Amazon Tells Employees to Delete TikTok, Then Claims Directive Was Sent in Error
Monica Nickelsburg, GeekWire
Monica Nickelsburg is GeekWire’s Civic Editor, covering technology-driven solutions to urban challenges and the intersection of tech and politics. Before joining GeekWire, she worked for The Week, Forbes, and NBC. Monica holds a BA in journalism and history from New York University. Follow her @mnickelsburg and read her stories on GeekWire.
An Amazon spokesperson said Friday afternoon that an email ordering employees to delete TikTok was sent in error. The company declined to provide further explanation for how the directive was sent.
"This morning's email to some of our employees was sent in error," the spokesperson said. "There is no change to our policies right now with regard to TikTok."
Amazon's had earlier sent an email saying that it was requiring employees to remove the popular video-sharing app TikTok from their mobile devices immediately due to security concerns.
"Due to security risks, the TikTop app is no longer permitted on mobile devices that access Amazon email," the company said Friday in an email to employees.
Here's the email Amazon sent to employees this morning banning TikTok from employee phones. "If you have TikTok o… https://t.co/hGPYjxQLxP— Taylor Lorenz (@Taylor Lorenz)1594400093.0
TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular social media apps in the world but government officials and business leaders are becoming increasingly wary of the Chinese-owned company.
The U.S. military has already barred its members from using TikTok and the federal government is considering a broader ban out of concerns that the Chinese government may be using the app to spy on Americans.
Earlier this month, India announced it will ban TikTok and other popular Chinese apps citing threats to "sovereignty and integrity."
Amazon did not provide details on its concerns in the employee email. We've reached out to the company to comment and will update this story when we hear back.
A TikTok spokesperson said the company is "fully committed to respecting the privacy of users," in a statement to the Times.
"While Amazon did not communicate to us before sending their email, and we still do not understand their concerns, we welcome a dialogue so we can address any issues they may have and enable their team to continue participating in our community."
Last month, a new privacy feature in iOS 14 revealed TikTok was accessing users' clipboard content despite promising to discontinue the practice last year.
This story first appeared on GeekWire.
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Mr. Rogers made the boob tube acceptable television for a generation of kids and parents who had previously seen the small screen as antithetical to learning. Chris Ovitz wants do the same for his new mobile app OK Play, another in a recent blitz of edutainment products for children.
But this one, Ovitz said he has a twist: It's also made for parents. OK Play asks them to put their phones down and play with their young children.
<p>"The way Mr. Rogers used the TV to reach so many families and talk about emotions — especially the hard ones — I think we can do something similar with the mobile device," said Ovitz, a founder and president of OK Play. "We can use that to create more connection between parents and children."</p><p>The company, which has already raised $11 million, launched its signature product on Thursday. It's backed by Obvious Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Greycroft, but also the venture arms of the companies behind Sesame Street and Lego.</p><p>And if that sounds like a lot of cash for an app, it is. Ovitz, an entrepreneur who co-founded WorkPop and Viddy, said what he is actually creating is "a media company."</p><p>If his name sounds familiar it's because Ovitz is the son of the former Disney president and powerhouse behind CAA, Michael Ovitz, who also is an investor in the company. Ovitz grew up watching his powerful father create blockbusters and saw how they can stimulate the popular imagination and catapult an already successful company further.</p><p>The younger Ovitz is now the father of a four-year-old and said he had once carefully restricted his own son's screen time. But, he said, he wants to use the power of storytelling to draw in children. His vision was inspired by the documentary on Mr. Rogers, "Won't You Be My Neighbor."