora and Rapid7.

7. Klaviyo just got more expensive for many small businesses

From Feb 18th, Klaviyo announced that it will be enforcing “profile compliance” on legacy accounts — which means it will be billing customers based on total active profiles in their Klaviyo account, not just contacts they e-mail.

Klaviyo will also be automatically bumping customers to a higher plan if they have more active profiles than the plan allows. They put a 25% cap on the price hike for now to give merchants time to clean their lists, but there's anticipation that they'll remove the cap at some point in the future. 

Previously, there was a loophole merchants could use to pay only for emailed contacts, but now Klaviyo is enforcing billing based on ALL active profiles in the account.

Lou Mintzer explained on LinkedIn: 

This isn't a price increase.

Klaviyo has always had profile limits—they just were not enforced, literally. Confusing? Yes. But this change brings clarity.

The maximum cost increase is 25%. If you’re on top of your data hygiene, you won’t see any price increase.

The new “Flexible Sending” feature now makes it WAY EASIER to handle seasonal spikes without constantly upgrading or downgrading plans.

There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation circulating the web about the “price hike” — and I blame Klaviyo for this. I personally did not receive an e-mail about the price changes (despite being an Admin on multiple Klaviyo accounts) and the company didn't share the e-mail or information about the price hike on its blog, community forum, or LinkedIn page

It annoys me beyond belief when companies publicly share every detail in the world about new features, but bury information related to price increases or pricing policy changes in e-mails that get sent out once (and apparently not to everyone). The information should not be this difficult to find!

So forgive me if any of the information above about the price change is incorrect (I'll let you know in a future edition if I'm made aware), but that's the best I could compile after perusing dozens of posts and articles across various networks. 

8. Amazon Prime Air setbacks and experiments

Amazon suspended drone deliveries in Texas and Arizona following a crash of two of its models in rainy weather at a testing facility in Pendleton, Oregon.

In a previously unreported December incident, two MK30 drones crashed during flights at an airport Amazon uses for testing, with one catching fire on the ground. Amazon later discovered that a software issue was to blame, related to the light rain happening during testing. The MK30 drones were cleared to make deliveries by the FAA last October and have since been delivering packages to customers’ homes in College Station, Texas, and Tolleson, Arizona.

The pause in deliveries is the latest setback for Amazon's drone delivery service that launched more than 11 years ago by Jeff Bezos with aims of delivering products to customers in less than half an hour. An Amazon spokesperson said that the company is currently in the process of making software changes to the drones and noted that the purpose of its tests is to “push our aircraft past their limits” with the expectation that incidents like these occur. 

In other Amazon Prime Air news… right before the new year, the division filed an application with the FCC to gain two-year access to a radar frequency band not currently used by drone operators.

The application read: 

“Prime Air is interested in testing the performance of radars operating the 9.3-9.5 GHz band to monitor the air traffic around Amazon facilities and drone operating areas. The proposed tests will support Prime Air to develop standards and technology for an air traffic control system around company perimeters and drone operating areas to ensure safe flying environments.”

The frequency is currently used by the US Coast Guard, NASA, and other federal agencies for use cases like identifying distressed vessels, weather-tracking radar systems, and avian detection. Amazon says its use of the frequency pertains to its R&D efforts in building drone air-traffic control systems controlled from the ground. 

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has a new shadow advisor, Alex Dunlap, who will join him on every call and meeting for the next 18-24 months. Shadow advisors are a position at the company that allow a person to learn the ins and outs of the company by providing support to someone in an executive role. Former shadows include Jeffer Helbling (current VP of Amazon Shipping Business), Amit Agarwal (SVP of emerging markets), Eric Rimling (held the position before Dunlap, and previous VP for Global Specialty Fulfillment). Jassy himself was once a shadow advisor to Jeff Bezos.


Brands are seeing an influx in traffic from ChatGPT and Google Gemini, according to Spins' 2025 Industry Trends and Predictions Report. The period care brand Viv saw its monthly traffic spike by 400%, driven primarily by AI chatbots' search recommendations for non-toxic period care, following a study that went viral which found that popular tampon brands contain heavy metals like lead and arsenic. Stories like this are becoming more common for retail brands as AI tools change the way people search for products and solutions.


