Monthly Archives

This app is probably useless to you… but it is useful for literally 1 billion other people on Earth. So stop making everything all about you – sheesh! The app, owned by tech giant Tencent, is called WeChat Pay and it allows users to scan a barcode to pay for items or services with a Chinese bank account.

Coming to America… yes, the Chinese tech giant is bringing WeChat Pay to America. After July, you will start seeing different merchants accepting this payment method. However, they aren’t focusing on making the app useful for those with US bank accounts; instead, WeChat Pay will cater to Chinese tourists in America.

Also coming to America… are plenty of Chinese tourists because the United States was the most popular travel destination for them in 2017 (except for Asia). And there is quite possibly a large market for this app to control. While that may sound like great news for the company, it does come with strings attached – such as getting enough merchants to accept their payment method. Although, who doesn’t enjoy the awkwardness of having their only payment method rejected in front of a bunch of strangers?

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I can’t leave you hanging… after hyping up Prime Day in the preceding days – so here is what happened. People bought more on Amazon this past Monday than they did on Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and last year’s Prime Day – totaling over 100 million products sold.

Here’s what everyone bought… with the most popular items being Instant Pots, personal water filters, and the 23andMe DNA test. The big hits internationally were laundry detergent, smartphones, pans, light bulbs, and video games. Given all of the crap Amazon has to offer those purchases are shockingly uninteresting.

You could say it was a success… and that is in-spite of technical glitches that frustrated customers shortly after Prime Day went live. And while Amazon doesn’t release the actual results of their special day, it appears that its customers more than fed their appetite for water filters, DNA tests, and laundry detergent – we hope you got something nice, too.

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You can’t do that… says the European Commission to Google after fining the company $5 billion for unfairly pushing its apps on smartphone users. This is the most substantial fine ever passed down by the European Commission and supposedly reflects the “serious and sustained nature” of Google’s violations.

Oh yes, we can… says Google to the European Commission stating that “Android has created more choice for everyone, not less.” For that reason, Google is appealing the decision – and when $5 billion is on the line, who can blame them? And who cares if Google forces manufacturers to install Google Search as a condition of doing business – it’s not like people would turn to Bing if Google weren’t forced upon them.

To put this in perspective… $5 billion is a drop in the bucket to a company like Google. Heck, they were whacked with a $2.8 billion antitrust fine last year, and it had little impact on the company. If Google wants to avoid further trouble, they have 90 days to stop what they have been doing, regardless of their appeal. But since they don’t believe they are doing anything wrong – what do they have to stop?

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About four in 10… millennials are living in purchased homes and are deeply regretting not staying with their parents. Millennials are feeling buyer’s remorse according to a recent survey. Many even borrowed from their retirement savings (big no-no) to finance a down payment – all for the “joys” of homeownership.

Houses are expensive… not just the down payment, mortgage payment, utility payment(s), and so on. The joys of homeownership are found in the little things like mowing the lawn and fixing things that break – you know, things your landlord (or parents) should be doing. These tasks are time-consuming, costly, and often a mixture of both.

To avoid this trap… do your homework. Get the home inspected before agreeing to purchase it – you want to spend $15,000 on something cool, not on a foundation or electrical work. Also, be sure to figure out exactly what you need in a home because the pickier you are, the less likely you are to buy something you will regret.

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Stick a form in ‘em… because Comcast is done with their pursuit of 21st Century Fox’s assets. Disney outbid Comcast by $6 billion with their most recent offer to obtain coveted franchises including “Avatar” and “X-Men.” The back-and-forth bidding war caused 21st Century Fox’s value to increase by a whopping 36%.

On to the next one… the next one being British broadcaster Sky. Unfortunately for Comcast, Disney has their sights set on acquiring the very same company. For Disney, winning Sky would be significant as it would allow for a direct-to-consumer platform in Europe. For Comcast, Sky would present a similar opportunity.

Not to be overly dramatic… but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for both companies. Sky presents an opportunity for either company to expand globally with its 23 million paying subscribers in five European countries. The latest bid came from Comcast in the form of $34 billion. Now we are waiting to see if Disney will show us the money and defeat Comcast yet again.

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eBay isn’t just a one-trick pony… they also own StubHub, a ticket-selling company with less-than-stellar second-quarter sales. What caused this you ask? Major League Baseball games getting rained out and the Warriors making easy work out of LeBron and the Cavs. Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals also ended the Stanley Cup Final rather swiftly.

To put it simply… everything that could have gone wrong for StubHub did. Baseball games that were scheduled were postponed to a later date, and playoff series ended 2-3 games sooner than they could have. The World Cup didn’t provide any relief to cover the shortfall, either.

It’s not all StubHub’s fault… that eBay shares dropped nearly 10% on Thursday. Ebay missed sales forecasts and lowered their revenue outlook for the rest of 2018 – two things that never bode well for any company. Ebay is currently being dwarfed by Amazon and the companies’ control 6.6% and 49.1% of e-commerce sales, respectively. It’s always Amazon, isn’t it?

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You may not be ready to join the bandwagon… that is bitcoin, even though the cryptocurrency was up more than 10% on Tuesday, hovering around $7,400. Many crypto-fanatics are hoping to see Wall Street bet on bitcoin – of course, if this happens, we could be looking at prices we haven’t seen since last December.

Crypto could rebound… and asset-management company BlackRock confirmed that they have set up a group to work on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

As for today’s movement… there are many theories, but few concrete answers as to why bitcoin jumped all of a sudden (the move occurred in less than an hour). One theory is that bitcoin was sitting at $6,800, and people were betting on it to go down – but once it broke the invisible $6,800 barrier, all bets were off. More good news for the hottest topic of 2017 – we’ll see if it sticks.

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And they are competing against Amazon… no surprise there – it seems like it is Amazon against the world these days. Amazon is a big part of the reason we have seen big names joining forces because going in alone has proved to be a losing battle for companies like Walmart (and Microsoft, for that matter).

Walmart gets… the second largest provider of cloud solutions in the world in Microsoft.  With the use of Microsoft’s cloud services, Walmart can transform their digital operations to compete with online rivals, such as Amazon. The retail giant also plans to shift a significant portion of walmart.com and samsclub.com over to Azure, Microsoft’s cloud service.

Microsoft gets… a massive customer in Walmart. The software giant has been convincing retailers about the benefits of combining the power of data and technology. This combination can provide solutions for inventory, transport, online shopping, and more. With Walmart competing against Amazon’s retail and Microsoft competing against Amazon’s cloud service, this may just be a match made in heaven.

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