#Competitor Price Monitoring

[prodfinity]

Mastering Market Dynamics: How Ecommerce Businesses Use Competitor Pricing to Win

In the dynamic world of ecommerce, pricing is more than just a number—it’s a key driver of customer decisions, profit margins, and market positioning. While factors like product quality, branding, and user experience play significant roles, pricing remains one of the most influential variables in a buyer's journey. As competition intensifies, ecommerce businesses are increasingly relying on ecommerce competitor price monitoring to stay relevant and competitive.

Why Pricing Intelligence Matters

Consumers today are savvy and price-sensitive. With a few clicks, they can compare prices across multiple platforms and choose the best deal. This shift in consumer behavior has made static pricing strategies obsolete. To keep up, ecommerce businesses must track and adapt to the fluctuating prices of their competitors. Doing so ensures they’re neither pricing themselves out of the market nor undercutting profits unnecessarily.

Ecommerce competitor price monitoring allows businesses to gather real-time data about their rivals’ pricing strategies. This information becomes a foundation for strategic decision-making, such as dynamic pricing, promotional campaigns, and even inventory management.

Benefits of Monitoring Competitor Prices

Informed Pricing Decisions Knowing what your competitors charge helps you find the sweet spot in your pricing—balancing competitiveness and profitability. For example, if a rival drops prices on a product you also sell, you might decide to adjust your price to remain attractive or emphasize superior value instead.

Enhanced Profit Margins Price monitoring doesn’t always mean reducing prices. It also helps identify opportunities to raise prices when competitors are low on stock or have increased their own. This ensures you’re not leaving money on the table.

Better Product Positioning By comparing your product’s features and price to competitors’, you can better understand your value proposition. Are you the budget option, the premium choice, or somewhere in between? Monitoring helps clarify this and guides marketing efforts accordingly.

Competitive Advantage Businesses that respond quickly to market shifts can capitalize on trends before others catch on. Real-time monitoring enables agility, whether it’s reacting to a flash sale or launching a counter-campaign.

Customer Retention and Loyalty Pricing consistency and fairness build trust. If customers feel confident that you offer competitive pricing, they’re more likely to return—even if they don’t always get the absolute lowest price.

Tools and Techniques

Manual tracking of competitor prices is time-consuming and prone to error, especially for businesses with large catalogs. Thankfully, there are numerous tools available that automate the process. These platforms crawl competitors' websites and marketplaces, collect pricing data, and present it in actionable formats like dashboards and alerts.

Some tools even integrate with your ecommerce platform to enable dynamic pricing—automatically adjusting your prices based on competitor behavior, inventory levels, or demand fluctuations.

Additionally, businesses often employ web scraping, APIs, and machine learning models to enhance price tracking accuracy and predictive capabilities.

Ethical and Legal Considerations

While the technical capabilities are impressive, businesses must ensure their monitoring practices comply with legal and ethical standards. Web scraping, for instance, should respect a competitor’s terms of service and avoid overloading their servers. It’s also important to avoid practices that could be seen as anti-competitive or collusive.

Working with reputable tools and legal advisors can help ensure your monitoring strategy is robust, effective, and above board.

When and What to Monitor

Not every product requires the same level of scrutiny. Focus on high-margin items, bestsellers, or products with volatile prices. Seasonal items and new product launches also merit close monitoring due to their short window of peak competitiveness.

Frequency matters too. For fast-moving products or industries, daily or even hourly monitoring may be necessary. For slower-moving categories, weekly checks might suffice.

The Future of Price Monitoring

As artificial intelligence and big data analytics advance, ecommerce price monitoring will become even more sophisticated. Predictive pricing, sentiment analysis from reviews, and demand forecasting are beginning to merge with pricing strategies, creating a more comprehensive view of the market.

Ultimately, the goal is not just to match or beat competitor prices, but to understand the entire pricing ecosystem—what drives customer decisions, how brand perception influences value, and when price adjustments are most effective.

Final Thoughts

In a marketplace where customers have endless options and razor-thin attention spans, pricing can make or break a sale. Ecommerce competitor price monitoring is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. By staying informed and agile, businesses can not only survive but thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.

Whether you’re a startup or an established retailer, integrating price monitoring into your strategy can provide the insights needed to outsmart the competition and drive sustained growth.

[wdg-blog]

The Necessity of Competitor Price Monitoring in Retail

Understand the necessity of competitor price monitoring in retail to optimize pricing strategies, enhance competitiveness, and maximize profitability.

[productpricing]

From Data to Action: Using Competitor Price Monitoring to Drive Business Decisions

In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape, staying ahead of your competitors requires more than just offering quality products or services. It demands a keen understanding of the market, and crucially, an insight into your competitors' pricing strategies. Competitor price monitoring is a powerful tool that can transform raw data into actionable business intelligence, guiding your decisions to enhance competitiveness, profitability, and market positioning.

Understanding Competitor Price Monitoring

Monitoring competitor prices involves systematically tracking and analyzing the prices of your competitors’ products and services. This practice provides businesses with a wealth of information that can be used to make informed strategic decisions. Effective price monitoring goes beyond simple price comparisons; it involves understanding the nuances of competitors’ pricing strategies, including discounts, promotions, and price adjustments over time.

The Importance of Competitor Price Monitoring

1. Informed Pricing Strategies

One of the primary benefits of competitor price monitoring is the ability to set informed pricing strategies. By understanding how competitors price their products, businesses can strategically position their offerings to attract customers. For example, if a competitor lowers their prices, a company might decide to adjust their prices to maintain competitiveness or highlight the superior quality or unique features of their higher-priced products.

2. Enhanced Market Positioning

Monitoring competitor prices allows businesses to better understand their market positioning. It helps identify where they stand in the competitive landscape and informs decisions on whether to position themselves as a premium provider, a cost leader, or somewhere in between. This positioning is critical in defining the company’s brand and attracting the right customer segments.

3. Improved Profit Margins

By analyzing competitor pricing data, businesses can identify opportunities to optimize their profit margins. For instance, if competitors are consistently pricing products higher than your own, it might indicate an opportunity to increase prices without losing market share. Conversely, if competitors are undercutting prices, it might be necessary to find ways to reduce costs or add value to justify higher prices.

4. Proactive Decision-Making

Competitor price monitoring enables proactive decision-making. Rather than reacting to market changes after they happen, businesses can anticipate shifts and adjust their strategies accordingly. This foresight is invaluable in maintaining a competitive edge and ensuring that business decisions are based on current market realities.

Implementing Competitor Price Monitoring

To effectively monitor competitor prices, businesses need a structured approach that involves the right tools, methodologies, and analytical frameworks. Here’s a step-by-step guide to implementing a robust competitor price monitoring system:

1. Identify Key Competitors

The first step is to identify which competitors to monitor. This selection should include direct competitors who offer similar products or services, as well as indirect competitors whose offerings serve as substitutes. Analyzing a broad range of competitors provides a comprehensive view of the market.

2. Select the Right Tools

There are various tools available for competitor price monitoring, ranging from simple web scraping tools to sophisticated pricing intelligence platforms. These tools can automate the process of collecting pricing data from competitors’ websites, marketplaces, and other online sources. Some advanced platforms also offer features like historical price tracking, trend analysis, and predictive analytics.

3. Gather Data Regularly

Competitor prices can change frequently, especially in dynamic markets. Regular data collection is essential to capture these changes and ensure that the analysis is based on up-to-date information. Depending on the industry and market conditions, data collection might be required daily, weekly, or monthly.

