YouTube takes on TikTok Shop with expanded Shopify partnership

by with No Comment Tech

YouTube logo

Image Credits: Olly Curtis/Future / Getty Images

As TikTok Shop gains traction, YouTube is expanding its partnership with Shopify to onboard more brands for its YouTube Shopping affiliate program, the company announced on Tuesday. The expanded partnership means creators will get access to thousands of new brands to tag in their shopping videos, marking a significant increase from the few hundred brands they currently have access to.

As part of the expansion, all eligible Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the U.S. can now sign up for the Shopping affiliate program.

The YouTube Shopping affiliate program gives creators a way to earn money through their videos while helping their audience find new products. For brands, it’s another way to reach customers and increase sales.

The expanded partnership will allow YouTube to be better poised to take on TikTok, which is reportedly aiming to grow its TikTok Shop U.S. business tenfold to $17.5 billion this year. Although TikTok is newer to the U.S. e-commerce space when compared to YouTube, the company has been onboarding merchants at a relatively fast pace, as TikTok reported in April that it had 500,000 merchants in the U.S. on TikTok Shop by the end of 2023.

YouTube also announced that it’s launching a new Chrome extension that will allow creators in the U.S. who are part of the affiliate program to save products while browsing a brand or retailer’s site in order to quickly find them when they’re ready to tag them in a video.

The expansion of the affiliate program comes as YouTube has ramped up its e-commerce efforts over the past few years as a way to bring in more revenue amid a slowdown in digital advertising. Its efforts seem to be working, as YouTube previously announced that people watched more than 30 billion hours of shopping-related videos on YouTube in 2023, and that that platform saw a 25% increase in watch time for videos that help people shop.

Of course, the program is also beneficial for creators who want to earn more money through the platform, which is why YouTube recently launched new Shopping features to help creators better market products and grow their earnings.

FTC and Justice Department sue TikTok over alleged child privacy violations

by with No Comment Tech

A laptop keyboard and TikTok logo displayed on a phone screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration.

Image Credits: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Images

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are suing TikTok and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, with violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law requires digital platforms to notify and obtain parents’ consent before collecting and using personal data from children under the age of 13.

In a press release issued Friday, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said that TikTok and ByteDance were “allegedly aware” of the need to comply with COPPA, yet spent “years” knowingly allowing millions of children under 13 on their platform. TikTok did so, the FTC alleges, even after settling with the FTC in 2019 over COPPA violations; as a part of that settlement, TikTok agreed to pay $5.7 million and implement steps to prevent kids under 13 from signing up.

“As of 2020, TikTok had a policy of maintaining accounts of children that it knew were under 13 unless the child made an explicit admission of age and other rigid conditions were met,” the FTC wrote in the press release. “TikTok human reviewers allegedly spent an average of only five to seven seconds reviewing each account to make their determination of whether the account belonged to a child.”

TikTok and ByteDance maintained and used underage users’ data, including data for ads targeting, even after employees raised concerns and TikTok reportedly changed its policy not to require an explicit admission of age, according to the FTC. More damningly, TikTok continued to allow users to sign up with third-party accounts, like Google and Instagram, without verifying that they were over 13, the FTC adds.

The FTC also found issue with TikTok Kids Mode, TikTok’s supposedly more COPPA-compliant mobile experience. Kids Mode collected “far more data” than needed, the FTC alleges, including info about users’ in-app activities and identifiers that TikTok used to build profiles (and shared with third parties) to try to prevent attrition.

When parents requested that their child’s accounts be deleted, TikTok made it difficult, the FTC said, and often failed to comply with those requests.

“TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country,” FTC chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online — especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data.”

TikTok had this to share with TechCrunch via email: “We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform. To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screen time limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors.”

The FTC and Justice Department propose fining TikTok and ByteDance civil penalties up to $51,744 per violation per day and a permanent injunction to prevent future COPPA violations.

FTC refers TikTok child privacy case to Justice Department

by with No Comment Tech

The TikTok logo is displayed on signage outside TikTok social media app company offices in Culver City, California.

Image Credits: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty Images

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday that it has referred a complaint against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance to the Department of Justice. The agency was investigating the company over potential violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and was looking into whether TikTok violated a law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices.

“The investigation uncovered reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest, so the Commission has voted to refer a complaint to the DOJ, according to the procedures outlined in the FTC Act,” the agency said in a statement. 

TikTok issued a public statement noting that it has been working with the FTC for more than a year to address its concerns and that it is “disappointed” that the agency is pursuing litigation.

“We strongly disagree with the FTC’s allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed,” TikTok’s statement reads. “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect children and we will continue to update and improve our product.”

The FTC notes that although it doesn’t typically announce that it has referred a complaint, it “determined that doing so here is in the public interest.” 

TikTok paid $5.7 million in 2019 to settle FTC allegations that it illegally collected personal information from children. The settlement marked the largest civil penalty ever obtained by the Commission in a children’s privacy case, according to the FTC.

The announcement comes as TikTok is facing increased scrutiny in the U.S.

