Hey Cowboys,
Happy Wednesday! A new round of DTC, retail, tech, and ecommerce news heading your way today.
Today’s lineup 👇 and stories.
Today’s Squad Knows What's Actually Working
Today we’re chatting with a marketing-analytics lead and a serial tooling founder on attribution, zero-party data, and figuring out what really drives sales as tracking keeps getting worse.
Rabah Rahil - CMO, Tie
Dennis Hegstad - Co-Founder, Internet Research Unit
TikTok Is Building Payments Into DMs
Hidden code in TikTok's US iPhone app reveals the company is developing peer-to-peer payments through direct messages, per Bloomberg. The feature would run on TikTok Pay, the payment system already live in Southeast Asia for TikTok Shop purchases.
The Rundown:
The code shows recipients would "tap to accept" payments while senders could attach messages, mirroring Venmo's core mechanics
TikTok told Bloomberg the feature is not being tested, suggesting early development with no confirmed release timeline
This follows TikTok's application to Brazil's central bank earlier this year for a fintech license covering lending and payment services
TikTok has steadily expanded past social media with robust search, TikTok Shop, a local discovery map, games, and hotel bookings
A DM payments launch would put TikTok in direct competition with Venmo and Zelle
X launched its own peer-to-peer product, X Money, in the US just weeks ago
Every major social platform is now racing toward the same destination: becoming the Western version of WeChat, where content, commerce, and money movement live in one app. TikTok already has the shopping engine and the payment rails in Asia, so wiring money into DMs is less a new product than the next logical brick in a super app that keeps users, and their wallets, from ever leaving.
Top Stories: Moderna Cancer Vaccine, IM8 Hits $240M, Uber Bets Drones
Moderna’s Cancer Vaccine Wins - Moderna and Merck’s personalized mRNA cancer vaccine met its primary and secondary endpoints in a Phase 3 melanoma trial. The treatment improved recurrence-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival when combined with Keytruda. Moderna’s stock more than doubled following the announcement, while Merck shares rose about 10%.
IM8 Hits $240M Run Rate - IM8 surpassed $20 million in July revenue, putting the supplement brand above a $240 million annualized run rate. Its standout metric is retention, with 14.2% of subscribers still active at month 20 versus a sub-5% category benchmark. The brand is also scaling marketing spend while keeping customer acquisition costs around $300.
Uber Bets on Drones - Uber and Zipline are partnering to bring autonomous drone deliveries to Uber Eats, with launches planned in Dallas and Houston later this year. The companies aim to reach 1 million drone deliveries per day by 2029, with orders arriving in as little as five minutes.
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Postscript - Make more money from every SMS message.
Proxima - Use real conversion data to power your creative briefs.
Northbeam - Measure the “unmeasurable,” make your marketing profitable.
Rokt Aftersell - More profit from the orders you’re already getting.
Universal Ads - TV ads that deliver for performance marketers.
Richpanel - The AI helpdesk that saves you headaches (and money).
SATHI - Affiliate attribution beyond last-click commissions.
Slash - A better business banking platform.
Trendtrack - Track competitors' winning marketing strategies daily.
Tie - The internet’s #1 shopper ID platform.
Proppel - The best recruitment agency for ecom brands and agencies.
See you on the stream,
Ecomm Cowboy Team