Archive for August, 2020
Trivia question for you: What was the first product ever sold online? The answer, explains Smithsonian Magazine, depends on how you define “sold.” If a legal product and digital payment needn’t be components, then the winner is: weed! If legality matters but funds transfer still doesn’t, then the winner is: groceries! But if you require […]
Popular movies like American Hustle, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Sting, and Catch Me If You Can show that audiences like a good con artist story. The films even manipulate—con?—us into rooting for the bad guy, our consciences somehow assuaged by marks who deserve or at least can afford the loss. The deserving-mark trope entertains, but in real life cons hurt […]
Something remarkable took place on Wall Street last week. The total value of a company by the name of Apple, Inc.—perhaps you’ve heard of it—reached two trillion dollars. Two. Trillion. As in a 2 followed by 12 zeroes. A value that, to date, no other U.S. company has ever attained. PYMNTS.com did a great job […]
This week for TBT: A refresher on how some companies rip off digital advertisers. Originally posted August 25, 2017. IF YOU’RE A glass-is-half-full kind of person, I have good news. About 80 percent of what you spend on digital advertising is likely to show up under the noses of people you’d like to reach. If […]
On August 6, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning access to social media apps TikTok and WeChat from within the United States. The order is to take effect on September 20. Such actions are not new. On June 29, India banned TikTok and 58 other apps developed by Chinese firms. And for years China […]