After making the initial purchase to buy an online game, If you do not purchase anything from the store the company begins to lose money on you every time you load in to a match. It costs thousands and thousands of dollars every week to run and maintain servers for large player bases and support online infrastructure.
I think you definitely shouldn’t be spending money on the game right now. Pack weights are atrocious and it’s not worth the money, and ea is being deplorable. But I don’t understand why people are coming down on content creators for just playing the game, especially the ones who are vocal about their grievances and aren’t just “pack opening channels.”
If anything, we should boycott store packs and ea fc 25, rather than letting them offload thousands in server costs while preparing for their next launch.

Over the last 2 months I started watching EskayOW. She is a transfemme overwatch content creator. I don't know any other trans people irl or online so it feels amazing to have a content creator that I can associate with and look up to. Has anyone else had a similar experience with other trans content creators and are there any you recommend, transfemme, transmasc or non binary suggestions are all welcome x

I've been rewatching AOT recently and got inspired to make this beauty. I plan on incorporating images of the Titans you create with it: Attack on Titan Name and Power Generator. Let me know what you think!

We’re on the brink of launching a product that’s all about online vigilance. So, fellow project creators and backers — how do you keep your pre-launch website strong and responsive, especially when you know traffic might skyrocket?
Here’s some quick value on staying ‘launch-ready’:

• 🚨 Real-Time Alerts: Essential or overhyped?
• 📊 Traffic Analysis: How do you predict and prepare for spikes?
• 🛡️ Security Musts: Last-minute checks or a constant process?

So, how do you guard against those nail-biting moments when your website is all that stands between you and a successful Kickstarter campaign?
Enlighten us with your experiences!
Looking forward to your battle-tested strategies!

Hello my name is Alan I’m 25 years old. Currently I’m from a country in Eastern Europe but I’m moving to United States this spring. I’m a very introverted person, but very easy to talk to. I like to think that I’m very simple. The smallest things and moments in life are enough to bring a smile to my face. I don’t know how to describe my full personality, so I will let you be the judge of that after you get to know me. As for my lifestyle, I’m currently work full time as a firefighter. During my free time I enjoy being very physically active, I train combat sports and martial arts and also like going to the gym. Being in nature is something that I really enjoy to, I like doing for hikes and jogs in the woods, fishing by a nice lake, camping. When I’m at home I usually play video games both online and single player and a long with that I love watching old action movies. Recently I’ve been learning more and more about cooking to. Not there yet but I’m working on it hahahaha. As for looks, I’d say I’m not to bad looking 😂 I’m by no means a model or anything. My height is 6ft, and I’m in a good shape, I have tattoos, my hair is light brown and I got green eyes. I don’t mind sending a photo when we chat. What I’m looking for is a woman that I could develop serious feelings for and someone I could build a serious relationship with. I don’t have an ideal type but would be better if our hobbies or points of view in life would match. What I value most is honesty and loyalty. I think these traits are most important and from that it’s possible to build a very strong relationship. So yeah if I seem at least a little bit interesting please feel free to reach out to me 😊

Drake has made well over $200 million dollars off of his fans' gambling losses which we can easily assume are over $6 billion spent.
I posted yesterday interested to see what people think Kendrick should talk about if he drops again on Drake.
There is something I really want him to break down - Drake's involvement with a website that

1. Pays him $100m+ annually since 2022
2. He participates in public engagement media with, knowingly encouraging minors to gamble.

What is this?

(Overall scope of this website)
This website was officially formed in 2017 (7 years ago) for online crypto gambling. There was basically no verification at the very beginning of their launch, and to this day they have very, very flimsy protocols to identify/verify age of their players.
Processing img zeqh1xygz3zc1...
Here are some dates and numbers relating to how many bets had been placed on the platform

• The red dot (just placed by hand) represent when Trainwreckstv officially became affiliated with the website (~June, 2022)
• The yellow dot represents when Drake made his first account (deeppockets6, Dec 2021)
• The orange dot represent when Drake officially became affiliated with the website (March 04, 2022)

