Sam Blumenthal

Miquela Sousa, aka Lil Miquela, is the first AI social media influencer. She’s a multi-hyphenate 19-year-old, half-Brazilian, half-Spanish model, influencer and singer created by creative agency Brud in 2016. Since her debut, she has accumulated 2.9 million followers on Instagram, and in 2018 she was named Time’s ’Most Influential People on the... See more

The reality is,  all marketing spend, from PR to Facebook direct response ads, create a context that acquires a consumer.

In eCommerce, there is no such thing as 'direct response'. A user may interact or click on an ad, but more times than not, the transaction happens later. There is also no such thing as organic traffic or revenue.  Somewhere

... See more

Seven months after adding live video to its social commerce app, Verishop is expanding the feature by building a “pipeline of influencers,” who get paid 10% commission for sales, co-founder and CEO Imran Khan said. It recently brought on Elle magazine as a live video partner.

As online video platforms seek a business model beyond advertising, and short videos start to look more and more like commercials, it turns out that commerce may be video’s killer app. And not only could video apps become ecommerce apps, but all ecommerce apps may also have to become video apps. Various platforms from China show us how this can be... See more

Solving the Personalization & Scale Paradox

The prevailing standard is a 30% platform cut, which is accompanied by another 30% Apple Store / Google Play tax if purchases are made in app.  This has led to the new wave of standalone utilities such as Kofi, micro-tipping services offering more favorable revenue sharing terms for creators.  The most recent features from big platforms seem to... See more

Earlier this year, Wei, known as Viya, used Taobao to sell a commercial rocket for 40 million yuan, or $5.6 million. The hashtag #WeiYaSellsARocket went viral on the Chinese social platform Weibo after the incredible feat.

By definition, a virtual influencer is a fictional AI-generated person with realistic characteristics, features and personalities of humans. They behave just like real-life influencers. They speak to the camera, share selfies, feelings and thoughts. The only difference is the content. And, well, the obvious – they’re computer-generated with... See more