E-commerce/Retail
Links from The Ride Home Podcast
All links categorized under this topic, grouped by year and month.
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2025
December
- Instacart Scraps All Price Tests After Customer Pushback (WSJ)
- Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ (NYTimes)
- Amazon explores building its own delivery network to replace USPS deal (Washington Post)
November
- Amazon Raises $15 Billion in First US Bond Sale in Three Years (Bloomberg)
- Airbnb Will Test Adding Instacart Grocery Delivery to Its App in Services Push (Bloomberg)
- Apple brings its App Store to the web (The Verge)
October
- Amazon Pharmacy introduces kiosks that can quickly dispense medications at the doctor’s office (GeekWire)
September
August
June
- Google launches Doppl, a new app that lets you visualize how an outfit might look on you (TechCrunch)
- Amazon bringing same-day delivery to ‘millions’ of rural customers (The Verge)
- Amazon Prime Day stretches to four days of deals this year (The Verge)
- Walmart is supercharging revenue — but with fewer workers (FT)
- DoorDash CEO Tony Xu is taking on the role of industry consolidator in food delivery (CNBC)
May
- You can now book a chef or personal trainer while traveling with Airbnb (CNN)
- Airbnb Is in Midlife Crisis Mode (Wired)
- DoorDash strikes £2.9bn deal for Deliveroo (FT)
- Exclusive: Shein, Temu ramp up advertising in UK and France as US tariffs hit (Reuters)
- Temu Blocks US Shoppers From Seeing Products Shipped From China (Wired)
April
- Kickstarter Introduces ‘Tariff Manager Tool’ to Add Charges to Already Fully Funded Projects (404 Media)
- Temu adds ‘import charges’ of about 145% after Trump tariffs, more than doubling price of many items (CNBC)
- Chinese shopping app Taobao joins DHgate in Top 5 on US App Store (TechCrunch)
- Amazon Seeks Partners for $15 Billion Warehouse Expansion Plan (Bloomberg)
March
February
- Zelle payments top $1 trillion in 2024 as network’s growth outpaces rivals including PayPal (CNBC)
- How a resurgent Walmart saw off the Amazon threat (FT)
- Amazon, King of Online Retail, Can’t Seem to Make Its Physical Stores Work (WSJ)
January
- Apple shares rise 3% as boost in services revenue overshadows iPhone miss (CNBC)
- Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco (Bloomberg)
2024
December
- Grubhub to pay $25 million for misleading customers, restaurants, drivers (Reuters)
- You Can Buy a Car on Amazon Now (Wired)
November
October
- Kroger and Walmart Deny ‘Surge Pricing’ After Adopting Digital Price Tags (NYTimes)
- Uber explored takeover bid for Expedia (FT)
September
August
- How Walmart became a force in a $54bn retail advertising industry (FT)
- Airbnb details plans to expand beyond short-term rentals, including co-hosting and relaunching ‘experiences’ (TechCrunch)
July
- Amazon Pushes Fast Delivery Into Rural Areas in Challenge to Post Office (WSJ)
- Airbnb Hosts Want Guests to Come to Them Directly (Bloomberg)
- Apple’s India Sales Surge 33% to Record in Shift From China (Bloomberg)
- Amazon’s Bargain Store Would Use Same Trade ‘Loophole’ as Temu, Shein (The Information)
June
- Amazon To Launch Temu-Like Discount Section With Direct Shipping From China (The Information)
- Apple discontinuing Apple Pay Later, ahead of new features launching this fall (9to5Mac)
- E*Trade Considers Kicking Meme-Stock Leader Keith Gill Off Platform (WSJ)
May
- Food delivery apps rack up $20bn in losses in fierce battle for diners (FT)
- Website-design firm Squarespace to go private in $6.9 billion deal with Permira (Reuters)
- In Latest Stunt, Airbnb Lists the ‘Up’ House. It Floats. (NYTimes)
April
- Amazon Prime Memberships in US Gain 8% to New High After Lull (Bloomberg)
- Amazon Sellers Plagued by Surge in Scam Returns (WSJ)
- Amazon’s Grocery Stores to Drop Just Walk Out Checkout Tech (The Information)
March
- Carvana makes U-turn away from financial abyss (FT)
- Amazon’s New Focus: Fending Off Rivals Temu and Shein (WSJ)
- Temu’s Push Into America Pays Off Big Time for Meta and Google (WSJ)
February
- Thrasio, once king of e-commerce aggregation, files for Ch.11 (TechCrunch)
- Walmart in Talks to Buy TV Maker Vizio (WSJ)
- Walmart Eyeing Deal to Buy Vizio for More Than $2 Billion: Report (Variety)
- Temu Spent Millions on Six Super Bowl Ads as It Tries to Win Back US Shoppers (Bloomberg)
- Ring video doorbell customers angry at 43% price hike (BBC)
- Ring is raising the price of its cheapest subscription plan by 25 percent (The Verge)
- Digital ad market shows signs of sharp rebound as Meta, Amazon point to growth (CNBC)
January
- EBay to eliminate about 1,000 jobs, or 9% of full-time workforce (CNBC)
- Temu’s Most Loyal Shoppers Are Actually Boomers and Gen Xers (Bloomberg)
- Adobe: Online Holiday Sales Reached Record $222 Billion in 2023 (PMNTS)
- Amazon Captured 29% of Online Orders Before Christmas (Bloomberg)
2023
December
- Figma Grew Fast Even as Executives Failed to Clinch Adobe Deal (The Information)
- Adobe Has $6 Billion for AI and Buybacks After Figma Deal Collapses (Bloomberg)
- Etsy Cuts 11% of Headcount as Competition From Shein and Temu Mounts (The Information)
November
- Apple Pulls Plug on Goldman Credit-Card Partnership (WSJ)
- US Thanksgiving weekend sales hit record on big discounts, online boost (Reuters)
- Payments app Zelle begins refunds for imposter scams after Washington pressure (Reuters)
- Amazon links One Medical primary care to Prime memberships (Washington Post)
- Klarna’s financial glow-up is my favorite story in tech right now (TechCrunch)
- DoorDash now warns you that your food might get cold if you don’t tip (The Verge)
September
- Instacart closes up 12% in Nasdaq debut, after first-day rally sputters (CNBC)
- Apple and Goldman were planning stock-trading feature for iPhones until markets turned last year (CNBC)
August
- Shein Strikes Deal With Forever 21 (WSJ)
- TikTok Shop on Track to Lose More Than $500 Million in U.S. This Year (The Information)
- Amazon Unveils Biggest Grocery Overhaul Since Buying Whole Foods (Bloomberg)
