Walmart’s evolving ad business is booming, reporting $4.4 billion in global revenue in 2024, up 27% on the previous year. Welcome news for a company that has predicted slowing profit growth this year. It still has a long way to go to compete with the big players like Amazon (over $56 billion in ad revenue last year).
Salesforce and Google have expanded their strategic partnership to permit the use of Google Gemini generative AI models in the Salesforce Agentforce eco-system. This will not only allow AI agents to work with images, audio, and video but also give access to insights from Google Search. There will also be enhanced integration between Salesforce Service Cloud and Google Customer Engagement Suite.
A survey of 2,000 consumers by WPP found that 27% have made fashion and beauty luxury purchases direct from social media platforms. The context is the rise of influencer marketing and WPP emphasizes the importance of transparency when influencers are in paid partnerships with brands. The global fashion influencer market is expected to grow by 38% by 2030.
Preliminary findings by the European Commission state that Apple and Google are in violation of the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Among the findings, Google Search is accused of prioritizing Google’s own products and services in results; Apple is instructed to improve interoperability between iOS and third-party devices. The companies now have an opportunity to respond.