Judge approves $155M class action settlement related to Big Fish Games and online gambling lawsuit

Inside the Big Fish office in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Nat Levy)

The past and current owner of Seattle-based Big Fish Games will pay $155 million to recover payments made by users of its social casino games after a judge on Monday granted preliminary approval of two class action settlements.

The legal dispute dates back to 2015 when Cheryl Kater sued Big Fish’s then-parent company Churchill Downs. The suit argued that Big Fish violated Washington state law governing online gambling because chips used in its “freemium” game Big Fish Casino represented “something of value.”

In 2016, a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle threw out Kater’s complaint. But two years later, a federal appeals court ruled that Big Fish Casino constituted illegal online gambling, according to Washington state law.

Kater is listed on the settlement as a plaintiff, along with Suzie Kelly and Manasa Thimmegowda.

Churchill Downs and Aristocrat Technologies are listed as defendants. Churchill Downs acquired Big Fish Games for $885 million in 2014, and sold it to Aristocrat in 2018 for nearly $1 billion.

Churchill will pay $124 million of the settlement, while Aristocrat will pay the remaining $31 million.

The settlement could have major implications for the casual games market as many popular games use in-app purchases as a revenue driver. Several other lawsuits were filed in the wake of the federal appeals court decision, challenging the legality of social games in Washington.

Washington lawmakers earlier this year debated legislation that would shield many of the state’s smartphone game companies from class-action gambling lawsuits. However, the bills did not advance beyond initial discussion.

As part of the settlement, Big Fish has agreed to “establish a voluntary self-exclusion policy that will allow players to exclude themselves from further gameplay, make available resources related to video game behavior disorders, and change the game mechanics of its apps so players who run out of virtual chips can continue on in the game they are playing without buying chips,” according to the settlement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

The payout amount will be based on how much each person lost while playing Big Fish Casino, Jackpot Magic Slots, and Epic Diamond Slots.

Big Fish Casino is a series of games like slots, blackjack, and roulette that use virtual chips. We’ve followed up with Big Fish about changes to its games as a result of this settlement, and will update this story if we hear back.

Founded in 2002, Big Fish has an additional office in Oakland, Calif. The company was previously led by former president Jeff Karp, who just joined Electronic Arts. It cut about 15% of its workforce in September 2018. Big Fish has more than 600 employees, according to LinkedIn.

(Hat tip to Venkat Balasubramani)

(Editor’s note: The headline was updated to reflect Big Fish Games’ involvement in the lawsuit)

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Lefties estrena su venta online en España este jueves

El grupo Inditex amplía su presencia en internet. El gigante textil pondrá en marcha este jueves la venta online de su marca Lefties en España. De esta manera, se suma a marcas del grupo como Zara, Oysho, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius o Massimo Dutti, entre otras, que llevan ya años vendiendo a través de internet. Con el lanzamiento del ‘ecommerce’ de Lefties, Inditex cuenta ya con todas sus marcas operando también ‘online’.

Lefties, que no disponía de ‘ecommerce’ durante la pandemia del coronavirus, activó durante la reciente crisis sanitaria el servicio ‘Click & Collect’ para acudir a la tienda solamente a pagar y recoger los artículos reservados a través de su página web.

La enseña de moda accesible está dirigida a todo tipo de públicos y edades, ya que cuenta con las secciones de señora, caballero e infantil (bebé, niña y niño).

Lefties cuenta en la actualidad con una red de más de 169 tiendas, que están repartidas en nueve países como son España, Portugal, Rusia, México, Qatar, Arabia Saudí, Marruecos, Túnez y Dubai.

Inditex en el Fortune Global 500

Un total de nueve empresas españolas, entre las que destacan Inditex, Banco Santander, Telefónica y Repsol figuran en el último ranking ‘Fortune Global 500’, que recoge al medio millar de firmas que más facturan en el mundo.

De las españolas, el primer lugar corresponde al Banco Santander, en la posición 93 del ranking total. Le siguen Telefónica, en la plaza 201; y la energética Repsol, en la posición 245. También figuran el banco BBVA (posición 254), ACS (274), Iberdrola (303), Inditex (398), Mapfre (464) y Naturgy (492).

El ‘top tres’ mundial está compuesto por Walmart, Sinopec Group, State Grid. Le siguen China National Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Saudi Aramco, Volkswagen, BP, Amazon y Toyota, que completan las diez primeras posiciones.

