Mergers & acquisitions activity -- including deals in the media industry -- slowed last year as financing became more expensive, stock markets sank and investors fretted over the direction of the global economy. The Federal Reserve was determined to tackle a 40-year high in inflation by raising interest rates, which …

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Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have announced the development of Artifact, a personalized newsreader that has a running waitlist of users who are eagerly anticipating the platform’s future.

Reports suggest that Artifact will be a modern-day Google Reader -- a newsreader app that launched back in 2005 and was shuttered in 2013.

However, like most popular apps today, Artifact uses machine learning to personalize the user's experience and includes social elements, which may provoke conversation about specific articles.

According to The Verge, Artifact will present a curated selection of news stories from both major and minor publishers that will become user-specific over time.

“Users who come in from the waitlist today will see only that central ranked feed,” wrote The Verge, adding that beta users are testing two additional features, including a feed showing users articles and commentary posted by people they follow, as well as a direct-message inbox to discuss posts privately with friends.

Artifact has no lack of competition, especially considering the endless amount of apps providing social messaging services. Not only are there specific newsreader apps like Flipboard, SmartNews, Newsbreak, plus built-in news apps like Apple News and Google News, but Meta’s Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram also facilitate similar user objectives.

Twitter would likely be Artifact’s most direct competitor if Elon Musk's takeover were more successful. 

However, Systrom and Krieger, who left Meta in 2018, are betting on machine-learning technology to give Artifact an edge over its numerous competitors.

For now, Artifact's website is inviting people with a U.S. phone number to sign up to be a beta tester.

Grocery is the largest ecommerce category

Start getting used to 13-figure updates. ComScore reports that with the strength of holiday spending in the fourth quarter, ecommerce spending in the U.S. crossed the trillion-dollar threshold for the first time last year.

The fourth quarter marked ecommerce's biggest ever, at $332.2 billion, pushing the total to $1.09 trillion, not including travel spending.

While it was bound to happen eventually, Ian Essling, ComScore's senior director of survey insights, says that entering T-territory this year is meaningful in two ways.

"First, the growth of mobile is important," he tells Marketing Daily. "Years ago, we had friction because consumers didn't want to buy big-ticket items on their phones. They didn't like smaller screens. But mobile sales are a big reason we hit that $1 trillion."

Sales made on mobile devices jumped 26% in the quarter, and now account for 38% of the total.

Social media engagement is a large part of mobile's changing behavior, says Jason Clough, senior director of partner insights. "It's getting people more comfortable consuming content in all kinds of mobile video formats, including Instagram and Facebook stories -- and now, TikTok."

Faced with growing criticism over data practices, the Chinese-owned social app TikTok will send its CEO to testify to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) said Monday.

“ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data,” Rodgers stated. “Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms.”

CEO Shou Zi Chew, who had not previously appeared before a Congressional committee, is slated to testify at a March 23 hearing.

News of Chew's anticipated appearance comes as the company comes under increasing scrutiny with regard to how it handles consumers' data. While some officials have criticized TikTok's data practices for years, concerns about privacy appeared to increase last year after it emerged that ByteDance used data collected through the app to track the locations of two U.S. journalists.

Last year, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) proposed legislation that aimed to block transactions in the U.S. by social-media apps under the control of China, Russia and several other countries.

Dozens of states have banned the app from government devices, while public universities in Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma have blocked access on campus WiFi networks.

Trump issued the orders under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, but federal judges said that law limits the government's ability to block “informational material” -- including photos and news feeds -- or “personal communications.”

In 2021, the Biden administration ordered the Commerce Department to study the threats posed by some foreign countries' data collection, and to issue recommendations to protect U.S. residents from the potential harm posed by the transfer of their sensitive data -- including personally identifiable information, health and genetic information -- to foreign adversaries.

More than a dozen official NHL partners and licensees are activating around the upcoming Truly Hard Seltzer NHL All-Star Beach Festival during the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend.

Brands with activations during the event include Truly, Discover, Fanatics, GEICO, Great Clips, Honda, Ticketmaster, Topps, Upper Deck and Verizon.

New partners activating at the beach festival, which will be held Feb. 2-4, include BioSteel, Caterpillar and Extreme Networks. The free family-friendly three-day outdoor fan event will be held at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Park in Florida.

