Google built its sprawling empire on the foundation of its search ad revenue. Its enduring dominance on the global search market has resulted in its very name being used as a proprietary eponym for online search. Over the past few years, Google has been able to hold onto its market share, despite various contenders threatening to unbundle search. Yet, its enduring market dominance has also attracted intensifying regulatory scrutiny, prompting a larger conversation about its role in the market and opening an opportunity for a new crop of privacy-minded search engines to make a play for users.

Google’s Enduring Dominance in Search

In our 2019…

After writing about the diverging paths that the major social platforms are taking to secure their futures, I started to think about the broader shifts happening in the attention economy today that are disrupting the way brands capture eyeballs and engage with consumers. There are a number of factors at play that are changing audience behavior — technological, social, cultural, etc. Taking a deeper look at the status quo, however, a counter-trend of convergence and bundling is emerging as well, as digital platform owners endlessly copy each other’s best features in fear of being left behind. What does this mean…

Fintech has always been part of the ecommerce infrastructure. After all, running an online shop requires digital payment solutions. Some ecommerce platforms, such as Amazon and Shopify, develop their own integrated payment solutions, while others like Squarespace and BigCommerce rely on fintech partners, such as Square and Stripe to provide payment solutions for merchants. Regardless of their different approaches, all of these companies, excluding Amazon, are B2B companies that typically don’t have a direct bearing on the consumer.

We tend to think about B2B companies and B2C companies separately, and what enterprise companies do typically recedes into the backend, invisible…

We are now well over a decade into the social media era, during which the cultural zeitgeist has become increasingly shaped by public discourses that unfold across social platforms, resulting in various social, economical, and political implications. Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the public opinion on social media has decidedly taken a turn for the worse in recent years, as more and more people start to question social media’s net negative impact on society and mental health. …

The consumer attitude and expectations towards financial services are changing rapidly. From digital goods like NFTs, to meme stocks to DogeCoin, the way that younger generations are approaching personal finance management is marked by a distinct mindset shift away from conventional investment vehicles.

Meanwhile, the rise of digital-native alternatives led by neo-banks and fintech services, combined with the rise of the creator economy, is further changing consumer behavior and expectation around personal finance management.

For financial brands, this compounding shift of mindset and behavior spells great opportunities as well as enormous disruptions. To capture this new generation of retail investors…

Editor’s note: This posted is an abridged edition of our Fast Forward newsletter. For the full version, please contact our VP of Client Services, Josh Mallalieu (josh@ipglab.com) to send a request.

Executive Summary:

• New “Shared with You” and SharePlay features deconstruct content sharing and group activities anchored around FaceTime and iMessage
• New privacy features double-down on Apple’s stance on user-empowerment
• New features positioning Apple Wallet as an identity authentication hub
• Siri on third-party devices and Matter interoperability standards help Apple extend smart home reach
• New ways for brands to test different versions of apps and promote in-app events
• Surprisingly light on AR…

Editor’s note: This is an abridged edition of our Fast Forward newsletter. For the full version, please contact our VP of Client Services, Josh Mallalieu (josh@ipglab.com) to send a request.

The big tech conference season continues this week with Facebook’s annual F8 developer event. Compared to the Google and Snap events that took place two weeks ago, this virtual event was relatively low-key and understated both in terms of its production value and Facebook’s announcements. Aptly named “Facebook F8 Refresh,” this single-day event offered a refresher on Facebook’s developer tools and business-friendly features, with a particular focus on its messaging…

Editor’s note: This is an abridged edition of our Fast Forward newsletter. For the full version, please contact our VP of Client Services, Josh Mallalieu (josh@ipglab.com) to send a request.

Our coverage of the tech developer conference continues as the third annual Snap Partner Summit took the stage on Thursday. Although somewhat flying under the radar compared to its more high-profile competitors like Facebook and TikTok, Snapchat has been going strong over the past year, growing its global user base to 500 million monthly active users. At the top of its keynote, CEO Evan Spiegel proudly claimed that “nearly one…