</p><p>"My first phone call was to JJ, who's the biggest empath," Ovitz said. OK Company CEO JJ Aguhob was a product and design consultant for Headspace and Musical.ly (now owned by TikTok's parent company ByteDance). "I was like, 'You got to watch'."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzYwOTk4MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTk4NzA5N30.ZwIrlgA7LVigZtfM_cGcRew3BmCEtXEBEHCGLphh_qY/image.png?width=980" id="b92e9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6272d9b1c31285ccb5efe658c47ffc4e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>The two began plotting out their path and brought on several other co-founders including Colleen Russo Johnson, a developmental psychologist with an expertise in children's media and technology who is the company's chief scientist. Much of her work showed that screen time wasn't always bad, if parents helped guide children.</p><p>What the team designed was an interactive application populated by a cast of recurring characters: Mapa and her friends.</p><p>The characters are each designed for a different type of play. Jicama, the artist, is all things creative. Kim and Tim, workout enthusiasts, are all things active.</p><p>A premium version of the app costs $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year.</p><p>Each day, parents will find a fresh batch of activities to engage in with their kids. While doing so, they are encouraged to create special "moments," so kids can record, for example, how they feel one day - angry or sad.</p><p>Those 'memories' can then later be tapped and used to motivate parents to keep using the application. Another section of the app guides parents through the developmental framework.</p><p>"Our goal is to get kids and parents playing together, spending quality time and, through that, growing their social and emotional skills, which are extremely important for young children to focus on," said Russo Johnson.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzYwOTk4My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTk0NzUyNn0.6Ttba6T6IpCD2iAC3Q6OkHhjrH6xyJuC14pjPxaD8mI/image.png?width=980" id="c24c5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6df33f182b73ed2e64cce95591a9cc7f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p class=""><em><br/></em></p>Founding team JJ Aguhob, Chris Ovtiz, Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson, Ken Chung and Travis Chen
<p>Originally, OK Company planned to launch their app later this year, but the pandemic left so many families stuck at home searching for child activities that it accelerated the timeline for their launch.</p><p>"We really want to try and help strip away the stress and pressures on parents, remind them that it's okay to just be wherever they are," she said.</p><p>The company will compete in an increasingly crowded multi-billion-dollar edutainment marketplace, but their ambitions are to transcend it.</p><p>"I think the overarching dream for us is to build that once-in-a-generation children's entertainment and technology company, but we can't get there until we really start to build this," said OK Company CEO Aguhob.</p><p>"We are at the starting line," he said, noting there is room to grow eventually adding books, toys and other physical merchandise that traditional media franchises have used to expand their reach.</p><p>"We're not just going to make traditional entertainment because it's the thing that you do," he said "We're going to create a new interactive experience that brings families together. And from that, the media is going to look different." </p><p><em><em>Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/racheluranga" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@racheluranga</a>. You can also <a href="mailto:mailto:rachel@dot.la" target="_self">email me</a>.</em></em></p><p><em>**An earlier version misidentified Michael Ovitz's title. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Amazon unveiled its supermarket of the future, a grocery store without cashiers or checkout lines considered a technological breakthrough in the $800 billion industry. Shoppers get to grab-and-go with a full cart of items that are scanned automatically and billed to their bank accounts.
But don't expect to see it anytime soon in Los Angeles.