4. Analyze the Data

Once the data is collected, the next step is analysis. This involves comparing prices across competitors, identifying trends, and understanding the context behind price changes. For example, a competitor’s price drop might be due to a promotional campaign or a response to excess inventory.

5. Translate Data into Actionable Insights

The ultimate goal of competitor price monitoring is to translate data into actionable insights. This requires interpreting the data in the context of your business objectives and market conditions. Insights might include identifying opportunities for price adjustments, understanding the impact of competitor pricing on sales, or recognizing the need for strategic changes in product offerings.

Best Practices for Effective Competitor Price Monitoring

1. Focus on Relevant Metrics

Not all pricing data is equally valuable. Focus on metrics that are most relevant to your business, such as the prices of key products, frequency of price changes, and the duration of promotional periods. This targeted approach ensures that your analysis is focused and actionable.

2. Use Advanced Analytics

Leverage advanced analytics to gain deeper insights from the data. Machine learning algorithms can help identify patterns and predict future price movements, while visualization tools can make it easier to interpret complex data sets. Advanced analytics can also highlight correlations between competitor pricing and your own sales performance.

3. Maintain Data Accuracy

Accurate data is the foundation of effective price monitoring. Ensure that the tools and methods you use for data collection are reliable and that the data is regularly updated. Inaccurate or outdated data can lead to flawed analysis and misguided decisions.

4. Integrate with Other Data Sources

Competitor price monitoring should not be done in isolation. Integrate pricing data with other data sources, such as sales data, customer feedback, and market trends. This holistic approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing your market and enhances the quality of your insights.

5. Regularly Review and Adjust Strategies

The market is constantly evolving, and so should your pricing strategies. Regularly review the insights gained from competitor price monitoring and adjust your strategies accordingly. This continuous improvement approach ensures that your pricing remains competitive and aligned with market conditions.

Also Read: The importance of monitoring your competitor’s prices

Challenges and Considerations

While competitor price monitoring offers significant benefits, it also comes with challenges that businesses need to address:

1. Data Overload

With the vast amount of pricing data available, businesses can easily become overwhelmed. It’s important to focus on the most relevant data and use analytical tools to manage and interpret large data sets effectively.

2. Ethical Considerations

Competitor price monitoring should be done ethically and within the bounds of the law. Avoid practices that could be considered unfair competition or that violate data privacy regulations.

3. Market Dynamics

The effectiveness of price monitoring can be influenced by market dynamics such as price wars, regulatory changes, and economic conditions. Businesses need to be agile and ready to adapt their strategies in response to these changes.

Conclusion

Competitor price monitoring is a powerful tool that can transform data into actionable business intelligence. By systematically tracking and analyzing competitor prices, businesses can make informed decisions that enhance their competitiveness, profitability, and market positioning. From refining pricing strategies to optimizing profit margins and improving market positioning, the insights gained from competitor price monitoring are invaluable in today’s competitive landscape.

Implementing an effective competitor price monitoring system requires the right tools, methodologies, and analytical frameworks. By focusing on relevant metrics, using advanced analytics, maintaining data accuracy, integrating with other data sources, and regularly reviewing strategies, businesses can harness the full potential of price monitoring to drive strategic decision-making.

As demonstrated by real-world case studies, businesses across various industries have successfully used competitor price monitoring to achieve significant improvements in sales, market share, and revenue. While challenges exist, a structured and ethical approach to price monitoring can provide a significant competitive advantage.

In conclusion, turning data into action through competitor price monitoring is not just a tactical advantage—it’s a strategic imperative in today’s fast-paced business environment. By staying informed about competitors’ pricing strategies and making data-driven decisions, businesses can position themselves for long-term success and sustained growth.

Source: https://productpricingstrategy.blogspot.com/2024/05/using-competitor-price-monitoring-to-drive-business-decisions.html

[foodspark-scraper]

Competitor Price Monitoring Services - Food Scraping Services

Competitor Price Monitoring Strategies

Price Optimization

If you want your restaurant to stay competitive, it’s crucial to analyze your competitors’ average menu prices. Foodspark offers a Competitor Price Monitoring service to help you with this task. By examining data from other restaurants and trends in menu prices, we can determine the best price for your menu. That will give you an edge in a constantly evolving industry and help you attract more customers, ultimately increasing profits.

Market Insights

Our restaurant data analytics can help you stay ahead by providing valuable insights into your competitors’ pricing trends. By collecting and analyzing data, we can give you a deep understanding of customer preferences, emerging trends, and regional variations in menu pricing. With this knowledge, you can make informed decisions and cater to evolving consumer tastes to stay ahead.

Competitive Advantage

To stay ahead in the restaurant industry, you must monitor your competitors’ charges and adjust your prices accordingly. Our solution can help you by monitoring your competitors’ pricing strategies and allowing you to adjust your expenses in real-time. That will help you find opportunities to offer special deals or menu items to make you stand out and attract more customers.

Price Gap Tracking

Knowing how your menu prices compare to your competitors is essential to improve your restaurant’s profitability. That is called price gap tracking. Using our tracking system, you can quickly identify the price differences between restaurant and your competitors for the same or similar menu items. This information can help you find opportunities to increase your prices while maintaining quality or offering lower costs. Our system allows you to keep a close eye on price gaps in your industry and identify areas where your expenses are below or above the average menu prices. By adjusting your pricing strategy accordingly, you can capture more market share and increase your profits.

Menu Mapping and SKU

Use our menu and SKU mapping features to guarantee that your products meet customer expectations. Find out which items are popular and which ones may need some changes. Stay adaptable and responsive to shifting preferences to keep your menu attractive and competitive.

Price Positioning

It’s essential to consider your target audience and desired brand image to effectively position your restaurant’s prices within the market. Competitor data can help you strategically set your prices as budget-friendly, mid-range, or premium. Foodspark Competitor Price Monitoring provides data-driven insights to optimize your pricing within your market segment. That helps you stay competitive while maximizing revenue and profit margins.

Competitor Price Index (CPI)

The Competitor Price Index (CPI) measures how your restaurant’s prices compare to competitors. We calculate CPI for you by averaging the prices of similar menu items across multiple competitors. If your CPI is above 100, your prices are higher than your competitors. If it’s below 100, your prices are lower.

Benefits of Competitor Price Monitoring Services

Price Optimization

By continuous monitoring your competitor’s prices, you can adjust your own pricing policies, to remain competitive while maximizing your profit margins.

Dynamic Pricing

Real-time data on competitor’s prices enable to implement dynamic pricing strategies, allowing you to adjust your prices based on market demand and competitive conditions.

Market Positioning

Understanding how your prices compare to those of your competitors helps you position your brand effectively within the market.

Customer Insights

Analyzing customer pricing data can reveal customer behavior and preferences, allowing you to tailor your pricing and marketing strategies accordingly.

Brand Reputation Management

Consistently competitive pricing can enhance your brand’s reputation and make your product more appealing to customers.

Content Source: https://www.foodspark.io/competitor-price-monitoring/

[kawaiiwizardtale]

Decoding Competitor Price Monitoring for Digital Shelves

Discover the power of competitor price monitoring in e-commerce. Learn how DigiSense360 provides a competitive edge with actionable insights. Read more https://xtract.io/blog/competitor-price-monitoring-for-digital-shelves/

[actowizsolutions0]

Introduction

In today’s highly competitive e-commerce landscape, price plays a crucial role in influencing consumer decisions. Competitor price tracking is essential for online retailers looking to optimize their pricing strategy, increase profitability, and stay ahead of the competition. Actowiz Solutions offers advanced price tracking solutions that empower businesses with real-time insights to implement dynamic pricing effectively.