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Barn2Door raises $6M as demand rises for its software used by farmers to sell food online

Barn2Door CEO Janelle Maiocco. (Barn2Door Photo)

The pandemic is increasing demand for grocery and food delivery. Seattle startup Barn2Door is riding this trend and just raised $6 million to support its growth.

Barn2Door serves thousands of farmers across the U.S., helping them sell food directly to consumers with e-commerce software that manages sales, inventory, logistics, and more.

“Barn2Door was enjoying strong growth prior to the pandemic as farmers were looking to move to direct-to-market to capture more margin and own the customer relationship,” said CEO Janelle Maiocco. “The pandemic has simply added a tailwind to our growth.”

More people are shopping for groceries online as they get groceries delivered versus going to a physical store amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon, for example, said online grocery sales tripled year-over-year during the second quarter. Instacart is handling huge demand. Seattle startup Crowd Cow is seeing more interest for its online meat marketplace. And Portland, Ore.-based farm-to-doorstep delivery service Milk Run — which just launched in Seattle — said demand increased by 12 times since the outset of the pandemic.

Barn2Door is Maiocco’s second take on a startup for farmers. Barn2Door was founded soon after Maiocco pulled the plug on Farmstr, an organic food marketplace that connected consumers with farmers. Farmstr had a much larger scope: aggregating products, acquiring and marketing to customers, and managing and fulfilling food orders. Maiocco said previously that the model was too expensive to be profitable.

Barn2Door takes a narrower approach, focusing exclusively on making software that helps farmers connect with and sell to customers. The farmers are responsible for the rest of the process, including fulfilling and delivering orders.

Bullpen Capital led the Series A round, with participation from Quiet Capital, RAINE Ventures, Lead Edge Capital, Global Founders Capital, Sugar Mountain Capital, and others.

Total funding to date is $11.6 million.

Other Pacific Northwest-based food-related startups are also raising cash. Minnow raised $2.2 million for its contactless food delivery pickup stations; Shelf Engine raised $12 million to help retailers manage orders and reduce waste; and Dumpling raised $6.5 million for its technology that help entrepreneurs establish their own, independent grocery businesses.

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California could soon make Amazon, other online marketplaces liable for defective products

Bigstock Photo

In the fall of 2016, Angela Bolger ordered a replacement battery for her HP laptop for $12.30 through Amazon Prime. Once it arrived at her San Diego home, she popped it in and then noticed a weird sound.

She flipped the laptop to her ear, then back over to her lap, and then “it suddenly exploded like a bomb, flaming melted battery shrapnel went everywhere. My bed was on fire, my floor was on fire, my room was like a warzone.”

Bolger used a pillow to try to smother the flames, later realizing she was so severely burned she had to spend weeks in a hospital’s burn unit and required extensive skin graft surgery for her arms and legs.

“My hands and feet were charred and blistered beyond belief,” Bolger, a previous marathon runner, said. She told her story virtually, her voice laden with emotion, to California state lawmakers during a committee hearing last week.

California’s Senate is expected to vote on a bill this week that, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation to hold Amazon and other online marketplaces strictly liable for defective third-party products sold on their websites, and give people like Bolger a method of recourse for defective products that isn’t reliant on the courts.

Supporters say the measure is crucial to leveling the playing field for brick-and-mortar stores that are already liable for such products. But critics say that the bill places an unnecessary burden on small businesses and startups with tighter budgets to address such issues and compete while already under tremendous strain during a global pandemic.

The measure, AB 3262, authored by Assemblyman Mark Stone (D, Santa Cruz) has already passed the state Assembly with a 54-14 vote.

Bolger found that neither she nor Amazon could reach the Chinese company who sold her the defective battery and that though Amazon gave her her money back, and later warned users, it never did accept responsibility. She sought out recourse in the court system, which has, so far, handled such cases in one-off fashion.

California’s 4th District Court of Appeal ruled this month in Bolger’s case that Amazon can be held strictly liable for defective products sold to Californians via third-party vendors on its ecommerce site.

Amazon has argued that it shouldn’t be held liable because it did not distribute, manufacture or sell the product. But the court noted that Amazon had made itself a crucial part of the supply chain, utilizing its warehouse, staff and materials to ship the product.

The idea, “is to ensure that when a product is sold in California, and someone is injured, that there is a remedy,” Stone said.

