Amazon

Amazon launches a Prime-free marketplace in South Africa, its first in sub-Saharan Africa

Two years after announcing plans, Amazon’s highly awaited e-commerce entry into sub-Saharan Africa has finally come to pass. On Tuesday, the tech giant launched its marketplace in South Africa. South Africa is the e-commerce giant’s first marketplace in the sub-Saharan region (it already has an operation out of Egypt following the acquisition of Souq in […]

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Audible to test using Prime Video data for audiobook recommendations as Spotify competition heats up

Amazon has historically operated audiobook marketplace Audible as a separate entity, unconnected to the retailer’s broader goals and ambitions. Today, that’s changing a bit with the launch of a test that will allow Audible users to receive recommendations about what to listen to next based on their Prime Video viewing behavior. The company says this

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Amazon CodeWhisperer is now called Q Developer and is expanding its functions

Pour one out for CodeWhisperer, Amazon’s AI-powered assistive coding tool. As of today, it’s kaput — sort of. CodeWhisperer is now Q Developer, a part of Amazon’s Q family of business-oriented generative AI chatbots that also extends to the newly announced Q Business. Available through AWS, Q Developer helps with some of the tasks developers

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UK probes Amazon and Microsoft over AI partnerships with Mistral, Anthropic and Inflection

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching preliminary enquiries into whether the close-knit tie-ups and hiring practices involving Microsoft, Amazon and a trio of AI startups falls within the scope of its merger rules — and whether the arrangements could impact competition in the U.K. market. The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of

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Amazon launches a new grocery delivery subscription in the US

Amazon said Tuesday that it has launched a new unlimited grocery delivery subscription for Prime members and customers with an EBT card (Electronic Benefit Transfer) in the U.S. if you’re living in one of the 3,500 eligible cities and towns. The company started testing grocery delivery in three locations last year: Denver; Sacramento, California; and

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Amazon ends California drone deliveries

Amazon confirmed it is ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The Central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site, after College Station, Texas. Operations were announced in June 2022. The retail giant is not offering details around the setback, only noting, “We’ll offer all current employees opportunities

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Amazon brings its ‘Amazon Live’ shoppable livestreams to Prime Video and Freevee

Amazon is trying to keep live shopping relevant with the launch of an “Amazon Live” FAST (free ad-supported TV) channel on Prime Video and Freevee. Previously only available as a feature on desktop, mobile and Fire TV, the new live channel will give customers in the U.S. more ways to engage with interactive, shoppable content.

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Amazon Music follows Spotify with an AI playlist generator of its own, Maestro

Spotify isn’t the only company to dabble with using AI to generate playlists — on Tuesday, Amazon said it would do the same. Amazon Music is now testing Maestro, an AI playlist generator, allowing U.S. customers on both iOS and Android to create playlists using spoken or written prompts — which can even contain emojis.

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Amazon takes on India rivals with low-cost fashion store

Amazon has quietly introduced a “special store” called Bazaar in India, featuring affordable and trendy fashion and lifestyle products, as it ramps up efforts against Walmart-owned Flipkart and Reliance’s Ajio, which have made deeper inroads in the Indian fast-fashion market. The world’s largest e-commerce firm has rolled out the new store on its India Android

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