BigTech

  1. Technology & Innovation
Google really didn’t have to exaggerate. When the company introduced Gemini this week — its stunning new AI model that beat OpenAI on multiple benchmarks and understands both text and images — it delivered a product that lived up to months of hype. Yet, as the company showed it to the world, it embellished. In […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
Life got interesting for Anthropic two weeks ago when OpenAI nearly lit itself on fire. Anthropic had been operating comfortably in OpenAI’s shadow, collecting billions in investment from Amazon, Google, and others as it developed similar technology with an increased focus on safety. Then, as OpenAI’s chaos rolled on, companies that built entirely on GPT-4 […]
  1. Data & Insights
Amazon Web Services said yesterday that it is introducing a new chatbot designed for business users. Its name:  “Q.” Wired reports that “it’s aimed at people who use AWS at work, including coders, IT administrators, and business analysts. In response to typed requests, it will help developers write code, answer questions about how to use […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
OpenAI fired CEO Sam Altman today in one of the most astonishing removals of a tech leader in decades. The OpenAI board said Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”  It replaced him with CTO Mira Murati. This story is moving fast. OpenAI co-founder […]
  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital
Today at Big Technology, we’re debuting our Big Tech Insider column, where experts with unique insights about the tech giants— and experience within them — tell the story behind the headlines. We’re starting with a three-part series by Kristi Coulter, a longtime Amazon veteran, who will take us inside the company to decode its mysteries. […]
  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital
Amazon announced late yesterday that its third quarter net sales increased 13 percent to $143.1 billion, compared with $127.1 billion during the same period a year ago.  Q3 net income increased to $9.9 billion in the third quarter, compared with $2.9 billion a year ago. The increase in profit coincides with the cost-cutting efforts implemented […]
  1. Trends & External Forces
The New Yorker has a piece in which it looks to assess what may be achieved in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust suit against Amazon. “The government’s success could depend, among other things, on how much it can persuade the court to recognize the deficiencies of the prevailing antitrust framework,” the story says, adding […]
  1. Shopper & Customer
Some things just never work. At least not for building brands or value propositions. Yet, over and over again, we keep trying to make a go of these things. So, today, I want to share my list of things that I believe are dead-ends for brands—things that seem promising but turn out mostly to be […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
On a Saturday night in mid-September, a senior Google engineer shared some rough news with more than fifty colleagues. Part of the company’s cloud services offering was failing Anthropic, a darling AI startup and key strategic customer, and they’d have to work overtime to fix it.  Subscribe now To repair the faulty part of its […]
  1. Trends & External Forces
There continues to be significant analysis of and reaction to the decision by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the attorneys general of 17 states to file a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, charging the company with business practices that abuse the third part sellers on its Marketplace, forcing them to pay high fees for […]
  1. Trends & External Forces
As we reported yesterday in an afternoon breaking news alert, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the attorneys general of 17 states have filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, charging the company with business practices that abuse the third part sellers on its Marketplace, forcing them to pay high fees for services that result […]
  1. Retail Ecosystem
Hi Everyone, Hope your week is going well. I am writing with a short newsletter today to share that I just sat down with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and published the interview on the Big Technology Podcast feed this morning.  We talked about so much, including cleaning fees, building product, the difference between Amazon and […]
  1. Channel: Delivery
Instacart has made its initial public offering (IPO), pricing its stock at $30 per share and valuing the grocery delivery and technology company at approximately $10 billion. Instacart, which will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol “CART,” sold 22 million shares in the IPO, with 14.1 million coming from the company and 7.9 million […]
  1. Channel: Delivery
Instacart has made its initial public offering (IPO), pricing its stock at $30 per share and valuing the grocery delivery and technology company at approximately $10 billion. Instacart, which will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol “CART,” sold 22 million shares in the IPO, with 14.1 million coming from the company and 7.9 million […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
I entered this summer with some major unanswered questions about AI. I wanted to know where AI research labs would aim next, how Big Tech incumbents would respond, and what types of AI startups would break through. So I asked some of the world’s leading AI experts. In there consecutive weeks, while this newsletter took […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
