#211 – Trade Wars, UPS fires Amazon, & the EU’s new AI Act

by | Feb 3, 2025 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

Just when you thought things couldn't change overnight for the e-commerce industry… BAM! TARIFFS!

I've been reading dozens of opinions about Trump's new tariffs — some positive, others negative — and the best I can say is… I guess we'll see!

There's a possibility that the tariffs never see the light of day, even though they're expected to go into effect tomorrow. 

While writing this week's edition, new reports came out that Trump is delaying Mexico's tariffs for 30 days after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to immediately send 10,000 soldiers to her country’s border, and it's possible that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Trump come to a last minute agreement as well. 

So without further ado, let's jump right into this week's jam-packed edition before my headline story becomes outdated!

In this week's edition I cover:

  • Trump's tariffs on Mexico, Canada, & China
  • UPS says ‘adios' to Amazon packages
  • The EU makes marketplaces liable for unsafe goods
  • The EU's new AI Act
  • Wix launches a Business Launcher tool
  • Who's going to buy half of TikTok?
  • X sues more advertisers
  • Elon Musk cozies up to Jeff Bezos
  • The IPO rush of 2025
  • OpenAI takes pages from DeepSeek and Meta's playbooks
  • TikTok's traffic has rebounded
  • OpenAI to score $25B from SoftBank

All this and more in this week's 211th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

Stat of the Week

Meta’s Ray-Bans smart glasses sold more than 1 million pairs last year. Mark Zuckerberg said when revealing the figure, “We basically invented the category and our competitors haven’t really shown up yet. I think we’ll probably start seeing some of that maybe a little later this year, maybe next year, but we just have this wide open field right now to run and basically introduce as many people as possible to Meta AI glasses and we should take that opportunity.”


1. The trade wars begin

President Donald Trump announced significant tariff measures affecting imports from Mexico, Canada, and China, with substantial implications for the e-commerce sector. Here's what's changing: 

  • Effective February 4, 2025, the US will implement a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and a 10% tariff on Chinese imports.
  • Canadian energy imports will see a lower duty of just 10%, which would include crude oil, refined products, and electricity.
  • Originally, it was planned that Mexico would also see a 25% tariff starting tomorrow until the country “cooperates with the US in the fight against drugs,” but today it was announced that Trump paused the tariffs for one month after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to immediately send 10,000 soldiers to her country’s border to prevent the trafficking of fentanyl and other drugs.
  • Trump conditioned the tariff on China on the country's full cooperation in the fight against fentanyl.
  • There will be no exceptions to the tariffs, which affect all categories of products. 
  • The “de minimis” loophole, which previously allowed packages valued under $800 to enter the US tariff-free, has been suspended for these countries (paused for Mexico).
  • Canada, Mexico, and China the largest US trading partners. In 2022, the US imported $536B in Chinese goods, $455B from Mexico, and $437B in Canadian products, according to data from the US Trade Representative.

How are these countries responding?

  • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to impose a 25% tariff on $20B of US goods tomorrow, followed by another $85B of goods three weeks later. Targeted goods include American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and juices, clothing, sports equipment, and household appliances.
  • Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum initially said her country would retaliate with tariffs. Now, after the new agreement to send troops to the border was made, Trump said that he will have new negotiations with President Sheinbaum “as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal' between our two Countries.”
  • China’s commerce ministry said it would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and take “corresponding countermeasures.”
  • The ministry also said, “Fentanyl is America's problem. The Chinese side has carried out extensive anti-narcotics cooperation with the United States and achieved remarkable results.”
  • China hasn’t yet announced retaliatory tariffs, and Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center and former adviser to the International Monetary Fund, says that Beijing may not have to go that route as it has a “trick up its sleeve” in the form of currency devaluation. Lipsky predicts that most of the increase can be absorbed through exchange rates.

Due to all the negativity surrounding the tariffs, the White House said today that it has noticed that while Mexico is “serious” about President Trump's executive order on tariffs, Canada has “misunderstood” it to be a trade war between the neighboring countries.

The president also said the tariffs against these countries might cause Americans some short-term pain, but “long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world.”

What are the industry impacts and implications for e-commerce?

