Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.It’s easy to forget now, but Amazon wasn’t always the king of online shopping. In the fall of 2004, Jeff Bezos’s company was still mostly selling just books and DVDs.That same year, Amazon was under siege from multiple sides. Some of its biggest competitors were brick-and-mortar chains like Best Buy, which was still in expansion mode at the time, with sales growing 17 percent annually. Toys ‘R’ Us sued Amazon in a high-profile battle, alleging it had violated an agreement the two companies had for the toy store...…Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.It’s easy to forget now, but Amazon wasn’t always the king of online shopping. In the fall of 2004, Jeff Bezos’s company was still mostly selling just books and DVDs.That same year, Amazon was under siege from multiple sides. Some of its biggest competitors were brick-and-mortar chains like Best Buy, which was still in expansion mode at the time, with sales growing 17 percent annually. Toys ‘R’ Us sued Amazon in a high-profile battle, alleging it had violated an agreement the two companies had for the toy store...WW…

Can government investigations and activist protests slow the Prime machine?Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon is facing government investigations and activist protests across the globe, from the to to . And yet the engine behind its online retail domination just keeps getting stronger.CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Thursday that the company’s Amazon Prime membership program now boasts more than 150 million paying customers across the globe. Amazon’s stock price jumped more than 10 percent on the Prime news and the company’s broader earnings...…Can government investigations and activist protests slow the Prime machine?Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon is facing government investigations and activist protests across the globe, from the to to . And yet the engine behind its online retail domination just keeps getting stronger.CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Thursday that the company’s Amazon Prime membership program now boasts more than 150 million paying customers across the globe. Amazon’s stock price jumped more than 10 percent on the Prime news and the company’s broader earnings...WW…

The tech giant’s hope is that federal lawmakers will adopt much of its draft legislation.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says his company is developing a set of laws to regulate facial recognition technology that it plans to share with federal lawmakers.In February, the company, which has faced escalating scrutiny over its controversial facial recognition tech, called Amazon Rekognition, . Now Amazon is taking another step, Bezos told reporters in a surprise appearance following Amazon’s annual Alexa gadget event in Seattle...…The tech giant’s hope is that federal lawmakers will adopt much of its draft legislation.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says his company is developing a set of laws to regulate facial recognition technology that it plans to share with federal lawmakers.In February, the company, which has faced escalating scrutiny over its controversial facial recognition tech, called Amazon Rekognition, . Now Amazon is taking another step, Bezos told reporters in a surprise appearance following Amazon’s annual Alexa gadget event in Seattle...WW…

Food and grocery delivery workers explain what online shoppers should do to make their work safer and easier.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.As more municipalities around the US recommend or mandate that residents stay at home to try to slow the spread of , online orders for grocery deliveries are soaring.During the week of March 2, even before several US regions imposed stricter social distancing rules in the past week, Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart grocery delivery services each saw at least a 65 percent sales increase compared to the same...…Food and grocery delivery workers explain what online shoppers should do to make their work safer and easier.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.As more municipalities around the US recommend or mandate that residents stay at home to try to slow the spread of , online orders for grocery deliveries are soaring.During the week of March 2, even before several US regions imposed stricter social distancing rules in the past week, Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart grocery delivery services each saw at least a 65 percent sales increase compared to the same...WW…

Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.In September 2016, Walmart made a giant, risky bet.The country’s most dominant brick-and-mortar retailer agreed to the largest-ever acquisition of an e-commerce company: of a fast-growing but money-sucking online shopping site called Jet.com.There were back then, but Walmart was desperate to close the huge gap between itself and Amazon, the online shopping wrecking ball. And CEO Doug McMillon had become convinced that Jet founder and CEO Marc Lore, who previously founded and sold it for a fortune to Amazon, was...…Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.In September 2016, Walmart made a giant, risky bet.The country’s most dominant brick-and-mortar retailer agreed to the largest-ever acquisition of an e-commerce company: of a fast-growing but money-sucking online shopping site called Jet.com.There were back then, but Walmart was desperate to close the huge gap between itself and Amazon, the online shopping wrecking ball. And CEO Doug McMillon had become convinced that Jet founder and CEO Marc Lore, who previously founded and sold it for a fortune to Amazon, was...WW…