June
- Advertising industry seeks refunds over YouTube skippable ads (FT)
- DoorDash launches hourly rates and location sharing for couriers (The Verge)
- Exclusive: Amazon launches local business delivery network (Axios)
- Amazon will hold Prime Day 2023 on July 11-12, adding invite-only deals and ‘Buy with Prime’ sites (GeekWire)
- Alphabet Selling Google Domains Assets to Squarespace (Bloomberg)
- Video Ads Are Coming to All Your Uber Apps (WSJ)
- Amazon Is in Talks to Offer Free Mobile Service to US Prime Members (Bloomberg)
- Apple touts $1.1 trillion in App Store commerce in 2022, with $104B in digital sales (TechCrunch)
May
- IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax-prep giants (Washington Post)
- Airbnb Revamps Site to Ease Tensions Between Guests, Hosts (Bloomberg)
April
- Pinterest announces multiyear ads partnership with Amazon alongside earnings beat (TechCrunch)
- Apple finally launches high-yield Apple Savings account (Apple Insider)
March
- Jack Dorsey’s Block Falls After Hindenburg Says It’s Short the Stock (Bloomberg)
- Hindenburg takes aim at Dorsey’s payments firm Block; shares plunge (Reuters)
- Amazon will discontinue newspaper and magazine subscriptions in September (GoodEReader)
- Payments giant Stripe raises $6.5 billion at a $50 billion valuation (Axios)
- Ryan Reynolds-Backed Mint Is Bought by T-Mobile for $1.35 Billion (Bloomberg)
- SCOOP: Stripe Is Raising $6 Billion to Resolve Taxes & Expiring Employee Shares, Delaying Public Listing (Newcomer)
February
- Uber redesigns app for simpler, more personalized experience (TechCrunch)
- Amazon chief vows to ‘go big’ on physical stores (FT)
- Stripe Can’t Lose (Every)
January
- Thrive Capital Said to Lead Potential Investment in Stripe (NYTimes)
- Amazon adding new fees for grocery delivery (GeekWire)
- Stripe Sets One-Year Timetable to Decide on Going Public (WSJ)
- Amazon launches RxPass, a $5/month Prime add-on for all-you-need generic drugs covering 80 conditions (TechCrunch)
- Banks Plan Payment Wallet to Compete With PayPal, Apple Pay (WSJ)
- How Amazon Became Ordinary
- Amazon to close charitable program AmazonSmile (The Hill)
- Buy with Prime, which brings Prime to third-party sites, officially launches in U.S. on Jan. 31 (TechCrunch)
2022
December
November
- Basically everything on Amazon has become an ad (Vox)
- Airbnb to Make Cleaning Fees Clearer on Searches After Customer Complaints (WSJ)
- Gmail to add a new package tracking feature ahead of holiday shopping season (TechCrunch)
October
- You’re Going To Have To Pay To Use Some Fancy Colors In Photoshop Now (Kotaku)
- The Fantasy of Instant Delivery Is Imploding (Bloomberg)
- Uber rolls out ad business to reach more riders (FT)
- Apple Card to Offer Savings Account for Daily Cash (MacRumors)
September
- Walmart enters the metaverse with Roblox experiences aimed at younger shoppers (CNBC)
- Unauthorized Shein boutiques are popping up across Mexico (Rest of World)
- The Amazon Experience Comes to the NFL (The Ringer)
August
- Gopuff Tries to Raise Money Again (WSJ)
- Meta and Jio launch grocery shopping on WhatsApp in India (TechCrunch)
- WhatsApp’s super app ambitions are starting to come true in India (The Verge)
- Amazon Among Bidders for Signify Health (WSJ)
- Amazon is raising seller fees for the holidays to manage through surging inflation (CNBC)
- What Amazon’s Roomba and One Medical Deals Have in Common (Bloomberg)
- Amazon is buying iRobot for $1.7B (TechCrunch)
- Robinhood Lays Off 23% of Staff as Retail Investors Fade From Platform (WSJ)
- Uber reports another big loss but beats on revenue, shares pop 14% (CNBC)
July
- The Buy Now, Pay Later Juggernaut Is About to Be Tested (Bloomberg)
- Shopify to Lay Off 10% of Workers in Broad Shake-Up (WSJ)
- The Amazon + One Medical Post (Out Of Pocket)
- Amazon C.E.O. Andy Jassy Breaks From the Bezos Way (NYTimes)
- Amazon is buying primary care tech provider One Medical for $3.9B (TechCrunch)
- The Speedy Downfall of Rapid Delivery Startups (Wired)
- Tiger Global-backed Missfresh faces fight for survival (FT)
- Amazon Has Been Slashing Private-Label Selection Amid Weak Sales (WSJ)
- Amazon takes a Prime step back into restaurant delivery in the US with big Grubhub investment and partnership (TechCrunch)
- Klarna in Talks to Raise Fresh Cash at Slashed $6.5 Billion Valuation (WSJ)
June
- Amazon plans two Prime shopping events this year, with second one in Q4 (CNBC)
- ‘Wallets and eyeballs’: how eBay turned the internet into a marketplace (The Guardian)
- Apple Goes Deeper Into Finance With Buy Now, Pay Later Offering (WSJ)
- Apple Will Handle Lending Itself With New Pay Later Service (Bloomberg)
- Apple Pay Later lets you split up purchases into four payments at no interest (TechCrunch)
May
- In India’s Mobile-Payments Boom, Even Beggars Get QR Codes (WSJ)
- The Collison Brothers Built Stripe Into A $95 Billion Unicorn With Eye-Popping Financials. Inside Their Plan To Stay On Top (Forbes)
- New York Now Has More Airbnb Listings Than Apartments for Rent (Curbed)
- Apple Now Letting Developers Automatically Charge for Some Subscription Price Increases (MacRumors)
- Amazon’s surprising new delivery partners: Rural mom-and-pop shops (Recode)
- Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: Inside Shein’s Sudden Rise (Wired)
- Cameo lays off close to 90, including senior executives (Protocol)
- Uber reports surging revenue as drivers return, but posts massive loss on investments (CNBC)
April
- Bolt, a Checkout Startup Worth $11 Billion, Lost Customers as Revenue Stalled (The Information)
- Robinhood lays off nine percent of its full-time employees (Engadget)
- How Meta Platforms Fell Behind in Indian Mobile Payments (WSJ)
- Video Game Junkie Quietly Builds $3 Billion Payments Powerhouse (Bloomberg)
- Amazon opens up Prime delivery service to other retailers in its latest move to compete with FedEx and UPS (CNBC)
- Just Eat Weighs Grubhub Sale in Tough Food Delivery Market (Bloomberg)
- Over 14,000 Etsy sellers are going on strike to protest increased transaction fees (TechCrunch)
