President Trump has taken aim at social media companies after seeing his tweets flagged with alleged “misinformation” tags this week. The President has said he aims to introduce legislation that will curb the freedoms of social media companies after tweeting that he would shut down Twitter for interfering in an election. Share prices in Twitter have dropped since the Presidents response as extra regulation for social media companies will only hamper their growth prospects. However, it remains unclear as to whether the President’s Executive Order will be passed into law in the coming weeks and months.
The President has previously claimed that Twitter and Facebook are biased in favor of Democrats, but the Trump campaign is also heavily relying on Facebook to serve campaign ads. Some legal experts have already called the President’s proposals “political bluster“.
Microsoft has expanded its relationship with Docker in an attempt to simplify running Docker containers in Azure. According to Docker “It can take developers hours or even days to set up their containerized environment across the two sets of tools. The idea of the integration is to make it easier, faster, and more efficient to include Docker containers when developing applications with the Microsoft toolset.”
This relationship could reduce the complexity of building and sharing cloud-native microservices-based applications for developers. It will allow one to log into Azure directly and from the Docker interface, which means less back and forth between tools. Developers will also easily be able to switch between desktop and cloud, creating a more seamless environment. These integrations will start in a beta version before a full release later in the year.
User experience is set to become a ranking factor for Google and will see factors like page load speed, mobile optimization, intrusive ads and https status alter a site’s search ranking position for a specific user. All of these factors already come under Google’s “Core web vitals”, and will affect where pages currently rank, but Google is now grouping these factors under a single “user experience” umbrella. How this will affect rankings is unclear, as Google never likes to reveal too much information before an update, and the update isn’t due until 2021. Quality content will unlikely be unaffected and Google has stated that good content with a low user experience score can still rank highly.
Google will provide advance notice of when the update will go live.
A German court has ruled in favor of “cookie choice” for consumers in a blow to businesses hoping to make use of consentless tracking. Leaning on 2013’s Planet49 case, the German court rules that businesses would no longer be able to force consumers to install tracking cookies if the cookies bore no function to the use of a site’s product or service. Historically, many businesses have required cookies to be installed before the user can complete registration or access certain products or materials. In the Planet49 case, a lottery website had required users to install a cookie before playing a promotional game. A legal challenge was subsequently launched by a German consumer rights organization.
The result of this ruling will be the removal of “pre-ticked” consent boxes for cookie installation, however, lobbyists are looking for ways to water down the high consent standards in Europe. This could occur via a weakening in Europe’s ePrivacy reform legislation. This legislation is due an update and there is little consensus on its content.
New this week, FE International is pleased to announce the listing of a new SaaS/App listing in the B2B Custom Barcode Printing Shopify App niche. Launched in 2015, the business has grown in popularity by providing customizable barcodes for Shopify stores with a retail presence. As the only label printing Shopify App with a layout editor, the software allows merchants to quickly tailor labels to their specific needs while integrating with a wide range of printers. With half a decade of operational history, the business has successfully found market fit by focusing on merchants using the Shopify POS software, a growing focus for Shopify (as confirmed at their Shopify Reunite virtual event in May).
Offering minimal setup requirements and a clear value proposition, the business has attracted c.120 customers while maintaining a high LTV of c.$130. With lean costs and c.$1,100 in MRR, the business offers plenty of resources to invest in growth. Follow the link above to request a prospectus.
Our new service offerings have continued to grow in popularity including our 409A Valuation service for collateralizations, SBA loans, and other business needs. Feel free to get in touch if this is of interest.
For more updates throughout the week on the financial world of online business M&A, follow our team on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
OTHER NEW LISTINGS
- Market-leading brand in the digital portraits & illustrations niche
- Proprietary order management system with an extensive artist network
- High AOV of c.$100
- Wide-market acceptance with thousands of 5-star reviews
- Well-trained team running the day-to-day operations staying on post-sale
Yearly net profit: $1,390,000
Asking price: $4,160,000