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THE HEADLINES
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EU MAD BRO?
The EU handed down an unprecedented $5.1B fine to Google, claiming the search engine giant abused its power in the mobile phone market. Google plans to appeal.
Alphabet’s crime? Requiring the installation of Google’s search app and Chrome browser on Android, which powers 80% of the world’s phones. The EU felt the practice allowed Google to corner the market on internet searches. It’s a great day to be an Ask Jeeves’ shareholder.
The fine will be accompanied by a laundry list of demands: Google will no longer be able to pre-install its apps on Android phones and the company will be forced to halt its shakedowns of manufacturers installing Android knockoffs on devices.
This isn’t the first time the EU’s fun police have invoiced Google for being too successful. Last year Google was fined a then-record $2.7B for granting its shopping service preferential treatment over competitors.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “This is arguably the most ringing endorsement of Android, ever.”
BUYER’S REMORSE
Retailers not named Amazon jumped on the “Prime Day” bandwagon to the tune of a 50% bump in online sales (retailers with > $1B in revenue). Major retailers held their own sales to coincide with the “holiday” including Target which recorded its biggest online shopping day of the year. Define: riding coattails.
But alas, Amazon reigns supreme. Bezos’ brainchild claims that Prime members purchased more than 100M products during the marathon session. Although the company doesn’t share single day sales figures, estimates put Prime member’s tab at $3.4B. All this despite an hour-long website outage.
As for the top-selling items on Amazon during the 36-hour retail therapy session … the US really, really liked Instant Pot (300k bought). And for the first time, Whole Foods got in on the fun, claiming organic strawberries were their top selling item.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Hot take alert: last week Elon Musk vowed to tackle the Flint, Michigan water crisis. This week LifeStraw personal water purifiers were the third biggest seller on Amazon Prime Day. Coincidence? I think not.”
THEY’RE FAKE AND THEY’RE SPECTACULAR
Fake news is a very real issue for Facebook. The social network announced that they will begin more thoroughly reviewing content and removing fake news and misinformation from the platform. The catch? The social network will only be removing content that is violent and/or intends to incite violence amongst its audience.
Should the content fail to meet Facebook’s criteria it will remain on the site. You know, like content that spreads Holocaust denial messages. Mark Zuckerberg found himself in a bit of a pickle after mincing his words, telling Recode that Holocaust deniers who post on Facebook aren’t “intentionally getting it wrong.” He since apologized for the faux pas.
Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Zuck & Co. have been walking on eggshells. Earlier this year the company created an ethics committee to keep their AI software from becoming biased (read: racist). And in addition to internal teams, Facebook will use third parties to review endless amounts of content.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “… because giving third parties access to user data worked out so well in the past for Facebook.”
IN OTHER NEWS
- Name something better than a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (aka Taco Hut). Before losing his seat on the board and being evicted from his office “Papa” John Schnatter, the former CEO of Papa John’s was allegedly holding merger talks with Wendy’s. Shares of the publicly traded pizza parlor spiked on the news.
- Hello, darkness my old friend. Wall Street’s “dark pools” are set to become marginally more transparent as regulators will begin requiring the trading platforms to inform investors about how orders are handled and to disclose if any “special treatment” is given to certain clients.
- Elon Musk took to Twitter to apologize to the British diver involved in the Thai cave rescue whom he had labeled a pedophile. He also provided justification for his comments: “Mr. Unsworth said several untruths & suggested I engage in a sexual act with the mini-sub.“