Digital and e-commerce news - November 2022
Christmas is coming but also digital news are coming. Here is a selection of digital and e-commerce news you might have read (or missed) in the last month. Have a good read!
Getir acquires Gorillas and becomes the new quick-deliveries giant.
It was just a matter of time before a major M&A into quick commerce took place. And here we are. Getir announced the acquisition of Gorillas for an undisclosed amount that could be around $ 1,2 billion (the last Gorillas evaluation), splitter between equity and cash.
Getir and Gorillas reached their peak during the pandemic, with an evaluation of $ 11,8 and $ 3,1 billion respectively. After this, investments and market slowdowns hit both players and the quick commerce market faced a lot of layoffs and changes (I discussed this in the June edition). Now Getir, founded in 2015 in Turkey, is a group valued at around $ 10 billion and it will face additional turmoil since many countries are implementing new rules to control dark stores expansion.
Read more here.
Amazon launches a new TikTok feed to shop with photos and videos.
Credits: Amazon
Some sources already anticipated this launch the last summer (check here) and Inspire is finally here. The new Amazon TikTok-like feed is finally available in the US app and users can get access to it by clicking on the in-app icon, choosing their interests among more than 20 suggestions (makeup, pets, gaming, etc.) and scrolling through the infinite feed of photos and videos. It is still not clear the potential of this new feature. On one side, it gives more visibility to brands and content creators. On the other side, its main focus on pushing products and conversion is probably forgetting about the ‘engagement’ that followers love about other social platforms like TikTok.
Read here about the launch.
Disney is testing an exclusive e-commerce shop for Disney+ subscribers
Credits: Disney
In November, Disney started an e-commerce test in the US for some Disney+ subscribers. Indeed, through movie detail pages customers could shop for exclusive merchandise from top franchises like Star Wars, Frozen, Lightyear, and many others. However, at the moment the shopping experience requires eligible customers to scan a QR code with their phone that will bring them to a dedicated area of Disney's main e-commerce shop.
What about Netflix? After some collaborations with Walmart and Target, in-app shopping features could be its next step.
Read the news here.
Microsoft's takeover of Activision is at risk due to FTC’s antitrust concerns.
Microsoft tried to intercede with Sony but it seems it was not enough to convince the Federal Trade Commission. The 10-year deal offered Sony to make each new release of Call of Duty available on PlayStation at the same time as for Xbox. However, a few days ago the FTC filed a lawsuit to block Microsoft's $ 69 billion acquisition of Activision. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, is quite confident that they can defend themselves also in court. In particular, Smith affirms that it would be “economically irrational” and “disastrous for the franchise […] alienating millions of gamers” if Microsoft would make Call of Duty unavailable to PlayStation users. And this is just one additional chapter in the Microsoft-Sony saga. Let’s see if it will end with everyone living happily ever after (or not).
Read more here.
Alibaba launched a new fashion and lifestyle marketplace in Spain.
Alibaba launched Miravia with the intent of creating a new shopping experience for its customers and differentiating it from AliExpress's offer. Indeed, a new selection from top brands will be available together with exclusive content created by influencers and virtual makeup try-on. All main e-commerce features like promotions, free shipping, and brand stores are already in place and the catalogue includes fashion, beauty, food, and lifestyle products.
Read more here.
Everyone is going crazy with AI: Lensa AI, ChatGPT. Is this the tipping point for AI?
In the last week, social media (well, actually Instagram and Twitter) went nuts for some new AI apps. Here what is going on:
Lensa AI. Actually, Lensa is not that new, since it was created in 2018. It just went viral thanks to a new AI feature that creates stylish, cartoonish, and artistic avatars of your photos. Your photos? Yes, you've heard right. Lensa raised some concerns about data privacy and revamped some discussions related to AI ‘stealing’ art. Read more here.
ChatGPT. This is really cool and according to a lot of people “Google is dead”. ChatGPT is basically a natural language generation technology applied in a way that you can speak with it in a web browser similarly as you would do with a coworker or a customer service representative on a website. OpenAI, the company that also created DALL-E (image generation technology), made the beta test available here. Just try it. In any language. I am not an expert but could this be the tipping point for AI? If you are not convinced yet, just look on Twitter for ‘ChatGPT’ tweets. However, there are downsides too. Like creating answers that sound true even if they are not.