In April, President Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if ByteDance fails to sell it within a year. The action was the result of years of concern from U.S. lawmakers who fear that ByteDance may leak U.S. user data to the Chinese government. TikTok and ByteDance responded to the bill by suing the government, arguing that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s commitment to “both free speech and individual liberty.”

TikTok's Instagram rival, Whee, has no traction

by with No Comment Tech

Image Credits: TikTok/Whee

TikTok earlier this month launched a new social app called Whee, an Instagram-like service for taking photos to share with friends. Like Instagram, Whee also supports the use of photo filters and includes messaging. However, the company’s plans for Whee aren’t clear, as the app has relatively few downloads and has yet to advertise itself via Apple’s Search Ads, according to new data from app intelligence firm Appfigures.

Without marketing support, new apps remain largely invisible on today’s App Store. That appears to be the case for Whee, as well, which quietly launched June 18 in 71 countries worldwide. Due to the lack of promotion, Whee didn’t find its way into the Top Free Apps chart on Apple’s App Store, nor did it immediately become one of the Top 500 Social apps in its supported markets, though that later changed.

Whee is connected to TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance but is published by TikTok, not its parent, according to its App Store listing.

As of Tuesday, Whee had only gained 13,000 total global downloads on iOS and somewhere north of 10,000 Android downloads, per Google Play data. It’s also clearly not being pushed in the U.S. for the time being, as its top markets on iOS include Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Indonesia. Still, those countries are only contributing a small number of downloads.

For instance, the No. 1 market, Malaysia, delivered 2,400 downloads while Indonesia rounded up fifth place with just 800 installs. Because of the small numbers, these are likely downloads from people who randomly came across Whee while searching the App Store. In smaller markets with fewer apps, Whee made it into the Top 500 Social apps, though never as high as the Top 10 and mostly well past 50.

Image Credits: Appfigures (screenshot)

What’s more, Appfigures says ByteDance hasn’t yet tried to advertise Whee via Apple’s Search Ads, which help apps rank highly when App Store users search for apps using specific keywords. There hasn’t been any Apple Search Ads activity connected with Whee as of yet, the firm found. In addition, user feedback from those who found Whee is also fairly tepid, as the app has an Overall rating of 3.6 out of 5 globally, across 31 App Store ratings, only 10 of which have reviews.

ByteDance has not commented on its plans for Whee, but the timing of the app’s launch has raised eyebrows given that President Biden officially signed the TikTok ban into law in late April after the House passed a revised bill that forced either a TikTok ban or sale. (TikTok has since sued the U.S. to block the law from coming into effect, which will at least delay the ban for some time while the legality is worked out in the courts.)

Whee’s arrival could be a plan B of sorts that allows ByteDance to maintain a social presence in the U.S., even if TikTok’s ban is upheld.

This isn’t the first time ByteDance has tried to generate interest in other social apps outside of TikTok. Earlier in 2023, the company quietly launched another Instagram-like app, Lemon8 in the U.S. and U.K., and even paid TikTok influencers to post about the app in order to seed its initial content. Those efforts didn’t immediately pay off; by November 2023, the app’s U.S. downloads on iOS had only reached 2.5 million — great numbers for a new startup, but nothing near the size of TikTok, which has over a billion monthly active users, including the 170 million in the U.S. However, Lemon8 could be a slow-burn attempt at growth. Today, it’s the No. 2 Lifestyle app in the U.S., with nearly 7.7 million iOS installs in this market.

ByteDance also operates another popular video app, CapCut, often used for making TikTok videos. And it briefly dabbled with a BeReal rival, TikTok Now, though that was shut down after less than a year. Currently, it’s testing another Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes.

Whether Whee will follow the same playbook as Lemon8 remains to be seen. But if your favorite TikTok influencer starts randomly talking about Whee at some point in the future, be aware they were probably paid to do so.

Directo turns a TikTok travel hack into a deal-finding Chrome extension

by with No Comment Tech

Directo team photo

Image Credits: Directo

A travel hack that went viral on TikTok teaches users how to save money on hotels and Airbnbs by booking directly with the properties themselves. Now, a new startup, Directo, will help travelers find those same deals with the help of a Chrome extension that points you to the property’s website, where you’ll often find discounted rates as the property doesn’t have to pay commission on those sales.

Across social media, creators and influencers post variations of a money-saving hack that teaches users how to find a cheaper way to book a room or a home stay. This often involves using reverse image search on photos of the listing to find the property’s website — something that can be particularly useful when booking longer stays where the savings can really add up.

@humphreytalks

Money Hacks 💰 (1st Hack Credit: All the Hacks Podcast) #lifehack #learnontiktok #tiktokpartner

♬ SUNNY DAY – Matteo Rossanese

Of course, booking directly may have its risks. You may not have the same travel assurances and protections compared with bigger websites, like Booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb. But when travelers are looking at savings in the hundreds of dollars or more, they often opt to take their chances.

The idea for Directo came about from watching this emerging behavior among Gen Z users and realizing that it could be better automated, while also adding in some safety protections of its own, says co-founder and co-CEO Pierre Becerril.