Online marketplaces have “significant competitive advantage” over local, brick-and-mortar stores in communities and are leaving California consumers “in the lurch,” Stone added.

The Internet Association, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that represents Amazon and other internet companies, urged the state Senate to reject the measure.

“This law couldn’t come at a worse time, as businesses still reeling from the pandemic have turned to online marketplaces, large and small, to reach customers, sell their products, and keep the lights on, said Dylan Hoffman, the association’s director of California government affairs, in a statement to dot.LA. “Now is not the time to fundamentally alter the rules or increase costs for online commerce.”

 The ultimate result is these product providers, these websites, the service providers are all going to be subject to strict liability and substantial costs.

Chris Micheli, a representative of CompTIA, told legislators during the hearing  that “this would be a first-in-the-nation bill” and multiple state legislatures have considered similar bills but rejected them.

“The ultimate result is these product providers, these websites, the service providers are all going to be subject to strict liability and substantial costs,” Micheli said. “There’s going to be a diminution in opportunities for consumers to purchase products and those that they do (will be) at a higher rate.”

The state’s leading small business advocacy group, the National Federation of Independent Businesses also spoke out against the measure. Its representative called it a move that would have “serious consequences on small businesses throughout the state,” which are already in peril due to the pandemic and rely on online marketplaces to sell their goods.

“To be clear, this bill places online marketplaces on equal footing with their brick-and-mortar counterparts when it comes to the issue of third-party sales,” said Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat from Santa Barbara and the state Senate Judiciary Committee’s chair. “We have this whole new marketplace that’s basically unregulated and this bill says that we’re going to compare you, we’re going to analogize you to a marketplace.”

Strict liability has been around for more than 50 years, and reflects judicial concern that “the cost of injuries resulting from defective products are borne by the manufacturers that put such products on the market, rather than by the injured persons who are powerless to protect themselves,” according to the state’s Supreme Court. That policy has long been extended to retailers as well.

The bill exempts auctioned and handmade goods as well as websites functioning more like classified ads to connect buyers with third-party sellers directly; for example, most sales off eBay, Craigslist and Etsy.

The bill was authored by Assemblyman Mark Stone (D, Santa Cruz) and is co-sponsored by the Teamsters, the UFCW, and the Consumer Attorneys of California. The Consumer Federation of California, Consumer Reports, and the California Labor Federation also had representatives speak out in support.

The Internet Association, California Grocery Assn., Net Choice, California Chamber of Commerce, Etsy and eBay unless it is amended, the Western Growers Assn., the California Retailers Assn., the Civil Justice Assn. of California, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Techmet, CompTIA, the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

This story was published by GeekWire under a partnership with dot.LA, a technology news and events startup co-founded by former Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff.

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Madrona invests in $80M round for online document startup Coda, led by ex-Microsoft and YouTube director

Bay Area-based startup Coda raised a $80 million round led by Kleiner Perkins for its online document collaboration software.

Founded in 2014 and led by Shishir Mehrotra, a former director at Microsoft and Google, Coda brings together documents, spreadsheets, and apps into one platform. It uses “building blocks,” templates, and customizable views, and also connects to other apps such as Jira and Slack. Customers include Spotify, Uber, Intercom, Square, and others.

Seattle venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group also participated in the Series C round, investing out of its Acceleration Fund.

“Coda envisions a future where documents are alive and interactive – enabling users to interact with data, to interact with systems, and to automate previously manual processes,” Madrona Managing Director S. “Soma” Somasegar wrote in a blog post. “Coda imagines a world where everybody can be a ‘maker’ and can use Coda to express what they want to and collaborate with others seamlessly.”

Somasegar said the investment in Coda fits into Madrona’s focus on backing companies in the “Future of Work” and “low-code/no-code” areas.

Welcome to the world of documents as powerful as applications – @MadronaVentures thrilled to be a part of the @coda_hq @shishirmehrotra journey #futureofwork https://t.co/7Ssh5FSMQg

— S. Somasegar (@SSomasegar) August 11, 2020

Coda is riding a trend of increased use of workplace collaboration software, particularly in the past several months with remote work amid the pandemic.

Other investors in round include Underscore VC, Renegade Partners, NGP Capital, and Hawk Equity. Greylock, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, and a number of well-known angels previously invested.