Google has been accused of sending data on American citizens to China, in a new complaint by privacy groups to the FTC. The complaint is the first to be brought under new US data-security laws and takes aim at Google's real-time bidding system for ads, which the group claims is where Google is sending large quantities of sensitive data about Americans to China and other foreign adversaries, and has known it's been doing so for over a decade. Google said the claim was “wrong” and based on “a flawed understanding” of how its digital advertising technology works. The company says it has the strictest restrictions in the industry on the types of data it shares in real-time bidding.


Apple's incoming CFO, Kevan Parekh, claimed that the company has no clue about its App Store profit margin, while in court last week defending the company against a class action lawsuit that alleges it abuses its monopolistic control over the sale of iPhone apps to charge excessive commissions. A billion dollar lawsuit was filed on behalf of developers in 2023, while a second lawsuit on behalf of consumers is being heard in a UK court. It's been independently estimated that Apple's profit margin on the App Store is around 75%, but Apple has always claimed it simply doesn't know the number because it doesn't break down its Service revenue into different categories.


Walmart added tens of thousands of pre-owned luxury handbags, jewelry, and watches to its marketplace, thanks to a new partnership with resale platform Rebag, which boasts a catalog of more than 27,000 luxury items including products from Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel, and Gucci. The partnership coincided with the launch of Luxe Resold, Walmart's new dedicated destination for reselling luxury brands. 


Klarna is exploring the sale of its US pay-in-four loan portfolio to raise capital for future growth, in preparation for its anticipated IPO, expected in the first half of the year. The company is floating the sale to multiple banks including Citigroup, RBC, Nordea, and Société Générale. Klarna recently executed a similar strategy in the UK, where it sold its BNPL portfolio to Elliot Management in order to free up capital for £30B in new loans.


In other Klarna news… the company expanded its partnership with Stripe to make its BNPL service available as a payment option for merchants in 26 countries. The two companies' initial collaboration began in 2021, opening the door for US merchants to offer Klarna's BNPL services through Stripe's platform. The expanded partnership also introduces the ability for Stripe's merchants to perform A/B tests on Klarna products in real-time.


BigCommerce intends to sublease around 65,000 square feet of office space from Expedia at The Domain building in Austin, TX. Both Expedia and BigCommerce are among the largest tech employers in Austin, though both companies had multiple rounds of layoffs during the past couple years. The sublease would begin on Oct 1st this year and terminate on Jan 31, 2031. BigCommerce's current headquarters is located northwest of the city, so the new sublease would provide it with a more central office. 


Over 85% of products from Chinese platforms fail to meet EU product regulations and are often ineffective, risky for consumers, or do not work properly. These include toys with loose parts, which are choking hazards for young children, electronics that catch fire due to overheating or malfunctions, or products that contain banned substances such as lead. Dutch market surveillance authorities and customs are calling for a joint approach in checking packages coming from Chinese platforms.


Two-thirds of BNPL users said they use the payment option as a way to manage cash flow, and more consumers use it strategically than out of necessity, according to PYMNTS Intelligence data. Around the same time that PYMNTS released its report, the CFPB released data which showed that 20% of consumers used BNPL loans, and 20% of those borrowers took on more than one BNPL loan per month. Young borrowers aged 18-24 are the most prolific users of BNPL, with installment loans comprising 28% of their unsecured debt, compared to an average of 17% across all age groups. 


Meanwhile in the UK… BNPL use among British consumers climbed 20% to around $27B in 2024, driven by PayPal, Klarna, and Affirm, which is new to the UK market, according to a report by GlobalData. The BNPL market in the UK has increased tenfold since 2019, driven by a cost-of-living crisis, higher interest rates from other forms of credit, and the disappearance of alternative payday loans.


Two co-founders of Ritual Technologies, a food takeout app that was once one of Canada's fast-growing tech companies, along with several members of the company's R&D team, are joining Shopify. Sources described the move as an “acqui-hire” by Shopify, which describes a scenario when a company's talent is acquired while the underlying business is closed down or sold off. The same sources said that a separate process is under way to sell Ritual, with at least two buyers undertaking due diligence, but no deal has concluded yet.