Image Credits: Directo

“What we’re doing is we’re trying to work with professional inventory that uses great software — so at least you know that this part is secured,” said Becerril, whose background is in the travel industry, after participating in a TechCrunch hackathon inspired him to join the tech industry. Most recently, the Madrid-based, third-time founder sold his startup Transparent, a software company focused on the vacation rental market, to Lighthouse, where he worked before starting Directo.

Becerril explains that many hotel sites today run what he calls “very good tech” and feature powerful booking engines, but they aren’t the first place users go to book. Instead, consumers tend to go to online aggregators and larger websites where they can search across a wider inventory of listings.

“The big websites like Expedia, Booking.com and Airbnb have the monopoly for search and distribution,” Becerril said. “It’s a pity because they charge commission and you can go book direct on these great websites where there’s no commission — and maybe some perks.”

Some savvy travelers already figured this out, finding they could avoid the extra fees and cleaning charges on Airbnbs by booking from the property’s website itself, which they found using a reverse image search.

@chelletravelfoto

Reverse image search for the win! 💪 #airbnb #travelhacks #traveltips #budgettravel

♬ Tomorrow – Adrian Berenguer

Directo aims to make it easier to book directly by identifying those properties that it knows to use a modern tech stack that promises a safe checkout process. That can, at least, alleviate users’ concerns that the sites will work correctly and their credit card transactions will be secure. It also relies on its community to submit other websites for consideration and to flag those where they successfully found great deals.

The Chrome extension works on a variety of top travel sites, like Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, Expedia and Abritel, with more being added in the future. It identifies the properties where you can book directly with a yellow-and-black “D” icon. Those where users reported getting a good deal will also feature a cheers emoji of hands clapping. If users report the deals aren’t great, Directo can take that information to the hotels and use that to try to negotiate for a voucher or discount for its customers.

“It’s a little bit like Honey,” says Becerril, referring to the deal-finding browser add-on PayPal acquired for $4 billion in 2019.

Also like Honey, the extension is free to use by consumers, who can download it from the Chrome Web Store. The startup generates revenue by selling a subscription to hotels that can improve their connectivity with Directo by pushing special deals to its users and members. These funds are currently being reinvested in marketing to grow its consumer install base.

In testing, Directo reached 115,000 users and now includes nearly 200,000 hospitality brands that each has at least one property in its database of inventory. Combined, that represents millions of properties and rooms around the world.

The startup itself was co-founded by digital nomad and co-CEO Marina Guastavino, CTO Julian Toledo and Sofia Canepa (Growth and Product Development). Becerril wasn’t able to join full-time until a couple of months ago due to obligations following the sale of his prior company.

Directo has $1 million in pre-seed funding from French VC firm Kima Ventures; Calafia, an angel group of Global Female Tech Leaders; travel specialist fund Derive Ventures; and 26 travel industry veterans.

FTC refers TikTok child privacy case to Justice Department

by with No Comment Tech

The TikTok logo is displayed on signage outside TikTok social media app company offices in Culver City, California.

Image Credits: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty Images

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday that it has referred a complaint against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance to the Department of Justice. The agency was investigating the company over potential violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Act and was looking into whether TikTok violated a law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices.

“The investigation uncovered reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest, so the Commission has voted to refer a complaint to the DOJ, according to the procedures outlined in the FTC Act,” the agency said in a statement. 

TikTok issued a public statement noting that it has been working with the FTC for more than a year to address its concerns, and that it is “disappointed” that the agency is pursuing litigation.

“We strongly disagree with the FTC’s allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed,” TikTok’s statement reads. “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect children and we will continue to update and improve our product.”

The FTC notes that although it doesn’t typically announce that it has referred a complaint, it “determined that doing so here is in the public interest.” 

TikTok paid $5.7 million in 2019 to settle FTC allegations that it illegally collected personal information from children. The settlement marked the largest civil penalty ever obtained by the Commission in a children’s privacy case, according to the FTC.

The announcement comes as TikTok is facing increased scrutiny in the U.S.

In April, President Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if ByteDance fails to sell it within a year. The action was the result of years of concern from U.S. lawmakers who fear that ByteDance may leak U.S. user data to the Chinese government. TikTok and ByteDance responded to the bill by suing the government, arguing that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s commitment to “both free speech and individual liberty.”

pixilated cruise ship

The World Cruise on TikTok is an unintentional online reality show

by with No Comment Tech

pixilated cruise ship

Image Credits: David Sacks, altered by TechCrunch / Getty Images

“New characters unlocked on the nine-month Ultimate World Cruise TikTok channel!” says an older man as pink letters fly across the screen to form a kooky subtitle.

“Who are they?” his wife asks in a way that’s obviously rehearsed, yet heartbreakingly earnest. The couple responds in unison: “It’s us!”

Mike and Nancy are empty nesters whose TikTok videos look like they were edited on software from the early 2000s. But somehow, they’re at the center of culture on an app known for its young, tech-savvy user base. Welcome to the world cruise. No, we’re not aboard the nine-month worldwide voyage on Royal Caribbean — but like millions of people on the internet, we’re watching intently as the world cruise becomes an accidental online reality show.