  • Chinese e-commerce companies like PDD Holdings, JD.com, and Tencent, experienced significant stock declines following the tariff announcements. Conversely, US-based platforms like Etsy saw stock gains, as the new tariffs may reduce competition from low-cost overseas retailers.

  • The fashion and beauty sectors are preparing for increased costs due to the tariffs. Brands are exploring strategies like tariff engineering, AI-driven inventory optimization, and reevaluating supplier relationships to mitigate the impact. Smaller companies, lacking extensive domestic manufacturing options, may face greater challenges.

  • The suspension of the de minimis provision means that many low-cost items previously exempt from tariffs will now incur additional costs, likely leading to higher prices for consumers.
  • E-commerce companies may need to reassess their supply chains, potentially shifting sourcing to countries with more favorable trade terms to mitigate tariff impacts.
  • US-based e-commerce platforms could gain a competitive edge as foreign competitors face increased costs due to the new tariffs.

This story is still developing and updates will follow.

2. UPS cuts back on delivering Amazon packages

UPS announced that it would be cutting its business with Amazon, its largest customer, by more than 50% by the second half of 2026, to focus on smaller, more profitable clients, rather than on simply increasing volume. Amazon accounted for 11.8% of UPS's total revenue for the year, or about $10.7B.

CEO Carol Tomé said on a call with analysts, “Amazon is our largest customer, but it's not our most profitable customer. Its margin is very dilutive to the U.S. domestic business.”

Tomé said that because the contract with Amazon came up for renewal this year, it was time to reassess the near 30-year relationship, “because if we take no action, it will likely result in diminishing returns.”

She noted that decreasing the volume of Amazon packages would also reduce the need to support a large amount of assets and resources used to fulfill those packages, leading to lower costs and increased margins per package. Transporting smaller packages over shorter distances for the last-mile is becoming less profitable, so UPS wants to focus more on deliveries that have more complex transport requirements and higher margins, such as its healthcare business.

Thomas Black, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist wrote:

“To make up for the volume decline, UPS will shrink the number of sorting facilities, delivery trucks and aircraft, driving $1 billion of cost savings. The result will be a domestic operating margin of at least 12% in the fourth quarter of 2026, Tomé said, up from about 9.2% for 2024. Revenue for 2025 is expected to drop a little more than 2% to $89 billion. In other words, UPS will be a bit smaller but more profitable.”

I agree with the decision 100% and think it's a smart long term move.

Who wants to dedicate business resources towards catering to Amazon when the company is actively competing against your own services? The handwriting has long been on the wall that Amazon wants to completely replace 3rd party couriers with its own delivery network. 

Twenty years ago, nearly every Amazon package was shipped via 3rd party couriers like UPS and FedEx, but now, Amazon delivers more than 70% of its packages using its in‑house network, and that number is expected to climb.

Plus, don't forget that Amazon launched Amazon Shipping in Aug 2023, which lets consumers and businesses send packages directly from one location to another—even for non‑Amazon orders—to compete directly UPS and FedEx.

Kudos to CEO Carol Tomé for looking ahead and not continuing to indulge an enemy disguised as a business partner.

What are your thoughts on the decision? Hit reply and let me know, or join the convo on my LinkedIn post

3. EU to make e-commerce marketplaces liable for unsafe goods

The EU is drafting new customs reforms that would make e-commerce platforms like Temu, Shein, and Amazon Marketplace directly responsible for the safety and legality of the products sold on their sites.

Under the proposal reported by the Financial Times, these platforms would be required to provide customs data before goods enter the EU, shifting the importer role from the individual buyer to the retailer. The platforms would also need to collect the appropriate duties and VAT, and ensure that all products meet EU standards.

The plan includes pooling customs data from all 27 member states under one IT system and establishing a central EU Customs Authority (EUCA), which would screen shipments for risks even before goods are loaded for transport or arrive in the EU.

Why is this necessary?

The EU has seen a huge surge of imports from e-commerce companies like Temu and Shein in recent years, receiving a collective 4.6B low-value goods last year, which is double what the region imported in 2023.

91% of these low-value goods, which are defined as packages below €150, are from China, and not checked by customs authorities. Currently, only six member states are responsible for 89% of the imported goods online in Europe.