Amazon still has to sort out “several technical hurdles” before rolling out its long-awaited AI-powered Alexa, including solving the issue of hallucinations, which refer to non-factual information that many LLMs often produce. Amazon AI team lead Rohit Prasad told the FT that “Hallucinations have to be close to zero” — which is easier said than done. Some experts argue that the issue of hallucinations might be intrinsic to the tech itself and will always be part of the equation, a reality that tech companies are unlikely to admit. 


Speaking of AI… OpenAI removed language from its policy doc that endorsed “politically unbiased” AI. In the original draft of its “economic blueprint” for the AI industry in the US, the company said that AI models “should aim to be politically unbiased by default,” but its newest draft deletes that phrasing. An OpenAI spokesperson said that the edit was part of an effort to “streamline” the document. 


Meta is planning to layoff thousands of “low-performers” next month in its first massive job cut of 2025. The company plans to fire and replace roughly 5% of employees who have gone through its performance review process. Mark Zuckerberg said in a memo to employees, “This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams.”


Microsoft also announced in a company memo that it plans to pause hiring and make layoffs in part of its consulting business in the US, as part of its broader effort to reduce costs. The cuts will affect less than 1% of the company’s workforce, according to one person familiar with Microsoft’s plans. The memo also instructed employees to not expense travel for any internal meetings and encouraged them to use remote sessions instead.


Last but not least… Amazon is eliminating 200 roles across its retail team in North America from both physical store and e-commerce operations. The cuts are being made as part of the company's regular evaluation of its team structure “to ensure we're best set up to move fast as we innovate for customers.” Last year Amazon also started the year with several hundred layoffs.


Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov pledged to crackdown on illegal activity and provide better content moderation on the platform during an initial court hearing in December, the details which were revealed on Friday. Durov told the courts that Telegram deletes between 15M and 20M accounts each month that it suspects of involvement in criminal activity and that Telegram has actively cooperated with law enforcement and handed over the data of more than 10,000 of its users to the authorities in a number of countries over the past six months. Durov stressed that “Telegram was not created to be a platform for criminals.”


The Australian Securities & Investments Commission mandated that BNPL platforms must obtain credit licenses to engage in credit activities as credit providers. All BNPL platforms operating in the country must apply for a credit license before the deadline of June 10, 2025 and become members of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority or potentially face consequences for operating as unlicensed lenders. 


Amazon made the UK's biggest order of electric trucks, including more than 140 electric Mercedes-Benz heavy goods vehicles and eight Volvo lorries, which are set to hit the road over the next 18 months. The company's switch to electric logistics is partly funded by the UK government's zero emission HGV and infrastructure demonstrator program. Amazon plans to install fast-charging points across its UK network to keep the trucks in action.


Canon is facing heat from photographers for introducing a $5/month or $50/year subscription to unlock the company's EOS Webcam Utility Pro software, which provides full 60 fps video and other features that you'd typically expect from camera software. Photographer Roman Zipp outlined his frustration with purchasing a high-end Canon camera only to discover that “Canon will not allow you to use your own camera on your own computer with your own cables the way you intent to without paying for another subscription.”


The European Commission requested information from X relating to the algorithms that determine the content it recommends to users and how those algorithms may or may not be compliant with the Digital Services Act. The EC has requested X to provide “internal documentation” on its recommendation systems, along with any recent changes the company has made to them. It also issued a “retention order” that requires X to keep a record of any future changes through the end of 2025.


Workers at Teleperformance, a customer support company in Greece that serves Apple, Google, and Netflix are accusing the company of union busting, constant surveillance, and even refusing bathroom breaks in retaliation for workers pushing for a collective labor agreement. Workers say that wages have remain unchanged since 2010, despite high inflation in recent years and increases to the cost of living. Around half of the call center workers are from outside of Greece and are provided housing as part of their pay structure, but many say the company particularly exploits these workers who fear homelessness if they were to be let go. 


The FTC is suing John Deere over anti-consumer repair practices that have driven up prices for farmers and have made it difficult for them to get repairs during critical planting and harvesting seasons. The lawsuit alleges that John Deere has monopoly power over the repair market and that it has illegally restricted the ability of farmers and independent technicians to repair their equipment. The company is also facing a class-action lawsuit related to its repair practices from consumers in Illinois.


