Brands test new marketing strategies ahead of Valentine’s Day surge: Spending on the romantic holiday will increase thanks to single and coupled consumers.

Google achieves a major victory in defining its approach to phasing out third-party cookies: The UK entity overseeing regulatory concerns accepts the search giant’s proposed Privacy Sandbox approach.

Jack Henry pitches unbundled core banking: Its new tech strategy will give banks flexibility in picking cloud-based core components.

The largest online merchants are getting bigger: We expect all but three of the top 10 ecommerce retailers to accelerate their online sales growth this year.

The pandemic made QR codes more essential and ever-present. They have become an attractive tool for marketers, thanks to their ease of use and higher adoption rates.

Tesla recalls are mounting: Issues range from the dangerous to the absurd but expose quality-control issues traditional carmakers have long solved. What can the industry learn from the deepening integration of tech?

Price increases hit retailers and consumers hard: As inflation approaches historic highs, retailers have to decide how much of the cost can be passed on without alienating their customer base.

Rapid-delivery companies face challenges turning a profit: Delivery Hero, Just Eat Takeaway, and Jokr are struggling to build a sustainable model.

Amazon Fresh is on a rapid growth curve: Grocery is a key element within Amazon’s offline push.

Metaverse attracts South Korean investments: $200 billion could be used to invest in companies and technologies that build the metaverse and lead to an uptick in startups and further tech investments.

On today's episode, we discuss Google's insane Q4 performance and what stood out the most. Then for "In Other News," we talk about what will happen when the dust settles on the TV measurement wars and how concerning the viewability challenges of connected TV (CTV) really are. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Paul Verna.

Everybody’s doing the podcasting pivot: Spotify’s interest in ad revenues from podcasting hasn’t gone unnoticed—more evidence that it’s hard to make much money as a music streaming service.

Despite streaming’s ascendancy, there’s nothing like a Super Bowl: The most-watched event in TV history might have just happened, replete with massive ad buys.

DoorDash was once again the most downloaded US food and drink app in 2021, racking up 37.0 million downloads, 5% fewer than in 2020. McDonald’s jumped to second on the list with 24.0 million downloads, 33% more than the year prior. Meanwhile, Uber Eats dropped to third place with 21.0 million downloads.

Apple responds to AirTag tracking complaints by making alerts louder: Updates make tracking people without consent harder, but the move might not be enough to deter stalkers and thieves.