With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• From the Seattle Times:
“Zulily, the Seattle-based online retailer that recently announced it is going out of business, has sued its one-time rival Amazon.
“In a complaint filed Monday in Seattle, Zulily accused the e-commerce giant of using the same anticompetitive business practices at the center of the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Amazon earlier this year … In its complaint, Zulily said Amazon did punish the sellers who used both digital platforms, leading those merchants to raise their prices on Zulily’s website, take products off of Zulily or stop selling on Zulily altogether. In some cases, the sellers never contacted Zulily, the company alleged.
“In the span of one year, Zulily lost half of its sellers who sold on both platforms, according to the complaint.”
The Times notes that “Amazon has maintained that its business practices are not anti-competitive and that the very practices the FTC is targeting actually lead to lower prices for consumers.”
The larger question that has to be addressed is whether business processes that lead in the short-term to lower consumer prices can be anti-competitive by stifling competition, which could lead to higher prices in the long-term.
• From The Information:
“High-end pet food startup The Farmer’s Dog is working with JPMorgan and other investment banks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by early next year, in a deal that could value it significantly higher than its last $2.5 billion valuation, people familiar with the matter said.
“The fundraising could help the company buck the trend of collapsing direct-to-consumer valuations over the past two years. The Farmer’s Dog, which delivers bags of customized dog food to doorsteps of customers who sign up for a subscription, expects to generate more than $800 million in sales this year, the people said. That represents growth of about 60% from 2022, as pet owners continue to splurge on their animals even as they cut back on spending for themselves.”
• From Bloomberg:
“Wendy’s Co. is expanding its test of an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that takes orders at the drive-thru.
“Franchisees will get the chance to test the product in 2024, the chain said Monday. The tool, powered by Google Cloud’s AI software, is currently active in four company-operated restaurants near Columbus, Ohio. More locations are slated to start using it soon.”
According to the story, Wendy’s said that “the software could on average take 86% of orders without intervention from restaurant staff … The system uses generative AI to create responses and adapt to customers in real time, Wendy’s said. In one location, service times were 22 seconds faster than the average for Columbus.”
• From TechCrunch:
“Amazon is dropping Venmo as a payment option next month, the PayPal owned mobile payment service announced on its website. The official announcement comes as Amazon notified users last night via email that Venmo will no longer be accepted on Amazon.com starting January 10, 2024. Amazon will still, however, accept Venmo debit and credit cards … PayPal spokesperson Joshua Criscoe told TechCrunch in an email that ‘Venmo and Amazon have agreed to disable Venmo as a payment option to pay on Amazon at this time. Customers can continue to add their Venmo debit card or credit card to their Venmo wallet to pay on Amazon. We have a strong relationship with Amazon and look forward to continuing to build on it’.”
The post The Digital Economy Beat appeared first on MNB.
View Original Article