Creating one central system would take the burden off of each individual member state to properly police imports, as well as make it easier for the e-commerce platforms to collaborate with the EU and integrate with their system. 

The draft report is expected to be published on Wednesday.

4. The EU's new AI Act can ban AI systems that pose “unacceptable risk”

In other EU news… As of Sunday, the European Union can ban the use of AI systems that they deem to pose “unacceptable risk or harm.”

February 2 is the first compliance deadline for the EU's AI Act, a comprehensive AI regulatory framework that the European Parliament approved last March after years of development that is designed to cover a variety of use cases where AI might appear and interact with individuals, from consumer applications to physical environments.

The Act defines four broad levels of risk: 

  1. Minimal risk, such as email spam filters, will face no regulatory oversight.
  2. Limited risk, such as customer service chatbots, will have a light-touch regulatory oversight.
  3. High risk, such as AI for healthcare recommendations, will face heavy regulatory oversight.
  4. Unacceptable risk applications, such as building a social scoring system, will be prohibited entirely.

Other examples of Unacceptable Risk Applications include: 

  • AI that manipulates a person’s decisions subliminally or deceptively.
  • AI that exploits vulnerabilities like age, disability, or socioeconomic status.
  • AI that attempts to predict people committing crimes based on their appearance.
  • AI that uses biometrics to infer a person’s characteristics, like their sexual orientation.
  • AI that collects real-time biometric data in public places for law enforcement.
  • AI that attempts to infer people’s emotions at work or school.
  • AI that creates facial recognition databases by scraping images online or from security cameras.

There are a few exceptions to several of the AI Act’s prohibitions, such as the Act permitting law enforcement to use certain systems that collect biometrics in public places if those systems help perform a “targeted search” for an abduction victim or to help prevent a “specific, substantial, and imminent” threat to life. (What happens to the data afterwards?) However exemptions require authorization from the appropriate governing bodies.

Companies that are found to be using any of the above AI applications in the EU will be subject to fines up to €35M or 7% of their annual revenue, regardless of where they are headquartered.

5. Wix launches an AI-powered Business Launcher tool

Wix launched Business Launcher, a new AI tool designed to help entrepreneurs take business ideas from concept to execution. The tool guides the user through various steps of building a business while offering personalized ideas, action plans, and key tools needed to make the idea a reality.

Here's how it works: 

  • The process starts with the user answering a few questions about their background, or they can simply upload their resume.
  • Next the tool asks questions about their business goals, such as whether the user is looking for a side hustle, new career path, or full time business, as well as what the user likes to do.
  • Business Launcher then presents a few different ideas for consideration.
  • If the user selects one of the business ideas, Wix provides a launch kit consisting of a custom business name, a personalized website, a logo, a domain name suggestion, and various marketing tools.
  • Lastly the user is provided with a site dashboard where they can manage the tools required to execute the new business endeavor.

Yaya Aaronsohn, Head of Brand Maker and Business Launcher at Wix, said: 

“We designed the Business Launcher to function like a personal business assistant, guiding users from the initial spark of an idea all the way to full business execution. By combining users’ work experience and interests with Wix’s extensive market research, the Business Launcher offers personalized ideas supported by detailed market analysis, SEO strategies, and revenue planning. It equips users with everything they need, from a custom website to marketing tools, ensuring they can confidently launch their business.”

Okay great Wix, now show me ONE single business that successfully launched as a result of your Business Launcher tool! Clearly you must have done some beta testing before making it public, and you have some case studies…

I tried Business Launcher and told it that:

  • I'm good at developing websites, I know a lot about e-commerce, and I've launched a successful industry newsletter in the past.
  • I like to travel, discover new technology, and spend time outdoors. 
  • I also provided some educational and work experience background. 

The result: Wix suggested that I offer web development and marketing consultation services. LOL. I've already done that for two decades!

Honestly, it's a cool concept, but it was obviously built as a gateway into subscribing to Wix's website builder and marketing tools. I can't imagine any true entrepreneur coming up with a revolutionary business idea with it, but maybe Wix will prove me wrong. 

6. Who's going to buy half of TikTok?

In January I reported that Trump signed an executive order to delay the TikTok ban for 75 days and give the company time to reach a deal with the US — the major caveat being that Trump wants 50% of the app to be owned by a US company. So who's going to buy half of TikTok?