@livingphase2

Real Ultimate World Cruise Drama! #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbean #serenadeoftheseas #royalcaribbeancruise #royalcaribbeaninternationalcruise #worldcruise2023 #worldcruise2024 #cruisetok #worldcruise #royalcaribbeanworldcruise #uwc #livingphase2 #drama

♬ original sound – MikeandNancyLP2

From the get-go, this cruise was going to make a ship-sized splash. Cruises aren’t normally this long, and in recent memory, these extended adventures haven’t gone so well. One new cruise line called Life at Sea Cruises was just about to depart on its inaugural three-year voyage; but after cruisers rented out their homes, quit their jobs and otherwise uprooted their lives to live on a boat until 2027, Life at Sea canceled the cruise at the last minute, stranding some early birds in Istanbul, where the cruise was supposed to begin. It turned out that Life at Sea didn’t even have a boat, leading people to compare the ordeal to the infamous Fyre Fest. So, when Royal Caribbean’s nine-month cruise kicked off just weeks later, the internet was poised to pay close attention.

The world cruise is a similar online phenomenon to Bama Rush — the University of Alabama’s sorority culture is so cutthroat and intense that people followed along religiously with TikTokers’ rush experiences, and later, HBO even made a documentary about it. Whether it’s an over-the-top sorority house or a cruise that costs more than most people’s annual salary, we’re captivated by these unfathomable displays of wealth, especially if something goes wrong.

As the adage goes, every day there is a new main character on the internet, and your goal is to never be that main character. Usually, these figures are the subject of vitriol (like the infamous Bean Dad incident of 2021), but now, the cruisers are the main characters. Some of them are existing influencers who knew what they were getting into, but then you have older folks — the primary audience for these cruises — who may not be ready for the ups and downs of social media fame.

A creator with more than one million TikTok followers, Marc Sebastian, posted a video 10 days into the trip urging reality show producers to “put cameras on that goddamn cruise.”

“We’re witnessing Fyre Festival, Alabama Rush, and no one is rushing there!” he says, exasperated. “Alternately, put me on the cruise, I’ll go… I will cause chaos, I will wreak havoc and I will record everything.”

@marcsebastianf

there will be enough footage for at LEAST 3 season. 1 hr episodes. @Royal Caribbean PUT ME IN COACH #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #royalcaribbean #realitytv #cruise #serenadeoftheseas #uwc #royalcarribeancruise

♬ original sound – Marc Sebastian

Sebastian wasn’t joking about getting on the ship, because you can still sign up to go on the cruise just for certain legs of the trip. So, Sebastian got his wish and landed a sponsor to pay for his 18-day cruise trip. Soon, we’ll probably start seeing other influencers board the ship for the clout, stirring up controversy for views; but since Sebastian made the leap first and is leaning into the absurdity of it all, people are loving his updates.

It’s been exactly one month since the world cruise departed from Miami, and while nothing catastrophic has occurred, the hype hasn’t worn down. The internet still can’t look away: Imagine you’re living on a boat with hundreds of strangers, but some of those strangers have suddenly become insanely famous on social media, and your grand voyage has become relevant enough to ordinary land-dwellers that it’s featured on the Today Show.

The cruise is stopping in 60 countries across the whole globe, but the travel content isn’t what’s keeping people interested — it’s the characters. It’s hard not to love Mike and Nancy, who have dutifully kept us updated on extremely low-stakes cruise drama (the ship ran out of certain wines! They had to restock the wines in South America!). But there’s also a cohort of younger cruisers, who are more of your stereotypical influencer types. These characters have sparked many people’s jealousy and/or morbid curiosity, since it’s hard to imagine how anyone in their twenties can afford to go on a cruise that costs somewhere between $60,000 and $120,000.

Some characters include: Amike Oosthuizen, a South African influencer traveling with her boyfriend, and they both look like models. There’s Shannon and Brandee, sisters who make a podcast together, and are traveling with their parents. There’s Dr. Jenny, who is not practicing medicine on the cruise, but is running a consulting business remotely. And then there’s Angie Linderman, whose parents recently died and left enough money for her to cruise the world.

@brooklyntravelstheworld

The Ultimate Real World Cruise Full House Edition🥹🏠🫶🏼 #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbean #serenadeoftheseas #royalcaribbeancruise #royalcaribbeaninternationalcruise #worldcruise2023 #cruisetok #worldcruise #royalcaribbeanworldcruise #uwc #fullhouse

♬ Full House – The Hollywood Prime Time Orchestra

It was not 10 days into the cruise before one young cruiser, Brooklyn Schwetje, posted a video introducing the “cast” of CruiseTok. To the tune of the “Full House” theme song, each creator smiles and waves at the camera before they come together for a group shot, where they look like a big happy cruise family. But there’s got to be more drama than that, right? It feels like the first week of college, when everyone in the dorm is best friends, but by the end of the semester, you’re fed up with everyone.