<p>The surveillance-style experience is a harbinger of things to come as futurists describe the 2.0 of an everyday task: Buying food at a market. There's only one problem. The prototype of a new way to pick up customer's meat, cheese, and dairy is only happening in just one location in Seattle, where Amazon is the city's biggest tech employer. </p><p>Amazon has no plans to install the cashless technology at its Whole Foods stores or put it in their conventional grocery set to open in a former 33,000 square foot Toys R' Us in Woodland Hills, according to Jeffries analyst Christopher Mandeville. Amazon would not confirm. </p><p>Meanwhile, union officials are gearing up for a fight.<br/></p><p>"Amazon has two concepts for its grocery business: bad jobs and no jobs. There's nothing innovative about either one of them," said John Grant, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 770 in an emailed statement. The union represents 47,000 grocery store workers in Southern California. "This is about the richest person on earth seeking new ways to further enrich himself on the backs of workers, communities, and now technology. We will not stand for it."</p><p><span></span>He may not have to. West Hollywood outlawed cashless stores last year joining a growing list of cities including New York, San Francisco and New Jersey who also prohibit it, saying that it discriminates against low income residents with no bank account. Meanwhile, it's unclear whether consumers will embrace the format.</p><p>The Seattle location can be entered by scanning a smartphone app and strolling the aisles of the completely stocked store. The banks of cameras and sensors overhead track everything put into a shopping cart, with the help of artificial intelligence — rendering unnecessary the old-fashioned ritual of scanning and paying at a checkout stand. Items are charged to a shopper's Amazon account shortly after they walk through the exit.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGd3AtY29udGVudCUyRnVwbG9hZHMlMkYyMDIwJTJGMDIlMkZhbXpuZ28yLTYzMHg0MjAuanBlZyZobz1odHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRmNkbi5nZWVrd2lyZS5jb20mcz02NzImaD01Nzc2YTkxMmVkYzdhYzMwY2UxN2Y5ODExZjViOTcyNDcyN2NiYmZlY2EwM2E5NTdmNGY3MzUzMDVhNDYyZTQ1JnNpemU9OTgweCZjPTEyNTY3NjQ0NSIsImV4cGlyZXNfYXQiOjE2MzU4MjE2MzZ9.jKWi5z0c4-UT9lFm8SIUGf0XzqGvrW2-KpSK96bYiYk/img.jpg" id="a9fe0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d264aa69a4ea6acd49d0aacace54a210" />
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Amazon Go Grocery is big enough that it's offering shopping carts. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/amzngo2-630x420.jpeg" target="_blank">GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser</a></small>
</p><p>Apart from the larger size, the concept is very similar to the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2018/check-no-checkout-amazon-go-automated-retail-store-will-finally-open-public-monday/" target="_blank">Amazon Go </a>convenience stores that first opened to the public in Seattle in January 2018. Amazon Go has expanded to 25 locations across cities including San Francisco, Chicago and New York. That smaller concept, sized between 450 and 2,700 square feet, ushered in an era of grab-and-go shopping.<br/></p><p>"What Amazon Go did for central business districts — like locating it very close to where people work so you can get breakfast, lunch, snacks — Amazon Go Grocery does the same thing, but closer to home," said Dilip Kumar, vice president of Physical Retail & Technology for Amazon. "It's a new format, it's not just a bigger Amazon Go. It's a much more expanded selection that caters to what people are looking for shopping for groceries."</p><p>What Amazon is looking for is yet another answer to traditional retail, where it's leveraging convenience and technology in the grocery industry. The tech giant scooped up Whole Foods in 2017 in a bid to take on the sizeable brick-and-mortar footprints of Walmart, Target, Kroger and others. Those companies have consistently responded to Amazon's digital pushes around online grocery ordering and delivery.</p><p>Mandeville said in a research note that it's unclear whether it will pencil out, but the new format provides Amazon an opportunity to expand their white label products. "Questions still remain over unit economics and shopper adoption. That said, this is another example that Amazon is forcing the issue - grocers must continue to invest, innovate."</p><p><span></span>Amazon posted $4.4 billion in revenue last quarter in its physical stores category, which includes Whole Foods and Amazon Go stores.</p><p>The Wall Street Journal reported last fall that Amazon had signed leases for more than a dozen locations in Los Angeles with plans to expand the chain. Kumar declined to say how many Amazon Go Grocery stores are coming, where the next one might be, or whether they will all be the same size. Plans for the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2019/amazon-open-first-grocery-store-new-format-separate-whole-foods-amazon-go/" target="_blank">larger grocery concept in Los Angeles</a> and elsewhere are "something else" entirely, he said, but he likes what they built first in Seattle.