Retail is another battle front for BigTech. Walmart has been leading the charge but grocery chain Albertsons is now stepping to the fore. In a flurry of moves, they’ve recently partnered with Pinterest to help shoppers plan meals, added shoppable livestream video from Firework, and teamed with DoorDash to let shoppers add restaurant orders to their grocery deliveries at no extra charge.
The beleaguered walled garden vendors also face new competition for ad revenue, most notably from TikTok, which just passed one billion users. TikTok is moving quickly to help ad buyers come aboard, with a bucket of new features to connect brands with content creators, to create content and ads, and to measure results. They’ve also added partnerships with Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify for ad safety and fraud protection.
Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card has raised US$15 million in Series A funding to ramp up hiring and continue its expansion across the continent. Launched in 2018, and with a presence in 12 African countries, Yellow Card makes it easy for anyone, anywhere in Africa, to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT Stablecoin using cash, mobile money, card, or bank transfer.
Tealium has launched a suite of solutions aimed at powering AI models with rich, filtered and consented data. Tealium for AI uses existing Tealium features to support AI applications with specialized integrations, partnerships, configurations, and attributes.