TikTok's strategy for US dominance is straight out of Amazon's playbook — but creators are the fuel for its flywheel

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Image shows ways to shop on TikTok Shop app

TikTok Shop

Side hustles could become a $1.4 trillion industry by 2030 thanks to ChatGPT and AI, Morgan Stanley says

Tech Insider : Economy, Economy
a driver for food delivery service Uber Eats, rides a bicycle with a transport box on his back on a street in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin.
AI could turn the gig economy into a $1.4 trillion industry, according to Morgan Stanley.

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After Instacart's IPO, the CEO will have stock worth $15.5 million. But the company's gig workers just took a pay cut.

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Fidji Simo, Instacart CEO, is seen behind a large bowl of strawberries.
Instacart CEO Fidji Simo

Instacart

Walmart wants associates, not gig workers, to deliver more orders as the retailer struggles to verify the identity of its Spark drivers

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A Walmart employee in the beauty, makeup aisle
Walmart wants associates to deliver more of its online orders.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AP

Instacart deactivated a shopper, and he nearly lost his home. He battled the company and won $28,000 in back pay.

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The back of an Instacart shopper who's wearing an Instacart shirt while shopping at Whole Foods.
An Instacart gig worker shops for groceries.

Cyrus McCrimmon/Getty Images

TikTokers are calling out DoorDashers using others people's accounts. 'You open the door for Ebony, and Ebony actually happens to be Steve, that's not okay!'

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A DoorDash delivery driver in New York City
Some gig delivery drivers aren't who they appear to be.

Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Amazon now requires customers in some areas to spend at least $35 to qualify for free shipping — up from $25

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Amazon worker moves boxes on Amazon Prime Day on July 11, 2023 in the East Village of New York City.
Amazon is testing out an increase of its minimum spend required for free shipping, from $25 to $35.

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How an empathy-first approach can help businesses increase profitability

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Two colleagues having a discussion around a computer.

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Instacart's profitability relies in part on batching orders together — something that its gig workers hate

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A man wearing a face mask and sunglasses backwards on his head looks at a receipt while standing in front of a shopping cart at a Giant grocery store in Washington DC in 2020.
Instacart has gotten its shoppers to deliver more orders at a time for the same or less pay over the last few years.

Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Instacart just filed for its IPO and revealed a plan to sell $175 million in stock to PepsiCo

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instacart shopper
Instacart filed a prospectus, a document outlining its business and planned IPO, on Friday afternoon.

Photo by Nick Otto for the Washington Post/Getty Images

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