  1. Trump told reporters that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok's US operations. He didn't elaborate other than to say that “there's great interest in TikTok” and that there will be “a lot of people bidding on it.” Microsoft and Oracle were in the running to acquire TikTok back in 2020 when Trump first pressured the company to shed its Chinese ownership or face a ban.
  2. Speaking of Oracle… NPR reported that The White House was in talks with Oracle and a group of investors to take over TikTok's data collection and software updates and continue providing the foundation of TikTok's web infrastructure, which it does now.
  3. Trump has also said he would be open to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison buying TikTok as part of a joint venture with the US government.
  4. Perplexity AI submitted a revised proposal to merge with TikTok in an arrangement that would give the US government up to 50% ownership of the new entity.
  5. A consortium of American investors including MrBeast, Jesse Tinsley, founder of Employer.com, David Baszucki, CEO of Roblox, and Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital, has raised over $20B for the bid, confirmed by Bloomberg.
  6. And of course the group known as Project Liberty, led by Frank McCourt and Kevin O'Leary, are still clamoring at the bits to submit a bid to buy TikTok since before the ban even took effect.

Meanwhile TikTok and ByteDance have been remarkably quiet since Trump reinstated the app. Neither company's representatives have issued any public announcement indicating they’re willing to sell half of the app. In fact, ByteDance has repeatedly maintained that it isn’t interested in selling a stake in TikTok; at various points it has even stated that it would rather shut down TikTok in the US than compromise its core technology and algorithm by divesting any portion of its operations — of course, that was back when it still thought it had a chance at defeating the law in appeals court. 

There are multiple reports confirming that President Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar‑a‑Lago prior to his inauguration, and Chew was also in attendance at the inauguration itself, but other than that… crickets.

7. X adds more advertisers to its antitrust lawsuit, and one new big advertiser to its platform

Back in August 2024, I reported (story #4) that Elon Musk's X was suing The World Federation of Advertisers, Mars, CVS, Unilever, and Orsted for allegedly colluding to boycott its social media platform. The World Federation of Advertisers launched its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) in 2019 to safeguard digital media by reducing the availability and monetization of harmful content online.

All this, coming just months after Elon Musk told advertisers to “Go fuck yourself” at a New York Times DealBook Summit in November. 

Regardless of the merits of the lawsuit, the potential threat of litigation was too much for GARM to bear the cost of, and the organization was forced to discontinue its activities. 

Since then, X added Twitch in to its roster of companies being sued and settled with Unilever, dropping them from the suit.

Flash forward to 2025… X is now suing more advertisers in its antitrust lawsuit focusing on what its CEO Linda Yaccarino has claimed is a “systematic illegal boycott.”

Nestlé, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods, and Shell have all been added to Musk's hitlist the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that these companies illegally conspired to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X.

“As a result of the boycott, X became a less effective competitor to other social media platforms in the sale of digital advertising and in competing for user engagement on its platform,” the complaint reads.

Companies not being sued? Amazon!

In fact, Amazon is boosting its advertising spend on X after Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk buddied up at Trump's inauguration. To announce the new partnership, Musk posted on X a GIF from the movie Step Brothers with the movie's famous quote, “Did we just become best friends?”

In 2023, Amazon withdrew all its spending on the app, but now people close to the situation expect that to change, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been involved in the move in recent weeks as the company tries out ads.

8. Expected IPOs in 2025

One of my 2025 Predictions was that this year will be the highest number of IPOs since 2021. Every company that has wanted to IPO in the past few years has just been biding their time for the market to turn and rates to drop (which they have), and last year, those same companies began putting out feelers for this year. I predict it's going to be a public money cash grab.

