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Archive for December, 2022

Dates : December 2022

Application Developers Say AI Should Support Human Decisions, Not Replace Them: Forrester Report

December 23, 2022
AI also got plenty of attention.  No surprise that 95% of IT leaders told Forrester that AI-based decisions will be very important within three years.  Less expected: 57% say the main use case is assisting human decision-makers, not replacing them, and 67% say decisions should be more widely distributed to key stakeholders.  Personalized customer experience ranks sixth on their list of AI use cases.
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Duopoly Share of U.S. Digital Ad Revenues Continues to Shrink: Axios Report

December 22, 2022
If we seem more philosophical than usual this week, it’s not the result of some Scrooge-like holiday transformation (sorry, Jamie), but because hard news is scarce.   Still, it’s a welcome opportunity to talk about long-term trends, like this Axios piece that quotes Insider Intelligence as finding the Google/Meta share of U.S. digital ad revenue will fall below 50% this year.  It’s no surprise – the share peaked back in 2017 – but a good reminder that duopoly power is less secure than it seems.
CDPI Newsletter

Consumers Will Spend Less on Mobile Games but Advertisers Will Spend More: data.ai Study

December 22, 2022
Mobile gaming is one of the industries that are stealing time from search and social activities.  So it’s a bit surprising to see this estimate from data.ai (formerly App Annie) that consumer spend on mobile gaming will drop by 5% in 2022 and 3% in 2023.  Note this is an estimate of what consumers will spend; spending on mobile advertising is still expected to rise by 7.5% next year, outpacing other ad media.
CDPI Newsletter

App Marketers Struggle with Privacy Changes: Liftoff Survey

December 22, 2022
The people selling mobile apps had a tough 2022, with privacy changes heading the list of challenges.  Liftoff reports they’re evenly balanced between positive outlook (37%) and negative outlook (36%) for next year, with gaming marketers much more worried than the rest.  Interestingly, solid majorities say privacy changes are bad for marketers (54%) but good for consumers (59%).  At least they’re honest.
CDPI Newsletter

Thailand’s Robinhood expands services into supermarket, delivery, transportation, and travel

December 22, 2022
Thailand food delivery app Robinhood is now expanding its services into four key areas including supermarket, delivery, transportation and travel, in line with its plans to become a super-app. This includes Robinhood Mart, a supermarket and store shopping service, Robinhood Express, a goods delivery service, Robinhood Ride, a transportation platform, and Robinhood Travel, an online travel agent.
CDPI Emerging Markets

Early-stage Mexico fintech Aviva is making loans as easy as a video call – and just raised $2.2M pre-seed

December 22, 2022
Aviva is a Mexico-based fintech startup focused on bringing working capital to unserved communities. Its approach uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to match customers’ spoken word to the fields of a real-time credit application. Now buoyed by $2.2 million in pre-seed funding, the company is rolling out a network of physical and digital onboarding kiosks in Chalco de Díaz, Ixtapaluca and Texcoco, towns about an hour’s drive from Mexico City.
CDPI Emerging Markets

Kouna, a Mexican startup that uses AI to optimize sales and promotions raised US$6M

December 22, 2022
Kouna, a SaaS platform for brands to optimize prices, promotions, orders, and inventory through artificial intelligence, announced raising US$6 million in a seed round, led by Mexican VC Cometa. Kouna focuses on the optimization of promotions, an aspect where mass consumer brands and retailers would allegedly not have good guidance, a problem that Kouna promises to solve thanks to machine learning.
CDPI Emerging Markets

Sun King, a provider of solar energy products in Africa and Asia, expands Series D to $330M

December 22, 2022
Sun King, a provider of off-grid solar energy products in Africa and Asia, has secured a $70 million equity investment led by LeapFrog Investments. It’s an extension of the $260 million Series D round the solar company announced this April, which was led by BeyondNetZero, the climate investing venture of General Atlantic and M&G Investments’ Catalyst and Arch Emerging Markets Partners.
CDPI Emerging Markets