Honda, the official automotive partner of the NHL in the U.S., will display vehicles at the festival. Fans can try their luck at the Honda Puck Drop game or show off their hockey skills with Goalie Power Play and the Precision Passing Challenge to win prizes.

GEICO is offerring the chance to win a $500 gift card. The telecom brand’s space includes multiple interactive experiences, including locker room photo op, hockey stick putting challenge and goalie reflex game.

The event will include a look at the NHL’s new United by Hockey mobile museum, special appearances from current NHL All-Stars and NHL Alumni, trophy and memorabilia displays, and a chance to take a picture with the Stanley Cup.

There will be an official watch party for the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Game broadcast on ABC on Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. ET at the festival.

The 2023 NHL All-Star Future Goals Kids Day presented by SAP will reward 750 local South Florida students who have participated in the NHL/NHLPA Future Goals program, with an opportunity to hear from professionals in hockey who utilize the principles of science, technology, engineering and math.

The festival will also host a live taping of the Enterprise Splash Shot, an off-ice skill competition featuring four 2023 NHL All-Stars and guest teammates going head-to-head in a target shooting tournament-style competition. The program will air during the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook on Feb. 3.

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In an “investigative sweep” announced Friday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sent letters to app operators that allegedly fail to allow consumers to opt out of sharing their data.

“This year’s sweep focuses on popular apps in the retail, travel, and food service industries that allegedly fail to comply with consumer opt-out requests or do not offer any mechanism for consumers who want to stop the sale of their data,” Bonta's office stated Friday.

Bonta added that the focus on mobile apps is due to “the wide array of sensitive information that these apps can access from our phones and other mobile devices.”

The investigative initiative also targeted businesses that didn't process requests consumers made through an authorized agent.

“Businesses must honor Californians’ right to opt out and delete personal information, including when those requests are made through an authorized agent,” Bonta stated Friday.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, which was passed in 2018 and later refined by the Consumer Privacy Rights Act, give consumers the right to tell companies not to share or sell their information for a host of purposes, including online behavioral advertising.

Regulations issued by former Attorney General Xavier Becerra require companies to honor global do-not-sell requests, as opposed to requiring individual site-by-site opt-outs. Last year, Bonta specifically directed companies to honor requests sent through the “Global Privacy Control" -- a tool developed by privacy advocates that enables web users to opt out of the sale of their information on a universal basis.

This was double the decline of same period a year before -- 71,000. Charter now has 15.2 million video customers.

Another major pay TV provider -- Comcast -- posted a 11.2% decline in video subscribers (440,000 customers) earlier this week.

Now with 92% of the publicly traded pay TV companies reporting their fourth-quarter results, Michael Morris, media analyst at Guggenheim Securities, writes that cord-cutting continues at a steady rate.

“Quarter-to-date, distributors have reported combined net video subscriber declines of 857,000, excluding virtual MVPDs, compared to 1.14 million in second quarter 2022 and 1.22 million fourth quarter 2021.”

He adds that over the past 12-month period, distributors have lost 8.4% of the subscribers (4.14 million subscribers). The industry lost 8.0% in the third quarter.

Those services yet to report are the virtual pay TV providers Hulu, YouTube TV, and fuboTV, which have historically been gaining share -- but typically not enough to reverse the effects of overall industry-wider cord-cutting.

Charter posted stronger results for its broadband business -- 3.9% higher in revenue to $5.6 billion -- and inched up 1.1% in subscribers (105,000) to now total 30.4 million internet subscribers.

Charter also had better results than Comcast the day before, which reported a 23,000 loss in residential broadband subscribers.

All this helped to maintain Charter’s average monthly residential bill -- at $114.20 a month, just slightly up 0.1% compared to the prior-year period.

Charter witnessed major growth revenue from mobile business, which was up 39% to $876 million, and advertising sales -- 24.6% higher to $558 million -- due to the midterm political advertising gains in the period.

Charter’s fourth-quarter revenue grew of $13.7 billion grew by 3.5% year-over-year.

However, net income attributable to Charter shareholders was down 26% to $1.2 billion, with the broader free cash flow metric sinking 50% to $1.1 billon.

Charter stock price was down 2.8% early morning on Friday to $399.08.