Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send me an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
🤑 Shopify’s very good quarter
🧑🏻⚖️ Google monopoly ruling and how it could change the internet
🙅♂️ Elon Musk sues advertisers for boycotting X. He may have a case
🏅 Pommel Horse Guy. Parmesan Cheese Girl. Welcome to the Meme Olympics
Shopify’s very good quarter
The Shopify stock had its best single-day performance since the company went public.CHRIS WATTIE/Reuters
Shopify reported earnings this week and doused skepticism among investors, driving the stock to its best single-day performances since the company went public in 2015. The Canadian e-commerce platform generated US$2.045-billion in revenue in its second quarter that ended June 30, year-over-year increase of 25 per cent. Shopify has had a rocky year: Before this week, the share price was down 30 per cent for the year and 69 per cent from its all-time high in November, 2021, at the peak of the pandemic-fuelled tech bubble.
Google loses landmark antitrust case
In the biggest antitrust showdown in a quarter-century, we saw a victory this week. A judge ruled on Monday that Google’s ubiquitous search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition. Google has already said it’s planning to appeal. If the ruling is upheld, it could shake up the internet as we currently know it. For instance, Google may no longer be the default search engine on iPhone’s Safari app – a placement it pays Apple for – and instead, users would be able to choose other options, including privacy-focused search engines DuckDuckGo or Startpage.
Welcome to the Meme Olympics
With her moody photoshoot with cheese, Olympian Giorgia Villa stole our heartsINSTAGRAM
They may not have won as many medals as Simone Biles or Summer McIntosh, but Parmesan Girl, Pommel Horse Guy and Turkish Shooting Guy have won the Meme Olympics and the hearts of the internet masses. Parmesan Girl, neé Giorgia Villa, went viral not for her silver medal in the gymnastics team event, but for resurfaced Instagram photos of her posing with giant wheels of cheese from a brand deal with Parmigiano Reggiano in 2021. Pommel Horse Guy, the American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, became the internet’s boyfriend when he woke up from his pre-performance nap, took off his Coke-bottle glasses and executed a dizzyingly perfect routine. Then there’s Yusuf Dikec. In the sport of shooting, in which most competitors are decked out in RoboCop-style gear, the Turk stood out for snagging the silver while sporting regular glasses, a T-shirt and one hand in his pocket.
As sports columnist Cathal Kelly writes, winning medals will always be the most important part of the Olympics. But these kinds of viral moments are what keeps it relevant. “This broadening of how the Olympics intersects with average people – from a sort of holy sporting rite to a greenhouse for online LOLs – is the key to the Games’ continued dominance.”
X sues advertisers for boycotting the platform. It may have a case
When Elon Musk took over Twitter in October, 2022, he promised a new era of free speech on the platform, unbanning hundreds of accounts and changing the blue-checkmark verification system, which made it easier to impersonate official accounts. This became a problem for pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly when an official-looking fake account tweeted, “Insulin is now free,” prompting the company to halt all ad campaigns on Twitter the next day. More than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers, including Coca-Cola, Unilever and Wells Fargo stopped their advertising on the platform as of January, 2023. At the time, it resulted in a 60-per-cent decrease in monthly ad revenue from when Musk bought the platform.
Musk has frequently lashed out at companies for pulling ads, but this week, the beef was made official. X filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers, arguing the coalition violated antitrust laws by co-ordinating with brands to boycott the social media platform. Tech reporter Irene Galea spoke with numerous lawyers who say the facts in the case suggest the apparent collective nature of the coalition’s actions may indeed be considered an illegal boycott.
What else we’re reading this week:
Watch how a hacker’s infrared laser can spy on your laptop’s keystrokes (WIRED)
Tech investors are the latest to Zoom for Harris (New York Times)
Why are so many car YouTubers quitting? (The Verge)
Soundbite
“There’s this thing called financial nihilism where people don’t believe in an economic future. They say, ‘I can’t afford anything, but I’m going to spend regardless because I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to retire.’” – Kyla Scanlon, financial content creator and author of In This Economy? How Money & Markets Really Work, on this week’s episode of Lately.
Adult Money
Airalo e-SIMs
One of the best travel hacks I’ve discovered in the past few years are e-SIMs, which allow you to avoid international roaming fees by signing up for a local data plan. Most new smartphones support embedded SIMs that can be associated with a different data provider while you’re in another country. On a recent trip to New York City, I used Airalo and paid US$9 for two gigs of data for one week, which was enough for me to send iMessages, check Google Maps, WhatsApp and the weather app and read the odd headline. Airalo is just one of many eSIM providers that offer data plans for countries around the world, and some are better suited for specific areas. Airhub has a plan that covers all of Europe, so you don’t need to buy multiple plans if you’re jet-setting across the continent.
Culture Radar
Dig through Drake's new site for unreleased songs and videos.Paul R. Giunta/The Associated Press
Drake launches new website with 100 gigs of unreleased songs and videos
Drake (or probably more accurately, his team) is brushing up on his HTML skills with the launch of a new website that offers an unprecedented amount of access. The website 100gigs.org features 40 folders, containing new songs, photos and behind-the-scenes clips from rehearsals and music videos, all fashioned to look like a peek into his hard drive. The folder titled “1_NEW” contains three new songs: “It’s Up,” “Blue Green Red” and “Housekeeping Knows.” These are the first tracks since his public feud with L.A. rapper Kendrick Lamar, which the general consensus ruled that Toronto’s very own lost. Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, effectively ending the battle.
More tech and telecom news:
Carbon capture startup Deep Sky founded by Hopper CEO breaks ground on Alberta pilot facility
MDA Space stock lifts off on stronger-than-expected earnings and boost to 2024 forecast
Ticketmaster privacy breach raises question of identity monitoring services: Are they worth it?