- Digital Ad Revenue Jumped 35% in the U.S. Last Year, Biggest Gain Since 2006 (WSJ)
- The Scoop: Inside Fast’s Rapid Collapse
- Millennial Billionaire Ryan Breslow Created Buzz, And Enemies, Attacking Stripe And Shopify. He’s Just Getting Started. (Forbes)
- Shein Valued at $100 Billion in Funding Round (WSJ)
- Food Delivery Stocks Lose $24 Billion in Just Three Months (Bloomberg)
- Online shopping in the middle of the ocean (Rest of World)
March
- Gopuff Plans Hundreds of Layoffs to Cut $40 Million in Costs (The Information)
- Why Stripe’s ‘Fast’ Horse Is Losing the One-Click Checkout Race (The Information)
- Instacart Slashes Its Valuation by Almost 40% to $24 Billion (Bloomberg)
- [Two ultra-fast delivery startups shut down in one week](https://www.cbs58.com/news/two-ultra-fast-delivery-startups-shut-down-in-one-week#:~:text=(CNN)
- Amazon is shutting 68 retail stores, ending Amazon Books, 4-star and Pop Up shops (CNBC)
- Uber adds new ways to buy concert tickets and book restaurants in its app (The Verge)
February
- Amazon’s sprawling grocery business has become an ‘expensive hobby’ with a cloudy future (CNBC)
- Amazon sues two companies that allegedly help fill the site with fake reviews (CNBC)
- Sea’s $16 Billion Crash Signals Trouble Beyond India Shutout (Bloomberg)
- Gopuff stocks its warehouses with items purchased from Instacart, spending tens of thousands per month on the service (Insider)
- Apple announces new Tap to Pay feature that turns iPhones into contactless payment terminals (9to5Mac)
- Amazon Flexes Its Pricing Muscles (WSJ)
- Amazon Profit Shows Resilience Even as Labor, Supply Crunch Weigh on Results (WSJ)
January
- Losses Mount for Startups Racing to Deliver Groceries Fast and Cheap (WSJ)
- Apple to Rival Square by Turning iPhones Into Payment Terminals (Bloomberg)
- Amazon to try another tech-infused retail concept with ‘Amazon Style,’ its first physical fashion store (GeekWire)
- App Annie: Global app stores’ consumer spend up 19% to $170B in 2021, downloads grew 5% to 230B (TechCrunch)
2021
December
- How Shopify Outfoxed Amazon to Become the Everywhere Store (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- How Shein beat Amazon at its own game — and reinvented fast fashion (Rest of World)
- Amazon Ramps Up Plans for Instacart-Like Service in U.S., Europe (The Information)
- Amazon is making its own containers and bypassing supply chain chaos with chartered ships and long-haul planes (CNBC)
- DoorDash breaks gig worker model to hire couriers as employees in New York trial (FT)
- Instacart Plans 15-Minute Delivery Trial as Rival Startups Grow (The Information)
November
- Cyber Monday Sales Flat as Smaller Savings Curb Incentive to Spend (WSJ)
- Amazon Builds Out Network to Speed Delivery, Handle Holiday Crunch (WSJ)
- Amazon poised to pass UPS and FedEx to become largest U.S. delivery service by early 2022, exec says (CNBC)
- Walmart will be the first retailer to test Twitter’s new livestream shopping platform (TechCrunch)
- Desperate Parents Turn to Shopping Bots to Hunt for Hottest Christmas Gifts (WSJ)
- Zillow to shutter home buying business and lay off 2,000 employees as its big real estate bet falters (GeekWire)
- Zillow Seeks to Sell 7,000 Homes for $2.8 Billion After Flipping Halt (Bloomberg)
October
- Amazon launches in-store pickup option for items from local businesses (CNBC)
- PayPal Is Exploring a Purchase of Pinterest (Bloomberg)
- Plaid Pushes Into Payments Business After Scuttled Visa Deal (WSJ)
- Spotify Adds Virtual Merch Tables for Music Artists in Pact With Shopify (Variety)
- Delivery Hero Leads $1 Billion Funding Round for Gorillas (Bloomberg)
- Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ T-Shirts Are Coming to a Walmart Near You (Bloomberg)
- Amazon Prime members can now send gifts with just a phone number or email address (The Verge)
- Toast built a $30 billion business by defying Silicon Valley and surviving a ‘suicide mission’ (CNBC)
September
- AngelList returns to its founder-focused roots, with a twist (TechCrunch)
- PayPal launches its ‘super app’ combining payments, savings, bill pay, crypto, shopping and more (TechCrunch)
- Walmart+ is gaining momentum, hits 32 million members, Deutsche Bank estimates (CNBC)
- No Chinese Stock Left Among Global Top 10 as Tencent Slides (Bloomberg)
- Former Startup Darling Genius Sells to Media Lab for $80 Million (Bloomberg)
- Canva Raises At $40 Billion Valuation — Its Founders Are Pledging Away Most Of Their Wealth (Forbes)
- Commercetools raises $140M at a $1.9B valuation as ‘headless’ commerce continues to boom (TechCrunch)
- BNPL platform Scalapay raises $155 million in Tiger Global led round (Tech.eu)
- PayPal Closes $2.7B Acquisition Deal For Japan’s Paidy (Pymnts.com)
- Amazon brings its cashierless tech to two Whole Foods stores (CNBC)
August
- OnlyFans no longer plans to ban porn, saying in abrupt U-turn that it wants to be a ‘home for all creators’ (Insider)
- OnlyFans has tons of users, but can’t find investors (Axios)
- OnlyFans to Bar Sexually Explicit Videos Starting in October (Bloomberg)
- Amazon Plans to Open Large Retail Locations Akin to Department Stores (WSJ)
- OnlyFans Creates Its First App With a Twist: No Nudity, No Cost (Bloomberg)
- DoorDash Recently Held Talks to Buy Instacart (The Information)
- Square’s $29 billion deal for buy-now, pay-later player Afterpay is the starting gun for the race to build a money super app (Insider)
- Robinhood surges as much as 81% in second day of wild trading (CNBC)
- Apple, Affirm to Join on Buy Now, Pay Later for Canadian Purchases (Bloomberg)
- Twitter’s Dorsey leads $29 bln buyout of lending pioneer Afterpay (Reuters)
July
- Robinhood falls in its public market debut, closes more than 8% lower at $34.82 per share (CNBC)
- Gopuff confirms new $1B cash injection at a $15B valuation to expand its instant grocery delivery service (TechCrunch)
- Groceries in 10 Minutes: Delivery Start-Ups Crowd City Streets Across Globe (NYTimes)
- Robinhood CEO on the meme stock craze: ‘I think it’s a real thing’ (CNBC)