In the 14 months leading up to January 2022, 39 Billion bets were placed on the website. 21 Billion of these bets came after trainwreckstv became affiliated.
I don't want to go into trainwreckstv. If you become interested in him, you can watch coffeezilla's video (coffeezilla 360 million dollars)
Some more numbers

Year	Bets Placed on the Website
2021 + 2 months	39,229,581,015
2022	62,418,061,486
2023	68,701,192,678

This website reported $2.6 billion in gaming revenue in 2022. Gaming revenue is the total amount wagered on the site minus the total amount paid out to players.^{Check footnotes for wagered}
If you'd like to get further into the numbers...^{Check footnotes for house edge} While some exceptions exist, classic table games typically have lower house edges (1-3%) than progressive jackpot slots , typically the games with the highest house edges (5-15%). Video slots sit somewhere in the middle (4-5%). ...and we take an completely rough, VERY generous, estimate that people are running on about a 3% house edge on average (it is likely much higher than this.)Check Footnote to see what house edge is (bottom)then we can approximate of the $86 billion that was wagered in 2022 on this website, $71 Billion was wagered while Drake was involved in 2022.

Drake's Involvement

Drake has been involved with this website for over two years, being paid NO LESS THAN $200 million for literally just being a poster boy. This is MOST LIKELY not including what he is paid for his streams (which appear to show him placing millions of dollars on single roulette spins). He is probably also given an amount to wager on his own as he, himself, is a gambling addict.
Why do they do this? How do they even have the money for this? Look at the numbers above, they are making an unbelievable fortune off of this and it's because of creators like trainwreckstv and Drake.
There are hundreds of affiliated creators operating through streams and youtube with communities of underage gamblers, a group that is trending up with gambling addictions. Each of these creators tend to make 3%-10% of affiliates^{Check footnotes for affiliates on their community member's deposits.}
Casinos are able to pay these dividends because they are making multiples of what these collaborators are making. Why else would they do it?

Why is this bad

These are children gambling on these sites. I have solid evidence of a user having wagered over $100,000 om this website without EVER having been verified for any age, ID, proof of address. NOTHING.
I have researched by going through multiple communities speaking to gamblers who were gambling for years by the time they turned 18 (among others of course). I do not have a large sample size, but my sample is just a few small gambling communities among hundreds of similar, larger and much larger communities.. I believe to be a largely unbiased sample (I know that sounds like an oxy moron "I believe it is unbiased" lol, but you know what I mean)
I have not performed interviews, just mostly got numbers from people. I'm sure many would come forward if asked though.

In conclusion, we can easily assume Drake has made well over $200 million dollars off of his fans' gambling losses which we can easily assume are over $6 billion.

I cannot stress this enough, these are such light numbers. It is probably much more, and the only defense Drake probably has is that he spent it all or lost it gambling too.
THIS IS ALL SOURCED INFORMATION. ASK ME FOR ANY PROOF AND I WILL POST IN COMMENTS.
Footnotes

• Some facts
  • "Before its first legal casinos opened their doors in 2012, research commissioned by the state found 0.4% of its people were problem gamblers, and 5.3% were at risk of developing issues; a decade later, the same survey identified a problem gambling rate of 2.8%, with 17% of the population at risk."
  • "In 2018, 11.5% of people who contacted New Jersey’s gambling support service and disclosed an age provided one under 25. During the first 10 months of 2023, this bracket accounted for 19.6% of calls, texts or chat messages in which an age was disclosed."
• House edge: The expected loss on any transaction/game/bet.
• Wager: The total amount bet on a site including re-bets. For example, if I have $100 and I bet it all on something and I win $200. I now have $200 and I have wagered $100. If I bet all of that $200 and win $400, I now have $400 and have wagered $300 ($200+$100). Now if I bet all of that $400 and lose it in one bet, I have wagered $700 ($200+$100+$400) but I have no money left.
• Affiliates: Collaborators are paid a percentage of the amount deposited by people using their code. For example if I use Drake's code, I may get a 5% bonus on my deposit (incentive for me) and he get's 10% added on from my deposit to his affiliates. If I deposited $100 in this situation, I have $105 ($100*1.05), Drake has $10 ($100*0.10).

