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Write comment (95 Comments)Therea new kind of ad coming to YouTube . Google announced today the launch of Shopping ads on YouTube, which lets brands advertise their products and services right in the YouTube home feed and search results. For example, if a user searches for &Puma shoes review,& a Shopping ad may offer a row of suggested products at the top of the page before the video results.
The ads may also appear as a carousel between the videos on the homepage.
Puma is a debut advertiser for the new Shopping ad product, but the video site will soon fill with these sorts of product suggestions.
&Consumers are continuing to watch more content on the YouTube platform and we want to be where they are, to reach and engage them,& said Rick Almeida, vice president of e-commerce at Puma Group, in a statement about its new YouTube ads. &This new opportunity will enable Puma to extend our shopping strategy into a new property and inspire consumers,& he added.
As Google explains, the ads can be shown to YouTube users based on their interests.
To continue the Puma example, the user wouldn&t necessarily have to type in &Puma& to encounter an ad for the running shoes — simply expressing an interest in running could have them coming across ads from Puma or any other retailers offering running apparel.
Like the Shopping ads that appear elsewhere across Googleplatform — including Search, Shopping, partner websites and the Google Display Network — the YouTube Shopping ads will match to userinterest not by using keywords but rather on the product details and information the brand submits through the Merchant Center.
The idea to leverage YouTube as a new platform for visual advertising comes at a time when other social networks — like Instagram, Pinterest and even TikTok — are making it easier for users to shop products from their apps. Pinterest has been working to capture shopper interest earlier in the journey, then track the path from visual inspiration and pinning all the way through to purchase.
Instagram this year launched shopping checkout, allowing users to transact from sellers without leaving the Instagram app. More recently, TikTok launched a &Hashtag Challenge Plus& product that lets video viewers shop for products in its app, as well.
But YouTube hadn&t yet fully capitalized on its ability to direct its audience to specific products, rather focusing on Discover ads that would include a visual and a few lines of text, but not necessarily a unique product.
Google says advertisers already using standard Shopping campaigns today and who are opted in to YouTube on Display Network will be immediately able to run YouTube Shopping ads.
The new ads are only one of several changes YouTube announced today. It also said its video ads will now be more interactive, giving users actionable information like store location, interest forms and additional calls-to-actions to help drive more conversions. Italso rolling out sitelink extensions for TrueView for action ads that will allow viewers to navigate to additional landing pages, like those for holiday catalogs, store hours and more. These will come in the months ahead.
Elsewhere on Google, Showcase Shopping ads are expanding to Google Images, where users will be able to explore a larger selection of products from a brand.
Google had announced its plans to bring new ad products to YouTube back in May, when it revamped the Google Shopping product following the closure and rebranding of Google Express.
As a part of that larger update, the company mentioned a variety of ways it would be connecting the YouTube audience more directly with brands and products — including through its highly visual Showcase Shopping ads and via Shopping Actions, which allow for purchases right from Googleplatforms.
The larger goal with the new ads is to appeal to users with more visual imagery, as todayweb users no longer just search Google.com and click on the links that return.
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Read more: Shopping ads come to YouTube’s home feed and search results
Write comment (95 Comments)The motorcycle industry is shifting to electric. Harley-Davidson signaled the trend this year, becoming the first big gas manufacturer to release a street-legal e-motorcycle in the U.S., the LiveWire.
But before HarleyEV pivot, California-based startup Zero Motorcycles had been selling e-motos for years.
&We&re an electric motorcycle and power-train manufacturer founded in 2006 in Santa Cruz, California…we&re sold in over 30 countries,& Zero CEO Sam Paschel told TechCrunch.
&Fundamentally we aim to transform and elevate the motorcycling experience and by doing that we expect to make a huge dent in transforming transportation globally.&
Toward that aim, Zero recently released the all-new 2020, SR/F — a $19K high-performance e-motorcycle and competitor to Harley Davidson$29K LiveWire.
TechCrunch took an SR/F home to experience going full e-moto. The biggest distinction between e-motorcycles — versus gas two-wheelers — is lightning acceleration and uninterrupted forward movement.
ZeroSR/F has a magnet motor and one gear — with no clutch or shifting — and fewer mechanical parts to put the 14.4 kWh battery140 ft-lbs of torque to the pavement.
You simply twist and go.
The SR/F is a fully digital, IoT motorcycle that syncs to a smartphone and the cloud to monitor charge status or adjust performance. It has preset riding modes — Eco, Street, Sport and Rain — for different combinations of power and range. The EV also allows for customized riding modes dialed in via smartphone.
One can power Zerosporty e-moto from a household outlet or use fast-charging networks — like ChargePoint — for a full battery in around 80 minutes.
ZeroSR/F has a range of up to 161 miles in the city, where it can recharge itself marginally through regenerative braking. For a combination of city, highway and sport riding, I averaged around 100 miles a charge, alternating between riding modes.
On performance, Zeronew sport-entry hauls ass. Going 0 to 60 at full power on the new SR/F is a rush, while 60 to 100 speed is so fast itdownright frightening. Overall, the e-motoacceleration is stronger and more constant than internal combustion machines, with no emissions and little sound.
ZeroCEO Sam Paschel thinks the distinct electric motorcycle experience can convert gas riders.
&We have what we consider enthusiasts…These are people that are avid motorcycle riders…What we find with them is they throw a leg over a Zero…have an electric motorcycle experience, itfundamentally different…they fall in love, they buy one,& he said.
Zeroe-motos — starting at around $9K for the entry-level FX — are also attracting a younger generation, according to the startupCEO.