“With all these backers joining the maker generation, we’re more equipped than ever to reimagine docs,” Mehrotra wrote in a blog post. “In the past year, we’ve made big progress in making Coda simpler, cleaner, and faster for your team; now you can expect even more.”

Mehrotra co-founded Coda with Alex DeNeui, who sold his previous startup DocVerse to Google. They previously raised a $60 million round for Coda in 2017.

Coda is now valued at $636 million, according to Forbes. The 70-person company plans to double headcount and is growing an engineering team in the Seattle region.

“It’s clear that there is true value in Coda’s vision for the world, that if given the right set of building blocks, anyone can make a doc as powerful as an app,” Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins and an early investor in Slack, Box, Yammer, and other companies, said in a statement. “Today, Coda is more relevant than ever as teams adapt processes and sharpen their workflows.”

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Deportivo La Coruña – Fuenlabrada: hora y dónde ver el partido de Segunda División hoy online en directo por TV

Deportivo de La Coruña y Fuenlabrada se medirán en la jornada 42 de la Liga SmartBank en el estadio de Riazor hoy viernes a las 20:00 horas. El encuentro Deportivo – Fuenlabrada será televisado por Movistar La Liga y también lo podrán seguir a través del directo de OKDIARIO.

Los de Fernando Vázquez, matemáticamente descendidos a Segunda B, recibirán en Riazor a los madrileños (60), que se juegan arrebatar al Elche (61) la sexta posición de la Liga SmartBank, última de las de acceso a los playoffs de ascenso a LaLiga Santander.

El ‘caso Fuenlabrada’ ha desembocado en una interminable sucesión de acontecimientos y comunicados de todos los clubes implicados; algunos como el Deportivo o el Numancia, descendidos en la última jornada, solicitaron una Segunda de 24 equipos la próxima temporada, mientras que el Espanyol pidió que se anulasen los descensos de Primera y el Zaragoza apuntó a un posible ascenso del tercer clasificado o de los seis primeros de la Liga SmartBank.

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Univ. of Washington will shift more than 90% of classes online this fall

The “Amazon Auditorium” at the UW’s computer science school. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)

The University of Washington will move more than 90% of classes online this fall.

UW President Ana Mari Cauce announced the latest guidelines in a letter to students Thursday. A majority of classes will be remote with the exception of instruction that cannot take place virtually. Cauce said these are likely the “final plans” for fall quarter, though she cautioned that guidance could change depending on the trajectory of the pandemic.

GeekWire previously reported last month that 80% of classes would shift online due to the pandemic.

In-person classes will be held with safety measures and physical distancing. Students are allowed to live on campus but must wear face masks. UW is offering access to COVID-19 tests to those experiencing symptoms.

“While we are all disappointed that the continued spread of the virus has limited our ability to safely provide more in-person teaching, we continue to be excited about the learning and discovery in store for our academic community,” Cauce wrote. “Our faculty, teaching assistants and academic support staff have been engaged in developing innovative and creative approaches to online learning. We look forward to a meaningful and academically-rich autumn, in which we all do our part to protect our community’s health and safety.”

COVID-19 cases last month rose in Washington state and King County, where the UW is located. More than 60,000 people across the state have tested positive for the virus, including more than 16,000 in King County.

The UW has had 265 COVID-19 cases at its Seattle campus, including 154 around Greek Row.

In June, Washington state issued new safety guidelines for institutions of higher education as they prepare to re-open for the fall term. Other institutions around Seattle including the University of Puget Sound and Seattle University are shifting most coursework online this fall.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday urged schools to pursue remote learning, advising that it would be unsafe for students to return to the classroom across most of the state, including schools within local tech hubs such as Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond. Nationwide, school districts in cities including Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago are teaching online.

The shift online could be a financial hit for the UW and other schools. It costs money to transition classes online, as the UW did for 98% of its courses last term. And colleges lose money when students aren’t paying for room and board. The University of Michigan estimates it could lose up to $1 billion by the end of the year, NPR reported. Financial duress led Stanford to cancel 11 varsity sports programs after this year.

The Trump administration threatened to take away visas from international students if they did not attend some university classes in person, but reversed course on that policy last month.

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The Elder Scrolls Online y Doom Eternal tendr�n versiones mejoradas para PS5 y Xbox Series X

Bethesda ha anunciado hoy que Doom Eternal y The Elder Scrolls Online llegarán a consolas de nueva generación con versiones mejoradas. De esta manera, los usuarios que se decidan por una PS5 o una Xbox Series X (o ambas) podrán disfrutar de la mejor versión de estos dos juegos. A fecha de hoy la compañía no ha especificado cuáles serán las mejoras añadidas.

