EOY 2022

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Tipping getting out of hand

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 Tipping getting out of hand In the 18th century, a tip was a gratuity given to a servant. The OED's earliest usage of tip involving waiters comes from 1825: "Sir Harry was liberal in his ‘tips’, and consequently a great favorite of Phillips (the waiter)." In this period, however, the word could also denote a bribe, as in this usage from 1819: "To take the tip is to receive a bribe in any shape."  People complaining about needless ‘back & forth credit card game’ at restaurants. Or pretend ignorance by coffee shop staff when the iPad spins around. Or the prevalence of POS software in new types of shops that  never requested tips before . “Okay, the screen is just gonna ask you a few questions.” ​ Uh-huh, right,, like we both don’t know what this is all about. That last point is the most salient. See, it used to be just a few types of businesses that expected tips. Restaurants, cab drivers, valet parking, housekeeping, etc. But now Americans are seeing prompts...
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The Audiobook Market Has Two Clear Leaders

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  The Audiobook Market Has Two Clear Leaders Spotify wants to corner the market for audio and is making it easy to create for new publishers.   Amazon’s ‘Audible’  is winning over audiobook fans in a big way. Over the past 90 days, Audible mentions are exceeding all audiobook services in our coverage.  Consumers like the platform’s growing selection of audiobooks and podcasts. Originals like “The Decision: Overcoming Today’s BS for Tomorrow’s Success” written and narrated by Kevin Hart are big differentiators. Spotify Audiobooks  is also becoming a formidable challenger to Audible. (More on that below.) Both platforms make up 90% of audiobook demand mentions combined. Spotify’s Audiobook Strategy is Spot On   Unlike Apple, Spotify is showing that getting a late start in the audiobook market doesn’t close the book on success.  The company has already amassed a large portion of audiobook consumption mentions, and its product is very new.
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Senior Labour figures accepted valuable gifts from Google

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  Senior Labour figures accepted valuable gifts from Google in the days before abandoning a plan to tax digital giants more, openDemocracy can reveal. Labour’s shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, his senior parliamentary assistant (who is his wife), and Keir Starmer’s political director all attended Glastonbury festival in June as guests of YouTube, which is owned by Google. Including accommodation and ‘hospitality’, Reynolds estimates his Glastonbury package for two was worth £3,377 – significantly more than the cost of two regular tickets, which were £335 each. The next day, reports emerged that Labour had ditched its proposal to hike tax on digital businesses like Google. The Digital Services Tax, introduced in 2020, is a 2% levy on the UK income of online companies like search engines and social media platforms. In August last year, Reynolds and his shadow chancellor colleague Rachel Reeves had called for an increase in the tax to 10%, saying the income would be used t...
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