Australia-based PI.Exchange is a new company but they’re selling an old idea: consumers should control access to their own data and charge for its use. It hasn’t worked yet but maybe its time has come, especially outside the U.S. where new privacy regulations may make current data gathering practices less effective. Their product is a mobile app that’s just entering global beta on iOS.
Drift calls itself a “conversation-driven sales and marketing platform” which sounds like marketing-speak for chatbot. Indeed, that’s their primary product although they add live chat, in-app messaging, and personal Web pages. They’ve served 50,000 users since launching in April 2016 and just raised a $32 million Series B.
I thought this next item was also about computers replacing people, since it touts an AI-based startup that predictsWebsite conversion performance without bothering to actually launch the Website. But it turns out that WEVO achieves its miracle by posting images of page designs and asking people their opinion. How quaint.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.