TechCrunch put together a list of tech-related IPOs reported to be in the works for 2025:

  • eToro – Israeli trading platform filed in January 2025, seeking a $5B valuation.
  • Voyager Technologies – Denver-based space and defense tech startup filed in January 2025, seeking up to a $3B valuation.
  • Karman Holdings – another space and defense startup, filed to go public in January 2025, seeking to raise up to $100M at a $3B valuation
  • Chime – digital bank that filed to IPO in December 2024 and looking to go public in 2025, last valued at $25B in 2021.
  • Klarna – Swedish BNPL fintech filed in November 2024 for an IPO that’s been a long time in the making, planning to go public in the first half of 2025 at a $14.6B valuation.
  • Genesys – California-based AI cloud startup filed in October 2024, aiming to raise $2B in 2025, most recently valued at $21B in 2021
  • Clario – Philadelphia-based clinical trial software provider filed in June 2024, seeking a $10B valuation.
  • Cerebras – chip startup that aims to compete with Nvidia filed to IPO in August 2024, aiming to double its current $4B valuation.
  • Circle – New York-based stablecoin provider filed in January 2024, says it is “very committed” to going public this year despite prior delays. Its current valuation is $5B based on secondary market stock trading.
  • Harry’s – New York-based consumer company that makes razors and other personal care items for men, filed in March 2024, last valued at $1.7B in 2021.
  • Omada Health – San Francisco-based diabetes startup filed in summer 2024, hoping for a warmer IPO market in 2025, last valued at $1B in 2022.
  • Shein – Chinese fast-fashion giant filed in the US in 2023, but its hopes were dashed over congressional scrutiny of its supply chain and labor practices, so later filed in the UK in 2024, valued at $45B in 2024 down from a $100B valuation in 2022.
  • General Atlantic – San Francisco-based growth equity investor, which has backed firms like Facebook and Airbnb, filed in 2023 but hasn't made any public updates since then, has $96B in assets under management.
  • Oyo – SoftBank-backed Indian hotel aggregator filed in India in March 2023 after a prior attempt fell through, valued at $3.8B in 2024.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

OpenAI plans to take pages from DeepSeek and Meta's playbooks with some upcoming changes to its operations, according to an AMA with Sam Altman. The company plans to breakdown its newer models' reasoning into smaller steps, similar to how humans think through complex challenges, which is something that DeekSeek does. Altman also said that it would consider releasing some of its models as open source and publishing more research. Altman said, “I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy; not everyone at OpenAI shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority.”


TikTok's traffic rebounded to about 90% in the US since briefly going offline and being removed from the Apple and Google app stores, according to Cloudflare data. However traffic to TikTok alternatives has also increased, peaking on Jan 19th, the day TikTok came back online. 


Meta says that its decision to discontinue its fact-checking program in the US has not affected advertising revenue. Ivy Liu from DigiDay writes, “No boycott. No grandstanding CMOs. Just quiet resignation that this is the cost of doing business online.” Despite frustrations over the policy change, most advertisers are staying the course with their ad spending, with one advertiser calling Meta a “necessary evil.”


Speaking of advertising… TikTok assured advertisers that they are not breaking the law by running ads on its platform, according to a leaked e-mail to a media executive at a major brand. TikTok stressed that the law only applies to those who “distribute, maintain, or update TikTok by means of a marketplace,” such as Apple's App Store and Google Play, or service providers like Oracle. The e-mail clarified that advertisers and content creators do not meet either of those definitions.


Maersk, a global provider of container shipping and logistics, is launching a new ocean network called Gemini Cooperation, a long‑term operational collaboration with Hapag-Lloyd that will create a streamlined, hub‑and‑spoke ocean freight network targeting over 90% schedule reliability by reducing port calls and sharing vessel capacity across key East‑West trades. The transition period is expected to last until late May, beginning with 340 vessels, with June being the first full month in which the network is fully phased in with all vessels sailing on Gemini schedules.


Amazon laid off dozens of employees from its communications and corporate responsibility department, which includes its sustainability team, in an effort to cut costs and reduce bureaucracy. Under CEO Andy Jassy's leadership, the company has laid off tens of thousands of corporate jobs and killed a variety of projects since succeeding Jeff Bezos in 2021. 


Microsoft began firing its low-performance workers, leaving many without severance pay or health insurance, effective immediately, as the company takes a more aggressive approach to its workforce. The termination letters read, “The reason(s) for the termination of your employment include your job performance has not met minimum performance standards and expectations for your position.” Microsoft went onto inform fired employees that it will consider past performance and termination if the person applies for other jobs at the company in the future. People apply to work at companies that previously fired them?


