Why Is The Internet Converting To QVC?

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If YouTube has a way, soon watch makeup tutorials and buy face powder and eyeliner directly from her site. Facebook is published infomercial style shows this will encourage people to shop from small businesses, including one that sells dog bow ties.

Many internet personalities and businesses are already promoting their products on social media. But for the first time in the United States, internet companies seem to be making a concerted effort to make shopping an integral and uninterrupted part of online spaces where we come to have fun and learn, but where we don’t necessarily have to buy things.

Yes, America’s internet is turning into QVC. (People under 30: email me for a description of home shopping TV.)

This happens for three reasons: greed, fear, and China. And the growing craze for digital shopping options is another example of how our online experiences are shaped by corporate interests as much as our desires.

Let me get back to what happened and why. For years, teens in China have fallen in love with their informative shopping webcasts, short videos, and social media personalities. about products and let them buy instantly.

This often happens in the form of in-app webcasts owned by my colleague Raymond Zhong. specification As “QVC reinvented for the mobile age and late night television commercials”. In one such webcast last month, a Chinese online seller known as “lipstick sister” Sold $1.9 billion worth of goods in one day.

Technologists surmised that it was only a matter of time before Americans became addicted to similar mixes of e-commerce and social media, but that didn’t quite happen.

Many people and businesses sell goods on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, but they often direct you to purchase on Amazon, Sephora, or another website. Part of the magic of Chinese in-app shopping is your brain’s “Oooh, I want it!” It means you can buy something in milliseconds.

became I’m not sure That Chinese-style online shopping can catch up on in the United States. But now there is many American internet companies are pushing this trend just so that we can change our habits with their will.

YouTube executives lately didn’t stop talking it’s about turning the site into a place where video creators can sell stuff. This week, Google-owned YouTube detailed its promotion plans. live shopping webcasts and “shoppable videos” in time for the holidays. Amazon, Snapchat, Pinterestgetting bigger with Facebook and Instagram shopping webcasts and direct purchase features in these applications. So is TikTokIts Chinese parent company is big on live shopping.

Why is all this happening now? I will return to greed and fear.

Facebook and Google are looking at the billions of people who use their apps every day, and they want to sell hot sauce and sneakers to this captive audience. (While they haven’t talked much about it yet, it’s a good bet that these companies will charge a fee from these product sales.)

Social media companies are also working hard to appeal to people trying to make a living from their followers on Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat or TikTok to keep users coming back to their sites. E-commerce sales are a carrot that internet giants can offer to online creators to help them make more money.

And then there’s fear. Google doesn’t like this most Americans turn to Amazon when searching for products instead of the web search box. Facebook and Snapchat worried About Apple’s new data privacy rules affecting ad sales. Diversifying e-commerce gives them a plan B. And ad sales alone may not be enough for younger internet companies like Pinterest and Snap.

You’ll notice that my list of reasons doesn’t include shoppers’ desire to buy lipstick from QVC-style Instagram shows. The miracle cleaner you heard on TikTok right on TikTok. Ditto.

It can come in handy to buy something from our favorite online entertainment spots, or we can feel meh about shopping where we chat with our Facebook garden groups. We’ll see. If in-app shopping in the US is a bit more like China, it might be because a bunch of powerful companies want it, not because it’s what Americans want.

How about shopping web feeds and buying what you want from sites like YouTube or Instagram? Want to buy directly from these platforms? Leave your answer in the comments and the On Tech team will respond to a selection.

Next week I’m going to talk to the CEO of Reddit about how we can chat better online. I will also seek advice from moderators of some large, healthy online communities, as well as a drag queen who manages a large following. Request more information about the event, free for all New York Times subscribers.

Starting Monday, we’ll also have a group chat on Slack where you can talk to other readers about the changing role of technology in your life. You will receive an invitation to the group when you register for the event. See you there!

TIP OF THE WEEK

Internet “bots” or automation software used to post on social media or speed up online payments are infamous. spreading propaganda online and popular sneakers. But Brian X ChenThe consumer tech columnist for The New York Times says we could put boots to good use this holiday season.

I wrote last summer colon About how to buy PlayStation 5. It’s worth a revisit as consoles are still underwhelming.

Not all bots are bad; There are those who tweet as soon as scarce items are in stock at retailers. (My column included some trusted Twitter accounts, including: @PS5StockWarnings and @mattswider, which PlayStations are watching.) You can set up alerts to notify your phone as soon as these tweets go live, and then go online and buy.

(Resellers also use bots to buy as many PlayStations as they can and make a big profit on eBay. We don’t recommend this.)

If you are keen on purchasing a particular product, there are other useful tricks. Instead of waiting for a shopping event like Black Friday, you can buy something you really want now and see if the price drops later. Some retailers have a price adjustment policy where they will agree to refund some of your money if the price is lower than when you bought it.

Costco, for example, has such a policy: if you bought a laptop today and the price dropped during the week of Black Friday, you can fill out a form on the website to get a gift certificate for the difference.

  • The Justice Department sued Uber: Government said the company was breaking the law By charging extra for people with disabilities who need more than two minutes to get into cars, my colleague Kate Conger reports. The lawsuit is based on 2016 Uber’s policy, which the company says is aimed only at drivers who keep drivers waiting.

  • YouTube hides “dislikes”: People can still click the thumbs down button on videos, but The number of dislikes on a video will not be public.. According to The Verge, this is a setting to prevent too many people from expressing their displeasure by flooding video creators with clicks to dislike.

  • “Don’t promote something you love just because a company is promoting a new model” recommendation Annemarie Conte, editor at Wirecutter, The New York Times’ product recommendation site. And Annemarie has some more great suggestions on what to do before you buy a new tech.

“NO TALKING IN THE LABORATORY” this kid really about science.

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