What is Competitor Price Tracking?

Competitor price tracking is the process of monitoring and analyzing competitor prices to make informed pricing decisions. With the rise of price-sensitive consumers and AI-driven pricing models, tracking competitors' prices has become an integral part of modern retail strategies.

The Importance of Competitor Price Tracking

1. Real-time Pricing Insights – Gain instant access to competitor pricing data.

2. Enhanced Profit Margins – Adjust pricing dynamically to maximize revenue.

3. Customer Retention – Offer competitive prices to attract and retain customers.

4. Market Trend Analysis – Identify pricing trends and seasonal fluctuations.

How Competitor Price Tracking Powers Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing is a strategy where prices are adjusted based on various factors such as demand, competitor prices, and market conditions. Actowiz Solutions provides cutting-edge competitor price tracking solutions that allow online retailers to:

Set Automated Price Adjustments: Automatically modify prices based on predefined rules.

Monitor Market Trends: Analyze competitor strategies to adjust pricing accordingly.

Maximize Sales & Profitability: Balance competitive pricing with profit goals.

Enhance Customer Trust: Ensure transparent and fair pricing structures.

Actowiz Solutions: Your Trusted Partner in Competitor Price Tracking

Actowiz Solutions offers comprehensive competitor price tracking services that include:

Real-Time Data Extraction: Track competitor prices across multiple online stores.

Automated Price Monitoring: Set alerts and notifications for price changes.

Data-Driven Insights: Generate reports and analytics for better pricing strategies.

Customizable Tracking Solutions: Tailor tracking solutions based on business needs.

Industries Benefiting from Competitor Price Tracking

1. E-commerce & Retail – Online stores adjust prices dynamically based on competitor data.

2. Travel & Hospitality – Airlines, hotels, and travel agencies optimize pricing based on demand and competitor rates.

3. Electronics & Gadgets – Tech retailers track product pricing across various platforms.

4. Grocery & FMCG – Supermarkets and quick commerce platforms align prices with competitors.

Conclusion

Competitor price tracking is a vital strategy for online retailers to stay competitive and profitable. With Actowiz Solutions, businesses can leverage real-time price monitoring and dynamic pricing strategies to maximize growth and customer satisfaction. Contact us today to revolutionize your pricing strategy!

[iwebscrapingblogs]

Competitor Price Monitoring Services - Price Scraping Services

In today's fast-paced digital marketplace, pricing plays a crucial role in maintaining a competitive edge. Businesses must stay agile, continuously adapting their pricing strategies to respond to market fluctuations and competitors' moves. This necessity has given rise to competitor price monitoring and price scraping services, tools that provide invaluable insights into competitor pricing and market dynamics. Let's dive deeper into what these services entail and why they are vital for modern businesses.

What Are Competitor Price Monitoring Services?

Competitor price monitoring services are specialized tools or platforms that track and analyze competitors' pricing strategies in real-time. These services are designed to automatically collect and analyze price data from a range of online sources, including e-commerce sites, product listings, and promotional offers. They provide businesses with a comprehensive overview of the competitive landscape, enabling informed decision-making and strategic pricing adjustments.

Key Features

Automated Data Collection: Competitor price monitoring tools automate the process of gathering price data, saving businesses time and effort. They scrape data from various online sources, ensuring comprehensive coverage.

Real-Time Updates: With real-time monitoring, businesses receive up-to-the-minute information on price changes, allowing them to respond swiftly to competitors' moves.

Comprehensive Reporting: These services offer detailed reports and analytics, presenting the data in an easily digestible format. This includes historical pricing trends, competitor comparisons, and price change alerts.

Customizable Alerts: Businesses can set up alerts for specific products or competitors, ensuring they are immediately notified of significant pricing changes.

Integration Capabilities: Many price monitoring tools integrate seamlessly with existing business systems, such as inventory management or ERP systems, streamlining operations and data flow.

What Are Price Scraping Services?

Price scraping services involve the automated extraction of pricing information from websites. This process, often referred to as web scraping, uses bots or software to visit web pages, collect specific data points (in this case, prices), and store them in a structured format for analysis.

How Does Price Scraping Work?

Identification of Target URLs: The first step is to identify the web pages from which data needs to be scraped. This can include competitor websites, product pages, or any online platform where relevant price information is displayed.

Data Extraction: Once the target URLs are set, the scraping tool navigates to these pages, extracting the desired price data. This can be done using various techniques, such as HTML parsing, DOM parsing, or even machine learning algorithms to interpret complex page layouts.

Data Storage and Processing: The scraped data is then stored in a database or a structured file format like CSV or JSON. This data can be processed and analyzed to provide insights into market trends and competitor pricing strategies.

Compliance and Ethics: It's crucial to ensure that the scraping process complies with legal and ethical standards. This includes respecting website terms of service and avoiding excessive scraping that could disrupt the target site’s operations.

Benefits of Price Scraping

Market Intelligence: Price scraping provides businesses with valuable market intelligence, enabling them to understand the competitive landscape better and adjust their pricing strategies accordingly.

Cost Efficiency: By automating the data collection process, businesses can save on labor costs and reduce the time spent manually gathering price information.

Scalability: Scraping tools can handle vast amounts of data, making them suitable for businesses of all sizes, from small enterprises to large corporations.

Accuracy and Timeliness: Automated scraping ensures that the data collected is accurate and up-to-date, providing a reliable basis for strategic decision-making.

Why Are These Services Essential for Modern Businesses?

In an era where online shopping and e-commerce dominate, having a deep understanding of competitors' pricing is essential for staying competitive. Here’s why:

Dynamic Pricing Strategies: Competitor price monitoring and scraping services enable businesses to implement dynamic pricing strategies. By constantly adjusting prices based on market conditions and competitor activities, businesses can optimize their revenue and profit margins.

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Competitive pricing directly impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty. By staying informed about market rates, businesses can offer fair and attractive prices, enhancing their value proposition to customers.

Informed Decision-Making: Access to detailed price data and market trends allows businesses to make informed decisions regarding product positioning, promotional strategies, and inventory management.

Strategic Advantage: Leveraging these services provides a strategic advantage, allowing businesses to anticipate market changes and stay ahead of competitors.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Gandersauce

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for<p>placehold://://er </p> my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in AUSTIN on MONDAY (Mar 10). I'm also appearing at SXSW and at many events around town, for Creative Commons and Fediverse House. More tour dates here.

It's true that capitalists by and large hate capitalism – given their druthers, entrepreneurs would like to attain a perch from which they get to set prices and wages and need not fear competitors. A market where everything is up for grabs is great – if you're the one doing the grabbing. Less so if you're the one whose profits, customers and workers are being grabbed at.

But while all capitalists hate all capitalism, a specific subset of capitalists really, really hate a specific kind of capitalism. The capitalists who hate capitalism the most are Big Tech bosses, and the capitalism they hate the most is techno-capitalism. Specifically, the techno-capitalism of the first decade of this century – the move fast/break things capitalism, the beg forgiveness, not permission capitalism, the blitzscaling capitalism.

