Money money money. I avoided funding announcements on Wednesday but I can’t resist sharing that privacy management vendor OneTrust has raised a $200 million Series A. Yes, privacy is big business and getting bigger.
The Federal Trade Commission has reportedly approved a $5 billion settlement with Facebook over privacy violations. The deal was widely criticized as a slap on the wrist and the company’s stock price rose after the announcement. But it’s still by far the largest privacy fine ever and roughly twice the maximum 4% of revenue allowed under GDPR.
Despite consumer doubts, marketers have clearly begun to think that privacy is good business. Exhibit 1: when Marketing software company Cheetah Digital announced purchase of interactive experience platform Wayin, they described it in terms of collecting “zero party data” for permission-based marketing. Exhibit 2: Neustar has opened its “Identity Data Management Platform” to data from Freckle, which pays consumers directly for access to their information.
Amazon would prefer that you buy everything through them, but if you insist on using another merchant, they’re still willing to handle the shipping and fulfillment. They’ve just made their Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service available to Walmart merchants and will soon add Shopify and Shein options. MCF clients place their inventory in Amazon-run warehouses, where Amazon will pick, pack, and shop customer orders.