We’ve been together three years and had a few talks about expectations/boundaries with things like this. He’s always been respectful. We have a good relationship and I’ve never questioned his loyalty except online, sigh.
Weirdly if he does watch porn I’m not that bothered (I mean general videos etc - not live/paid/interactive). Our sex life is great, but I get it. But tonight he was showing me a video on Instagram and below the search bar shows the most recently visited accounts. Top name is one I recognise from a few times seeing it and so I take a peep on my own account.
How original - an OnlyFans girl where all of her pics are tits and ass and tattoos and piercings (just his type, wooow). What gets me is she lives in his home city (a country near ours) and is more of a ‘girl-next-door’ type. Couple hundred followers. So even though she’s gorgeous she seems actually accessible which bothers me more? Idk how to explain it. I know he wouldn’t cheat in person but,
I’m angry but I know if I express this he’ll probably say I’m overreacting and she’s just a friend of a friend (probably true, he’s got a lot of friends in the alternative scene in that city) but like… what else is he looking at? She doesn’t follow him back, they’re not friends. I just want one relationship where I know that there aren’t random naked girlies in the background.

I 19 female, I've been in a long distance relationship for 3 years with John (fake name) 19 male. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety when I was 16. For context, John and I met in a group and since then we started talking. (I was dating my ex, but when I realized that I had developed feelings for John I ended that relationship.) In this group he was a big womanizer, and he talked to his ex, which didn't bother me since I never thought there was anything malicious about it. 4 months later I asked John if he felt anything for me, because he was acting romantic and sweet toward me, he said yes and then we started dating. (Note: he was jealous of my friends). A few weeks after we started dating, and all of our mutual friends knew about our relationship, and he didn't feel uncomfortable with people knowing about it, I sent him Intimate photos, he went on and sent these photos to our group, where there were more than 100 people, including our friends. When I saw it I was shocked and immediately left the group. My friends came to talk to me and so did he. He apologized, said he was going to send these photos to a group that was just him because according to him it was easier for him to see. Reading this now I realize it's a strange thing... but at the time I was so in love that I excused him. That same day we made a video call until I went to sleep, he praised me a lot, dedicated some songs to me, it was very romantic.During the next few weeks we made video calls every day, watched movies, listened to music, talked a lot until the early hours of the morning. There was a day when a girl joined the group where we were, and she and I became very good friends, there ended up being a lot of confusion because she wanted to date John, but he didn't want to. However, he always asked for intimate photos for her or for another girl in the group, he said it was to make me jealous, he ended up sending some intimate photos to her too. Well, a few months passed and I was suffering with my mental health, a few months before I met him I had tried to take my life, and I was under psychiatric care. During that time I started smoking and hurting myself, but he always helped me not to do so and always asked me to stop smoking and never use drugs. Until one day I was having an anxiety attack and felt the need to hurt myself while I was on a call with him, so he asked me to write his name on my skin with the razor. I did, he laughed. Some more time passed and I experienced what I think was an attack of schizophrenia, I saw and heard a person talking to me and asking me to do certain things that would hurt me. John stayed on video call with me while he tried to calm me down and said everything was ok and asked me to pray. That day my mother had gone to work, so I was alone at home, she wouldn't come back until 1pm. A few months later he asked me to buy some sex toys, I initially refused and was a little afraid, but then I agreed and bought my first vibrator. He always asked for videos and photos, or even for me to use the vibrator on a video call, as he always sent photos and videos and even did things on a call, I accepted. It turned out that I got sick, I couldn't walk, I felt a lot of pain, very strong cramps, I went to the hospital but it didn't help. I took some medication but none of it helped. Jonh was worried about me and asked me to go back to the hospital, which I did, but once again it didn't do much good. Then in December he asked me to buy another toy, but this time it would be a dildo. I was very afraid to buy it since I didn't have much privacy at home, but I bought it. When it arrived, he asked me to use it but I said I wasn't going to use it at that moment because I wanted to wash it first and then use it but my mother was in the living room so there was no way. He was extremely upset, he said that I had promised to use it the day I arrived and that he was tired from work and just wanted it to cheer him up a little. We argued a little and went to sleep.Cut to a few months later when he got a new job (he worked with his father), met some new people and completely changed. He became cold, distant, wanted everything his way or he would get upset and give me the silent treatment. Since then we started fighting almost every day, sometimes several times during the day. He always said he would break up with me if I didn't do what he wanted or the way he wanted, as I was "blind", so to speak, I always did everything. I don't want to go into too much detail but this but one thing you need to know is that during one of those fights he told me "welcome to hell". Since then everything has gotten worse. For me to achieve the minimum I had to do everything he wanted, how he wanted and when he wanted, in his time. If he wanted videos, I had to record them and send them to him, otherwise he He said he was going to break up with me or that he wouldn't talk to me until I sent the videos. I'm not a saint either, I often freaked out because of jealousy and when I saw that he had followed his ex I got really upset, because she was the only one who made me insecure, and he knew that. One thing I forgot to mention was that he told me at the beginning that he only followed some friends and family (he told me who was who and that if I wanted I could remove someone). Another thing I forgot to mention was that he's been in a group for a few years where his friends who are in that group always hit on him, he's kind of reciprocal with them. He never let me go there because according to him I wouldn't like the type of humor they have there... a group that sends a lot of videos and photos of naked women, women