Itch.io is the latest marketplace to crack down on adult games
Indie video game marketplace Itch.io announced this week that it has “deindexed” adult and not-safe-for-work games, removing them from its browse and search pages.
Commerce
India expands its e-commerce crackdown with a new $200M case against Walmart’s fashion arm Myntra
India’s financial crime watchdog filed a complaint against Walmart-backed Myntra, alleging the company violated foreign investment rules by channeling over $191 million through a related-party scheme.
Prime Day event drove over $24B in U.S. e-commerce sales, gen AI traffic was up 3,300%
Amazon’s Prime Day, which leads to an overall boost to U.S. e-commerce thanks to competitive sales, saw a significant increase in retail traffic driven by generative AI products, including chatbots and browsers. According to a post-Prime Day analysis by Adobe Analytics, gen AI traffic to U.S. retail sites increased by 3,300% year-over-year — which was […]
Google brings its AI-powered marketing tools to India after ‘Google tax’ repeal
Google has launched a suite of its AI-powered advertising tools in India, which debuted in the U.S. in May, as the repeal of the so-called “Google tax” has made the South Asian market more attractive to global tech firms selling online ads. In March, the Indian government scrapped its 6% levy on digital advertisements, effective […]
GenAI as a shopping assistant set to explode during Prime Day sales
A new report estimates that AI will be a larger-than-ever part of the online shopping process during Amazon’s Prime Day sale, which began Tuesday morning. Amazon’s annual sale, which this year spans four days (July 8-11), is predicted to drive $23.8 billion in online spending across U.S. e-commerce retailers, as other businesses run their own […]
OneText raises $4.5M from Y Combinator, Khosla to reinvent shopping by text
The typical online checkout experience has become bloated with friction. And while more companies are building solutions around online checkout, few are rethinking it from scratch. One such company is OneText, which is building what it calls a “text-to-buy network,” that lets shoppers complete purchases via text message. The company, founded by former PayPal employees, […]
Bookshop.org mocks Jeff Bezos wedding invite in anti-Prime Day promo
The independent online bookseller Bookshop.org took a swipe at Amazon to celebrate the start of Prime Day, Amazon’s annual sale (which, despite its name, is actually four days this year). Like many other retailers, Bookshop.org holds a sale to coincide with Amazon’s big event — it’s a way to lure away consumers who may be […]
Writer CEO May Habib to take the AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
AI agents are reshaping how work gets done across industries, and at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, one of the leading voices in that transformation is stepping onto the AI Stage. May Habib, CEO and co-founder of Writer, will join us in San Francisco, October 27-29, for a fireside chat that dives deep into how enterprises are […]
Remark raises $16M to build out human-powered expert models for e-commerce
Reamrk raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Inspired Capital with participation from Stripe, Neo, Spero Ventures, Shine Capital, and Visible Ventures.