Google distributed a memo to all US employees working on Android, Pixel hardware, and other projects that offers a “voluntary exit program” guaranteeing severance for anyone willing to step away from their role at the company. Google recently combined its Android and hardware team under SVP Rick Osterloh this past April and now it's looking to cut out redundancies in the department. Voluntary buyouts can often be a precursor to layoffs if not enough employees take Google up on its offer. Feels like an episode of Beast Games!


Block created its own open-source AI agent called “Goose” that allows users to complete tasks using LLMs such as looking for bugs or making code changes. Users can configure Goose to run on their preferred LLM including Anthropic, Gemini, OpenAI, and others, though the company says it works best with Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet and OpenAI's o1 model.


Amazon is introducing a shipping solution called Easy Ship for sellers in the Netherlands and Poland, which the company says will help sellers ship their products faster and more cost-effectively. Polish sellers will be able to schedule a shipment pickup from their fulfillment location for around €0.80, while Dutch sellers will be able to drop off shipments at designated locations for around €2.33, but it's currently unclear where these locations will be. Parcels that are sent with Easy Ship will be selected for express delivery by InPost in Poland and DHL in the Netherlands, and customers will receive real-time shipment tracking and free parcel insurance.


Visa Direct transfer app, which serves more than 600M users globally, partnered with X to support the ability to move money from a bank account to X Money's digital wallet accounts. The partnership enables secure, instant funding, and peer-to-peer payments for X users and significantly advances X's plans to become an everything app. 


At an all hands meeting inside Meta last week, Mark Zuckerberg said that he had to be increasingly careful about what he says internally at the company because, “Everything I say leaks. And it sucks, right? I want to be able to talk about stuff openly, but I am also trying to like, well, we're trying to build stuff and create value in the world, not destroy value y talking about stuff that inevitably leaks.”

Moments later, in an ironically leaked memo, it was revealed that Meta will fire staff for leaking company info such as messages and memos. Meta’s chief information security officer, Guy Rosen, said, “We take leaks seriously and will take action.”


Apple has cancelled its development of AR glasses, according to a new Bloomberg report, which were meant to compete with Meta's upcoming AR glasses named Orion that are set to deliver in 2027. However the company says it's still working on underlying technologies that could be used in AR glasses down the road, including custom microLED-type screens, as well as successors to the Vision Pro and AirPods with cameras.


Amazon agreed to a $6M settlement and to block the sale of skin-lightening creams containing dangerous amounts of mercury on its website, ending a decade-long lawsuit brought by the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. The original lawsuit alleged that at one point, Amazon had 27 products for sale containing high amounts of mercury, sometimes at tens of thousands of times the allowable levels. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can cause prenatal defects and life-threatening kidney, brain, and central nervous system damage. 


eBay is raising fees as part of its 2025 eBay Seller Update ranging up to 0.35%, beginning later this month. The company listed its fee increases on its website, where it wrote that the fee increase was “to support our ongoing investments in enhanced tools and expanded protections to help your business thrive.”


Speaking of fee increases… H&M is increasing its fee on returned items from £1.99 to £2.95, which will be deducted from refunds made by all UK customers except for on faulty items or returns made to H&M stores. H&M joins companies like Asos and Boohoo in the country in implementing stricter measures on returns to help reduce abuse towards more lenient policies.


Cushion, a San Francisco-based platform that helped customers dispute overdraft and other banking fees and negotiate refunds, is shutting down after more than 8 years in business. The company's founder and CEO, Paul Kesserwani, wrote on LinkedIn that “despite bringing multiple new fintech products to market, we didn't reach the scale needed to sustain the business. We faced the reality that Cushion wasn't on track for a massive exit, and it made more sense to wind down rather than continue investing time and money.”


Google lawyers slammed the European Commission at an appeals hearing for making “grave errors” by failing to take into account that Android's success stemmed from successful innovation rather than brute force. The company accused European Union antitrust watchdogs of blundering their way through a probe that culminated in a record €4.3B fine for allegedly abusing the market power of its Android mobile-phone ecosystem. The Android fine is among a slew of EU penalties targeting Big Tech that President Trump called “a form of taxation.”


The FTC spoke with representatives from Temu about Amazon's pricing policies, particularly about its practice of penalizing merchants by removing checkout buttons from their listings when it found the same items offered for lower prices on Temu. The communications took place before Jan. 20, when Biden-appointed FTC Chair Lina Khan stepped down and was replaced by Trump appointee Andrew Ferguson.


