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.
Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.