Even people who aren’t on the ship are going viral for cruise-related content. One TikToker, @whimsysoul, made a bingo card for those of us watching from home. Some possible items on the bingo card include: staff dates passenger, petty neighbor drama, mass norovirus, someone falls off, COVID outbreak, second COVID outbreak, pirate takeover, pregnancy, lost passport chaos and a wedding. Would you believe me if I said we’re just one mass STI outbreak away from bingo?

To be fair, the bingo boxes we’ve checked haven’t been that scandalous. But it’s only been one month, and things are starting to get a little hairy. There’s already conflict because members of Royal Caribbean’s rewards program are being treated differently than everyone else (…which is the whole point of rewards programs, but people are mad anyway). Then, at one point, parts of the ship flooded from bad weather. In the coming days, that might get even worse, because the cruisers are journeying toward Antarctica through the infamous Drake Passage. So far, it appears to be extremely cold and windy.

@whimsysoul

Ultimate World Cruise Bingo Card!!! who’s playing with me? 🛥️ 🌊 🌍 🍿 #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbean #worldcruise #cruise #bingo #travel #whimsysoul

♬ original sound – Kara | travel girlie

A highlight of CruiseTok so far was when an older woman named Adita posted a tour of her room, which included a pineapple sign on her door. Apparently, an upside down pineapple is a symbol that means you’re a swinger. So Adita, who’s just innocently posting videos about organizing her medications on board, had to clarify for the internet that she and her husband are not actually looking to swap partners with other couples.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but we are not swingers,” Adita said in a TikTok. “But we do like pineapples!” She then shows off her pineapple ring, pineapple necklace and pineapple earrings. The New York Post wrote about the incident, and she called the publication out for describing her as an “elderly passenger.” She’s been leaning into the jokes though, and even posted a “husband reveal” TikTok, in which her husband poses in a short, pineapple-clad bathing suit.

This week, there was a meetup for content creators on the boat, and Marc Sebastian recorded an interview with Adita about the onboard drama thus far.

“It’s very amusing to me, because I didn’t have a TikTok until about a week ago,” Adita said. She also told Sebastian that some cruisers have rooms that cost $765,000 and have a grand piano inside. And, as a Pinnacle member, she has access to a secret stash of Pellegrino, which apparently is difficult to find elsewhere on the ship.

@sipteawithmelissa

Replying to @Melissa 9 Month Cruise Pineapple Drama 😩👀🍍 #popculturecommentary #popculturenewstoday #celebnews #celebritynews #ninemonthcruise #9monthcruise #serenadeoftheseas #ultimateworldcruise (@Adita)

♬ original sound – Melissa

The cruise has remained so compelling for this whole month because we, the audience, are in a state of perpetual suspense. We have high expectations for shit to hit the fan, but we don’t know yet if it’ll be in a fun way, like a surprise cruise wedding, or in a horrific yet still possible way, like someone dying. Things can be good chaotic, like when the Ever Given ship got stuck in the Suez Canal, or they can be bad chaotic, like when a submarine of billionaires exploded on the way to visit the ruins of the Titanic.

If you haven’t yet tuned in, now’s a good time. The waters on the Drake Passage are mighty. A new influencer is stirring the pot. The wine supply has been refreshed. Come on aboard.

The internet moments that defined 2023

pixilated cruise ship

The World Cruise on TikTok is an unintentional online reality show

by with No Comment Tech

pixilated cruise ship

Image Credits: David Sacks, altered by TechCrunch / Getty Images

“New characters unlocked on the nine-month Ultimate World Cruise TikTok channel!” says an older man as pink letters fly across the screen to form a kooky subtitle.

“Who are they?” his wife asks in a way that’s obviously rehearsed, yet heartbreakingly earnest. The couple responds in unison: “It’s us!”

Mike and Nancy are empty nesters whose TikTok videos look like they were edited on software from the early 2000s. But somehow, they’re at the center of culture on an app known for its young, tech-savvy user base. Welcome to the world cruise. No, we’re not aboard the nine-month worldwide voyage on Royal Caribbean — but like millions of people on the internet, we’re watching intently as the world cruise becomes an accidental online reality show.

@livingphase2

Real Ultimate World Cruise Drama! #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbean #serenadeoftheseas #royalcaribbeancruise #royalcaribbeaninternationalcruise #worldcruise2023 #worldcruise2024 #cruisetok #worldcruise #royalcaribbeanworldcruise #uwc #livingphase2 #drama

♬ original sound – MikeandNancyLP2

From the get-go, this cruise was going to make a ship-sized splash. Cruises aren’t normally this long, and in recent memory, these extended adventures haven’t gone so well. One new cruise line called Life at Sea Cruises was just about to depart on its inaugural three-year voyage; but after cruisers rented out their homes, quit their jobs and otherwise uprooted their lives to live on a boat until 2027, Life at Sea canceled the cruise at the last minute, stranding some early birds in Istanbul, where the cruise was supposed to begin. It turned out that Life at Sea didn’t even have a boat, leading people to compare the ordeal to the infamous Fyre Fest. So, when Royal Caribbean’s nine-month cruise kicked off just weeks later, the internet was poised to pay close attention.