- An ‘Airbnb for Pools’ Is Making a Splash This Summer (WSJ)
- Revolut confirms a fresh $800M in funding at a $33B valuation (TechCrunch)
- Apple, Goldman Plan ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Service to Rival Affirm (Bloomberg)
June
- Shopify drops its App Store commissions to 0% on developers’ first million in revenue (TechCrunch)
- Amazon Appstore will reduce developer revenue cut from 30% to 20% and give 10% in Free AWS Credit (AFTV News)
- Amazon brings cashierless tech to full-size grocery store for first time at new Seattle-area location (Geek Wire)
- Payments giant Stripe launches Stripe Tax to integrate sales tax calculations for 30+ countries (TechCrunch)
- Amazon Prime Day set for June 21 and 22 (CNBC)
- Etsy is buying the fashion resale app Depop for $1.6 billion. (NYTimes)
May
- Airbnb doubles down on flexible search, improves the host flow in preparation for summer 2021 (TechCrunch)
April
- Amazon to spend $1B to boost pay for 500k operations workers by as much as $3 an hour (Geek Wire)
- Amazon is bringing palm-scanning payment system to Whole Foods stores (CNBC)
- DoorDash Drivers Game Algorithm to Increase Pay (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Patreon’s Valuation Triples to $4 Billion as Platform Draws Creators, Fans (WSJ)
- Thrasio raises $100M for its Amazon roll-up play, appoints retail CFO for its next steps (TechCrunch)
March
- Deliveroo drags on the LSE; closes down 44% on debut (TechCrunch)
- Cameo Aims to Connect Celebrities With Fans and It’s Now Valued at $1 Billion (WSJ)
- On-demand logistics and fulfillment startup Flowspace raises $31M (VentureBeat)
- Stripe valuation soars to $95bn after latest fundraising (FT)
- The new Google Pay repeats all the same mistakes of Google Allo (Ars Technica)
- Amazon shaves app icon mustache that raised eyebrows (The Verge)
- Instacart’s valuation doubles to $39 billion (CNBC)
- Klarna Valued at $31 Billion After U.S. Growth Stoked Investors (Bloomberg)
- As BNPL startups raise, a look at Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay earnings (TechCrunch Extra)
February
- Google Maps will now let you pay for public transportation and parking through its app (The Verge)
- Bumble stock closes up 63% after soaring in market debut (CNBC)
- Microsoft approached Pinterest about a takeover (FT)
- Bumble makes Wall Street debut in a milestone moment for female founders (CNN Business)
- TikTok takes on Facebook with US ecommerce push (FT)
- This Hedge Fund Made $700 Million on GameStop (WSJ)
- PFOF is the Ad Model for Brokerage (Justin Paterno)
- Uber buying booze delivery company Drizly for $1.1 billion (Axios)
- Robinhood Raises Another $2.4 Billion From Shareholders (WSJ)
January
- Robinhood, in Need of Cash, Raises $1 Billion From Its Investors (NYTimes)
- The Big Short SQUEEZE from $5 to $50? Could GameStop stock (GME) explode higher?? Value investing! (Roaring Kitty)
- How a Penny Stock Explodes From Obscurity to 451% Gains Via Chat Forums (Bloomberg)
- CashApp Is King (Aika’s Newsletter)
- How WallStreetBets Pushed GameStop Shares to the Moon (Bloomberg)
- WallStreetBets Founder Reckons With Legacy Amid Stock (WSJ)
- SPAC boom could finally provide an exit ramp for digital publishers like Buzzfeed and Vice Media (CNBC)
- When SPACs Attack! A New Force Is Invading Wall Street. (WSJ)
- Plaid Shareholders Field Offers at $15 Billion After Merger Collapse (The Information)
- Hipcamp, ‘Airbnb of the Outdoors,’ Raises $57 Million (The Information)
- Local news app News Break raises $115M (TechCrunch)
- Perfect Corp., developer of virtual beauty app YouCam Makeup, closes $50 million Series C led by Goldman Sachs (TechCrunch)
- Online clothing reseller Poshmark closes up more than 140% on first day of trading (CNBC)
- Max Levchin’s Affirm pops nearly 100% in market debut (CNBC)
- Cameo launches hiring spree following banner year (Axios)
- Trade-in site Gazelle is ending trade-ins (The Verge)
2020
December
- Amazon’s advertising business booms in pandemic (FT)
- Opendoor Rides SPAC Deal to Lofty $18 Billion Valuation at Market Debut (The Information)
- Real estate software and data analytics company RealPage to be acquired for $10.2 billion (VentureBeat)
- Airbnb skyrockets 112% in public market debut, giving it a market cap of $86.5 billion (CNBC)
- DoorDash skyrockets 80% in market debut, opening at $182 per share (CNBC)
- Wish plans to price between $22 and $24 per share at up to $14 billion valuation (CNBC)
- Stripe to Offer Banking Services in Deal With Goldman Sachs, Citigroup (WSJ)
- Stripe: Platform of Platforms (Stratechery)
- PhonePe raises $700 million, becomes a separate entity (TechCrunch)
- FedEx to Buy ShopRunner in Quest for Closer E-Commerce Ties (Bloomberg)
November
- Airbnb, DoorDash Aim for Higher-Than-Expected Valuations Ahead of Debuts (WSJ)
- Payments Startup Stripe in Talks for Funding at $70 Billion Valuation or More (Bloomberg)
- Can Shopify Compete With Amazon Without Becoming Amazon? (NYTimes Magazine)
- BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media (WSJ)
- Google Pay gets a major redesign with a new emphasis on personal finance (TechCrunch)
- Affirm drops S-1, revealing sharply rising revenue on a narrower net loss (FinLedger.com)
- Amazon jumps into the pharmacy business with online prescription fulfillment, free delivery for Prime members (CNBC)
- Airbnb files to go public, turned a profit last quarter (CNBC)
- DoorDash files to go public (TechCrunch)
- Railsbank, the Banking-as-a-Service, raises $37M in growth funding (TechCrunch)
- ‘This is revolutionary’: new online bookshop unites indies to rival Amazon (The Guardian)
- Walmart Scraps Plan to Have Robots Scan Shelves (WSJ)
October
- THE MASK BARONS OF ETSY (The Verge)
- Shogun raises $35M to help brands take on Amazon with faster and better sites of their own (TechCrunch)
September
- Rally raises $17M to expand a platform that lets you invest in (but not buy) collectibles (TechCrunch)
- Amazon will now let you pay with your palm in its stores (Recode)