The capitalism tech bosses hate most of all is disruptive capitalism, where a single technological intervention, often made by low-resourced individuals or small groups, can upend whole industries. That kind of disruption is only fun when you're the disruptor, but it's no fun for the disruptees.

Jeff Bezos's founding mantra for Amazon was "your margin is my opportunity." This is a classic disruption story: I'm willing to take a smaller profit than the established players in the industry. My lower prices will let me poach their customers, so I grow quickly and find more opportunities to cut margins but make it up in volume. Bezos described this as a flywheel that would spin faster and faster, rolling up more and more industries. It worked!

https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/10/at-amazon-the-flywheel-effect-drives-innovation/

The point of that flywheel wasn't the low prices, of course. Amazon is a paperclip-maximizing artificial intelligence, and the paperclip it wants to maximize is profits, and the path to maximum profits is to charge infinity dollars for things that cost you zero dollars. Infinite prices and nonexistent wages are Amazon's twin pole-stars. Amazon warehouse workers don't have to be injured at three times the industry average, but maiming workers is cheaper than keeping them in good health. Once Amazon vanquished its competitors and captured the majority of US consumers, it raised prices, and used its market dominance to force everyone else to raise their prices, too. Call it "bezosflation":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

We could disrupt Amazon in lots of ways. We could scrape all of Amazon's "ASIN" identifiers and make browser plugins that let local sellers advertise when they have stock of the things you're about to buy on Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/10/view-a-sku/

We could hack the apps that monitor Amazon drivers, from their maneuvers to their eyeballs, so drivers had more autonomy and their bosses couldn't punish them for prioritizing their health and economic wellbeing over Amazon's. An Amazon delivery app mod could even let drivers earn extra money by delivering for Amazon's rivals while they're on their routes:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

We could sell Amazon customers virtual PVRs that let them record and keep the shows they like, which would make it easier to quit Prime, and would kill Amazon's sleazy trick of making all the Christmas movies into extra-cost upsells from November to January:

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D54P00007nmv9XSAQ/why-arent-all-the-christmas-movies-available-through-prime-its-a-pandemic-we-are-stuck-at-home-please-add-the-oldies-but-goodies-to-prime

Rival audiobook stores could sell jailbreaking kits for Audible subscribers who want to move over to a competing audiobook platform, stripping Amazon's DRM off all their purchases and converting the files to play on a non-Amazon app:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

Jeff Bezos's margin could be someone else's opportunity…in theory. But Amazon has cloaked itself – and its apps and offerings – in "digital rights management" wrappers, which cannot be removed or tampered with under pain of huge fines and imprisonment:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Amazon loves to disrupt, talking a big game about "free markets and personal liberties" – but let someone attempt to do unto Amazon as Amazon did unto its forebears, and the company will go running to Big Government for a legal bailout, asking the state to enforce its business model:

https://apnews.com/article/washington-post-bezos-opinion-trump-market-liberty-97a7d8113d670ec6e643525fdf9f06de

You'll find this cowardice up and down the tech stack, wherever you look. Apple launched the App Store and the iTunes Store with all kinds of rhetoric about how markets – paying for things, rather than getting them free through ads – would correct the "market distortions." Markets, we were told, would produce superior allocations, thanks to price and demand signals being conveyed through the exchange of money for goods and services.

But Apple will not allow itself to be exposed to market forces. They won't even let independent repair shops compete with their centrally planned, monopoly service programs:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/apples-cement-overshoes/

Much less allow competitors to create rival app stores that compete for users and apps:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/06/spoil-the-bunch/#dma

They won't even refurbishers re-sell parts from phones and laptops that are beyond repair:

https://www.shacknews.com/article/108049/apple-repair-critic-louis-rossmann-takes-on-us-customs-counterfeit-battery-seizure

And they take the position that if you do manage to acquire a donor part from a dead phone or laptop, that it is a felony – under the same DRM laws that keep Amazon's racket intact – to install them in a busted device:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/27/24097042/right-to-repair-law-oregon-sb1596-parts-pairing-tina-kotek-signed

"Rip, mix, burn" is great when it's Apple doing the ripping, mixing and burning, but let anyone attempt to return the favor and the company turns crybaby, whining to Customs and Border Patrol and fed cops to protect itself from being done unto as it did.

Should we blame the paperclip-maximizing Slow AI corporations for attempting to escape disruptive capitalism's chaotic vortex? I don't think it matters: I don't deplore this whiny cowardice because it's hypocritical. I hate it because it's a ripoff that screws workers, customers and the environment.

But there is someone I do blame: the governments that pass the IP laws that allow Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other tech giants shut down anyone who wants to disrupt them. Those governments are supposed to work for us, and yet they passed laws – like Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act – that felonize reverse-engineering, modding and tinkering. These laws create an enshittogenic environment, which produces enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification

Bad enough that the US passed these laws and exposed Americans to the predatory conduct of tech enshittifiers. But then the US Trade Representative went slithering all over the world, insisting that every country the US trades with pass their own versions of the laws, turning their citizens into an all-you-can-steal buffet for US tech gougers:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/31/hall-of-famer/#necensuraninadados

This system of global "felony contempt of business-model" statutes came into being because any country that wanted to export to the USA without facing tariffs had to pass a law banning reverse-engineering of tech products in order to get a deal. That's why farmers all over the world can't fix their tractors without paying John Deere hundreds of dollars for each repair the farmer makes to their own tractor:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

But with Trump imposing tariffs on US trading partners, there is now zero reason to keep those laws on the books around the world, and every reason to get rid of them. Every country could have the kind of disruptors who start a business with just a little capital, aimed directly at the highest margins of these stupidly profitable, S&P500-leading US tech giants, treating those margins as opportunities. They could jailbreak HP printers so they take any ink-cartridge; jailbreak iPhones so they can run any app store; jailbreak tractors so farmers can fix them without paying rent to Deere; jailbreak every make and model of every car so that any mechanic can diagnose and fix it, with compatible parts from any manufacturer. These aren't just nice things to do for the people in your country's borders: they are businesses, massive investment opportunities. The first country that perfects the universal car diagnosing tool will sell one to every mechanic in the world – along with subscriptions that keep up with new cars and new manufacturer software updates. That country could have the relationship to car repairs that Finland had to mobile phones for a decade, when Nokia disrupted the markets of every landline carrier in the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/friedmanite/#oil-crisis-two-point-oh

The US companies that could be disrupted thanks to the Trump tariffs are directly implicated in the rise of Trumpism. Take Tesla: the company's insane valuation is a bet by the markets that Tesla will be able to charge monthly fees for subscription features and one-off fees for software upgrades, which will be wiped out when your car changes hands, triggering a fresh set of payments from the next owner.

That business model is entirely dependent on making it a crime to reverse-engineer and mod a Tesla. A move-fast-and-break-things disruptor who offered mechanics a tool that let them charge $50 (or €50!) to unlock every Tesla feature, forever, could treat Musk's margins as their opportunity – and what an opportunity it would be!

That's how you hurt Musk – not by being performatively aghast at his Nazi salutes. You kick that guy right in the dongle:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/#franklinite

The act of unilaterally intervening in a market, product or sector – that is, "moving fast and breaking things" – is not intrinsically amoral. There's plenty of stuff out there that needs breaking. The problem isn't disruption, per se. Don't weep for the collapse of long-distance telephone calls! The problem comes when the disruptor can declare an end to history, declare themselves to be eternal kings, and block anyone from disrupting them.