The world cruise is a similar online phenomenon to Bama Rush — the University of Alabama’s sorority culture is so cutthroat and intense that people followed along religiously with TikTokers’ rush experiences, and later, HBO even made a documentary about it. Whether it’s an over-the-top sorority house or a cruise that costs more than most people’s annual salary, we’re captivated by these unfathomable displays of wealth, especially if something goes wrong.

As the adage goes, every day there is a new main character on the internet, and your goal is to never be that main character. Usually, these figures are the subject of vitriol (like the infamous Bean Dad incident of 2021), but now, the cruisers are the main characters. Some of them are existing influencers who knew what they were getting into, but then you have older folks — the primary audience for these cruises — who may not be ready for the ups and downs of social media fame.

A creator with more than one million TikTok followers, Marc Sebastian, posted a video 10 days into the trip urging reality show producers to “put cameras on that goddamn cruise.”

“We’re witnessing Fyre Festival, Alabama Rush, and no one is rushing there!” he says, exasperated. “Alternately, put me on the cruise, I’ll go… I will cause chaos, I will wreak havoc and I will record everything.”

@marcsebastianf

there will be enough footage for at LEAST 3 season. 1 hr episodes. @Royal Caribbean PUT ME IN COACH #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #royalcaribbean #realitytv #cruise #serenadeoftheseas #uwc #royalcarribeancruise

♬ original sound – Marc Sebastian

Sebastian wasn’t joking about getting on the ship, because you can still sign up to go on the cruise just for certain legs of the trip. So, Sebastian got his wish and landed a sponsor to pay for his 18-day cruise trip. Soon, we’ll probably start seeing other influencers board the ship for the clout, stirring up controversy for views; but since Sebastian made the leap first and is leaning into the absurdity of it all, people are loving his updates.

It’s been exactly one month since the world cruise departed from Miami, and while nothing catastrophic has occurred, the hype hasn’t worn down. The internet still can’t look away: Imagine you’re living on a boat with hundreds of strangers, but some of those strangers have suddenly become insanely famous on social media, and your grand voyage has become relevant enough to ordinary land-dwellers that it’s featured on the Today Show.

The cruise is stopping in 60 countries across the whole globe, but the travel content isn’t what’s keeping people interested — it’s the characters. It’s hard not to love Mike and Nancy, who have dutifully kept us updated on extremely low-stakes cruise drama (the ship ran out of certain wines! They had to restock the wines in South America!). But there’s also a cohort of younger cruisers, who are more of your stereotypical influencer types. These characters have sparked many people’s jealousy and/or morbid curiosity, since it’s hard to imagine how anyone in their twenties can afford to go on a cruise that costs somewhere between $60,000 and $120,000.

Some characters include: Amike Oosthuizen, a South African influencer traveling with her boyfriend, and they both look like models. There’s Shannon and Brandee, sisters who make a podcast together, and are traveling with their parents. There’s Dr. Jenny, who is not practicing medicine on the cruise, but is running a consulting business remotely. And then there’s Angie Linderman, whose parents recently died and left enough money for her to cruise the world.

@brooklyntravelstheworld

The Ultimate Real World Cruise Full House Edition🥹🏠🫶🏼 #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbean #serenadeoftheseas #royalcaribbeancruise #royalcaribbeaninternationalcruise #worldcruise2023 #cruisetok #worldcruise #royalcaribbeanworldcruise #uwc #fullhouse

♬ Full House – The Hollywood Prime Time Orchestra

It was not 10 days into the cruise before one young cruiser, Brooklyn Schwetje, posted a video introducing the “cast” of CruiseTok. To the tune of the “Full House” theme song, each creator smiles and waves at the camera before they come together for a group shot, where they look like a big happy cruise family. But there’s got to be more drama than that, right? It feels like the first week of college, when everyone in the dorm is best friends, but by the end of the semester, you’re fed up with everyone.

Even people who aren’t on the ship are going viral for cruise-related content. One TikToker, @whimsysoul, made a bingo card for those of us watching from home. Some possible items on the bingo card include: staff dates passenger, petty neighbor drama, mass norovirus, someone falls off, COVID outbreak, second COVID outbreak, pirate takeover, pregnancy, lost passport chaos and a wedding. Would you believe me if I said we’re just one mass STI outbreak away from bingo?

To be fair, the bingo boxes we’ve checked haven’t been that scandalous. But it’s only been one month, and things are starting to get a little hairy. There’s already conflict because members of Royal Caribbean’s rewards program are being treated differently than everyone else (…which is the whole point of rewards programs, but people are mad anyway). Then, at one point, parts of the ship flooded from bad weather. In the coming days, that might get even worse, because the cruisers are journeying toward Antarctica through the infamous Drake Passage. So far, it appears to be extremely cold and windy.