- Amazon Prime Day set for Oct 13 and 14 after coronavirus delayed original summer date (CNBC)
- Sneaker Platform Goat Group Raises $100 Million to Fund Expansion Plans (WSJ)
- Walmart+ launches Sept 15, offering same-day delivery, gas discounts and cashierless checkout for $98/yr (TechCrunch)
August
- Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s consumer boss and a top lieutenant to Bezos, will step down in 2021 (CNBC)
- DoorDash launches grocery delivery to compete with Amazon and Instacart (The Verge)
- Alibaba posts 124 per cent gain in quarterly profit, sees China retail back to pre-pandemic levels (SCMP)
- The ecommerce surge (Benedict Evans)
- Apple Gives Users More Time to Buy AppleCare After Sales Slow (Bloomberg)
- Amazon Bets on Office-Based Work With Expansion in Major Cities (WSJ)
- Apple Readies Subscription Bundles to Boost Digital Services (Bloomberg)
- Amazon and Mall Operator Look at Turning Sears, J.C. Penney Stores Into Fulfillment Centers (WSJ)
- Pinduoduo: Vertically Integrated Social Commerce (Turner Novak’s Substack)
July
- Report: Amazon’s Monopoly Tollbooth (ILSR.org)
- Shopify shares jump 7% after hot e-commerce company says second-quarter revenue increased 97% (CNBC)
- Their Businesses Went Virtual. Then Apple Wanted a Cut. (NYTimes)
- Robinhood Has Lured Young Traders, Sometimes With Devastating Results (NYTimes)
- Robinhood and How to Lose Money (The Margins)
- Misfits Market raises $85 million Series B to send you ‘ugly’ fruits and veggies (TechCrunch)
- Jeff Bezos hated ads — now Amazon is America’s top advertiser (Axios)
- EBay Nears Deal to Sell Classified-Ad Unit to Adevinta (WSJ)
- Amazon Influence Program opens to live streamers for broadcasting Amazon Life (TechCrunch)
- Walmart leads $1.2 billion investment in India’s Flipkart (TechCrunch)
- Amazon’s new smart shopping cart lets you check out without a cashier (The Verge)
- Exclusive: Apple is working on QR Code payments for Apple Pay, iOS 14 code reveals (9to5Mac)
- Uber agrees to buy food-delivery service Postmates for $2.65 billion in stock (CNBC)
- Uber acquires meal delivery service Postmates for $2.65 billion (The Verge)
- Strategy Behind Blockbuster Grubhub Deal: Don’t Deliver (WSJ)
June
- Lululemon set to acquire home fitness startup Mirror for $500M (TechCrunch)
- Uber in Talks to Buy Postmates for About $2.6 Billion (WSJ)
- How a “crazy Dutch guy” won the online food delivery war (Silicon Canals)
- How Uber Turned a Promising Bikeshare Company Into Literal Garbage (Vice)
- The Credit-Card Fees Merchants Hate, Banks Love and Consumers Pay (WSJ)
- Amazon forms ‘Counterfeit Crimes Unit,’ under pressure to escalate fight against fake products (GeekWire)
- Brazilian Authorities Suspend WhatsApp Payments (Bloomberg)
- Exclusive: DoorDash valued at $16 billion after new funding round (Axios)
- Apple says its App Store facilitated $519B in commerce in 2019 (TechCrunch)
- Shopify Advances After Deal With Walmart Expands Its Reach (Bloomberg)
- Just Eat Takeaway to Buy Grubhub for $7.3 Billion to Enter U.S. (Bloomberg)
- Just Eat Takeaway.com Nears All-Stock Deal for Grubhub (WSJ)
- Airbnb Joins Vacation-Rental Sites Seeing Surge in Demand (Bloomberg)
May
- Amazon’s Big Breakdown (NYTimes)
- JioMart, the e-commerce venture from India’s richest man, launches in 200 cities and towns (TechCrunch)
- Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook Shops, making it easier for businesses to list products for sale (CNBC)
- Ecommerce penetration graph (Dennis Hong)
- Is the e-commerce shift going to last? (TechCrunch)
- Walmart is shutting down Jet.com 4 years after buying the company for $3.3 billion (Business Insider)
- General Atlantic to invest $870M in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms (TechCrunch)
- London-based Fly Now Pay Later raises £35 million Series A to provide flexible financing to travellers (Tech.eu)
- Austin-Based Real Estate Startup Homeward Secures $105M In Debt & Equity (TechCrunch)
- Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage (Margins, by Ranjan Roy and Can Duruk)
- Uber’s CEO, a Seasoned Dealmaker, Pursues His Biggest One Yet (Bloomberg)
- Founder Of Borders Bookstores, Webvan Returns With Dreams Of Beating Amazon At Food Delivery (Forbes)
- US e-commerce sales jump 49% in April, led by online grocery (TechCrunch)
- Vista Equity Partners to invest $1.5B in India’s Reliance Jio Partners (TechCrunch)
- Instacart’s Frantic Dash From Grocery App to Essential Service (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Uber to lay off 3,700 employees, about 14% of workforce (CNBC)
- Silver Lake to invest $747M in India’s Jio Platforms (TechCrunch)
- Amazon says it’ll spend $4 billion or more dealing with COVID-19 (The Verge)
April
- Shopify launches Shop, a new mobile app (TechCrunch)
- In major shift, Google Shopping opens up to free product listings (Search Engine Land)
- Amazon Retools With Unusual Goal: Get Shoppers to Buy Less Amid Coronavirus Pandemic (WSJ)
- Amazon slashes commission rates for program that gives publishers a cut of sales (CNBC)
- Amazon to Expand Shipments of Nonessential Items, Continue Adding Staff (WSJ)
- Amazon developing coronavirus testing lab for workers (Washington Post)
- The pandemic is playing to almost every one of Amazon’s strengths (CNN Business)
- Can Airbnb Survive Coronavirus? (Citylab)
- Airbnb Paying More Than 10% Interest on $1 Billion Financing Announced Monday (WSJ)
- Airbnb In Talks To Raise More Debt (Bloomberg)
- Airbnb is raising $1 billion amid fallout from coronanvirus (CNBC)
- Airbnb lowers internal valuation by 16% to $26bn (FT)
March
- Airbnb to Halt All Marketing, Most Hiring as Losses Mount (The Information)
- Airbnb Hosts to Help Provide Housing to 100,000 COVID-19 Responders (Airbnb Newsroom)
- StubHub furloughs employees, other ticket sites face challenges in wake of pandemic (ESPN)
- Stripe leads $20M Series A into Fast, which is building a universal checkout service for e-commerce (TechCrunch)
- Apple promises App Store expansion to 20 new countries starting next month (9to5Mac)