If Uber had been able to nuke the entire taxi medallion system – which was dominated by speculators who charged outrageous rents to drivers – and then been smashed by driver co-ops who modded gig-work apps to keep the fares for themselves, that would have been amazing:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/21/contra-nihilismum/#the-street-finds-its-own-use-for-things

The problem isn't disruption itself, but rather, the establishment of undisruptable, legally protected monopolies whose crybaby billionaire CEOs never have to face the same treatment they meted out to the incumbents who were on the scene when they were starting out.

We need some disruption! Their margins are your opportunity. It's high time we started moving fast and breaking US Big Tech!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/08/turnabout/#is-fair-play

[silkenwinger]

Hello fellow human,

I've seen your main list (wait I forgot how it's named), anyway, I've seen at the very bottom there is a little "Graves" mention but no Graves 😔 so I've come to request you.

....

In my golden days I've been writing a lot of stuff about him, but I didn't post none, but I want to see your take on my idea. If you so condone ☺️

Graves and reader both under the command of Sheph. And both of them fighting like siblings for his attention, by any means digging holes beneath eachother just to be the favourite.

hiiii <333 sorry this took years :( i actually really enjoyed writing reader and oc in this one, so they might get reused for a sequel :D

You jiggled in your chair as you checked your third account. God bless Shepherd’s fat paychecks! Closing your laptop, you made your way down the barracks, smoothing out the wrinkles on the arms of your shirt.

"Begbie! Get your ass in here!” You called out from the other side to the door to your second in command. 

“One sec!” You heard stumbling around, something falling, hurried steps. Begbie opened the door panting, only half of her face visible, blue eye darting around. 

“You caught me unprepared, Commander.”

“Try jacking off in the evening. Now, I just got news from daddy dearest, a general briefing in one hour. This could be huge for us. I want you to warn the Arrows and meet me back in the hall.” Begbie just nodded at your commands and closed the door again.

You took care in preparing yourself for the video call. Not that you wanted to appear particularly attractive to Shepherd, ew, but you felt the need to always show up impeccable, so that your looks wouldn’t be attacked lowly. Especially by a certain someone who enjoyed kicking you when you were already down. 

“General,” you chirped enthusiastically some hours later, “and Graves,” you added unenthusiastically, “good afternoon.” Shepherd greeted you back neutrally, while Philip Graves didn’t even respond, his gaze away from his camera, almost as if he had much better things to monitor around himself. The smug aura that surrounded him, the pleasure he got from diminishing you, was still evident over video call. You would have liked to chew him off, but right in front of your employer? No thanks. You did roll your eyes to Begbie though, to which she just shrugged.

“As you know, I’ve already engaged both of your services for this operation. I trust that both Shadows and Arrows will work together to retrieve the package.” Shepherd stayed in silence for a second more than normal, and it would have been daft not to get the implicit warning in it. Stop fucking around and get the job done.   

Well. You’d try. 

“Task Force 141 will be there as well, but their objective is different. Try not to mind them.”

“Understood, General.” You heard a tsk then, and your eyes flew to the side of the screen. Indeed, it was him again. Rage rose in you before rationality could rein you in.

“Excuse me, Commander?”

“I’m sure you won’t mind them, Commander,” he mocked, smiling sardonically, “not the way you were begging for a crumble of attention from Price last time.” The blood in your veins chilled altogether, and you felt like dying that he’d decided now was the right moment to push that knife in. 

“I don’t know how this concerns the assignment,” you settled on through your teeth. It wasn’t an outright denial but it was the truth– you were sure Shepherd didn’t give a shit who you tried to sleep with, and why would he. But Graves liked to put you in uncomfortable situations to try and diminish your power in everyone’s eyes because, at the end of the day, you were competitors. That was all there was to it, really. 

 “Right. It doesn’t,” said Shepherd, thin lips in a hard line, and you wished, you wished it could count as a win for your team, but unfortunately he just sounded like he was sick of both of you and Graves and not that he was siding with you. 

//

“I think he’s psychosexually obsessed with you.”

“What?” Your exclamation was almost unhearable as the driver drove on the bump with a little too enthusiasm. And frankly you hoped you heard Begbie wrong.

“He wants to have sex with you but can’t so he takes out his frustration this way.”

“You have to stop watching Youtube videos every time you’re not working.” You sighed, rubbing your nose. You didn’t particularly care why Graves had it for you; it was obviously some form of male chauvinism in response to having his source of income threatened. The funniest thing was, your Arrows weren’t even trained for the same tasks as Shadows. Existence in peaceful union was possible, if only you and Graves could find a way to get off each other’s backs. 

“I’ll try to ignore him harder this time.”

Begbie raised an eyebrow, and oh– again with that smug smile! Could the people around you go one second without implying something?

“Will you only talk to Captain Price?” You glared at her. She was a formidable unit but a terrible gossip.

“He didn’t seem interested and I’m not that pushy.” Admitting it gave you heartburn but it was the truth. A true soldier knows when to retreat. 

“Aw. You should still try, though,” she cradled her jaw with her hand, “see how Graves responds…”

“And you should try to keep your head on your shoulder before it gets blown off. Understood?”

//

“Yes, yes…”

“Commander,” you greeted as you walked to the other car, Begbie on your heels. Graves was talking to another Shadow of his, and 141 were nowhere to be seen. You were all supposed to at least meet at the start and then go your different ways.

Graves had his hands tucked in his vest, blue shirt under. Hair meticulously fixed, soft tan on his face. Many things about him could be criticized, but his looks weren’t part of it. He made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was checking you out as well.

“Commander.”

“Oh, so today I got a hello, huh?” So long for trying to be mature about it. Your mouth had another complete conscience of its own. Graves smirked and settled on his feet.

“Now now. It’s too early to listen to your nagging, and we have a long day ahead of us. How are the ladies?” A vein in your forehead twitched. Not all Arrows were women but the majority was and this, too, was something he always poked at.

“Oh, so they get a handshake, huh?”

“They’re fine. How are the bottoms of the barrels doing?”

“Splendid and thriving. Hard not to when-” his words died on his tongue when another humvee entered the clearing, Captain Price and his Sergeant Gaz exiting the vehicle. You quickly shaked both men’s hands with a smile on your face. Despite your cheer in seeing trustworthy allies again, a voice whispered from your right.

//

It was done. Could it have been done a little more carefully, with a little less spilled blood? Probably. What mattered was that the “package” has been retrieved in decent form, and that Shepherd would be pleased. Thankfully, you and Graves had split roles evenly and managed not to get in each other’s way for the rest of the time. When seen from afar, he was almost bearable. You and Graves called Shepherd from a makeshift tent, 141 and its charming captain already gone. 

“General, the package is already on your way,” you smiled, your arms crossed on your chest and hands resting below your armpits. You could almost feel the air puffing up in Graves’ chest.

“Not thanks to her, General,” said Graves, “almost drove us into a ditch!” You chuckled bitterly, and this time the eye roll was right in front of Shepherd.

“I did not. In fact, had I not changed the course, we would have been done for. But it is typical of you to just change the facts for your personal interest.” You could feel the wrath raising through your neck, the molten lava hot blood pooling your face. Graves, on the other hand, didn’t look bothered at all– he was still smiling through it all.

“Nervous, Commander? Jumpy?” He implicated something you did not care to decipher, the quirk of his mouth, the winkle in his eyes bothering you, unsettling your heart. Driving away, as always, you schooled your features and turned back to Shepherd.