dancing.. But he refuses to leave because he "is already a long-time member there, and his friends are there", in his words. Coming back, he told me that he only followed her because she followed him first and I told him that if she followed him it was because he unblocked her, he was upset that I said that and blocked her again. Some time later I returned to the hospital with some urgency as I was unable to cope with the pain, I needed to stay there overnight whilst receiving medication. He wasn't happy about it at all since that meant there would be no videos or photos. The doctors asked me to do some tests as quickly as possible to try to find out the cause of this pain, which they thought was the kidneys (but it wasn't).This meant I had to leave the house and go to the clinics to schedule exams and take them. He was never happy when I needed to leave the house or when I went out with my family. Cut to a time later when we broke up (my initiative) and I put all the toys in the trash. He was super upset and we kind of talked back and forth (I know what many off you will think But I couldn't really break up with him. So he made me buy all the toys again. That is what happened. Well, I bought not only the toys but also some lingerie. He really liked that and it seemed like we were finally okay. But it didn't last long. Soon we fought again and broke up, once again I put everything in the trash, he came back, he forced me again Buying but he was the one who bought the things. He continued to force me to record the videos and send them to him. During this time of ending the relationship and coming back, ending the relationship and coming back, I called his friends to ask for help. John was super upset with this attitude of mine. He told me that I made a mistake and broke his trust. Then time passed and he went on a trip with his family when he returned home, it was on a day when there was a party in his city and his friends were going. When he got home he told me and said he was going to sleep. I was suspicious so I went to look at his friend's profile and guess what? His friend had just post a story where John appeared. Same t-shirt, same cap. The same face. Obviously I confronted him about it and he told me it wasn't him because he was sleeping at home. I didn't believe it but leave it behind. At this point, my best friend couldn't take it anymore, almost every day of me crying to her about John and his actions. A few weeks went by and I asked his friend if it was really John or not, he said no (I believe he was covering it up.So he went to get a tattoo, on his neck. When it was over he went to sleep. I don't remember that day well but I remember that I called him many times that night and when he answered I heard moaning.. so I hung up and told my best friend. I called again and again and when he answered I heard the sound of a car. I was devastated, I couldn't believe it. The next morning he freaked out at me, and said he was sleeping. First he said that his mother had answered the phone, then he said that he had answered the phone and that the moans were his because of the tattoo. I pretended this situation hadn't happened and we moved on. (note: I was emotionally dependent on him) Cut to January of this year, when he asked me to open up the relationship as this wasn't working. I said no, and that in my view it was like cheating but without the burden of conscience. So he continued to treat me badly. He admitted that when he first started treating me badly it was only because he wanted me to break up with him. (he thought traumatizing me and triggering me was a good idea) He told me he didn't want me to see his Facebook so I wouldn't see his relatives' profiles. When I asked about some people he followed that he had already said were cousins, he said that they were friends or that he didn't know that his friends had asked him to follow them and sending messages to them. When I followed someone he always freaked out and asked who he was over and over again, for example: I followed someone, John saw it and sent me a message asking who it was, I replied "he's a friend of mine" Then John would go on "who is he?" and again "who is he?" and again and again... Two months ago he said he wanted some time, I said very badly, he said it could be but that we wouldn't be with other people nor would there be flirting with other people. He agreed. But then we got into a big fight where he threatened me with a lawsuit, he didn't give me reasons or anything, he just said he was going to sue me. I insisted on knowing why he only said he was going to have to pay him a high price and I would probably go to prison. So for the next 3 days this was our topic of conversation, him threatening me, me crying, and asking why. Then I reached my limit On the day of the last lawsuit threat, I told my mother about him, the way he treated me and that I wanted a new cell phone number.(She didn't know, I never told her about him. Although he tried to contact her a few times. But I blocked him) So we went to buy a new contact for me, as he couldn't call me or get in touch with me anywhere. He asked some people to call my mother and my friends. My friends were talking to me and sending me screenshots of everything, so someone sent him the link to our group and he went in there and found out my new number. I was weakened when my friend told me that he was crying and that he told him that he loved me and that he was afraid of losing me. So I said okay I could talk to him. He told me some things like that he was sorry for making me suffer. I tried to understand his side. We came back. But I told him that the first thing he did I would leave. I did not go. And I regret it. He was never affectionate, or cute with me again. He continued to force me to send him photos and videos. And doing what he wanted. He was upset when I left. He didn't like me posting full body photos or showing more. Whereas he could go around shirtless, send shirtless photos to his group, post shirtless photos online. Once he published a photo of a photo with his cousin and hid it from me so I wouldn't see it (I knew he was going to this party, he had told me, it was a family party) Since then, I went to lawyers to ask for advice. One of the people I managed to talk to, as it was online and free, told me to contact the police and that what he was doing was wrong. Every time I ask him something he gets upset and says they are useless questions, that I'm stupid, I don't understand anything. Whenever he forces me to record something, he never sends anything. He always says he's tired, But if his friends ask him to go out or go to dinner or do anything, he'll go, even if he's tired. This is it. I don't know what to do anymore, I'm really afraid that he'll do something, after so many threats, and all the lies. I have the support of my family and friends. I'm sorry if there are some mistakes, I used the translator and tried to explain more or less all the information you should know. Please be friendly.