- Revolut launches its neobank in the US (TechCrunch)
- Square gains FDIC conditional approval for a banking license (Silicon Angle)
- How Cameo Turned D-List Celebs Into a Monetization Machine (Marker)
- Amazon ramps hiring, opening 100,000 new roles to support people relying on Amazon’s service in this stressful time (Amazon Day One Blog)
- Airbnb’s Loss Nearly Doubles in Fourth Quarter, Before Virus (Bloomberg)
- Why All the Warby Parker Clones Are Now Imploding (Marker)
- A Chatty Auction Site Is Taking the Classic Car World by Storm (NYTimes)
- Amazon Tells New York and New Jersey Employees to Stay Home
- Robinhood goes down again, causing clients to miss out on another historic trading day (CNBC)
- Amazon launches business selling automated checkout to retailers (Reuters)
- Robinhood offers $15 discount, blames outage on record trades (TechCrunch)
- Robinhood offers traders $15 for going down as markets gained $1.1T (TNW)
- Robinhood Trading Site Seizes Up, Customers Miss Stock Rally (Bloomberg)
February
- How Monzo brought Silicon Valley’s ‘wild ideas’ to Britain’s staid banking system (CNBC)
- The bank manager will see you now: is Monzo ready to grow up? (The Guardian)
- Intuit confirms that it is buying Credit Karma for $7.1B in cash and stock (TechCrunch)
- Inside ‘Amazon Go Grocery’: Tech giant opens first full-sized store without cashiers or checkout lines (GeekWire)
- Grab raises up to $856M to boost payments business as rumors swirl of a merger with rival Gojek (TechCrunch)
- Intuit Near Deal to Buy Credit Karma for $7 Billion (WSJ)
- Blue Chip Morgan Stanley to Buy Discount Broker E-Trade (NYTimes)
- In India, mom-and-pop stores are proving to be the holy grail for tech startups (KrASIA)
- Apple Pay is on pace to account for 10% of all global card transactions (QZ)
- Brandless shuts down operations, becoming SoftBank Vision Fund’s first failure (Protocol)
- Casper surges nearly 30% in market debut (CNBC)
January
- Amazon Revenue Jumps on Holiday Sales as Profit Rises (WSJ)
- Uber and DoorDash held merger talks after SoftBank push (FT)
- Seamless, Grubhub deliver confusion with mistaken restaurant listings (The San Francisco Chronicle)
- Uber Tests Feature Allowing Some California Drivers to Set Fares (WSJ)
- App stores saw record 204 billion app downloads in 2013, consumer spend of $120 billion (TechCrunch)
2019
December
- Inside Documents Show How Amazon Chose Speed Over Safety in Building Its Delivery Network (Pro Publica)
- Shopify: A StarCraft Inspired Business Strategy (Non)
- Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments (WSJ)
- Amazon Learns a New Skill: Making Money From Alexa (The Information)
- Amazon Brings in $1.4 Million in 2019 of Alexa Skill Revenue So Far — Well Short of the $5.5 Million Target According to The Information (Voicebot.ai)
- Watch out, UPS. Morgan Stanley estimates Amazon is already delivering half of its packages (CNBC)
- Apple Cards’ interest-free iPhone installment plan goes live, now with 6% back on Apple holiday purchases (TechCrunch)
- Unintended Perk of the Online Mattress Boom: Never-Ending Free (WSJ)
- Red Flags for Robinhood (Fortune)
- Black Friday sees record $7.4B in online sales, $2.9B spent using smartphones (TechCrunch)
November
- EBay to sell StubHub to Viagogo for about $4 billion in cash (CNBC)
- India’s financial services firm Paytm raises $1B (TechCrunch)
- PayPal to acquire shopping and rewards platform Honey for $4B (TechCrunch)
- Amazon unveils new Dash Smart Shelf that automatically reorders items when supplies run low (GeekWire)
- Route’s app auto-tracks all your packages, raises $12M (TechCrunch)
- Next in Google’s Quest for Consumer Dominance: Banking (WSJ)
- DoorDash Picks Up Another $100 Million at Nearly $13 Billion Valuation (Bloomberg)
- Facebook Pay is a new payment system for WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook (The Verge)
- WordPress.com sites can now accept subscriptions with new ‘Recurring Payments’ feature (TechCrunch)
- Amazon will launch new grocery store as alternative to Whole Foods (CNET)
- DoorDash Won Food Delivery by Seizing the Suburbs and $2 Billion (Bloomberg)
- Uber is entering the ads business (TechCrunch)
- Uber Books Another Quarterly Loss as Revenue Climbs (WSJ)
October
- Unraveling the Secret Origins of an AmazonBasics Battery (OneZero)
- Shopify Shares Tumble After Surprise Loss on Spending Boost (Bloomberg)
- Amazon axes $14.99 Amazon Fresh fee, making grocery delivery free for Prime members to boost use (TechCrunch)
- Amazon will let you pay bills with Alexa (VentureBeat)
- 1.5 Million Packages a Day: The Internet Brings Chaos to N.Y. Streets (NYTimes)
- AMAZON.COM ANNOUNCES THIRD QUARTER SALES UP 24% TO $70.0 BILLION (Amazon)
- Apple Pay Overtakes Starbucks as Top Mobile Payment App in the US (eMarketer)
- Online Influencers Tell You What to Buy, Advertisers Wonder Who’s Listening (WSJ)
- Roku is buying ad tech company Dataxu in $150 million deal (CNBC)
- Airbnb’s quarterly loss reportedly doubled in Q1, a bad sign as investors grow wary of money-losers (CNBC)
- Airbnb’s Q1 Loss More Than Doubled, New Data Shows (The Information)
- SoftBank is reportedly seeking to take control of WeWork through a financing package (CNBC)
- Is Amazon Unstoppable? (The New Yorker)
- Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan (The Atlantic)
- Group Nine to Acquire PopSugar, Continuing Wave of Digital Media Tie-Ups (WSJ)
- Robinhood revives checking with new debit card & 2% interest (TechCrunch)
- Amazon debuts its first ever Kindle Kids Edition (CNET)
- Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300 million to unleash growth. Then things got messy (CNN Business)
- Vice Media to Acquire Refinery29, as Both Digital-Media Players Seek Scale (Variety)
September
- Divvy Homes Raises $43M Series B To Help Renters Become Homeowners (Crunchbase News)
- WeWork CEO Adam Neumann to step down amid controversy and retain chairman role (CNBC)
- Some WeWork Board Members Seek to Remove Adam Neumann as CEO (WSJ)