“General, I do not think the Arrows and Shadows should work together any-”

“I’ve had it with both of you,” Shepherd interrupted you, hand on the bridge of his nose. The tone of his voice was exhausted, perhaps even begging, and you remained silent. He continued.

“You’re adults with an important position and influence. I cannot have you bickering right in front of me like a couple of moody teenagers, or worse. Every time you put this act on, I lose some of the respect I have for the both of you.” You felt a breath being kicked out of you, and settled down. Shepherd then made his last regards and closed the call, leaving you in the improvised room with Graves, silent on your side. Eventually, you turned to him when you felt him staring at you. 

“Happy now? We are both idiots in our boss’ eyes.” You spoke freely, no one around to act shocked at your obvious antagonism towards the man. He laughed, again, the fool, and you had half a mind to shoot him there and then.

“I’m my own boss, baby. Try to remember that.”

“God, do you ever get less corny?” 

From outside the tent, Begbie and the senior Shadow present, Lerch, shamelessly eavesdropped on their commanders.

“He’s playing the long game,” said Lerch, and Begbie nodded. 

“I think there’s quite a long way to go, still…”

[lesbiankimdahyun]

can we have a sneak peek at the alphas!minayeon fic you were writing 🫣

I'll do you one better-- here's the full prologue <3

OUT OF OFFICE: PROLOGUE

1.8K words

CW: A/B/O Dynamics

A/N: my first comeback with TWICE was Eyes Wide Open, so WEV’s name is homage to that album 🥺 

also CARATS forgive me for making wonwoo the p2 ceo, im one of u!!

[A!Mina x A!Nayeon]

Nayeon squinted at her computer screen, reading the words in front of her again carefully to make sure she hadn’t misunderstood. 

“The AI allegations? Why the fuck is she talking about that?” Nayeon leaned back in her office chair for a moment in disbelief, the online article she’d been reading still displayed on her desktop monitor. “That fucking journalist, doing exactly as I asked her not to…” The Alpha let out a frustrated huff, resting her chin in her hand for a moment while she thought. “And only someone with exceptionally shitty media training would even think of saying– ” she sat up straight suddenly, cutting off her own thoughts. “Oh…” She reached for the corded phone on her desk and quickly punched a few numbers in. She hit the speaker button, then sat back and waited. 

The phone rang. And rang. Nayeon sighed, fidgeting with the hair tie pulling back her long, light brown hair. “I know you’re in the office, Myoui,” she said under her breath. Finally, the other end picked up. 

“Ah, Nayeon…”

“Mina! I thought you might be in today,” Nayeon said, mustering up a fake, cheerful tone. “The article is out,” she said pointedly, drumming her fingers on her desk slowly. “Have you seen it?”

The woman on the other end cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Yes,” she said, her voice dropping in volume. 

“You know, I liked it,” Nayeon said, nodding her head as if Mina could see her on the other end of the line. “Until I saw the headline. And the first paragraph. And the way the entire article got derailed by the one thing I made that reporter swear up and down they wouldn’t bring up. Tell me there’s no way you’d comment on our competitor’s deep legal shit when your gaming company is doing bigger, better things, right? You wouldn’t comment, not when you’ve been working for the past four years to get this game– this particular game that you first started dreaming of creating in high school– out the door, right?” Nayeon paused for just a moment in case Mina wanted to get a word in, but the other end of her line was dead silent. 

Nayeone exhaled  sharply. “Instead of building hype for the game, now all anyone’s going to notice is the fact that you’re quoted in here saying…” The Alpha swiveled back over to her computer screen. “And this is your direct quote, Myoui: ‘Only someone as naive as PixelPulse’s CEO [Jeon Wonwoo] would have been stupid enough to believe he’d never get caught cutting corners by only using AI instead of real humans to test gameplay analytics and user interface’,” Nayeon read. “‘AI doesn’t test play with epileptic people in mind and now they’re the ones paying the price. I don’t know what’s more embarrassing, the fact that it happened in the first place, or that he hasn’t resigned yet,’” she let out a quick sigh after she finished the last line of the quote. “Mina,” Nayeon said exasperatedly, “You wouldn’t believe the numbers those quotes of yours are doing online right now. Can you please tell me what happened when you spoke with the reporter?”

Nayeon could hear Mina’s rapidly growing panic on the other line, as if she was just hearing for the first time what had been printed. “I- we were just chatting casually at the start of the interview... I didn’t think she would remember–” 

A beeping sound cut off the end of Mina’s sentence. 

“Shit,” Nayeon said, holding her head in her hand and rubbing her forehead. “I have the SVP of Strategic Comms on the other line. Don’t leave for the day until we connect again,” Nayeon said, then hung up her call with Mina. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for a moment, then hit accept on the call waiting. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

 An hour later, one of the worst press team calls of Nayeon’s career was over. She had survived, but barely. When it ended, she kept her office door shut and closed her window blinds slowly. She slowly paced around the rectangular room and stress-cried for a few minutes, allowing herself to sit in her overwhelm and frustration. When she’d had enough, she sat down in her office chair and pulled out her phone, swiping through her apps for a moment. She tapped on one of her favorites: an app connected to the doggy cam she had set up so she could check in on her beloved furry source of joy, Kookeu.

She smiled as the tiny pomeranian’s image came up on her phone screen. The dogwalker always left him with a food puzzle after his afternoon walk, and as expected, Kookeu was up and walking around in the kitchen, using his nose and paws to roll a round, purple food toy that dispensed individual bits of kibble when they fell through the holes at just the right angle. He got one out, and Nayeon turned up the volume to hear the tiny crunching noises Kookeu made as he ate it. 

She sighed softly, satisfied that at least someone’s day was going well, and closed the app. Then Nayeon got up. It was time to speak with her new full-time press project: Wide-Eyed Variant Gaming Founder and Director of Engineering, Myoui Mina. 

The farther Nayeon got away from the “hands-off” side of the company’s building and closer to the side Mina frequented, she noticed a severe spike in the number of monitors people had on their desks. It was well after 5:00 now, but she was relieved to see the lights still on in Mina’s large corner office. Relieved– but weirdly nervous. She didn’t like needing to track people down or give feedback people didn’t want to hear. And Mina’s elusive, quiet temperament made it somehow harder. 

She knocked lightly on the open office door. “Mina,” she said, letting herself in. “Thank you for sticking around. I’m sorry for being so…high strung earlier.”

Mina looked up from her four screen display nervously despite also brimming with annoyance. She couldn’t believe this day: to be the founder of her own company and yet now, in this moment, she felt more like a student that had been asked to stay after class. 

To her credit, the Japanese woman was brilliant, and she and Nayeon both knew it. Mina had received her bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s in software engineering from some of the best programs internationally; she was a gamer from the moment she developed consciousness, really. She made the papers when she launched her company, Wide-Eyed Variants, fresh out of undergrad from her childhood home, and made headlines again when she was still able to be the director of its engineering department while going back to school full-time for her master’s. 

She’d been profiled a few times by both gaming and arts and culture outlets, had hit a number of 30 under 30 lists, and even had a few op-eds ghostwritten for her in household name outlets like Forbes and The New York Times. The games Wide-Eyed Variant produced were so popular today that they hardly needed any advertising. Even other game series with heavy cult followings like The Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing always fell short of the consumer-related numbers Wide-Eyed Variant could pull. And from the outside, she made her journey and career look totally effortless. It was no wonder she was considered a person of interest and expert in the gaming field, and that journalists constantly wanted to talk to her. But that’s why Nayeon was here. Mina’s only downfall was the media and being in the spotlight. The Japanese Alpha often got nervous while being interviewed. There was something so scary about consenting to being “on the record” to her, and even though she wasn’t a huge talker, any sign of the little red recording button tended to make her a little too chatty. 

