Why is TikTok doubling down on social commerce? Last month, TikTok announced that it would no longer allow its US TikTok Shop retailers to ship their products directly;… February 10, 2026
Amazon-OpenAI: advertising, not agentic commerce Amazon CEO Andy Jassy participated in an interview with The Information's Jessica Lessin at Davos two weeks ago in which… February 3, 2026
Google launches Universal Commerce Protocol, ads in AI Mode Yesterday, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference, Google unveiled several new eCommerce initiatives: Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open… January 12, 2026
Podcast: Understanding the Shopify Product Network (with Amanda Engelman) https://open.spotify.com/episode/0t4t73AajImnE40UtvF8gm?si=36d5ce3270a04e1a My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Amanda Engelman, Shopify's Director of Product for Advertising. The… December 30, 2025
Natura non facit saltus The New York Times reports on internal discord at Meta related to its superintelligence project (emphasis mine): In meetings this… December 17, 2025
Ads in chatbots as a distribution necessity On December 5th, Judge Amit Mehta issued the final remedies decision in the Google Search antitrust trial. The initial remedies… December 10, 2025
Apple embraces mini app monetization Last week, Apple introduced the Mini Apps Partner Program, which creates a commercial framework for "mini-apps" hosted within a native… November 19, 2025
Podcast: Heidegger’s caution https://open.spotify.com/episode/1dUofScdAVEMSFqiFq6a2B?si=8860ab0127544c6a In this episode of the podcast, which is a companion to Affiliate links, personalized ads, and chatbot revenue optimization,… November 12, 2025
Affiliate links, personalized ads, and chatbot revenue optimization Generative AI has undeniably penetrated consumer awareness at an incredible clip: this NBER paper finds that "overall genAI adoption (including… November 11, 2025
ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout is an advertising data feed OpenAI announced yesterday that it has partnered with Stripe to facilitate in-chat commerce. From OpenAI's blog post (emphasis mine): U.S.… September 30, 2025
