Hi there,

Here is this week in charts.

Elephant in the room. Amazon’s ad business now does $31B a year — more than the ad revenue of YouTube and the global newspaper industry. As the world has shifted away from print to digital advertising, companies from Uber to Walmart are building out their own ad businesses in search of new (higher-margin) revenue and profit sources.

The big apple. In 2022 so far, Apple already has two acquisitions on the books — compared to just one (Primephonic) last year. In February, Apple purchased AI Music and earlier this week it acquired open banking startup Credit Kudos, which uses bank data to score loan applicants. Apple’s latest acquisition points to its continued push into fintech, where it’s made inroads with its Apple Pay mobile wallet and Apple Card credit card.

Plateau alert. Is e-commerce adoption flattening in the US? E-commerce’s share of total US retail sales dipped to 12.9% in Q4’21 from a record 15.7% in Q2’20 — signaling that the pandemic’s boost to e-commerce may level off. Lagging online grocery growth is partially to blame, despite investors’ enthusiasm for the space.

Connect the dots. This travesty is from a US Department of Energy report. Thank you, next.
 

I love you.