Pixelfed, an opensource photo and video sharing alternative to Instagram that has no ads or tracking, officially launched mobile apps for Android and iPhone, allowing users to upload media directly from their phones. Pixelfed is part of the Fediverse, which means people on Mastodon and other Fediverse networks can follow accounts on Pixelfed and vice-versa. Meta has been taking heat from users for labeling links to Pixelfed.social as “spam” and deleting them immediately. 


In the world of corporate turnover… Bumble's CEO Lidiane Jones is leaving the company for “personal reasons” only a year after taking the role. Jones is infamous for killing the app's signature feature of only allowing women to message first during her tenure, a change which subsequently caused the company's stock to fall by 54%. Founder and executive chair Whitney Wolfe Herd will return to the role, starting in mid-March.


OpenAI appointed Adebayo Ogunlesi, a senior managing director at BlackRock and CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners, to its board of directors. OpenAI’s board today includes chairman Bret Taylor, Sam Altman, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former NSA director Paul M. Nakasone, former Sony Corporation of America President Nicole Seligman, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, economist Larry Summers, and Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Zico Kolter. D’Angelo is the sole holdover from the previous board.


Walmart named Dave Guggina, its current executive VP of Supply Chain, as its new US chief e-commerce officer, replacing Tom Ward, who will take on the role of COO of Sam's Club. The move comes as Walmart is investing billions to expand its e-commerce business by providing more product choices online and automating its supply chain to improve delivery times.


Spotify elevated Simran Singh, who's served as Director of Sales since September 2023, to the role of Director of Sales for E-commerce & Retail. Before joining the music streaming platform, Singh was with Sony Pictures Networks India as their regional head of ad sales, and before that she worked with ByteDance, Times Internet, and Viacom18.


Teikametrics, an AI-powered marketplace optimization platform, appointed Sandie Hawkins as the company's president. Hawkins previously served as the Head of E-commerce at TikTok and brings over 20 years of experience in multi-channel marketing and e-commerce growth to the business.


Apple finally introduced its Apple Store app in India, which alongside buying products, handles product customizations, such as allowing customers to change the configuration of Macs, or add engravings to their AirPods and AirTags. The app also provides Indian consumers ways to learn about Apple products and services, retail programs, and financing options.


Meanwhile in China… Apple was dethroned as China's biggest smartphone seller in 2025 after experiencing its worst decline of iPhone sales in the country since 2016. Local rivals Vivo and Huawei overtook the iPhone maker after its annual shipments in the country declined 17%. Vivo captured a 17% market share in China, followed by Huawei with 16% and Apple with 15%.


Cash App agreed to pay $255M in multiple settlements around its consumer protections. Block, its parent company, agreed to pay $80M to 48 states that fined the app for violating laws intended to keep illicit activity off the platform. Separately, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reached a settlement with Block in which the company agreed to pay up to $120M to Cash App customers and another $55M to the CFPB over its weak security measures, which put consumers at risk and made it difficult to get help after experiencing fraud on the platform.


In other Block news… the company is now offering employees the option to choose rewards in the form of cash or stock. Block's Q1 performance rewards have historically been offered as four-year equity grants, but now employees can choose a mix of cash or equity. Block's CFO Amrita Ahuja said, “The comp program is about attracting and retaining great talent who are interested in making their own choices on how they're compensated.”


Amazon will stop offering prep services for sharp products through its FBA fulfillment service in April to help ensure the safety of its associates. Sellers will be required to handle the end-to-end packaging of all sharp products before sending them to Amazons fulfillment centers, starting in April, as well as package all sharp products in secure, cut- and puncture-resistant packaging such as hardened plastic or blister packs.


Squarespace unveiled its return to Super Bowl advertising with a tease of a 30-second ad that is expected to run between the first and second quarters of Super Bowl LIX on Fox. In the teaser video, a man on a donkey moves forward on a path, tossing laptops out of a satchel as he travels to the sounds of uilleann pipes. The spot will mark Squarespace's 11th time advertising during a Super Bowl. David Lee, the company’s chief creative officer, said, “Obviously it's a huge expense, and it's a costly thing to do every year, but, you know, some would argue it actually might be one of the cheaper things to do. You kind of put out one silver bullet and reach a massive audience in one shot.”

