E-Commerce

The Information’s reporting on e-commerce includes uncovering financials from the world’s biggest e-commerce companies, such as Amazon and Shein. Additionally, our team is leading the analysis of forays into e-commerce by various platforms, including ByteDance's TikTok, X and more.

Recent Articles about E-Commerce
Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou, China via Getty Images
Applied AI

Alibaba is Moving Faster Than Amazon and OpenAI in AI For Commerce

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Mar 5, 2026 10:53am PST
Last week, my colleague Qianer tested an AI agent inside Alibaba’s Qwen app, which resembles ChatGPT. She asked to get a ticket to see Pegasus 3, a comedy film about a race car driver that has been topping the Chinese box office. The agent found the nearest theater showing the movie and recommended seats and screening times for later in the day.... Last week, my colleague Qianer tested an AI agent inside Alibaba’s Qwen app, which resembles...
Pro subscription required icon Pro subscription required icon Lee Brown. Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images.
Org Charts

Org Chart Spotlights: Ad Exec Key to Pinterest’s Turnaround, xAI Departures Mount

By The Information Staff · Mar 5, 2026 10:30am PST
Online scrapbooking app Pinterest is trying to revive its ad sales growth and has reshuffled some of its leadership to help with that effort. Lee Brown, who joined Pinterest as its chief business officer in January, is at the center of that push. Online scrapbooking app Pinterest is trying to revive its ad sales growth and has reshuffled some...
Art by Mike Sullivan.
Exclusive

OpenAI Scales Back Shopping Plans for ChatGPT

By Ann Gehan and Sri Muppidi · Mar 4, 2026 5:20pm PST · 1 comment
OpenAI is scaling back its plan to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT, marking a change in its high-profile effort to put checkouts inside the chatbot. Instead of allowing users to make purchases directly from product listings that show up in ChatGPT search results, the company is now focused on having checkouts take place inside of... OpenAI is scaling back its plan to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT, marking a change...
Art by Clark Miller.
OpenAI Held Early Talks With The Trade Desk to Sell Ads
By Sri Muppidi and Catherine Perloff · Mar 4, 2026 2:44pm PST
Art by Clark Miller.
Exclusive

OpenAI Held Early Talks With The Trade Desk to Sell Ads

By Sri Muppidi and Catherine Perloff · Mar 4, 2026 2:44pm PST
OpenAI has held early talks to partner with The Trade Desk, a publicly traded ad tech company, to help the ChatGPT maker sell ads, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The talks indicate that OpenAI, which launched ads in ChatGPT in early February, will initially lean on external partners to help it sell ads and quickly ramp... OpenAI has held early talks to partner with The Trade Desk, a publicly traded ad tech company, to...
Art by Mike Sullivan
Talent Tracker

The 17 People Crucial to AI Shopping

By Ann Gehan · Feb 25, 2026 6:00am PST
The AI shopping race is shifting quickly. In less than six months, AI companies have mostly stopped trying to make agents that browse and shop directly on retail sites and have focused instead on putting checkout features inside AI chatbots. That’s elevated the importance of the engineers who have been building these shopping features as well as... The AI shopping race is shifting quickly. In less than six months, AI companies have mostly...
Why OpenAI, Anthropic Missed Their Own Gross Margin Forecasts
Dealmaker

Why OpenAI, Anthropic Missed Their Own Gross Margin Forecasts

By Sri Muppidi · Feb 24, 2026 3:43pm PST · 6 comments
OpenAI has become increasingly optimistic about the revenue it expects to generate from both consumers and businesses, pushing up its projections for the next five years. Clouding those forecasts, however, are escalating cloud server costs that have outstripped revenue growth.Those pressures were stark last year, when OpenAI’s gross margins fell... OpenAI has become increasingly optimistic about the revenue it expects to generate from both...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Krisztian Bocsi/Getty Images.
The Briefing

OpenAI’s Magical Thinking; Nvidia on Deck This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2026 3:00pm PST · 1 comment
Before we get to what’s coming this week, let’s take a moment to honor the company that has honed the power of magical thinking. That would be OpenAI, whose latest long term revenue and profit projections we reported on Friday night here. The most important element of the report was that in 2025, the cost of running AI models quadrupled, so the... Before we get to what’s coming this week, let’s take a moment to honor the company that has honed...
Ebay CEO Jamie Iannone. Photo by Getty Images
EBay’s Secondhand Depop Buy
By Valida Pau and Ann Gehan · Feb 19, 2026 3:00pm PST · 1 comment
Ebay CEO Jamie Iannone. Photo by Getty Images
Dealmaker

EBay’s Secondhand Depop Buy

By Valida Pau and Ann Gehan · Feb 19, 2026 3:00pm PST · 1 comment
EBay struck a bargain this week with its agreement to purchase Depop, the popular secondhand clothing resale app, for $1.2 billion in cash. That’s less than the $1.63 billion Etsy paid for Depop five years ago. There’s a reason eBay got a good deal. Even while Depop increased its total sales last year by roughly 25% to $1 billion, Etsy had... EBay struck a bargain this week with its agreement to purchase Depop, the popular secondhand...
Art by Mike Sullivan
Exclusive

Hungryroot Posts 55% Revenue Growth, Eyes Potential 2026 IPO

By Ann Gehan · Feb 19, 2026 6:00am PST
With software and other sectors melting down at the merest hint of AI disruption, businesses that sell food and other consumer goods are finally getting some love. That’s good news for venture-backed companies like Hungryroot, which could benefit from investors’ desires to AI-proof their portfolios. Hungryroot, which offers an app for ordering... With software and other sectors melting down at the merest hint of AI disruption, businesses that...
Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / Getty Images.
Exclusive

Pinterest Calls ‘Code Reds’ to Revive Growth Amid AI Threat

By Ann Gehan and Catherine Perloff · Feb 17, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment
For the past three years, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready appeared to have secured a second chance for the scrapbooking app to prove itself to Wall Street. All that evaporated on Thursday night, when weaker fourth-quarter ad revenue prompted a sell-off that drove shares down 17% to their lowest level since April 2020. Even before the earnings report... For the past three years, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready appeared to have secured a second chance for...