Mina did her best to push her anxious thoughts away and braced herself for what Nayeon would have to say about it all.

“Relax, we’re fixing this,” Nayeon said, as if reading Mina’s mind. She closed Mina’s office door behind her and took a seat in one of the tan leather chairs reserved for guests across from Mina’s desk. “Crisis comms is doing damage control online and legal is working overtime in case PixelPulse comes for us with a defamation or libel case. But you should know…” Nayeon leaned in a little, her face becoming serious. “General Counsel Park Jihyo told me to tell you she’s actually going to need to speak with you like, immediately. She’s on her way down right now, she said this just couldn’t be done over the phone.”

Mina nearly jumped out of her chair. “WHAT??” 

Nayeon’s face broke into a grin and she crossed her arms. “So worth it,” she said to herself. Then, looking up at Mina, she said, “Ah, I’m sorry, that was a bad joke. I promise Counsel Park isn’t storming down here right now.” 

Mina let out a shaky breath, crumpling a bit in her seat. “What the hell, Nayeon! Don’t do that.”

Nayeon chuckled. “I won’t do it again,” she said, her smile slowly fading. “You’re safe from her wrath of legalese, but you’re not safe from me. Strategic Comms wants you to go through media training.” 

Mina couldn’t help but make a face. Hadn’t she done enough of that? “But… I already did…” 

Nayeon nodded. “Yes, you did. But that was before I joined this company. And I’m sure the training you had with whoever back then was fine. They just want you to…” Nayeon uncrossed her arms and waved her hand. “You know, refresh a few skills, maybe learn a new one or two. Plus, this will give me a chance to make sure the rest of my comms and digital teams have the most accurate sense of your voice going forward.” 

“Oh please,” Mina said, unable to hide her annoyance anymore. “Everyone is overreacting, I’m not that bad, really! This instance was– this—” 

Nayeon let out a laugh. “You’ve lost your privileges to say you’re ‘not that bad.’ At least not until we get you a better quote in another outlet,” she said. “Look, just a few media training sessions with me, and then Strategic Comms will get off my back, and I’ll get off yours. Okay?” 

Mina fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Why does it feel like I don’t actually have a choice in this?” 

Nayeon offered a weak smile. “Because you don’t. But thank you for being so willing.” Nayeon stood up, pushing in her chair as she turned to leave. “I spoke to your scheduler, by the way,” she said, opening the office door. “Plan on getting a few calendar invites from me soon.” 

[mariacallous]

Whether due to consumer backlash or an aging EV lineup, or both, Tesla sales have again seen a global plunge, this time 13 percent last quarter compared to the previous year—proof that the electric automaker hasn’t yet turned around a dismal year that saw public opinion of controversial CEO Elon Musk plummet. It could mean Tesla faces a second straight year of falling sales.

And yet: Tesla is still the world’s most valuable automaker by market capitalization, worth some $990 billion. At least some of that market confidence is likely traced to the happenings of June 22, when Tesla finally began allowing paying passengers to ride its autonomous vehicle service in Austin, Texas.

The service rollout has been fairly smooth. If the metric for success is “no crashes,” mission accomplished: There have been no public reports of crashes or fender-benders involving the robotaxis. The select few riders who have been allowed inside them have praised the service online, which for now costs just $4.20 a ride. (The price seems to be a weed joke.)

But there are plenty of caveats. For one thing, the program’s “early riders” appear to be Tesla influencers, online content creators who have financial stakes in the company or who run media businesses that tend to cheerlead for Tesla and/or electric vehicles. Tesla has not said when it will open the service to members of the public. (The company, which disbanded its PR team in October 2020, did not respond to any of WIRED’s questions.) For another, Tesla’s area of operations is notably smaller than Alphabet subsidiary Waymo’s, which began offering robotaxi service in the city through the Uber app in March.

For one more, there are plenty of humans involved in this driverless service. Tesla has a safety monitor in the front passenger seat of its robotaxis, who, according to online videos, seems poised to intervene if the technology makes a mistake. And Tesla has been less than transparent about its use of human teleoperators, who can either remotely drive or remotely assist its driverless technology. (The former is likely much safer than the latter, experts say, but Tesla hasn’t said which approach it uses.)

Missed Milestone

“Tesla has what I call the trifecta of babysitting going on right now,” says Missy Cummings, who researches autonomous vehicles at George Mason University, and has herself been the subject of Musk’s displeasure. The human contributions likely make Tesla’s service much safer, she says—something for which the automaker should be praised. In fact, keeping babysitting humans in the drivers’ seat is exactly what rivals Waymo and Zoox did in the early phases of their testing. (Waymo now offers robotaxi service in five cities; Zoox has said it will start service in Las Vegas this year.) “I want to encourage them to keep doing that,” she says.

But, for Cummings, the choice is likely evidence that Tesla is behind its competitors. “If learning to deploy a self-driving car system was grades K through 12, Tesla is in first grade,” she says. “Everything we're seeing in Texas suggests significant immaturity in self-driving operations.”

This means, too, that Tesla hasn’t hit the milestone Musk promised back in January, when he told investors that the company would launch “unsupervised full self-driving as a paid service in Austin in June … no one in the car.”

“This is a demo or test using safety drivers—it’s not an [autonomous vehicle] deployment,” says Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who studies autonomous vehicles. “Tesla is splashing around in the kiddie pool and everyone is asking where it’s going to place in the Olympic swim competition.”

Bloopers and Sensors

Tesla has kept quiet about many of the particulars of its technology. And it’s hard to reach definite conclusions about its tech from social media posts uploaded by riders. But some of those posts appear to show less-than-smooth rides. In one video, a robotaxi attempting to make a left turn appears to cross a double yellow line into oncoming traffic. In another, a robotaxi apparently fails to detect a UPS truck stopping and reversing to park, and the front seat safety monitor has to intervene to stop the car.

One YouTuber uploaded a video showing a robotaxi “phantom braking”—suddenly coming to a stop for no apparent reason—a phenomenon that’s also been flagged by hundreds of users of Tesla’s less-advanced Full Self-Driving (Supervised) feature and investigated by the federal government. Unlike actual self-driving technology, Full Self-Driving (Supervised) requires users to keep their eyes on the road.

The service pauses for bad weather, according to Tesla’s website. One YouTuber had their ride halted for a rainstorm; the robotaxi dropped the rider in an Austin park as the wind began to whip around them. Minutes later, according to a video, the same Robotaxi picked the creator up to continue their ride. However, contradicting the above, one poster has reported the cars perform “FLAWLESSLY” in heavy rain.

The early bloopers aren’t surprising, experts say. Full Self-Driving (Supervised) requires a human driver to intervene when needed, and it appears robotaxi is the same right now, says Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies autonomous vehicle safety. The slip-ups the robotaxis have made are not unlike what human drivers do on the road, he says. But autonomy’s value add is supposed to be safety, so it makes sense that the videos—and the tech’s “rough edges”—are making people nervous.