The Associated Press reports that “the European Union on Wednesday targeted Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance under new digital rules aimed at reining in the market power of online companies. “The six companies were classed as online ‘gatekeepers’ that must face the highest level of scrutiny under […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
In today’s artificial intelligence-driven era, AI has become the go-to buzzword across industries. Retail is no exception, with a growing list of AI-based applications promising to revolutionize the way retailers operate. ShopMate, for example, uses AI to generate customizable shopping suggestions for e-commerce, personalizing the shopping experience for each customer. Branchbob.ai, an AI-powered platform, enables […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
In conversation with Matt Wood (right) this week at Amazon’s AWS Summit. Amazon’s absence from this year’s generative AI bonanza has been a bit puzzling. The company invented Alexa, intuiting people’s interest in speaking with computers, yet when OpenAI released ChatGPT it seemed to cede the territory. But rather than sitting out the game, Amazon […]
  1. Trends & External Forces
Politico reports this morning that “the Federal Trade Commission is finalizing its long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, four people with knowledge of the matter told Politico, a move that could ultimately break up parts of the company. “The FTC has been investigating the company on a number of fronts, and the coming case would be […]
  1. Data & Insights
There’s a lot of pressure on artificial intelligence to be the savior of Silicon Valley. According to Forbes, 64 percent of businesses expect AI to increase productivity, and 25 percent are adopting it to accommodate labor shortages. Simply put, everyone from big tech to small startups is banking on AI to help them build and scale. […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
Meta hasn’t opened Threads to ads yet, but it might not be able to resist for long. Advertisers are eager to spend serious money there and are already planning for the eventuality, with a good number expecting the opportunity to arrive later this year.  The Twitter clone has everything ad buyers look for in a partner: […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google “is testing an artificial-intelligence program trained to expertly answer medical questions, racing against rivals including Microsoft to translate recent AI advances into products that would be used widely by clinicians.” According to the story, “Google is betting that its medical chatbot technology, which is called Med-PaLM 2, will […]
  1. Shopper & Customer
Axios reports on a new Gallup survey saying that while “Americans’ faith in public institutions of all kinds – from the Supreme Court to Big Tech – is dwindling to historic lows,” confidence in small business “remains relatively high.” The story notes that this is a turnaround of sorts – faith in small businesses got […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
Nothing, a London-based consumer technology brand, has announced a $96 million fundraising round led by Highland Europe, with participation from existing investors GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures and C Capital, alongside supergroup Swedish House Mafia.  Founded in 2020, Nothing’s Phone (1) was showcased in Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2022 list for its innovative smartphone design. In […]
  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital
​The report suggests that big technology players could be weighing up their options with regards to Ocado and picks out Amazon as a potentially interested party.  KEY POINTS Shares of British online grocer Ocado Group soared more than 40% Thursday after The Times newspaper reported “speculation of bid interest from more than one American suitor.” The report suggests that […]
  1. Acquisitions, Divestitures & Mergers
Who Made the Most U.S. Unicorn Acquisitions Since 1997? The elusive unicorn is no longer a myth in the U.S. startup world, with over a thousand private startups reaching a $1 billion valuation in the last 25 years. While some of these startups eventually go public and go on to become household names, it’s also […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
The demo was beautiful. At Google’s IO developer conference this week, the company showed an experimental version of its search engine handling an almost unimaginably difficult query. Asked whether a family with kids under three years old and a dog would prefer Arches National Park or Bryce Canyon, Google scoured the internet and returned a […]
  1. Retailer Media
Forecasts predict retail media ad spend will grow to $61.15 billion in 2024, making it the most dynamic and influential advertising marketplace that could benefit from revenue boosts and first-party data. From 2021 to 2022, the retail media space gained significant traction but forced retailers to turn to out-of-the-box solutions without set goals to solve […]
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  1. Trends & External Forces
  2. Channel: Mass
  3. Department: Consumer Durables
  4. Department: Nonfood
  5. Corporate Strategy
  6. Corporate Finance
  7. Partnerships & Alt Profit
  8. Media & Marketing
  9. Agencies & Vendors
  10. Data & Insights
  11. Technology & Innovation
  12. Trends & External Forces
  13. Stores & Formats
The National Retail Federation (NRF) has updated a report that had attributed “nearly half” of 2021’s $94.5 billion in retail shrink to organized retail crime, saying the data point was part of two-year-old testimony to a U.S. Senate committee by Ben Dugan, former President of the Organized Retail Crime Resource Center. The NRF report was […]

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