Lo que sí se nos ha dicho es que cualquier jugador que ya tenga estos juegos o que lo vayan a comprar en un futuro en PS4 o Xbox One, recibirán automáticamente la versión para PS5 o Xbox Series X, en función de la plataforma en la que hayamos comprado el juego. Si bien Bethesda no ha podido asegurar que estas versiones esten disponibles el mismo día del lanzamiento de la nueva consola, sí afirma que “nuestros desarrolladores están trabajando con todo su esfuerzo para traer estas versiones una vez las consolas se hayan lanzado al mercado”.

En los próximos meses Bethesda ofrecerá más información sobre Doom Eternal y The Elder Scrolls Online, aunque como sorpresa final ha asegurado que estos dos títulos “no serán los únicos que lleguen a PS5 y Xbox Series X con versiones mejoradas”.

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Amazon’s online grocery sales triple in Q2 as more people get food delivered amid pandemic

A Whole Foods Market store in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)

Amazon saw online grocery sales triple year-over-year during the second quarter as more customers get their groceries delivered versus going to a physical store amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon revealed the growth rate as part of its second quarter earnings report. The Seattle-based company blew past analyst expectations, reporting $88.9 billion in revenue and $5.2 billion in profits, despite spending $4 billion on COVID-19 initiatives.

Customers are relying on Amazon for online shopping as physical stores are closed or operating under social distancing mandates due to the health crisis.

Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, said it increased grocery delivery capacity by more than 160% and tripled grocery pickup locations during the second quarter.

“We’re reaching more customers with our grocery offerings,” Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts Thursday. 

A survey from RBC Capital Markets in April found an “accelerated secular shift to online grocery shopping” driven by the pandemic, with companies including Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart benefitting.

“We believe that online grocery shopping may now be coming a habitual practice among shoppers,” RBC analyst Mark Mahaney wrote.

Amazon doesn’t break out online grocery sales in its financial statements. Its physical store category, which primarily includes sales from Whole Foods, saw revenue drop 13% to $3.8 billion during Q2. But sales from customers who buy groceries for delivery or pickup from Whole Foods are included in Amazon’s online sales category, which was up 49% to $45.9 billion.

Amazon reported today that across delivery, pickup, and in-store shopping, Whole Foods sales grew year-over-year.

RBC said Amazon’s online grocery arm could produce $70 billion in gross merchandise volume by 2023 — more than 3X from 2019 — becoming a material portion of its total revenue.

The New York Times reported in April that orders for Amazon groceries were as much as 50 times higher than normal. The company was struggling to fulfill orders, with some customers reporting extended delays or no open delivery windows for weeks.

The spike in online grocery purchasing could help Amazon boost its Prime membership base. Amazon requires a $119/year Prime membership to access its 2-hour Prime Now delivery service and Amazon Fresh.

This past October, Amazon made grocery delivery a built-in benefit of Prime membership — no longer charging an extra $15 per month, or $180 per year, for Amazon Fresh delivery on top of the $119 annual Prime fee.

Olsavsky said existing Prime member renewal rates improved and the Prime member growth rate accelerated both in the U.S. and worldwide during the second quarter. 

Amazon’s online grocery arm also includes its AmazonFresh Pickup service. The company also offers BOPIS (Buy Online PIckup in Store) at Whole Foods, which it acquired for $13.7 billion three years ago.

Aiding Amazon’s grocery delivery efforts is the company’s huge investment in its delivery network that is enabling 1-day delivery promises for Prime members.

Amazon’s other grocery-related initiatives includes its growing footprint of Amazon Go stores that feature cashier-less technology; the company is now selling that tech to other businesses. Amazon is also preparing to open its own grocery store in Woodland Hills, Calif., which is currently being used to fulfill delivery orders. And the company recently unveiled its first smart grocery cart earlier this month.

Groceries are an estimated $678 billion U.S. market that is increasingly going digital. Research firm eMarketer estimates that U.S. food and beverage e-commerce sales will grow 23.4% to more than $32 billion this year, making it “both the fastest-growing and least penetrated ecommerce category.” Those projections came before the COVID-19 crisis.

Amazon in May expanded online use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits program, allowing more people to use SNAP benefits to buy groceries online.