&They&re an early adopter of new technology. They love the idea — whether itthe performance elements, the riding experience, green or eco elements of having electric vehicle — and we&re actually drawing them into the sport in a way that they wouldn&t have been drawn in by internal combustion,& he said.
Paschel is undaunted by HarleyEV debut or the other big gas motorcycle manufacturers entering the e-market.
&You have a major OEM thatlaunched a bike into the space that we have been defining and creating for over a decade. Of course, the nature of that relationship is fundamentally competitive,& he said.
&The question I get more often is…are we concerned? Are we worried or scared of any OEMs entering? And The answer is no. This is actually the most exciting thing thathappened in the space in a long time,& said Paschel.
&A rising tide is going to lift all ships, and…I&m more than confident that we will capture more than our fair share of a rapidly growing market simply because this is all we do. And we spent 13 years, millions of miles, and a lot of time doing this just right.&
Both Zero and Harley are banking on e-motos to reboot a flailing U.S. motorcycle industry. New bike sales dropped 50% since 2008 — with sharp declines in ownership by everyone under 40.
Zero has worked to close gaps on price, range, charge times and performance compared to petrol-powered motorcycles.
The startup is not alone. ItalyEnergica is expanding distribution of its high-performance e-motos in the U.S. Other competitors include California-based Lightning Motorcycles and e-moto startup Fuell, with plans to release its $10K, 150-mile range Flow this year.
Of course, therealready been some speed-bumps and market attrition, with three e-moto startups — Alta Motors, Mission Motors and Brammo — forced to power down over the last several years.
Zero looks to its head start and proprietary technology to win in the electric conversion of motorcycles.
The company has also received partnership inquiries.
&Itnot something that we are actively seeking… I will tell you that therea lot of inbound interest. I think people were waking up and realizing that that transition is much closer than they thought it was… we&ve had conversations from a list of OEMS, many of whom you would recognize,& said Paschel.
Still, Zero is likely to ride on alone, according to its CEO.
&Right now itan inherently competitive relationship with a lot of those guys, so it would have to be the right deal… but right now we&re fiercely competitive company. We&re in a competition with all these brands.&
ZeroSR/F could be the sweet spot of tech, price, range and performance it has been striving toward to finally go mass market and compete with those brands.
And with Zero and Harley growing e-moto market share, expect big names still on the sidelines — Honda, Ducati, Kawasaki — to debut production EVs soon.
With that, the electrification of the motorcycle industry will become another facet of the transformation of global mobility.
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Read more: Talking to Zero Motorcycles’ CEO and taking home the 2020 SR/F
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A glitch in the stock trading app Robinhood is allowing users to trade stocks with excess borrowed funds, and the company doesn&t appear to have found a fix as of this writing.
According to RedditWallStreetBets forum, and first reported on by Bloomberg, one trader bragged about a $1 million position funded by a $4,000 deposit. Another says he accessed $50,000 worth of purchasing power, which he used to buy Apple puts. He subsequently lost that money and posted a video of the wipe-out on YouTube (below).
Asked whether the issue has been resolved, how long it has been possible for users to exploit the platform, and how many people have taken advantage of it, a Robinhood spokesperson sent us a shortly worded statement that suggests this is far from under control, writing: &We&re aware of the isolated situations and communicating directly with customers.&
This isn&t the first misstep for Robinhood, a popular platform that caters largely to first-time investors with its no-frills, no-fees approach to investing. In December 2018, the six-year-old, Menlo Park, Calif. company — which has raised $912 million from investors, much of it led by DST Global — announced it was launching no-fee checking-and-savings accounts that would provide users with a 3% interest rate — nearly double what other financial institutions offer.
More than 850,000 people signed a waitlist, hoping to access the accounts, before Robinhood quietly took down mention of them after regulators said the product, as initially designed, would not be insured by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. (The president of the SIPC further told MarketWatch that Robinood hadn&t discussed the accounts with his agency before announcing them.)
The company last month announced a new, revamped push into banking via new cash-management accounts that pay 2.05% interest and reportedly come with the backing of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
No doubt it has more products in the works. Robinhood has been clear about its ambitions to become a &full service financial institution& with every product one can find at a &local bank branch and more,& as its co-founder and co-CEO Vlad Tenev told us at an event last year. Toward that end, it named former SEC commission Dan Gallagher to its board of directors last month and last year brought on as CFO Jason Warnick, who&d spent two decades with Amazon previously, including as the companyVP of finance.
The startup also applied in April to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter, though a federal judge dealt a blow to the agency late last month, ruling that it lacks the legal power to grant a bank charter to a nonbank entity that isn&t eligible for federal deposit insurance.
Either way, allowing unsophisticated users to borrow exponentially more than they&re entitled to, or can presumably pay back, could prove an embarrassing setback for the fast-growing startup — especially if itnot addressed quickly and prevented from happening again.
The Bloomberg piece notes that Robinhood users who&ve used the exploit to borrow too much could be guilty of securities fraud or, at least, may need to pay back money lost. But Robinhood is plainly taking a hit here, too.
We&ll update this story when we learn more.
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Read more: Robinhood has a glitch that’s letting users borrow far more than they should
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It's been less than a day since one US retailer mistakenly – and rather prematurely – posted a pre-order listing for the EOS Ra on its site, revealing everything there is to know about the astrophotography specialist camera. However, Canon has now made it official, with the EOS Ra up for pre-order in most markets.
The announcement confirms what we
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Read more: Canon EOS Ra is the smallest and most portable specialist camera yet
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