All my life I've been the lil nerdy chubby kid who never got any female attention. I didn't really mind it cause I never really cared for girls or a relationship or whatever but now that I'm older and much much more lonelier, I find myself wanting a companion. Someone who'll brighten up my day even on the worst ones. I mostly try to find a connection through online dating apps / reddit but it fails every time so miserably. I never get any likes, no one reaches out to me, and if I try to make the first move I either get blocked or ignored lol. It's so discouraging going through girls profiles, seeing what their standards are, and being constantly reminded that you're not good enough / you don't fit the criteria. You have to be 6 foot+, you gotta be in shape and have an athletic body, you gotta have tattoos, you gotta have a nice beard, you gotta have veiny arms, I mean the list goes on. I know there's "plenty of fish in the sea" and this isn't EVERYONES preference but it sure does feel like it. It sucks cause it feels like I'll never get a chance because I have no desirable traits or attributes. I just wonder what it feels like to be wanted.

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
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STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
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BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
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Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
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ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
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OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
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Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
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In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
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Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
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Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
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Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
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Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
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Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
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Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
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Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
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Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
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Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
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Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
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Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
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FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
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800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
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Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
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TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
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eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
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Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
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A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
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Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
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Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
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Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
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Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
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Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
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The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
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Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
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Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
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E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
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Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
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I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.

Hello creators. i am selling content on feetfinder... i have found that there are a few guys who have off the bat done the 'i'm falling in love with you' thing... good spenders which is great! but... at what point do i need to say something (if at all??) about this being an online only thing... i guess im just feeling a bit uncomfy if they actually think im leading them on... or is that part of the game??

