Business
The Shopping Bots Are Coming for Amazon. The idea that a shopping agent can totally replace Amazon is absurd. Amazon dominates the retail world because it has the best fulfillment network, the best delivery network, a gigantic inventory, an enormous scale, a brand trusted by consumers and merchants and a multi-side network. Does Muse have all of those elements? Let’s say that Muse can help shoppers access websites and place orders, it still doesn’t have what makes Amazon great. It is down to who owns the customer relationship? Do shoppers trust and interact with Muse more than they do Amazon? If shoppers tend to go to Amazon to look and shop, why would it then let anyone else come close to the relationship? Yes Muse is partnering with Walmart for now, but Walmart collaborated with ChatGPT before and the partnership fizzled after a few months. DoorDash last week revealed that they got only a few hundred orders from Muse. The app got an excellent start with millions of downloads, but retention has been much less impressive. And given how many users Meta has, a few hundred orders is just disappointing.
Amazon Launches Partnership with Uber Eats Featuring $0 Delivery Fee for Prime Members. Amazon gives Prime members or non-members a reason to subscribe to the program. Plus, they give shoppers a reason to open the Amazon app/website. It’s much more likely to lead to a sale than otherwise. Uber Eats gains access to thousands of shoppers who, I would think, overlap with its target audience and has a certain level of disposable income. Uber runs a three-sided marketplace. The more orders it generates, the more it can recruit drivers and restaurants. The more drivers, the faster orders are delivered. The more restaurants, the more appealing the ecosystem. What’s interesting to me is that the Uber Eats version is totally different from the normal Uber Eats interface. To get to this version, customers need to go to Amazon shopping app, type Uber Eats in the search box and click on the banner. Not very intuitive. I guess it is to limit the current promotion that will expire on 11/18. In terms of the economics, I’d bet that Uber would have to pay Amazon some fees and that they thought it would be better than running promotions and deals all year round to drive bookings.
America Has Become the Last Place to Make Money for the World’s Automakers. “U.S., European and Asian automakers are all focused on making and selling cars in the U.S. because of Americans’ proclivity for large pickups and SUVs—vehicles with high profit margins—and their willingness to swallow record-high sticker prices. New car prices are hovering around $50,000, while roughly one-fifth of new-vehicle buyers have monthly car payments that top $1,000. Another reason is that the market in China, for decades the path to automotive dominance, has hit a wall. Sales are down more than 20% through September, creating a massive overcapacity crisis. Other big markets, including Europe, Japan and the Middle East, are also sputtering.” I recently looked at options for a new car and holy moly, both new and used cars are wildly expensive. And based on articles like this one, Americans are still willing to pay, even if they have to get into debt. Astounding!
Hyatt Is the All-Inclusive Resort King, If That’s Your Thing. “Hyatt has spent the last five years turning itself into, by its reckoning, the world’s largest purveyor of luxury, all-inclusive resorts. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, it counts more than 100 properties and just under 1 million towels. It specialized in operating large sites that charged higher prices in exchange for perks like bellhops, lobby restaurants and spas. All-inclusives account for 15% of the company’s rooms and roughly one-fifth of its gross fee revenue. The strategy seemed shrewd from a distance. A K-shaped economyhas made luxury hotels the most dependable part of the global hospitality business. Construction of new resorts in the US had ground to a virtual halt, driving room prices higher, diverting vacationers to cheaper Caribbean locales where there’s still plenty of beachfront on which to build. On closer inspection, though, plenty of questions remain. Can fullest-service hospitality turn a profit in a region vulnerable to hurricanes, political instability and the cost of jet fuel? Is Hyatt’s operating expertise distinctive enough to stave off competition from its bigger rivals? And will the Covid-19 bump endure, or has the all-inclusive resort just been enjoying another brief period as a fad?“
Other Stuff I Find Interesting & So May You
Why the Bronze Age collapsed. The author took us from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age and eventually to the Iron Age. The ubiquitous adoption of iron, one of the most available elements on Earth, the author argued, played an important role in our history. An interesting take.
The immortal jellyfish can beat ageing. It could inspire treatments for diseases of old age. Mother Nature may have a solution to humans’ seemingly unbeatable problem: eventual death. A jellyfish named Turritopsis dohrnii has an uncanny ability to regenerate and live no matter what you do to it. It’s unbelievable. But we are far far far away from copying that ability.
Are these the world’s best shithouses? Norway is one of my dream destinations and this is just another on a long list of excuses to visit.
How Elon Musk Frittered Away Nearly $500 Million on the Midterms. Musk spent more money on political donations than anyone, by a wide margin, who was not a candidate. But even his seemingly limitless wealth couldn’t sway voters who were frustrated and felt betrayed by the affordability crisis. Musk did not seem to invest his money based on principles. He cut checks even for candidates that be barely knew or interacted with. I get that the far left are not very likable and Democrats can go too far with regulations and red tap; which business people like Musk definitely don’t like. But supporting candidates like Ken Paxton is just wild.
The forgotten formula for lovable cities. Building a loveable city is more than just appearance of buildings. Camillo Sitte, an Austrian architect and the author of The Art of Building Cities, offers five principles on which a city can make its public spaces better.
Stats
The average consumer uses a payment card 2.5 times each day
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