The leader of Facebook’s stalled cryptocurrency project is leaving the company
TLDR
- Facebook cryptocurrency chief David Marcus announced that he’s leaving the company.
Brief
David Marcus, the former PayPal executive joined Facebook in 2014 to run Messenger but eventually took over plans to launch a new cryptocurrency and wallet. The digital wallet launched with a small pilot in October under the name Novi but only in the US and Guatemala and supported a single form of crypto, the Paxos stablecoin, now called Diem, which has yet to appear. As recently as October, politicians were openly calling for Facebook to drop its cryptocurrency plans. Facebook's support for Diem hasn’t changed and intends to launch Novi with Diem once it receives regulatory approval and goes live. What Marcus's departure means for the project is unclear. His departure also comes one day after fellow cryptocurrency proponent Jack Dorsey stepped down from his position as the CEO of Twitter.
- Read the full article from The Verge
Tesco launches first-party-data media and insight platform
TLDR
- British grocery giant Tesco is launching a media and insights platform with the retailer’s extensive first-party behavioural dataset from the longstanding Clubcard loyalty scheme.
Brief
Dunnhumby launched the Clubcard in 1994 and is now wholly owned by Tesco who claims its Clubcard is used by more than 20 million households. Snappily titled Tesco Media and Insight, powered by dunnhumby, the platform aims to unite the retailer’s loyalty and in-store data with dunnhumby’s data science chops to create a closed-loop platform. The new platform will open access to Tesco’s 27.6% share of the UK grocery market and 36% share of the online grocery market. Ads on the customer side will come through as personalized recommendations. According to a trial, the measurement tools have allowed brands “to see the true return on spend, with an average ROAS of £6.60 with Tesco Media, compared to an average of £3.80 on other channels”. On the media side, the company claimed to reach 58% of the UK population every week, putting it among some of the country’s biggest media owners. The effort fits into a much wider trend of retail media and further emphasizes the value of first-party data to companies well ahead of the decline of third-party cookies.
- Read the full article from WARC
Cyber Week online spending down 1.4% to $33.9 billion as U.S. consumers shopped earlier this year
TLDR
- Consumer awareness of supply chain shortages and even earlier deals may have contributed to a slight decline in U.S. e-commerce sales during Cyber Week
Brief
Last year, U.S. consumers spent a record $34.4 billion during Cyber Week, up 20.7% from the year prior. But this year, that figure dropped by 1.4% to $33.9 billion in online spend. This year, retailers pulled in $8.9 billion in Black Friday online sales, down 1.3% from last year’s record of $9.03 billion — its first-ever year-over-year decline. Cyber Monday 2021 sales also dropped 1.4% year-over-year from $10.6 billion to $10.7 billion. Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day online sales stayed flat at $5.1 billion. Sales aren’t necessarily going to be down in 2021 overall, they’re just not going to be as concentrated as before. Despite the declines, Cyber Monday shoppers went for the usual categories in greater numbers compared with September 2021. Although the shopping patterns look different, it's forecasted that consumers will drive 10% year-over-year growth in sales to hit $207 billion from November 1 through December 31.
- Read the full article from TechCrunch