As shoppers stock up, Amazon is scrambling to block scammers and schemes.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon said on Thursday that it on its marketplace in recent weeks that made false claims about defending against the novel , as schemers across the globe looked to make a quick buck amid a global health threat. But what’s left when searching “coronavirus” or “Covid-19” on the e-commerce site is a grab bag of rushed-to-publish pandemic books and protection gear, a mix of products that could be disorienting to the average shopper.As the global...…As shoppers stock up, Amazon is scrambling to block scammers and schemes.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon said on Thursday that it on its marketplace in recent weeks that made false claims about defending against the novel , as schemers across the globe looked to make a quick buck amid a global health threat. But what’s left when searching “coronavirus” or “Covid-19” on the e-commerce site is a grab bag of rushed-to-publish pandemic books and protection gear, a mix of products that could be disorienting to the average shopper.As the global...WW…

The new tool would also track other non-union threats to the company, like crime and weather.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon has long , though much of its anti-union strategies have stayed under wraps. But a confidential Amazon internal memo viewed by Recode reveals how the company is making significant investments in technology to track and counter the threat of unionization.The 11-page document, dated February 2020, describes Amazon’s plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to better analyze and visualize data on unions around...…The new tool would also track other non-union threats to the company, like crime and weather.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon has long , though much of its anti-union strategies have stayed under wraps. But a confidential Amazon internal memo viewed by Recode reveals how the company is making significant investments in technology to track and counter the threat of unionization.The 11-page document, dated February 2020, describes Amazon’s plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to better analyze and visualize data on unions around...WW…

And, it hopes, at other retailers’ stores in the future.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon accounts for nearly 40 percent of e-commerce sales in the US today, and it takes a cut of even more online shopping by selling payments services and other technologies to external shopping sites. Now, the online retail giant is making a play to grab a piece of brick-and-mortar shopping, too — and it wants customers to literally lend a hand to do it.Amazon on Wednesday is unveiling a new way to pay at select Whole Foods stores: a biometric technology...…And, it hopes, at other retailers’ stores in the future.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Amazon accounts for nearly 40 percent of e-commerce sales in the US today, and it takes a cut of even more online shopping by selling payments services and other technologies to external shopping sites. Now, the online retail giant is making a play to grab a piece of brick-and-mortar shopping, too — and it wants customers to literally lend a hand to do it.Amazon on Wednesday is unveiling a new way to pay at select Whole Foods stores: a biometric technology...WW…

Billionaires make calls just like us.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Sometime after in February of this year, the city’s former Mayor Michael Bloomberg received a call from a top company executive.It wasn’t just any Amazon executive — it was Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and CEO and the world’s richest man.Bezos was calling with a question for his fellow billionaire and media mogul: Would Bloomberg consider entering the 2020 presidential race?Bloomberg told Bezos no at the time, according to a person briefed on the phone conversation.But he...…Billionaires make calls just like us.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Sometime after in February of this year, the city’s former Mayor Michael Bloomberg received a call from a top company executive.It wasn’t just any Amazon executive — it was Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and CEO and the world’s richest man.Bezos was calling with a question for his fellow billionaire and media mogul: Would Bloomberg consider entering the 2020 presidential race?Bloomberg told Bezos no at the time, according to a person briefed on the phone conversation.But he...WW…

The system could someday be used in Amazon Go or Whole Foods stores.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Today, visitors to need to scan an app to get in. In the future, Amazon may instead ask to just scan their hands instead.The US Patent and Trademark Office published that would identify people not by their faces but by characteristics associated with the palms of their hands, including wrinkles and veins.The application filing does not mean the company is definitely developing such technology, but the New York Post reported in September that...…The system could someday be used in Amazon Go or Whole Foods stores.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Today, visitors to need to scan an app to get in. In the future, Amazon may instead ask to just scan their hands instead.The US Patent and Trademark Office published that would identify people not by their faces but by characteristics associated with the palms of their hands, including wrinkles and veins.The application filing does not mean the company is definitely developing such technology, but the New York Post reported in September that...WW…