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
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STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
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BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
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Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
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ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
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OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
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Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
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In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
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Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
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Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
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Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
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Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
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Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
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Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
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Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
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Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
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Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
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Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
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Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
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FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
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800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
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Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
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TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
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eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
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Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
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A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
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Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
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Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
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Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
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Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
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E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
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Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
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I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/bigcommerce-for-sale-openai-gpt-4o-instacarts-unlikely-partnership/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com

Hello,
I am very interested in traditional Japanese tattooing and Japanese history. I have looked online but cannot find anything related to what I’m looking for. I’m looking for some type of guide to Japanese culture in relation to art and obviously tattoos. I know basic things like what tebori is, namakubi, raijin and fujin. But other than that I don’t know much else. Is there a website or maybe some document that is good for a beginner to look into and study in relation to Japanese history/art/tattooing? Thanks.

https://i.redd.it/zxpspjdr890d1.gif
“Lokii- with two I’s, because… well, to be honest I don’t think the famous studio will not let me get away with it for copyright reasons.” Lokii gulps.
Lokii
“My name is Lokii, and I am South London’s bloody weirdo cosplay Queen. I promise I am not goofy in the slightest.” Lokii screeches. “I’m goofy to the MAX!”
In five words or less, describe your drag.
“Online Creator gone Cosplay Queen.” Lokii smiles, clearly proud of themselves fitting themselves in 5 words.
What Chronologica’s Drag Race Contestant is your biggest inspiration?
“Royal Virtue. I know a lot of people give her a really hard time, and frankly, that’s unfair. For me, it was so vital to see a publicly nerdy queer weirdo from my country showcasing themselves- authentically and proudly.”
How are you going to win this competition?
“I honestly believe I am doing something a bit different with my drag. I think that’s fun and exciting and.. I have an IT factor. We all do, but I think I can bring something really fun.” Lokii smiles.
~
“My name’s Molly Moppit, and I’m here to steal your hearts.” Molly smiles cheekily. “And all of your wigs.”
Molly Moppit
“Hey hey!” Molly waves. “I’m Molly Moppit, Venice, Italy’s demonic wench of drag.”
…
“What, that’s taken?” Molly turns her head in surprise before shaking her head. “I think I would wear it better.”
In five words or less, describe your drag.
“In five words or less.” Molly nods. “Fun.”
What Chronologica’s Drag Race Contestant is your biggest inspiration?
“Molly Moppit.”
How are you going to win this competition?
“A lot of the girls think that they can win the competition, but I’m gonna be the one stealing it.” Molly shushes. “Just don’t tell my ugly competitors.”

Howdy everyone, I’m Artemis or Artie for short. I’m a 5’5 trans woman who is pre op everything meaning that I haven’t medically transitioned so I still am physically a guy but I’m planning on getting all the surgeries and hormones once I’m more financially stable. I’d also prefer if you live in Georgia as well, I can’t do long distance but I’m starting online college in May and then moving to Winter Park, Florida in October to be on campus! I’d really like to be friends at first and slowly develop a romantic relationship, I don’t want to rush into a relationship but hey anything can happen. I’m super bubbly, optimistic, funny, open minded, kind, clingy and hella sensitive (I’m a crybaby) and I will always try to spread positivity and kindness. I grew up around a lot of negativity and hatred so I strive to be the opposite of that and always wear my heart on my sleeve no matter how much being too nice hurts me. I want to mention I am mentally ill and that includes have BPD (borderline personality disorder) so it can be rough being with me so if you don’t think you can handle it that’s okay! I’ll text you back pretty much immediately if I’m not busy, I love music and sharing/discovering music, I absolutely love horror movies and all things Halloween/spooky, I have 6 tattoos and planning on getting a lot more. I have two cats, Salem and Beetlejuice who is but a wee kitten. I’m a huge stoner and I sometimes take acid/shrooms so I ask that you’re okay with that. I play a lot of video games but mostly overwatch. I play dead by daylight, Ghost Of Tsushima, apex legends but I desperately need to finish Sekiro. I recently got a ps5 as well! If you decide to message me please send a small introduction about yourself, it doesn’t have to be an essay, just a few sentences :) Hope to fear from you!