@whimsysoul

Ultimate World Cruise Bingo Card!!! who’s playing with me? 🛥️ 🌊 🌍 🍿 #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbean #worldcruise #cruise #bingo #travel #whimsysoul

♬ original sound – Kara | travel girlie

A highlight of CruiseTok so far was when an older woman named Adita posted a tour of her room, which included a pineapple sign on her door. Apparently, an upside down pineapple is a symbol that means you’re a swinger. So Adita, who’s just innocently posting videos about organizing her medications on board, had to clarify for the internet that she and her husband are not actually looking to swap partners with other couples.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but we are not swingers,” Adita said in a TikTok. “But we do like pineapples!” She then shows off her pineapple ring, pineapple necklace and pineapple earrings. The New York Post wrote about the incident, and she called the publication out for describing her as an “elderly passenger.” She’s been leaning into the jokes though, and even posted a “husband reveal” TikTok, in which her husband poses in a short, pineapple-clad bathing suit.

This week, there was a meetup for content creators on the boat, and Marc Sebastian recorded an interview with Adita about the onboard drama thus far.

“It’s very amusing to me, because I didn’t have a TikTok until about a week ago,” Adita said. She also told Sebastian that some cruisers have rooms that cost $765,000 and have a grand piano inside. And, as a Pinnacle member, she has access to a secret stash of Pellegrino, which apparently is difficult to find elsewhere on the ship.

@sipteawithmelissa

Replying to @Melissa 9 Month Cruise Pineapple Drama 😩👀🍍 #popculturecommentary #popculturenewstoday #celebnews #celebritynews #ninemonthcruise #9monthcruise #serenadeoftheseas #ultimateworldcruise (@Adita)

♬ original sound – Melissa

The cruise has remained so compelling for this whole month because we, the audience, are in a state of perpetual suspense. We have high expectations for shit to hit the fan, but we don’t know yet if it’ll be in a fun way, like a surprise cruise wedding, or in a horrific yet still possible way, like someone dying. Things can be good chaotic, like when the Ever Given ship got stuck in the Suez Canal, or they can be bad chaotic, like when a submarine of billionaires exploded on the way to visit the ruins of the Titanic.

If you haven’t yet tuned in, now’s a good time. The waters on the Drake Passage are mighty. A new influencer is stirring the pot. The wine supply has been refreshed. Come on aboard.

The internet moments that defined 2023

TikTok usage is starting to slow — is TikTok Shop to blame?

by with No Comment Tech

A TikTok logo is seen displayed on a smartphone

Image Credits: Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images / Getty Images

TikTok may have been the world’s top app by downloads and consumer spending in 2023, but it was not the top by actual usage. Last year, Facebook again maintained its No. 1 position by monthly active users, followed by other Meta-owned apps WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger — all of which were ahead of TikTok at No. 5. Now new data indicates that TikTok’s growth has started to slow, begging the question of whether the app’s move into e-commerce via TikTok Shop is to blame.

According to new data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, while TikTok’s growth remains positive, that growth is decelerating. In 2022, TikTok’s monthly active users grew an average of 12% year-over-year per quarter, but this figure fell to 3% year-over-year per quarter in 2023.

The change comes on the heels of TikTok’s launch of TikTok Shop in the U.S.

The video app began testing Shop in the U.S. in November 2022 and those tests expanded at the beginning of last year as more brands came on board, including PacSun, Revolve, Willow Boutique, and beauty brand KimChi Chic, among others. While the Shop didn’t “officially” launch in the U.S. until September 2023, it was only one of several efforts to translate the influence of TikTok videos — essentially the whole “TikTok made me buy it” meme — into real-world sales.

Last summer in the U.K., for example, TikTok experimented with an in-app shopping section called “Trendy Beat,” which offered products sold by TikTok parent ByteDance. TikTok also offers an affiliate program that allows creators to earn commissions from products, as the AP and others have reported.

But sellers’ embrace of the shopping platform has started to lead to complaints, as Business Insider noted in November, with some lamenting that TikTok Shop was turning the app into an “ad-filled wasteland” and a “dystopian” space. Elsewhere on the web, Redditors have been debating whether TikTok Shop has “ruined” the app, which is now filled with “people dropshipping/selling cheap products,” as one Reddit user put it.

“Personally, I’m starting to get really annoyed by how almost every other video on my [For You Page] is someone overhyping a product from the Shop feature to try to get it to go viral and make a lot of commissions,” wrote Redditor u/megg-salad-sammich in September. “It’s great that it’s a new avenue for creators to make money, but I find myself scrolling less and less because I know pretty much every video is just trying to get me to buy some random thing,” they said.

A search across Reddit finds many more threads complaining of the same thing throughout last year — saying how TikTok is “annoying” now because of TikTok Shop and seeing ads every few videos is a frustrating experience.

While TikTok users are adapting to their favorite social network turning into an online mall, TikTok’s Shop Seller app, which powers its e-commerce initiative, has grown.

Sensor Tower data indicates the Shop Seller’s growth has been “robust” since the fourth quarter of 2022, rising 230% year-over-year as of the fourth quarter of 2023. However, the app has only a fraction of TikTok’s active user base — currently 1.4 billion as of the first quarter of this year. Shop Seller, meanwhile, has just around 6 million monthly active users, the firm reported.