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Amazon agreed to acquire Axio, an Indian BNPL startup that it invested in six years ago, for an undisclosed amount rumored to be valued at over $150M. Axio specializes in providing loans to self-employed people at the point of sale in major e-commerce platforms including Amazon and MakeMyTrip, serving over 10M customers with a loan book worth more than $260M. 


eBay signed a definitive agreement to acquire Caramel, an online platform that simplifies private car sales by handling pricing, paperwork, financing, and title transfers for buyers and sellers, for an undisclosed amount. Caramel's platform supports transactions in all 50 US states either through an independent dealer or via its marketplace and auction partners. Last month I reported (story #2) that Amazon launched Amazon Autos, a platform that will initially offer Hyundai vehicles to US customers, marking its entry into the automotive market. Everyone wants a piece of the automobile market apparently. 


Rokt, an AI-powered marketing technology platform that enhances e-commerce transactions by offering personalized, targeted offers to customers at the moment of purchase, agreed to a secondary share offering worth $335M with investors including Tiger Global Management, in a deal that values the company at $3.5B. The company, which launched 12 years ago and was valued at $2.4B in 2022, achieved 43% YoY growth in the past year, reaching $600M, according to its CEO. Rokt currently serves 15 markets across North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region with customers that include Uber, Macy's, Live Nation, and AMC Theaters. 


In the same week, Rokt separately announced that it acquired mParticle, a customer data platform (CDP) that centralizes and integrates data from multiple sources to help businesses deliver personalized and consistent customer experiences, for $300M. More than 90% of Rokt and mParticle’s respective client bases are made up of enterprise retailers and brands that spend more than $5M per year on business software. In cases where their clients overlap, Rokt’s performance went up by as much as 50% compared to other CDP or identity solutions, according to the company's co-founder and CEO Bruce Buchanan.


Symbotic, a robotics and automation company that develops AI-powered systems to optimize supply chain operations and warehouse logistics for speed and efficiency, agreed to acquire Walmart's Advanced Systems and Robotics business for $200M in cash at close and up to $350M in additional contingent consideration dependent on the future quantity of systems ordered. The deal also includes Symbotic delivering $520M worth of automated micro fulfillment systems in Walmart's stores, as well as building a system that automates Walmart's Accelerated Pickup and Delivery centers, with an initial order covering hundreds of stores and adding an estimated $5B to Symbotic's future backlog for building the robots. 


Recharge, an Amsterdam startup specializing in online prepaid payments, offering digital vouchers for phone credit, prepaid credit, and gift cards, secured a €45M debt facility with ABN AMRO to help it roll up the market with a round of mergers and acquisitions, as well as move into fintech-style services to compete with some of the larger payment platforms in Europe. Recharge claims it is currently sitting on healthy cash reserves and that the company experienced 30% YoY revenue growth in 2024, with plans to reach over €100M in revenue in 2025.


Tilted, a social app designed specifically for gamers that provides a platform to connect, share content, and engage with communities around gaming interests, raised $1.3M in a round led by Lingfeng Innovation Fund. Tilted, which calls itself the “love child of Twitch and TikTok,” prioritizes monetization by integrating e-commerce, affiliate, and social selling tools to enable creators to earn income through affiliate marketing, ad revenue, and direct sales (assuming they can also bring viewers to the platform).


Reown, a platform formerly known as WalletConnect that makes using blockchain apps and wallets easier by providing tools to create smooth and user-friendly experiences. raised $13M in a Series B round led by Union Square Ventures and 1kx, with participation from Shopify Ventures, Kraken Ventures, and Crypto.com Capital. The company was founded in 2018 to allow users to connect self-custody wallets to a desktop application in order to buy NFTs and play on-chain games, but later rebranded and launched new products including standard developer kits for building crypto wallets and on-chain applications. 


Phantom, a digital wallet designed for managing cryptocurrency and NFTs that offers a secure, user-friendly experience for storing, sending, and swapping digital assets, raised $150M in a Series C round led by Sequoia Capital and Paradigm, at a $3B valuation, marking a 150% increase from its previous $1.2B valuation in early 2022. The company will use the funds to simplify peer-to-peer payments and introduce new features that make cryptocurrency more accessible and secure.