1. Online Courses

Scenario: Jane, an aspiring graphic designer, stumbles upon an online course promising exclusive industry secrets and certifications. The course is marketed as a limited-time offer, with testimonials claiming life-changing results. Jane, eager to advance her skills, purchases the course. However, she soon realizes that the course content is outdated, poorly structured, and lacks any real value. The seller, who claimed to have exclusive rights to the content, turns out to be a fraudster who copied material from free sources and repackaged it as a premium product.
Impact: Jane feels cheated and loses her money. The fraudulent seller continues to deceive others, creating a cycle of misinformation and financial loss for unsuspecting learners.

2. Ebooks

Scenario: Mark is looking for ebooks on digital marketing strategies to enhance his knowledge. He finds a bundle deal offering ten ebooks at a significantly reduced price. The seller markets them as premium content written by top industry experts. Mark buys the bundle but soon discovers that the ebooks are poorly written, and upon further investigation, he finds that they were stolen from legitimate authors and repackaged without permission.
Impact: Mark is disappointed with the low-quality content and realizes he has indirectly supported intellectual property theft. The original authors lose potential revenue, and their hard work is exploited without credit or compensation.

3. Private Label Rights (PLR)

Scenario: Sarah wants to start an online business selling health and wellness guides. She purchases a PLR package that allows her to rebrand and sell the content as her own. Excited, she launches her website and begins selling the guides. However, customers soon complain about the generic content and lack of originality. Sarah learns that the same PLR content is being sold by hundreds of other websites, making her product indistinguishable and low-value.
Impact: Sarah's business suffers from a lack of trust and credibility. Customers feel deceived by the recycled content, and Sarah faces the challenge of rebuilding her brand with unique and original material.

4. Master Resale Rights (MRR)

Scenario: Tom joins an online community that shares MRR products, allowing members to resell digital products without making any changes. He starts selling a popular ebook that he acquired through the group. Initially, sales are good, but soon, Tom notices a decline in demand. Customers begin leaving negative reviews, pointing out that the ebook is available on numerous other websites, often for a lower price or even for free.
Impact: Tom's reputation as a seller takes a hit due to the oversaturation of the same product in the market. He realizes that relying on MRR products limits his ability to offer unique and valuable content, affecting his long-term business prospects.

5. Pirated Software

Scenario: Lisa, a freelance web developer, purchases a digital bundle that includes several software tools at an unbelievably low price. The seller assures her that the software is legitimate and provides license keys. After installing the tools, Lisa receives a warning from one of the software companies, stating that her license is invalid and that she is using pirated software. She also notices several bugs and issues, compromising her work quality.
Impact: Lisa faces legal risks and potential fines for using pirated software. Her work is disrupted due to the unreliable tools, affecting her professional reputation and client satisfaction. She must invest in legitimate software, leading to unplanned expenses and financial strain.
These scenarios highlight the various ways in which digital products can be manipulated and sold illegally, causing harm to both buyers and legitimate creators. By being aware of these common fraudulent practices, consumers can make more informed decisions and protect themselves from scams.

Question: For all the course creators, trainers, coaches and teachers.... Would you be interested in an online learning and teaching platform (similar to Udemy and Coursera) that only charges a monthly subscription plan. Therefore, you would earn 100% of all revenue and sales. If so, what monthly fee would you be willing to pay, and what functionality would you like to have?

Hey! Looking to make some new online friends, preferably in the U.K. but happy to talk to anyone.
A few things about me: I'm a big yapper. I will talk your ear off about anything and everything, but I'm also happy to listen and learn some new things! I enjoy playing story games such as TLOU, RDR2, horizon, and currently playing through the uncharted series (I'm on Drake's Deception so no spoilers please). I do play some multiplayer games but not many so l'm sorry if we don't have any in common. Some of my other interests include graphic design, tattoos, cars, and movies + tv shows.
Definitively not interested in anything more than a friendship, so please don't reach out if you're hoping for anything more.
If any of this appeals to you, drop me a message😊