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Amazon moves annual AWS re:Invent conference online as part of a free 3-week event

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy answers questions from reporters at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas in December. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

Amazon’s annual cloud conference is going fully digital this year as the global pandemic forces companies to move events online.

Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent 2020 will be a 3-week free virtual conference from Nov. 30 to Dec. 18. It was originally scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 in Las Vegas.

#AWS re:Invent 2020 will be free and virtual! Subscribe at https://t.co/gbmLDI0mBL for updates! pic.twitter.com/vBuxHt57JC

— Jeff Barr ?? (@ ?? ) (@jeffbarr) July 29, 2020

The event, held since 2012, has become one of the most important tech gatherings of the year. While Amazon is best known for its own e-commerce site, its cloud division is also the go-to cloud provider for some of the world’s top brands in media, healthcare, financial services, travel and other key sectors. More than 65,000 people attended re:Invent last year.

Google also moved its cloud conference online this year.

The decision to shift events online reflects ongoing concerns with large gatherings during the coronavirus crisis as COVID-19 cases have spiked in the U.S. over the past month. The Consumer Technology Association announced Tuesday that CES 2021 will be an all-digital experience this January for the first time ever. CES is also held in Las Vegas one month after re:Invent.

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Amazon’s online grocery sales triple in Q2 as more people get food delivered amid pandemic

A Whole Foods Market store in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)

Amazon saw online grocery sales triple year-over-year during the second quarter as more customers get their groceries delivered versus going to a physical store amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon revealed the growth rate as part of its second quarter earnings report. The Seattle-based company blew past analyst expectations, reporting $88.9 billion in revenue and $5.2 billion in profits, despite spending $4 billion on COVID-19 initiatives.

Customers are relying on Amazon for online shopping as physical stores are closed or operating under social distancing mandates due to the health crisis.

Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, said it increased grocery delivery capacity by more than 160% and tripled grocery pickup locations during the second quarter.

“We’re reaching more customers with our grocery offerings,” Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts Thursday. 

A survey from RBC Capital Markets in April found an “accelerated secular shift to online grocery shopping” driven by the pandemic, with companies including Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart benefitting.

“We believe that online grocery shopping may now be coming a habitual practice among shoppers,” RBC analyst Mark Mahaney wrote.

Amazon doesn’t break out online grocery sales in its financial statements. Its physical store category, which primarily includes sales from Whole Foods, saw revenue drop 13% to $3.8 billion during Q2. But sales from customers who buy groceries for delivery or pickup from Whole Foods are included in Amazon’s online sales category, which was up 49% to $45.9 billion.

Amazon reported today that across delivery, pickup, and in-store shopping, Whole Foods sales grew year-over-year.

RBC said Amazon’s online grocery arm could produce $70 billion in gross merchandise volume by 2023 — more than 3X from 2019 — becoming a material portion of its total revenue.

The New York Times reported in April that orders for Amazon groceries were as much as 50 times higher than normal. The company was struggling to fulfill orders, with some customers reporting extended delays or no open delivery windows for weeks.

The spike in online grocery purchasing could help Amazon boost its Prime membership base. Amazon requires a $119/year Prime membership to access its 2-hour Prime Now delivery service and Amazon Fresh.

This past October, Amazon made grocery delivery a built-in benefit of Prime membership — no longer charging an extra $15 per month, or $180 per year, for Amazon Fresh delivery on top of the $119 annual Prime fee.

Olsavsky said existing Prime member renewal rates improved and the Prime member growth rate accelerated both in the U.S. and worldwide during the second quarter. 

Amazon’s online grocery arm also includes its AmazonFresh Pickup service. The company also offers BOPIS (Buy Online PIckup in Store) at Whole Foods, which it acquired for $13.7 billion three years ago.

Aiding Amazon’s grocery delivery efforts is the company’s huge investment in its delivery network that is enabling 1-day delivery promises for Prime members.

Amazon’s other grocery-related initiatives includes its growing footprint of Amazon Go stores that feature cashier-less technology; the company is now selling that tech to other businesses. Amazon is also preparing to open its own grocery store in Woodland Hills, Calif., which is currently being used to fulfill delivery orders. And the company recently unveiled its first smart grocery cart earlier this month.

