Role of Retail, Marc Lore Leaves Walmart, Amazon AI Tech, Tiktok Product Recommendations, Moderation Wars, Wearables > Hearables
Covering trends in commerce, media, and marketing daily
The Backroom: What the pandemic means for the future of retail
A follow-up discussion with "retail prophet" Doug Stephens, who has been mulling the disease outbreak's implications for the industry.
Walmart’s e-commerce chief is leaving to build "a city of the future"
Marc Lore, the founder of Jet.com, helped Walmart become the No. 2 online shopping site after Amazon.
Marc Lore, a serial entrepreneur who sold his startup Jet.com to Walmart for $3 billion and then oversaw the transformation of the retail giant’s e-commerce business over the last four years, is leaving his full-time role with the company at the end of the month, he told Recode.
The entrepreneur and executive said he also plans to spend more time on philanthropy, advising startups, and serving on public company boards, while also writing a book and working on developing a TV show.
He said the two sides were still working through the financial implications of his departure, and were comfortable with his slightly early exit because the company last year combined much of its e-commerce and physical store divisions into unified teams under Walmart US CEO John Furner.
Amazon opens Alexa AI tech for the first time so car makers can build custom assistants
Amazon is opening the door to custom, Alexa-based assistants.
Further, the rate of innovation and change is accelerating and assistants are always improving and getting smarter, requiring substantial ongoing investments,” the company explains in a blog post.
Regardless, Amazon also says its intentions are to give all companies, not just automakers, a faster, cheaper, and less complex route to building their own voice experiences that feel tailor-made, instead of simply bolting on an integration with a third-party service.
Amazon says Alexa Custom Assistant will be available starting today to companies in the US and Canada, as well as in Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain.
TikTokers are building Amazon product recommendation empires | Modern Retail
Amazon, for all of its e-commerce dominance, remains a cluttered and confusing place to find new products.
A loose network of TikTokers have built thriving empires out of finding and recommending niche Amazon products, driving millions of views to mostly random items they discover.
A social discovery channel Amazon, for all of its e-commerce dominance, remains a cluttered and confusing place to find new products — and these TikTokers have developed a flourishing auxiliary service that cuts through the noise.
“Some people are pulling in insane amounts of money off of affiliate links,” said Kristen Wiley, who runs the influencer marketing platform Statusphere and who has followed the #AmazonFinds section of TikTok.
The Moderation War Is Coming to Spotify, Substack, and Clubhouse
Smaller services are coming under scrutiny now that the big platforms have warmed to aggressive moderation
These smaller services are coming under scrutiny now that the big platforms have warmed to aggressive moderation, culminating with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube’s suspension of President Donald Trump following the Capitol riot.
Spotify is a platform, open for anyone to upload to its service as long as they follow its loose guidelines , which ban content that is “offensive, abusive, defamatory, pornographic, threatening, obscene, or advocates or incites violence.” Employees viewed the money going to Rogan as an endorsement, however, and demanded more discretion.
“I think they’ll be able to maintain their current line because there is just so much broadly offensive or wrong podcast and musical content out there,” Will Duffield, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, told OneZero .
TWS Drives 2020 Wearables Growth; Smartwatches to Add Momentum From 2021
TWS and smartwatches continued to shore up the wearables market in 2020 while smartwatches will weather subdued category spending to increase 2%.
*Includes smartwatches and bands.“The trend around removing jacks and earphones from devices and boxes is becoming a big driver for TWS segment growth,” says Counterpoint Research senior analyst Liz Lee.
Lim observed that, “Apple’s powerful iOS ecosystem, typically comprised of consumers with larger disposable incomes, has been the main driver for growth – especially in terms of revenues.
“Building on strong hearables momentum, recent entry into smartwatches and strength in online, realme could repeat its smartphone success to become 2021’s dark horse in wearables.” commented Lee.
Snapchat Wants You to Post. They’re Willing to Pay Millions.
Top performers are raking in cash, as the company seeks to compete against TikTok and similar platforms.
In late November, Cam Casey, a TikTok star with over seven million followers, was relaxing at home when he decided to upload a video of a science experiment that resulted in a Coca-Cola bottle exploding to Snapchat.
Similar to TikTok and other TikTok-inspired apps and features including Instagram Reels, Spotlight is a stream of endlessly updating content (or, more precisely, an algorithmically curated feed of vertical videos).
Katie Feeney, 18, a high school senior in Olney, Md., said she has earned over $1 million from Snapchat in the past two months by posting unboxing videos and funny content (in one clip, she spins on a hoverboard while seamlessly appearing in new outfits).
Sequoia Buys Shares in Elusive Startup Zapier at Multibillion-Dollar Valuation
Zapier isn’t a household name outside Silicon Valley, but the world’s top venture capitalists have long been trying to own a piece of the booming enterprise software firm. The problem for investors was that Zapier, whose software automates personal computing tasks, didn’t need their money. It ...
Zapier isn’t a household name outside Silicon Valley, but the world’s top venture capitalists have long been trying to own a piece of the booming enterprise software firm.
The problem for investors was that Zapier, whose software automates personal computing tasks, didn’t need their money.
The sale was done at a valuation that appears to have surpassed $4 billion, which would be at least 40 times its annualized revenue, according to new information released by one of its earlier investors.
How Indian-origin VFX artistes are taking over Hollywood
Big-ticket Hollywood productions are increasingly reliant on the Indian VFX industry
Most of the people can speak and communicate well with clients and bosses, which gives them an upper hand compared to other countries," said Harsimmar Singh, who has worked on Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) biggies like Avengers , Thor: Ragnarok and the award-winning show The Handmaid's Tale .
According to Panchasara, whose credits include Dumbo and the upcoming Angelina Jolie-starrer Maleficent: Mistress of Evil , many of the CG (computer graphics) assets of Academy Award winner Life of Pi were developed in India, while Disney's Tinkerbell series was entirely created here.
Earlier this month, many Indian and Indian-origin names, including Sherry Bharda of Hichki fame and Srinivas Mohan, best known for his work on 2.0 and Baahubali: The Beginning , were invited to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (AMPAS) to represent the Visual Effects department.