A UK Competition and Markets Authority inquiry group recommended that the regulator investigate Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure under the new Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act, which aims to rein in the power of dominant platforms and protect consumers. The regulator noted that the two companies share up to 40% of UK customer spend on cloud services and that businesses currently face a limited choice of providers when it comes to cloud services. Okay, so build some UK-owned data centers and stop approving new facilities for Microsoft and Amazon! Don't allow the two companies to grow their cloud divisions in your country and then fine them for doing so. 


Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that channels a portion of its sales back to local brick-and-mortar book shops, launched an e-book platform to give readers an alternative to shopping on Amazon. The e-books can be purchased from local bookstores or from Bookshop, and the company promises that 100% of the profits from e-book sales will go back to indie sellers.


Amazon is being sued by consumers who accuse the company of secretly tracking their movements through their cellphones and selling the data it collects. According to the lawsuit, Amazon obtained “backdoor access” to consumers' phones by providing tens of thousands of app developers with code known as Amazon Ads SDK to be embedded in their apps, which allowed Amazon to collect an enormous amount of timestamped geolocation data about where consumers live, work, shop, and visit, revealing sensitive information such as religious affiliations, sexual orientations, and health concerns. Ah yes, but TikTok is the problem…


Brands including Instacart, Taco Bell, Stella Artois, Uber, Tubi, and NerdWallet released teasers for their Super Bowl 59 commercials, which AdWeek and YouTuber Mining Asteroids curated for your enjoyment. Or you can simply wait for the big game on Feb 9th like the rest of us!


Digital River, a Minnetonka-based e-commerce pioneer that build software used to make online purchases, is shutting down after more than 30 years in business, impacting 122 employees. In a message to employees, the company owner and CEO Barry Kasoff described mounting financial pressures including “the rapid contraction of key customers, combined with the headwinds presented by new deals with shorter payment terms and U.S. trade policies that impacted one of our largest customers. These challenges, coupled with rising operational costs and tax obligations, have impacted our ability to sustain operations.”


Walmart expanded its same-day pharmacy delivery service to customers across 49 states, allowing customers to purchase pharmacy, general merchandise, and grocery in a single online order. The service first launched in six states last October with plans to expand nationally at the end of January. Pharmacy Delivery will be offered free to Walmart+ members, while non-members will pay a fee, starting at $9.95 for standard delivery.


Meta agreed to pay $25M to settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump, who sued the social media company in 2021 for suspending his accounts after the Jan 6th attack on the US Capitol. The majority of the settlement, $22M, will go towards a fund to pay for Trump's presidential library, and the remainder will pay for legal fees and go to other plaintiffs listed in the case. Funny how that lawsuit sat in limbo for 4 years until Trump won office again and then was settled within weeks of his inauguration. 


Amazon appointed Jason Buechel, CEO of Whole Foods, to oversee the company's global grocery business while retaining his leadership role at Whole Foods. Buechel, who has held the position at Whole Foods since 2022, will manage Amazon's grocery initiatives including its Fresh supermarket chain, Go cashierless stores, and online grocery services.


Amazon Prime Air unveiled plans to start initial flight tests from the company's fulfillment center in Darlington, a town with a population of just over 100k located in northeast England. Amazon first announced its plans to launch drone deliveries in the UK back in 2023. The company is now in the process of seeking permission with local authorities to build its flight operations at the site, as well as applying for authorization from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly drones in the airspace. 


TikTok is investing $3.76B to launch a data center project in Thailand, according to the country's investment authorities. The move comes as several tech giants plan data centers in the country, including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.


Google Gemini is being used by cybercriminal organizations from all around the world in their attacks including attackers from Iran, North Korea, and Russia, the company has admitted. In an in-depth analysis discussing who the threat actors are, Google highlighted how the platform has not been used to discover new attack methods, but rather to fine-tune existing ones. Really? Catch up, Google! ChatGPT could probably discover new attack methods. LOL. The criminals are primarily using Gemini for research, troubleshooting code, and creating and localizing content. 