<br/></p><p>The continued push toward tech and automation has fueled the ongoing debate around human workers being replaced by machines. Amazon Go Grocery will staff just a handful of associates.</p><p>Last year under pressure from advocates, Amazon's Go store in New York began accepting cash. </p><p>"Consumers aren't demanding this," Grant said. "Its 'cashierless' convenience stores have underperformed comparable stores manned by people."<br/></p><p>Hundreds of cameras in the ceiling overhead make up the key technological component of the just-walk-out concept, and they're put to the biggest test in the produce section, where a variety of individually priced fruits and vegetables are available.<br/></p><p>"Most of the things at Amazon Go are packaged, or they're single items like a can of Coke," Kumar said. "But here, people are shopping for potatoes or they're shopping for onions — there's a lot more browsing and rummaging that tends to happen. That's what makes this problem a lot more complicated."</p>
<p><br/></p><p> Matt Casey, a retail market analyst who works with supermarket grocery chains said he's not sure the grand experiment will work. "I gotta believe there's gonna be a ton of glitches in the beginning," he said. "But, they are the ones who call the shots, not the public. They create and people react to them, not the other way around. They have deep pockets that will allow them to try this."</p><p>Meanwhile, Walmart and Target are stepping up their grocery delivery service and other chains are investing in automation. </p><p>Amazon's goal is to generate accurate receipts, no matter how long you stand over the avocados or apples, shifting them around and picking them up before settling on three and then changing your mind to two.</p><p>The cameras are keeping track of those "interactions" with the product and know exactly what is being taken off shelves and put back. Allowing people to do this type of "considered shopping" plays into the Go Grocery concept of making sure that customers don't have to do anything unnatural when it comes to how they shop.</p><p>"They're used to seeing produce laid out in [a traditional] way," Kumar said, joking about how it's almost necessary, as a shopper, to get spritzed by the misters in the lettuce section.</p><p>Kumar called a robust produce section the hallmark of any good grocery store, and Amazon Go Grocery sources its organic produce from the same farms that supply Whole Foods. Its 365 organic label is on prominent display.</p><p>Up and down aisles throughout the store — there are 5,000 unique items — national brands are mixed with local favorites that Amazon believes its neighborhood customers would expect the store to stock.</p><p>There is no meat or seafood counter and no food preparation on the premises. Fish, chicken and beef products are brought in several times a week, individually wrapped. Signage near cases advises customers on the differences between cuts of meat or wild caught seafood vs. farmed fish. There is also an artisan cheese area where people can get the same sort of quick education via signage rather than from a human cheesemonger.</p><p>And it's another indication that Amazon Go Grocery goes beyond Amazon Go.</p><p>Back near the front of the store, the quicker grab-and-go nature of what Amazon likes about its Go concept is more readily on display. It's here where the fresh baked goods — donuts, bagels, fritters and more — and self-serve coffee and espresso stations are located. There's a sizable alcohol section — where you'll run into a human who has to check your ID. And around the corner is a large section called "Meals Made Easy" that caters to the what's-for-dinner shopper with entrées including pasta, salad, pizza, sushi and more.</p><p>What to grab at the end of the day was a big driver in Amazon's decision to extend Go into grocery, closer to where people live.</p><p>The entire footprint for the location, including space for back stock and more, is 10,400 square feet. But the store will not serve as a hub for grocery delivery, the company said.</p><p>And it won't replace Whole Foods or other methods that shoppers appreciate because Amazon said it has come to realize that customers want to shop in a variety of different ways for a variety of different needs.</p><p>"Some people want their food delivered, some people want to go shopping at Whole Foods, some people want to shop at a different kind of store," Kumar said. "The single biggest thing that people say is that they don't have enough time to do all the things that they need to do. One of the key things that we always index on is how we can provide the convenience that customers expect in places where they are."</p><p><em>A version of this story first <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-goes-bigger-first-amazon-go-grocery-new-seattle-store-using-cashierless-technology/" target="_blank">appeared on GeekWire</a>.</em></p>
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The 365 label from Whole Foods identifies the store's organic produce.
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