For those of you lucky enough NOT to know, reference to the number 88 is often tinged in real life with some ugly sentiments. The letter H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, and 88 is often seen on tattoos or in usernames as a reference to (Heil (asshole)). It has passed from "a number" to being, at times, "a code or reference that an in-crowd will recognize." The number 420 has also achieved such status.
When I see an 88 in a username, my first thought is no longer "born in 1988" but rather "person that I don't want in my group." Nevertheless, I think that the creators of this content were not N sympathizers, but rather that they put real life references into the game, veiled as always, and subject to interpretation. When I saw "Vault 88" I groaned. As I entered, I saw some things that made me think twice about why they were included.
Let's look at some of the themes that are present in the quests in Vault 88. This is my take on these. Your opinions may vary. Perhaps this is grasping at straws, but I see quite a few references to the N.
(1) Experiments on unwilling or unknowing subjects, with the experiments being potentially lethal, as you tuned the bicycle, the soda machine, or the eye machine, to be stronger or weaker. This could easily be a reference to the experiments that the N did on certain residents of their "camps." (2) Dialogue with Valery Barstow Repeated reference to experiments for "The greater good." H made reference to "the greater good" in his speeches. Doctors shouldn't put their patient's welfare first. Instead, their sole focus should be the collective good. So if they must squander their time, let us turn it to the collective good: with chemistry. Maintaining Clem's trust isn't the focus of these experiments. Our collective welfare is. (3) The vault was supposed to have a very "specific set" of residents. A reference to concentration camps, and who the Ns put in there. (4) References to "Dr. Braun," the head of the old vault's experiments, a rather German name. A reference to Stanislaus Braun from Fallout 3, who was a pre-war German. But you can assure Doctor Braun, if he's even still around, that I have used the time productively. Doctor Braun tasked me with something vital. A series of prototypes and their related... well, experiments, that could redefine society. Doctor Braun is the head of the Societal Preservation Plan. A brilliant scientist and administrator Following in the footsteps of Doctor Braun and the others, I have spent my time devising my very own prototype. (5) The resident "Clem" has a name that, colloquially (in British English), can mean "to cause to suffer from hunger, thirst, or cold" The N often did this to their subjects in their camps. (6) When the experiments are over, if you don't do the dangerous experiments, Valery Barstow leaves the vault. Is she headed to Argentina? (7) Various references, at random. (7a). "Menace" Whether it rears its head around the coffee pot, water cooler, or soda fountain... it's a menace. (7b) But we must not dally. The work compels us. (Will the work make them free?) (7c) Another question for you. What can you tell me about your mother? (Hitler was quoted as saying that his mother was the only person that he loved)

Hey there!
Hope everyone is having a great day today! I woke up this morning feeling pretty sick so I made the choice to call in to work on what is probably the last summer-feeling day here. Been sleeping to help recover this morning and I thought I would see if anyone is ok here during the day to talk. I like posting on here every once in awhile to find people looking to have fun conversations; conversations that I would love to blossom into potential for chat buddies. Anyway, I'll be snoozing throughout the day so I'll be looking forward to your posts! I have some ice breakers to make things easier!

• In honor of the last days of summer weather, would you rather swim in a lake, pool, or ocean?
• What travel plans do you have in the next year?
• What's your favorite fall activity?
• On a cold rainy day, are you curling up to read a book, watch a movie/TV show, listening to music, or hopping online
• What is your go-to, cold weather meal?

And a few things about me

• Could probably continuous eat popcorn mindlessly until I would die from overeating
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the best cereal of all time
• Please give me book recommendations. My go-to's are science fiction, /fantasy, non-fiction, and mystery. Help me figure out how I can focus and read more than one or two books per year.
• I'm in a weird phase where I'm looking forward to watching YouTube creators that have weird and interesting jobs or side hustles instead of watching movies or TV shows.
• Picked up Tennis in the last few months but wishes there were more opportunities to play racquetball in my area.
• I thought that Dune: Part 2 was the best movie of the year, but the year is not over and I haven't watched very many movies.

Welp that was a weird bio, but I still look forward to hearing from you!!