Instagram could ultimately benefit from the user frustration around TikTok Shop, given that the Meta-owned app removed its own Shop tab in January of last year and killed off live shopping in March. This could potentially make it more acceptable to those wanting to avoid more direct calls to action to shop in-app.

Meta’s move was triggered by broader industry trends, which seem to not bode well for TikTok Shop’s future. Live shopping had blossomed during the pandemic, and e-commerce sales skyrocketed. But when things returned to normal, social commerce (including live shopping) was found to have made up only around 5% of total e-commerce sales in the U.S. as of 2022. That seemed to indicate that U.S. consumers may not have been as primed to shop directly from videos, though they are obviously still influenced by online trends.

However, users aren’t yet so upset with TikTok Shop as to abandon the app for Instagram Reels.

Sensor Tower found that Instagram’s monthly active user growth has been relatively consistent at “mid-single digits” and hasn’t been significantly impacted negatively or positively since the launch of the TikTok Shop Seller app.

Data from another firm, Appfigures, also supports this conclusion but adds that, although TikTok’s revenue has been growing, its downloads have been stagnant or dropping more than growing — a trend that’s been going on for over a year now, including both globally and in the U.S.

Image Credits: Appfigures
Image Credits: Appfigures

TikTok logo encircled by a "prohibited" symbol

Some IRS employees still access TikTok despite ban on government devices

by with No Comment Tech

TikTok logo encircled by a "prohibited" symbol

Image Credits: TechCrunch

The TikTok ban on U.S. government devices is proving hard to enforce. A month after the IRS was found to be in non-compliance with the federally mandated ban on the Beijing-based video app, two Republican senators are asking the IRS why it’s still allowing some of the agency’s employees to access the social network, and what that means for the security of Americans’ IRS data.

The letter, announced today, was sent to the IRS on Thursday by U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a member of the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight, and John Thune (R-SD), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Taxation and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Oversight. In it, they press the IRS to respond to questions about why the ban is not being upheld, suggesting that the confidential nature of taxpayer data could be compromised by TikTok’s data collection practices.

In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported today that TikTok employees still sometimes shared data with their China-based parent company ByteDance, despite the operation code-named “Project Texas” that TikTok implemented to keep U.S. user data on Oracle servers in the states. That initiative had been designed to convince the U.S. government that U.S. user data was safe. The WSJ found that, instead, managers would sometimes instruct employees at TikTok to share data with others through unofficial channels, including private data, like a user’s email, birth date or IP address.

The timing of the report around IRS use of TikTok may raise concern among lawmakers that TikTok’s U.S. user data isn’t as protected as once hoped. It also demonstrates how unenforceable such bans could be amid the U.S. government’s bureaucracy and red tape, offering a preview of what it could be like to enforce such a ban at the federal level for all Americans — a move that some politicians from both parties believe should take place.

As for the IRS, a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) last month found that the IRS’ Criminal Investigation unit’s staff were still able to access TikTok on both their computers and mobile devices, long after The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its “No TikTok on Government Devices” guidance in February 2023. The IRS hadn’t asked for the Criminal Investigation division to be exempt from the ban through official channels, nor had it cut off employees’ TikTok access, the report said.

The IRS countered it didn’t need an exception because the TikTok app was only used via third-party software — in other words, their devices weren’t directly connecting with TikTok. It also pushed back at the idea that the Criminal Investigation division chief should come up with a plan to fully cut off employee access to the app, saying it would use its own internal process to determine exceptions. In total, 2,800 mobile devices in the division were found to be able to access TikTok, TIGTA said.

In other areas, the IRS largely complied with the ban. When TIGTA found that TikTok was accessible on 23 phones used by employees in the Communications and Liaison group, which monitors social media, they were cut off from the app. The agency also said that it would update its “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) policy guidance to align with the ban by October 2024.

In the senators’ letter to TikTok, they pressed the IRS on its delay for implementing the ban within its BYOD program and the exception made for Criminal Investigation staff, writing, “Not only has the IRS failed to comply with the law, but its lack of action with regard to implementation of the No TikTok on Government Devices Act has potentially compromised confidential taxpayer information located on devices that have TikTok, which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and alarming data practices.”

The letter asks the IRS to respond to a series of questions by February 8, 2024. These include questions about how many IRS employees use their own devices, how many of those access TikTok with the same devices they use for IRS-related functions and what security protocols IRS employees must follow to protect taxpayer data, among other things. The senators also want to know if the IRS has removed TikTok from the Criminal Investigation mobile devices, and why they needed it in the first place.

TikTok has been asked for comment, but one was not provided by the time of publication.

The IRS is only one facet of the wider U.S. TikTok ban on government devices, which last February gave government agencies 30 days to ensure they no longer had the app on their employees’ phones and computers. The order had followed similar bans from dozens of U.S. states and others from outside the U.S., including the EU, Canada, India and more. However, many bans are being challenged in the courts. For instance, Montana’s ban on TikTok is now on hold, a federal judge ruled last month.

Letter to Daniel Werfel Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service by TechCrunch on Scribd