Walmart Launching Express 2-Hour Grocery Delivery
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Walmart Launching Express 2-Hour Grocery Delivery | |
| Number | 1115 |
| Broadcast Date | MAY 1, 2020 |
| Episode Length | 6:40 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Walmart confirmed it will launch 2-hour grocery delivery service called Express, Epic Games cancels the Fortnite World Cup, and ICANN votes against the sale of the .org registry.
Headlines
- Walmart confirmed plans to launch a new grocery service called Express, which would provide 2 hour or less grocery delivery for an additional $10 fee. The service has been in testing in 100 US stores since mid-April, and Walmart plans to expand it to 1000 stores by early May, expanding to more than 2000 in coming weeks. Express delivery slots will be available when traditional delivery isn't available same day or even days out, but Walmart says it will not push back standard delivery orders to make capacity for Express.
- A new survey conducted by the University of Maryland and The Washington Post finds that nearly 3 in 5 Americans are either unable or unwilling to use Google and Apple's new COVID-19 infection-alert system currently in development, which may impact the app's effectiveness. Of the 82% of surveyed Americans who have smartphones, around 50% say they definitely or probably would use such an app. Willingness among those reporting they are worried about getting sick is obviously higher. 59% of survey respondents said they would “be comfortable” using the app to broadcast to others if they did test positive for COVID-19. A recent study by epidemiologists at Oxford University estimated that 60% of an area's general population would need to use a contact-tracing app that notifies users of exposure along with other tactics such as broader testing and the quarantining of the most vulnerable people, in order for the app to effectively contain the virus.
- Facebook has started allowing some contract content reviewers to return to work in its content review centers in San Francisco and Austin. Returning to work is voluntary and offices will have reduced capacity. Returning contractors will also be given personal protective equipment and have their temperature checked at the beginning of their shift. Offices will be deep cleaned at the end of shifts.
- Epic Games announced the cancellation of the 2020 Fortnite World Cup citing the “limitations of cross region online competition” making it impossible. The company will continue to support third-party events, but these and all other Fortnite events will remain online until further notice.
- In an interview with CNBC, Xbox Chief Phil Spencer said the launch of the Xbox Series X is still on schedule for a holiday 2020 release, but that game production was a "bigger unknown." Some titles for the console, like Wasteland 3 and Minecraft Dungeons, have already been delayed due to work disruption from COVID-19, with Halo Infinite the only first party title confirmed to launch with the Xbox Series X. Microsoft is hosting an online event next week to highlight 3rd party games for the console.
- Microsoft opened registration for its virtual Build conference, making registration free for all attendees. The event will feature opening remarks by CEO Satya Nadella, the usual keynotes to start the conference with 48-hour workshops streamed on Twitch. The 48-hour event will start May 19th at 8AM PT. The in-person Build conference required a $2,395 entry fee last year.
- In Q1, Apple reported earnings per share of $2.55 on revenue of $58.31 billion, beating analyst expectations. The beat was buoyed by strong sales in both services and wearables. Services revenue increased 16.5% to $13.4 billion, with CEO Tim Cook stating that the company will meet its goal of doubling 2016 services revenue in 2020. According to CFO Luca Maestri, Apple Music and cloud services set revenue records in the quarter, with "strong double digits" paid subscriber growth for Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple News+. Wearables revenue increased 23% on the year to $6.3 billion. iPhone, iPad and Mac sales decreased 7%, 10%, and 3% respectively.
- Amazon reported it earned $5.01 per share in Q1 on revenue of $75.5 billion, missing on analyst earnings estimates of $6.25 per share. AWS revenue grew 33% on the year to $10 billion, subscription revenue, that includes Prime and Amazon video, increased 28% to $5.56 billion, while Other revenue, which mostly includes ad revenue, increased 44% to $3.91 billion. On the earnings call, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company will take its estimated Q2 $4 billion operating profit on COVID-related expenses like getting products to customers and keeping employees safe. Of this, Amazon said $300 million will be invested in the company's COVID-19 testing capabilities. The company also announced it obtained 100 million face masks that will be required for all associates, drivers, and support staff, as well as 1,000 thermal cameras and 31,000 thermometers to do mandatory daily temperature checks for frontline workers.
- Reddit's vice president of product and community Alex Le announced that the company rolled back the release of its Start Chatting feature, which was just released on April 30th. Le cited several errors with the launch, including a bug that would show a "Start Chatting" button on all subreddits, even those not part of the initial rollout. Le also said Reddit will give subreddit moderators the ability to opt-out of having the feature appear in their communities. In a statement to The Verge, Reddit said they will "reassess our rollout plan and evolve the product to meet the needs of our community.”
- The board of ICANN voted to reject the sale of the .org registry to Ethos Capital, citing concerns on how Ethos would use the registry to pay down the $300 million in debt the acquisition would require. The Internet Society currently manages the .org Public Internet Registry, and announced plans for the sale in November. The deal also faced scrutiny from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, as well as several ICANN founding members.
- The Video Electronics Standards Association, or VESA issued the spec for DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0 that lets USB 4 offer the DisplayPort 2.0 functions which include 4K displays at 144Hz with HDR, 8K displays at 60Hz with HDR, and 16K displays at 60Hz with compression. Devices that support DisplayPort AltMode 2.0 should start arriving next year.
- Plex announced that it added movies and TV shows from Crackle to its ad-supported streaming service in the US. Plex launched the service back in December, and in the announcement said it's working on new partnerships to add further content to the free service.
Links
| Preceded by: "Apple and Google Deliver First Version of Contact Tracing App to Devs" |
Walmart Launching Express 2-Hour Grocery Delivery |
Followed by: "Week in Review for the Week of 4/27/20" |