- SoftBank’s Masa Son is in favor of ousting WeWork CEO Adam Neumann (CNBC)
- Airbnb Says It Plans to Go Public in 2020 (NYTimes)
- Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020 (Airbnb)
- Datadog Rises 53% in Trading Debut After Rebuffing Cisco (Bloomberg)
- Automattic raises $300 million at $3 billion valuation from Salesforce Ventures (TechCrunch)
- SoftBank Backers Rethink Role in Next Vision Fund on WeWork (Bloomberg)
- Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products (WSJ)
- These brothers just raised $15 million for their startup, Dutchie, a kind of Shopify for cannabis dispensaries (TechCrunch)
- Amazon’s Next-Day Delivery Has Brought Chaos And Carnage To America’s Streets — But The World’s Biggest Retailer Has A System To Escape The Blame (BuzzFeed News)
August
- Mobile payments have barely caught on in the US, despite the rise of smartphones (CNBC)
- Yelp adds personalized search results to its iPhone app (Engadget)
- Amazon Has Ceded Control of Its Site. The Result: Thousands of Banned, Unsafe or Mislabeled Products (WSJ)
- Amazon offered vendors ‘Amazon’s Choice’ labels in return for ad spending and lower prices (Digiday)
- WEWORK ISN’T A TECH COMPANY; IT’S A SOAP OPERA (The Verge)
- WeWTF (ProfGalloway.com)
- Peer-to-peer boat rental marketplace Boatsetter raises $10M as it looks to grow globally (TechCrunch)
- Verizon to Sell Tumblr to WordPress.com Owner (WSJ)
- Uber Posts $5.2 Billion Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate (NYTimes)
- How Piano built a propensity paywall for publishers — and what it’s learned so far (NiemanLab)
- FedEx Ends Ground-Delivery Deal With Amazon (Bloomberg)
- Amazon’s PillPack is battling with CVS and Walgreens over getting patient prescriptions (CNBC)
- The Apple Card starts rolling out today (The Verge)
- Yelp is Screwing Over Restaurants By Quietly Replacing Their Phone Numbers (Motherboard)
- Amazon Squeezes Sellers That Offer Better Prices on Walmart (Bloomberg)
- Amazon is going to kill your Dash button (CNET)
- Verizon overhauls its ‘unlimited’ offerings with four new plans and $5 price cuts (The Verge)
- Jeff Bezos Sells $2 Billion of Amazon Stock After 4% Stake Transfer (Bloomberg)
July
- Apple Reports Third Quarter Results (Apple PR)
- Amazon concedes market share in battle for online consumer goods sales (TalkBusiness.net)
- Amazon Wants to Rule the Grocery Aisles, and Not Just at Whole Foods (NYTimes)
- Just Eat £9bn merger plan sends shares soaring (The Guardian)
- Apple and Goldman Sachs Credit Card Targeting August Launch Date (Bloomberg)
June
May
- How the Promise of a $120 Billion Uber I.P.O. Evaporated (NYTimes)
- How Much Is an Idea Worth? In Uber’s Case, $3.7 Billion (Bloomberg)
- The making of Amazon Prime, the internet’s most successful and devastating membership program (ReCode)
April
- Amazon Has Gone From Neutral Platform to Cutthroat Competitor, Say Open Source Developers (OneZero)
- Uber’s Venture Investors Set for a Windfall (WSJ)
- Jeff Bezos challenges retail rivals to outdo Amazon’s $15 minimum wage (The Verge)
- Lemonade picks up $300 million Series D led by SoftBank Group (TechCrunch)
- Jeff Bezos, in divorce settlement, retains 75 percent of the Amazon stock he held with his now ex-wife MacKenzie (The Washington Post)
- The World’s Greatest Delivery Empire (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Walmart Unveils Voice-Activated, Google-Powered Grocery Shopping (Bloomberg)
March
- ‘A battle for the top of the funnel’: Pinterest’s long road to becoming a commerce platform (Digiday)
- The Enormous Numbers Behind Amazon’s Market Reach (Bloomberg)
- Apple introduced its own credit card, the Apple Card (TechCrunch)
- Instagram tests in-app shopping with Kylie Cosmetics, Nike and Huda Beauty (Digiday)
- Meet The Billionaire Who Defied Amazon And Built Wish, The World’s Most-Downloaded E-Commerce App (Forbes)
- Airbnb Wanted Travelers To Stay In Homes. Now It’s Buying HotelTonight. (BuzzFeed News)
- Three Reasons Behind Airbnb’s Deal for HotelTonight (The Information)
- Grab confirms $1.46B investment from SoftBank’s Vision Fund (TechCrunch)
- Amazon stops selling Dash buttons, goofy forerunners of the connected home (CNET)
February
- Amazon Prime members can choose a weekly delivery date with launch of ‘Amazon Day’ (TechCrunch)
- Apple, Goldman Sachs Team Up on Credit Card Paired With iPhone (WSJ)
- Walmart’s US e-commerce sales up 43% in Q4, thanks to growing online grocery business (TechCrunch)
- Etsy sellers say their bank accounts were emptied in major billing snafu (BoingBoing)
- Amazon’s Escape From New York (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Uber’s Secret Gold Mine: How Uber Eats Is Turning Into A Billion-Dollar Business To Rival Grubhub (Forbes)
- Zillow Wants to Flip Your House (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters (NYTimes)
- Why Amazon buying Eero feels so disappointing (The Verge)
- When Amazon Went From Big to Unbelievably Big (The Atlantic)
- Amazon Notches Third Record Profit in a Row (WSJ)
- Americans are lining up to work for Amazon for $15 an hour (QZ)
January
- Munchery closes on-demand meal-delivery business (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations (Apple Newsroom)
- Amazon helped 50,000 SMBs generate $500,000 in sales (Neowin)
- INSIDE THE STRANGE YET PROFITABLE WORLD OF RETAIL ARBITRAGE (Mel Magazine)
- Amazon’s new ad strategy: Free samples based on what it knows about you (Axios)
2018
December
- Amazon gets into health insurance — and more 2019 health-tech predictions from top experts (CNBC)
- Amazon Says Alexa Voice Shopping Tripled During 2018 Holiday Season (Fortune)
- Amazon Targets Unprofitable Items, With a Sharper Focus on the Bottom Line (WSJ)
- Robinhood Will Retool Checking Product Following Scrutiny (Bloomberg)
- Amazon has officially killed the Whole Foods-Instacart partnership (Recode)
- Robinhood launches no-fee checking/savings with Mastercard & the most ATMs (TechCrunch)
- Indonesia e-commerce leader Tokopedia raises $1.1B from Alibaba and SoftBank’s Vision Fund (TechCrunch)