Camera Quandary

The launch has reopened public debates about a core tenet of Tesla’s technology: its use of cameras alone to perceive and “make decisions” as it drives. Musk and his company have long argued that artificial intelligence, supplemented by the data collected by cameras, is sufficient to operate a safe, driverless car. The CEO has promised that all of its cars can become autonomous without any modifications, with a simple push of updated software (though Tesla also quietly reneged on this claim). Other companies see more expensive sensors, including radar and lidar, as important validators and support. (Lidar has dramatically dropped in price; many Chinese automakers are now including the sensor on every car that they sell.)

Advances in large language models have convinced some in the auto industry that Musk’s approach is the right one. In a podcast interview published this week, Kyle Vogt, the former CEO of General Motors AV unit Cruise, argued that images from multiple vehicle-mounted cameras plus advanced models can be “really accurate.” (Vogt stepped down from Cruise after one of its driverless vehicles hit and dragged a pedestrian. The company was not transparent with regulators about the incident, a report later found.)

For Cummings, the reports out of Austin have confirmed her beliefs that cameras alone aren’t enough to operate a car autonomously. “There is no robotic system that exists that is safety critical—meaning people can die [using it]—that has ever been successful on a single sensor strain,” she says. “It's unclear why Tesla thinks that they can do what has never before been done.”

One metric that might reveal Tesla’s internal success: how quickly it expands. Musk boldly said in May that Tesla will have hundreds of thousands—and perhaps up to a million—autonomous vehicles on the road next year. The company seems motivated. According to a job posting, Tesla is hiring for additional vehicle operators, who are paid to drive cars around Austin to collect data. But, of course, Musk is no stranger to deadlines unmet.

[precium1]

Optimising Revenue with Smart Dynamic Pricing for Hotels

Mastering Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Accommodations

Learn how dynamic pricing can transform your room revenue. Discover proven strategies, tools, and tips to master real-time rate optimisation.

In the ever-evolving world of hospitality, pricing is more than a number — it’s a strategy. With customer behaviour and market conditions changing in real time, static pricing models not the right choice to improve profitability. That’s where Dynamic Pricing comes in.

This blog will help you understand what dynamic pricing is, why it’s vital for Hotel Industry, and how to implement it effectively to maximise Revenue and Profitability.

What Is Dynamic Pricing?

Dynamic pricing means fluctuations in the price points depending on various factors like Seasonality, Demand Levels, Market Condition, Socio-economic situation, Weather Forecast, etc. All the other Rates are derived from the parent rate. When we fluctuate the parent rate, all the rate plans connected to the parent rate plan will update automatically.

Latest trends shows offline Travel Agents & Negotiated Corporate clients are also moving to Dynamic Pricing model.

Benefits of Dynamic Pricing

Maximise ADR over High Demand days/period

Maximise RevPAR through Occupancy over Low Demand days/period

Time saving- update only parent rate plan, all the derived rate plans will update automatically

Low probability of making a mistake while updating Price Points

Key Factors That Influence Pricing

Pricing decisions should be based on data-driven insights. Key variables include:

Demand trends (holidays, events, weather)

Booking windows (how far in advance people book)

Competitor pricing (Monitor fluctuating price points)

Inventory levels (room availability)

Market segments (Corporate vs Leisure, Groups vs FIT, Social vs Business)

Proven Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Hotels & Rentals

✅ Use Price Sensitivity to Guide Changes

Understand how price-sensitive your guests are. For example, leisure travellers are more responsive to discounts, while business travellers may prioritise convenience over cost.

✅ Set Rate differentiated Pricing

Create and Implement Retail Pricing Strategy to cater to a larger target Audience. Example:

Advance Purchase Rate with non-refundable cancellation policy at a discounted Rate for Early bookers.

Minimum LOS Rate at a discounted Rate for bookers staying for a longer stay.

Value add-ons Add Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Spa, etc to create a value Package

✅ Monitor Competitor Pricing

Monitoring Competitor Price Point fluctuations gives us an indication of the Market Demand Levels. Automated Rate Shopping Tool helps the Hotels to keep a close watch on Competitor Pricing behaviour.

Conclusion

Mastering dynamic pricing is about being proactive, strategic, and data-driven. When done right, it empowers you to:

Maximise RevPAR

Improve profitability during both peak and off-peak periods

Whether you’re managing a boutique hotel, a resort, or short-term rentals, embracing dynamic pricing is critical.

Need help implementing dynamic pricing for your property?

Collaborate with RedSKY Hospitality revenue management specialists or take advantage of Precium Automated Pricing Solutions to maximise your property’s Revenue potential.

[wdg-blog]

The Importance of Monitoring Competitor Prices

Stay steps ahead in your industry by recognizing the importance of monitoring competitor prices. By regularly assessing and analyzing your rivals' pricing strategies, you can gain invaluable insights into market trends, identify pricing opportunities, and refine your own pricing strategy for maximum competitiveness.

[iheartvelma]

I don’t remember a time when new video game systems and titles weren’t expensive.

The Atari VCS (aka 2600) launched in September 1977, with its 6507 processor and a mighty 128 bytes of RAM - yes, bytes, enough to store 16 old-school ASCII characters - and a total of 9 games available! - for $199 USD, equivalent to $1,024 today.

An Apple IIe from 1983, with a comparatively huge 64 kilobytes of RAM, cost $1,395, equivalent to $4,400 today, and that wasn’t including a monitor, joystick, or Disk II floppy drives.

The PS2 cost $550 in today’s money.

If you consider modern phones as gaming platforms - and they are - an iPhone 16 starts at $799, and it beats or equals most last-gen consoles and similar handhelds.

It’s easy to get sticker shock when a new console launches, but the thing to think about is, what value will you get out of it?

I have a Switch 1. It still plays games just fine. I don’t need 4K HDR 120+ fps and full raytracing to get immersed in a good game.

I didn’t buy mine when it was first launched in 2017, at $299 USD, but a few years after. Even so, $299 then is $387.50 today. So a price jump to $449 for the Switch 2 is really just $61.50 more.

To me, the Switch was worth it because it provided excellent value. The lineup of first-party titles was great, and the ones I got have enough depth that you can play them literally for years before you 100% them. (I’ve just barely scratched the surface of Breath of the Wild, and I never finished Super Mario Odyssey.)

And I found some amazing digital titles like Superliminal, Yooropa, The Pathless, and others.

So for a system I paid $387 for in today’s money, and about $300 in games, I got 6-7 years of core use out of it, so $687 / 2,555 days =$0.27 a day or about $8/month.

Consider, too, that the Switch 2 brings a lot of improvements (4k, HDR, 256gb storage, 120fps, faster memory, more ports, bigger screen, etc.) over the original, and it’s backwards compatible, which is something its competitors can’t say.

Ultimately, you don’t have to buy this! And if you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t!

But if you do want one, wait; and, as with the original, it’ll get revisions and price cuts. There will likely be a cheaper Lite version. Refurbished units will eventually be available. And a game that’s excellent now will still be excellent in a couple of years.

yes the game key card thing suuucks i agree on that

[foodspark-scraper]

Restaurant Data Analytics Services - Restaurant Business Data Analytics

Restaurant data analytics services to turn raw restaurant data into actionable insights. Make data-driven decisions to boost your business in today’s competitive culinary landscape. Our comprehensive restaurant data analytics solutions empower you to optimize operations, enhance customer experiences, and boost profitability. Our team of seasoned data analysts strives hard to deliver actionable data insights that drive tangible results.