Flipkart rebranded its grocery business from “Grocery” to “Kilos,” aiming to provide everyday essentials at wholesale prices, according to the company. Unlike Flipkart's newer quick commerce offering called Minutes, the Kilo service has longer delivery times for purchases, similar to Amazon Fresh.


Shein issued a press release detailing the steps the company is taking to keep the items it sells safe. The announcement came a week after its first product safety recall in the US since 2021. Shein said it conducted more than 2M product safety tests last year using industry-leading labs and that its vendors are required to submit documentation for items like toys, baby products, medical devices, and electronics.


Macy's is ending a program that provided college degree programs and other educational courses to its employees at no cost in partnership with Guild, a company that offers similar initiatives with Walmart, Chipotle, and Pepsi. A Guild spokesperson said the company is disappointed in Macy's decision and plans to offer financial assistance to Macy's employees who are near program completion to ensure that they can finish their education. Macy's said that the program didn't have a big impact on retention or internal promotions and that only a small number of employees used it since it began in February 2022.


CVS launched a new mobile app that can manage prescriptions and orders, provide options for immunization scheduling, and most notably, open locked display cabinets in stores — without having to summon an employee. In order to unlock the cabinets, app users need to be a member of CVS's loyalty program, logged into their account, connected to the store's WiFi, and have their device's Bluetooth enabled to de-activate the digital lock. Great, so now instead of opening the cabinet for you, CVS employees get to become your tech support!


YouTube denied reports that it's serving unskippable hour-long ads to some YouTube users who have ad blocks enabled and instead blamed the ad blockers themselves for any “suboptimal viewing experiences” — which might actually be true. A Redditor demonstrated that the ad blockers may be preventing the skip button from appearing while simultaneously failing to actually block the ad, and showed how refreshing the page would fix the problem. But then again, it could simply be Google messing with ad blockers…


Three guys in India were arrested for hacking into e-commerce websites, changing the prices of expensive items like mobile phones, drones, and laptops, and buying them for pennies. The trio would then sell the items for around 80% of their original price, which was practically all profit. Several bank employees were also summoned for questioning over their suspected involvement in the scam.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

OpenAI is in talks with SoftBank to invest up to $25B in the company, which could value it at around $300B, surpassing ByteDance and making OpenAI the second most valuable private company in the world after SpaceX. If OpenAI hits its target valuation of $300B, it would nearly double its most recent valuation of $157B. If SoftBank invests $25B into OpenAI, it would overtake Microsoft, which has poured around $13B into the company so far. Part of the funding may be used for OpenAI’s commitment to Stargate, a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle that was introduced by President Donald Trump last week.


GrubMarket, a privately-owned grocery e-commerce company, acquired Sally Produce, an Asian produce wholesaler in California that offers fresh fruits and vegetables sourced directly from local farms in California and services major Asian grocery stores, for an undisclosed amount. After the acquisition, Sally Produce will continue to be managed by its current leadership team while gaining access to GrubMarket's AI software solutions including its ERP platform that provides food industry wholesalers, distributors, and shippers with financial management, inventory management, and sales tools.


Visma, a global provider of B2B cloud software solutions, acquired Link My Books, an e-commerce accounting automation platform, for an undisclosed amount. After the acquisition, Link My Books will continue to operate independently with its existing leadership team with new financial backing to enhance its product offering.


Diameter Capital Partners and Darsana Capital Partners acquired a substantial portion of $1B in debt tied to Elon Musk's acquisition of X. The loans, arranged by a Morgan Stanley-led consortium, were offered to select investors to gauge demand and pricing ahead of a broader $3B debt offering. The move is part of banks' efforts to offload portions of the $13B debt from Musk's 2022 buyout, which has since declined in value to around 60 cents on the dollar.


TravelPerk, a business travel management platform that streamlines corporate travel booking and expense tracking, acquired Yokoy, an AI-powered expense and invoice management platform, for an undisclosed amount. The two companies have been collaborating since 2020 to jointly offer travel and expense management to customers. TravelPerk also announced that it raised $200M in a Series E round that nearly doubled its valuation to $2.7B, which it will use to continue its expansion into the US.

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PAUL

Paul E. Drecksler
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PS: Why do golfers wear two pairs of pants? In case they get a hole-in-one!

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