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Rather than clocking in at a Saturday job or selling old clothes for quick cash, Gen Z has another side hustle up their sleeve: selling their personal data. To take advantage of the nearly seven hours a day Gen Z spend on their phones, a new app called Verb.AI, launched by youth polling company Generation Lab, is now offering to pay young people for their scrolling time. By installing a tracker which monitors what they browse, buy, and stream, Verb creates a digital twin of each user that lives in a central database. From there, companies and businesses can query the data in a ChatGPT-like interface, and get a more accurate picture of consumer preferences than they would get even from a room full of Gen Zers. For decades, market research has been the equivalent of a doctor asking a patient to describe their symptoms. Verb is an MRI machine, the companys pitch deck says. And Verb is willing to pay. We think corporations have extracted user data without fairly compensating people for their own data, Cyrus Beschloss, CEO of Generation Lab, said per Axios. We think users should know exactly what data theyre giving us and should feel good about what theyre receiving in return. Verb’s maker, Generation Lab, was founded in 2016 and is based in Washington, D.C., according to the company’s LinkedIn page. It currently has 6 employees listed on the company’s official website. The broader global data broker market, meanwhile, is expected to grow in the next few years, reaching a projected $561.538 billion by 2029, up from $389.765 billion in 2024. In return for their personal data, Verb pays $50 or more per month to the user, depending on activity. For Gen Zers, its a fair enough deal for something they are likely doing anyway. About 88% of Gen Zers report being willing to share some personal data with a social media company, compared to just 67% of older adults. That is provided they are fairly compensated either with cash or a personalized social media algorithm, a 2022 Euromonitor International study found. A generation filled with contradictions, Gen Z is at the same time still taking protective measures with their data. They are clearing cookies, using anonymous browsers, and encrypting their communications twice as often as other generations. However, they also are more likely to agree with the statement, I dont mind being tracked by websites or apps, compared to older generations, according to a 2023 survey from the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes. The extent of Gen Zs willingness to share personal data was apparent during the still-ongoing regulatory scrutiny of TikTok over data privacy concerns in China. Case in point: the “Goodbye to My Chinese Spy” trend that took off as the possibility of TikTok being banned in the U.S. loomed earlier this year. Sending Xi Jinping a data care package because hes taken better care of me than the US government ever has, read the text over a TikTok video of an envelope addressed to the president of China. To my (alleged) Chinese spy – nobody knows me like you, babe, another TikTok user posted. Given these laissez-faire attitudes towards data privacy, it’s no surprise then, as Axios puts it, selling data is becoming the new selling plasma.
Category:
E-Commerce
We’ve known since launch that the Cybertruck is a flop. Sales have been residual after they peaked at 5,175 units registered in July 2024, gradually falling to just 2,000 units sold in April 2025. The dip has been so deep that the Boring Company would have a hard time reaching the bottom of its sales chart pit, which has totaled 46,000 units since production started in late 2023. Now we have learned that things are getting worse for Cybertruck owners: The Cybertruck has depreciated by 45% after only one year, according to CarGurus. The depreciation is so bad that Tesla wasnt accepting its own children as trade-ins until three days ago, as the Cybertruck Owners Club found out. According to an estimate obtained in Teslas app by an owner, a $100,000 AWD Foundation Series with about 6,200 miles on the odometer is now worth $65,400. Thats a 34.6% drop in its value in just one year (on average, cars depreciate around 30% in the first two years). Worse, as Electrek points out, its also worth noting that Teslas online trade-in estimates are often higher than the final offer. The reason may be as simple as the fact that few people want a Cybertruck. We have reported on its many design and quality failures: doors that sever fingers, a gas pedal that can cause uncontrollable acceleration, and falling trim pieces that can cause accidents. Those are just a few examples in a seemingly never-ending timeline of problems that has resulted in eight recalls since its debut. Surprise! It depreciates This polygonal nightmare is flailing, and it should come as no big surprise. There were signs of what is happening now back in May 2024, when the price of secondhand Cybertrucks cratered a few months after initial hype and limited production drove up the truck’s resell price to double or triple its original $102,235 price tag. This tracks Tesla’s own stock, which has been similarly inflated with a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 188.13 as of May 19, meaning that the companys share price trades at 188.13 times its earnings per share. For comparison, BYDthe leading EV manufacturer in the worldhas a PE ratio of 27.67. As Tesla increased the production volume, the demand began to fall fast, leading to unsold inventory and forced production slowdowns that left assembly lines empty, with workers taking leave or doing other tasks. Demand was so low that used car dealers reduced purchases, contributing to the rapid depreciation. Musk once claimed that Tesla cars would increase in value, which turned out to be false. Like nearly every other car on the planet except collector pieces, Tesla’s cars have depreciated in value. But the regular depreciation has now accelerated for the entire brand. Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles experienced the most significant depreciation among the top 200 car models in 2024. Tesla experienced a 71% decline in net income and a 13% drop in EV sales in the first quarter of 2025. The company is facing a critical moment due to stagnant design, outdated technology, and declining sales. The Cybertruck is the epitome of this problem. My prediction? Soon there will be a few thousand of these hideous trucks in an underground parking lot with no exit. A new Musk grave with a big tax write-off sign on the front.
Category:
E-Commerce
U.S. TikTok Shop employees received a memo on Tuesday, recommending staff to work from home Wednesday ahead of “difficult decisions.” The memo, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg, told staff they would be updated on “organizational and personnel changes” via email, followed by HR outreach, suggesting possible layoffs. TikTok Shop, the Chinese-owned company’s marketplace feature launched in 2023 in the U.S., allows users to shop for products via the app. The marketplacewhich hosts everything from popular U.S. brands like Crocs to third-party merchandise from Temu and Sheinhit $100 million in single day sales on Black Friday alone. “TikTok Shop is the fastest-growing sales channel weve ever had at MaryRuths. It took off faster than Amazon, faster than retail, faster than anything weve seen,” Jay Hunter, chief revenue officer of vitamin and supplement company MaryRuth’s, said via LinkedIn. “Its messy. Its unpredictable. But the upside is real.” The video app and its parent company ByteDance have faced several challenges this year, including a looming threat of a ban in the U.S. and a month-over-month decline in TikTok Shop sales due to Chinese-based foreign sellers affected by tariffs, Business Insider reported. While specific details regarding changes and scale are yet to be released, the memo follows a series of restructuring efforts to TikTok’s e-commerce unit. In April, TikTok let go several staff members from the U.S. e-commerce unit’s governance and experience team, due in part to failing to meet performance goals. Later that month, reorganization efforts gave more control to executives from the company’s China-based operations, including Mu Qing, who authored the Tuesday memo, per Bloomberg. Fast Company reached out to TikTok for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publishing.
Category:
E-Commerce
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