31st May 2021 - What articles you need to be reading
Here are the articles that are making waves in digital and search that you should be aware of because they are going to be game changers
Google Products
Google Ads Performance Max campaigns expand
Performance Max was first mentioned back in October 2020 as a option to have an automated campaign that runs across all Google ad inventory(YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps). It’s now been opened up for more advertisers globally to try it out and support for Performance Max will be also enabled for the insights page.
Google expands health sector clients
Melanie Evans over at the WSJ covered the new deal between Google and HCA Healthcare that operates around 2,000 locations across 21 US states. The deal focuses on storage of digital health records but also their engineers will develop new algorithms to improve efficiency, guide medical advice and better monitor patients. HCA has said PID won’t be shared with Google but the concerns are if patient information protections are able to cope with the new landscape.
Social Media
Twitter looking at add Super Followers stats
Another week another new feature spotted by Jane Wong, this time it’s the Super Followers stat that is part of the new Super Follow feature as Twitter expands new revenue channels for users.
Twitter Spaces launches in a web version
In an effort to stay ahead of Clubhouse, it seems Twitter might have dealt the killer blow with it’s product available on iOS & Android but now also the web version. New features coming include setting reminders for scheduled spaces, accessibility and better transcriptions.
Media + Tech
Shopify payment is expanding on Google with Shop Pay
Shopify are working with Google to catch Amazon Pay & PayPal with their deeper commerce collaboration to help merchants sell on Google faster and easier. Merchants that opt to enable the Buy on Google will be able to use Google’s native checkout flow and provide customers the ability to use Shop Pay with a conversion rate that is 1.72X higher than a typical checkout.
Ecommerce
Turkish express delivery service Getir launches in Amsterdam
Getir has announced they are expanding to Amsterdam after launching in London in January 2021, and looks like it might be giving Berlin based Gorillas a run for their VC money. Gorillas uses dark stores which operate as micro fulfilment centres to deliver around 2,000 essential goods at retail prices with an average delivery time of 10 minutes. I’ve seen Gorilla delivery drivers around Haarlem but wonder if Getir will be expanding across the Netherlands as aggressively? Getir offers delivery day or night within the Amsterdam ring road from a range of around 1,000 products. It will also be interesting to see how Albert Heijn respond as they launched AH Compact to counter Picnic’s growth.
Security, Data + Privacy
Japanese government hit by data breach linked to Fujitsu ProjectWEB
3 government agencies (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism) and Tokyo Narita Airport have had a data breach due to unauthorized access linked to ProjectWEB a SaaS-based information-sharing tool designed by Fujitsu Ltd. Some of the leaked information includes 76k email addresses of external parties and government officials, critical information from Narita Air Traffic Control. Fujitsu said several of their corporate clients had been compromised due to the misuse of the tool but no other unauthorised access has been detected yet.
Canada Post impacted by malware and 950k customers and 44 businesses were compromised
Canada Post was notified on the 19th March that one of their suppliers Commport Communications had been the victim of a malware attack. In November 2020 Commport Communications had been notified of a ransomware issue by Canada Post’s IT subsidiary investigated and closed the issue.
The information is from July 2016 to March 2019
The vast majority (97%) contained the name and address of the receiving customer
The remainder (3%) contained an email address and/or phone number
Thousands of Dutch consumers were caught out by fake text message
A large number of customers were tricked into clicking the link in the SMS that encouraged them to click and install the fake DHL packet tracking app that contained malware.