Groceries are an estimated $678 billion U.S. market that is increasingly going digital. Research firm eMarketer estimates that U.S. food and beverage e-commerce sales will grow 23.4% to more than $32 billion this year, making it “both the fastest-growing and least penetrated ecommerce category.” Those projections came before the COVID-19 crisis.

Amazon in May expanded online use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits program, allowing more people to use SNAP benefits to buy groceries online.

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Amazon moves annual AWS re:Invent conference online as part of a free 3-week event

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy answers questions from reporters at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas in December. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

Amazon’s annual cloud conference is going fully digital this year as the global pandemic forces companies to move events online.

Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent 2020 will be a 3-week free virtual conference from Nov. 30 to Dec. 18. It was originally scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 in Las Vegas.

#AWS re:Invent 2020 will be free and virtual! Subscribe at https://t.co/gbmLDI0mBL for updates! pic.twitter.com/vBuxHt57JC

— Jeff Barr ?? (@ ?? ) (@jeffbarr) July 29, 2020

The event, held since 2012, has become one of the most important tech gatherings of the year. While Amazon is best known for its own e-commerce site, its cloud division is also the go-to cloud provider for some of the world’s top brands in media, healthcare, financial services, travel and other key sectors. More than 65,000 people attended re:Invent last year.

Google also moved its cloud conference online this year.

The decision to shift events online reflects ongoing concerns with large gatherings during the coronavirus crisis as COVID-19 cases have spiked in the U.S. over the past month. The Consumer Technology Association announced Tuesday that CES 2021 will be an all-digital experience this January for the first time ever. CES is also held in Las Vegas one month after re:Invent.

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La cara oscura de los romances online

Una investigación ha profundizado en una vertiente de la cara oscura de los romances que nacen y crecen en internet, y sus resultados sugieren que hay más consecuencias negativas que las que salen a la luz. El miedo y la vergüenza incitan a las víctimas a guardar silencio.

El estudio es obra del equipo integrado, entre otros, por Andrea Pozza y Anna Coluccia, de la Universidad de Siena en Italia.

En los últimos 20 años, el rápido desarrollo de las tecnologías de comunicación digital ha dado lugar a nuevas formas de interacción social, materializadas en redes sociales hoy usadas por mucha gente. Las tecnologías de comunicación digital pueden superar las barreras físicas, sociales y psicológicas en la construcción de relaciones románticas. Se han creado alrededor de 1400 sitios de citas/chats durante la última década solo en Norteamérica. En el Reino Unido, según algunas estimaciones, el 23% de los usuarios de internet han conocido a alguien online con quien han tenido un romance durante un cierto período e incluso el 6% de las parejas casadas se conocieron a través de la web.

Si bien las tecnologías de la comunicación han revolucionado, y siguen revolucionando, las modalidades de interacción entre personas situadas en lugares distintos y la construcción de vínculos afectivos entre ellas, también es cierto que la industria de las citas online ha dado lugar a nuevas formas de patologías mentales y de delitos. Los romances online falseados son una forma moderna de fraude que se ha extendido en las sociedades occidentales junto con el desarrollo de los medios de comunicación social. A través de un perfil ficticio en internet, el falso enamorado desarrolla un romance con la víctima durante un período que suele ser de entre 6 y 8 meses, construyendo un profundo vínculo emocional con el objetivo final de extorsionar a la víctima y obtener de ella recursos económicos en una dinámica manipuladora.

El nuevo estudio ha explorado una vertiente de la cara oscura de los romances forjados online. (Imagen: Amazings / NCYT)

Las víctimas de tales romances falseados sufren dos golpes notables: por un lado, el doble trauma de la pérdida de dinero y del desengaño amoroso al descubrir que el romance era una farsa para la otra persona; por otro lado, la vergüenza de la víctima al descubrir que ha creído en un falso romance, aspecto que puede hacerle desistir de denunciar el delito ante las autoridades y que por ende puede llevar a que estas subestimen el número de casos perpetrados de este tipo de delito.

Las mujeres, las personas de mediana edad y los individuos con mayor tendencia a la ansiedad, la idealización romántica de las relaciones afectivas, la impulsividad y la susceptibilidad a la adicción a una relación romántica, corren un mayor riesgo de ser víctimas de un falso romance. Conocer bien las características psicológicas de las víctimas y las de los falsos enamorados permitirá identificar los perfiles de personalidad de riesgo y elaborar estrategias de prevención. (Fuente: NCYT Amazings)

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