Capital D, a private equity fund manager, acquired a significant stake in GoWish, a Danish digital platform and mobile app that allows users to create, manage, and share wish lists for various occasions, for an undisclosed amount. GoWish has grown its userbase to over 10M registered users across its platforms worldwide, with over 4M users alone in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. 


FARO, a South Africa re-commerce startup that addresses textile waste by acquiring and restoring unsold, defective, and returned inventory from global fashion brands and reselling it at discounted prices in Africa, raised $6M in a round led by Bloomberg President JP Zammitt. The business operates on a fixed-margin model that targets 45% after all costs. Rather than inflating profits when margins exceed costs, FARO says it invests in better pricing for its customers (similar to how Costco operates).


Vision Group Retail, a tech provider that uses AI and computer vision to help consumer goods brands and retailers optimize in-store performance and product placement, acquired Hivery, an AI-powered retail assortment simulations provider that optimizes product assortments and planograms for retailers, for an undisclosed amount. Vision Group's CEO Karan Bakshi says that Hivery's expertise in space-aware assortment optimization perfectly complements the company's current offerings and furthers their goal to help clients increase sales and profitability through retail execution and space planning. 


MoonPay, a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp provider that simplifies buying and selling cryptocurrencies by enabling transactions using credit cards and bank transfers, acquired Helio, a blockchain-based payment processor built on Solana, for $175M. The acquisition expands MoonPay's infrastructure by incorporating Helio's technology to improve the efficiency of crypto payments for merchants and marketplaces and is expected to increase MoonPay's trading and marketplace volume. 


Minimist, a Vienna-based machine learning startup that simplifies and enhances the selling process for second-hand stores and professional sellers, raised €350k in a pre-seed round from investors Hanno Lippitsch (founder of Eversports), Michael Pötscher (CMO of Bitpanda), and Matthias Heimbeck (founder of Findologic). Minimist's platform aims to help the 93% of second-hand stores in Europe that currently lack an online presence by reducing the time and effort needed to digitize used items by 95%. Within four months, the startup secured partnerships with 14 second-hand stores across Europe, including a deal with one of the world's largest second-hand chains. 


Spikerz, an AI-powered platform designed to protect, detect, and prevent fraudulent activity across social media channels, raised $7M in a round led by Disruptive AI. The platforms key features include its advanced hacking prevention, impersonator and bot defense, and shadow ban mitigation. Wix Ventures, which participated in the round, expressed particular enthusiasm about the startup, which means we may see future collaboration between the two platforms, as Wix is known for integrating 3rd party features directly into its backend for merchants. 


Insight Partners, a global private equity and venture capital firm known for its bets on companies like Wiz, Fanatics, and Shopify, raised $12.5B for its 13th flagship fund and a structured equity fund, Opportunities Fund II, which is smaller than its $20B predecessor fund. Insight Partners now has more than $90B in assets under management and typically invests between $5M and $500M in high-growth technology and software companies. 


Snappy, a NYC-based gifting company that provides an online platform for companies to send personalized gifts to employees and clients, acquired Covver, an online platform specializing in swag, company stores, and points-based recognition solutions, for an undisclosed amount. Through the acquisition, Snappy will expand its presence in the swag and company store markets, offering businesses solutions for gifting and branded merchandise.


Investcorp, a global alternative investment firm, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Epipoli, an Italian fintech company specializing in prepaid solutions, gift cards, and customer engagement platforms to enhance digital payment experiences and loyalty programs, for an undisclosed amount from investment firm Bregal Milestone and Epipoli founder & CEO Gaetano Giannetto, who will remain a significant minority shareholder and will continue to lead the company. Epipoli was founded in 2000 and has developed the largest CRM and loyalty program in Italy with over 6M customers. It later launched its gift card business in 2006 and Italy's first prepaid Mastercard in 2012. 

Thanks for being a Shopifreak!

If you found this newsletter valuable, please leave a review on Google and share the newsletter with your friends and colleagues to help us grow.

See you next Monday,

PAUL

Paul E. Drecksler
🌐 Shopifreaks.com
🧑‍💼 Add me on LinkedIn
📧 [email protected]
📱 +1-828-273-3031
⭐ Leave A Review

PS: Why did the computer keep freezing? Because it left its Windows open.

Loading...