#2019inReview: Facebook

#2019inReview: OYO

#2019inReview: HotelBeds

#2019inReview: Expedia

On Biometrics Payments w/ James Harrison and Mihai Draghici
Biometric payments are getting bigger every day. Today, at 3:00 pm CET, I’ll have the privilege of having Mihai Draghici, Founder at PayByFace, as a guest during the Friday’s video-edition of Digital. PayByFace provides a seamless and secure digital payment ecosystem for a faster and more convenient shopping experience. Make sure to tune in here.

On Facebook OS w/ James Harrison and Mihai Draghici
Soon, you may be running apps on the new Facebook proprietary operating system. The social media wants to be less dependent on Apple and Google, especially when it comes to its hardware devices (such as its upcoming smart glasses).

Bing Launches Hotel AdsAfter one year of beta, Bing launched its version of Hotel Ads, “designed to showcase real-time room rates to potential customers on the Bing search results pages and within Bing Maps.” Not dissimilarly to Google’s HPA, Bing Hotel Ads are CPC-based (percentage of room price or fixed bid). In terms of campaign sophistication, at this stage, you can only optimize by device-type. However, more multipliers will be integrated in the future. According to Statista, Bing has around 5.3% of market share, mainly in the U.S.

Another acquisition for Facebook’s marketplace: the social media company bought video-shopping startup Packagd, and the team is already working on a project to let users shopping while watching live video broadcasts.

Another step towards a more open industry: Apple, Google, and Amazon announced they’re working with the Zigbee Alliance foundation to come up with IoT standards. Google’s Nest engineers, Nik Sathe and Grant Erickson, stated that “the lack of an industry-wide connectivity standard leaves people confused and frustrated when trying to understand what devices work with each smart home ecosystem (and) it also places a heavy burden on manufacturers to make sure all devices are compatible with each other.”

France regulator fined Google for €150 millions for “opaque and unpredictable advertising rules” and abused market power. This comes after President Macron proposed a 3% tax on revenues earned on digital services in France.