- At this new online banking platform, customers are the owners (Fast Company)
- Vroom nabs $146M from AutoNation, VCs for its used car site (TechCrunch)
November
- Exclusive: Airbnb will start designing houses in 2019 (Fast Company)
- New Parents Complain Amazon Baby-Registry Ads Are Deceptive (WSJ)
- An Amazon revolt could be brewing as the tech giant exerts more control over brands (Recode)
- What If Amazon.com Actually…Is A Horrible Website? (BuzzFeed)
- The human costs of Black Friday, explained by a former Amazon warehouse manager (Vox)
- Airbnb booked more than $1 billion in third quarter revenue (CNBC)
- Amazon Go competitor Standard Cognition raises $40 million to expand its cashierless store solution (VentureBeat)
- Snap’s former No. 2 exec Imran Khan is building an online shopping startup (ReCode)
- Amazon is finally selling new iPhones after a long and complicated ‘turf war’ with Apple (BusinessInsider)
- Amazon is mailing a printed holiday toy catalog to millions of customers (CNBC)
- India’s Meesho, which enables social commerce via WhatsApp, raises $50M (TechCrunch)
- Amazon waives $25 minimum spend to offer free Christmas deliveries for all U.S. customers (Venture Beat)
October
- Uber’s Secret Restaurant Empire (Bloomberg)
- Kickstarter to End Drip, Fund New Platform with XOXO Festival Creators (The Verge)
- The Team Behind XOXO is Taking Over Kickstarter’s Drip Crowdfunding Community (TechCrunch)
- Inside the $2.6 billion subscription box wars (Fast Company)
- This Is How Amazon Loses (NewCo Shift)
- Snap Is ‘Quickly Running Out of Money,’ Analyst Says (Bloomberg)
- A China Veggie-Selling App May Be Worth $7 billion (Bloomberg)
- Some advertisers are moving half of their search budget from Google to Amazon, say ad industry sources (CNBC)
- Old Unicorn, New Tricks: Airbnb Has A Sky-High Valuation. Here’s Its Audacious Plan To Earn It (Forbes)
- Barnes & Noble names board committee to review possible sale, shares soar (CNBC)
- Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees (CNBC)
September
- Amazon’s Aggressive Anti-Union Tactics Revealed in Leaked 45-Minute Video (Gizmodo)
- Payment Startup Stripe Is Now a $20 Billion Company (Bloomberg)
- Uber drivers and other gig economy workers are earning half what they did five years ago (Recode)
- Vox Media On Pace to Miss Revenue Target as Digital Advertising Disappoints (WSJ)
- Amazon: Retailers Gonna Retail (Steven Sinofsky)
- Amazon Will Consider Opening Up to 3,000 Cashierless Stores by 2021 (Bloomberg)
- Google, Facebook Lead Digital’s March to Half of U.S. Ad Market (Bloomberg)
- Amazon becoming 3rd-biggest digital ad platform (Axios)
- Amazon Storefronts is a new retail hub exclusively for US small businesses (The Verge)
- Alibaba announces Jack Ma succession plan: CEO Daniel Zhang to take over as chairman in a year (CNBC)
- Walmart partners with delivery logistics platform Bringg on last-mile grocery delivery (TechCrunch)
- Instagram is building a standalone app for shopping (The Verge)
August
- Berkshire Hathaway in talks for a stake in Paytm (Economic Times)
- Walmart takes another jab at Amazon as it begins selling e-books for first time (USA Today)
- Karma raises $12 million for marketplace that helps restaurants and supermarkets reduce food waste (Venture Beat)
- Wish, an Internet Dollar Store, Struggles to Keep Customers (The Information)
- Amazon in Running to Acquire Landmark Movie Chain (Bloomberg)
- Apple Pay Increasingly Central to iPhone (Loop Ventures)
- The Reality Behind Voice Shopping Hype (The Information)
- Airbnb for Work claims 700,000 businesses as bookings tripled for second year in a row (VentureBeat)
- How Software Ate the Point of Sale (The Atlantic)
- Apple tops 300 million paid subscriptions as it reportedly preps new subscription services (Digiday)
- This No-Brand Startup Won $240 Million to Fight Amazon on Price and Quality (Bloomberg)
July
- Grover raises €37M Series A to offer latest tech products as a subscription (TechCrunch)
- Retailers set sights on Facebook, Google ad revenue (Reuters)
- This is the Amazon everyone should have feared — and it has nothing to do with its retail business (Recode)
- Stripe Starts Issuing Credit Cards (Bloomberg)
- STRIKES, BOYCOTTS, AND OUTAGES MAR AMAZON PRIME DAY (Wired)
- Amazon warehouse workers are striking across Europe on Prime Day (The Verge)
- Airbnb is grappling with how to treat people with criminal convictions (Quartz)
- Amazon’s share of the US e-commerce market is now 49%, or 5% of all retail spend (TechCrunch)
- Amazon Takes a Page From Toys ‘R’ Us With a Holiday Catalog (Bloomberg)
June
- I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare (The Atlantic)
- Amazon shakes up drugstore business with deal to buy online pharmacy PillPack (CNBC)
- Amazon’s new blue crew: Tech giant enlists entrepreneurs to own the ‘last mile,’ delivering packages in Prime vans and uniforms (GeekWire)
- WHY LYFT IS TRYING TO BECOME THE NEXT SUBSCRIPTION BUSINESS (Wired)
- One Year in, Bird Founder Sells Some Shares (The Information)
- The Million Dollar Homepage (Wikipedia)
- E-Commerce Might Help Solve the Mystery of Low Inflation (NYTimes)
- Scooter startup Bird is seeking a $2 billion valuation (Axios)
- The Scooter Economy (Stratechery)
- Why Aren’t We All Buying Houses on the Internet? (Slate)
May
- Mobile Direct Traffic Eclipses Facebook (Chartbeat)
- Piles of bike-sharing cycles (Atlantic)
- Banned From Amazon: The Shoppers Who Make Too Many Returns (WSJ)
- Amazon cuts Whole Foods prices for Prime members in new grocery showdown (Reuters)
- IAB says online advertising grew to $88B last year — more spending than TV (TechCrunch)
- Goldman Sachs, Apple Team Up on New Credit Card (WSJ)
- Free stock trading app Robinhood rockets to a $5.6B valuation with new funding round (TechCrunch)
- Instagram quietly launches payments for commerce (TechCrunch)
- ‘Hi, It’s Amazon Calling. Here’s What We Don’t Like in Your City.’ (WSJ)
- Over 400 Startups Are Trying to Become the Next Warby Parker. Inside the Wild Race to Overthrow Every Consumer Category (Inc)