TikTok Shop, the social commerce marketplace of TikTok, is introducing a new section dedicated to secondhand luxury items in the United Kingdom. This move positions TikTok Shop in direct rivalry with existing platforms such as The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Poshmark, and Mercari. The offering has been present at TikTok Shop U.S. for a duration exceeding six months.

The addition of this new category enables clients in the United Kingdom to conveniently buy second-hand luxury garments, designer purses, and various accessories from within the TikTok application. Upon its inception, the platform offers a selection of only five British brands, namely Sellier, Luxe Collective, Sign of the Times, HardlyEverWornIt, and Break Archive.

Since its introduction in 2022, TikTok Shop has generated sales of approximately $1 billion or more in merchandise value. Nevertheless, despite its triumph, some contend that TikTok Shop is undermining the short-form video-sharing platform, alleging that counterfeit and substandard merchandise are inundating the market. The purchase of pre-owned luxury goods online carries the greatest danger of encountering counterfeit products, even for major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and others, which also struggle with ensuring authenticity.

TikTok Shop, like other resale marketplaces, implements an anti-counterfeit policy that ensures a complete reimbursement in the event that a seller is verified to have sold a counterfeit item. Bloomberg has disclosed that the corporation is engaged in discussions with luxury goods company LVMH to enhance efforts to combat counterfeiting.

Every secondhand brand on TikTok Shop in the U.S. must possess certificates from third-party authenticators. TikTok collaborated with authentication providers Entrupy and Real Authentication to verify the authenticity of designer handbags available on the platform.

Concurrently, a representative from TikTok informed me that the five British brands each possess their own internal verification procedure. They declined to provide the commencement date for accepting secondhand brands other than their own.

TikTok Shop’s introduction of a used luxury category is a calculated maneuver to access the expanding market for previously owned high-end goods. The secondhand luxury market is a prosperous industry valued at around $49.3 billion (€45 billion) in 2023, with global sales of pre-owned designer items.

Moreover, this expansion is in line with the growing inclination of individuals towards adopting preloved fashion, and it creates new opportunities for secondhand brands in the U.K. to access a broader client demographic. The prevalence of secondhand fashion on TikTok is apparent, as seen by more than 144,000 TikTok postings utilizing the hashtag #secondhandfashion, resulting in nearly 1.2 billion views.

Today’s statement follows closely after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill mandating that ByteDance sell TikTok or else risk a ban in the U.S. This bill seems to be gaining favor in the Senate. An embargo would have a significant impact on American merchants who sell their products on the application. As per the company’s statement, the brief video-sharing application produced a total of $14.7 billion in revenue for small- to mid-size enterprises in the year 2023.

Airchat is a recently developed social media application that promotes and encourages users to engage in open and spontaneous conversations.

Last year, a previous iteration of Airchat was released. However, yesterday the team, which included Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, and Brian Norgard, a former product executive for Tinder, rebuilt the application and reintroduced it on both iOS and Android platforms. At present, Airchat is exclusively accessible via invitation. However, it has already achieved a ranking of #27 in the social networking category on Apple’s App Store.

Airchat has a user interface that is visually familiar and easy to understand. Users can follow other users, navigate through a feed of posts, and interact with those posts by replying, liking, and sharing them. The distinction comes from the fact that the content consists of audio recordings for both posts and replies, which are subsequently converted into written form by the application.

Airchat automatically starts sending messages, which you can quickly navigate through by vertically swiping up and down. If you have the desire, you have the option to pause the audio and only read the text. Additionally, users have the capability to exchange photographs and videos. However, it appears that audio is the main point of interest for everyone, and Ravikant explains that it has the potential to significantly change the way social apps function, especially when contrasted to text-based platforms.

Upon my recent enrollment in Airchat, the majority of the messages I encountered pertained to the application itself. Notably, Ravikant and Norgard actively engaged in responding to inquiries and seeking input from users.

“All humans are inherently capable of harmonious interactions with one another; it simply necessitates the use of our innate communication abilities,” Ravikant stated. “The prevalence of online text-only media has created the false belief that people are unable to get along, when in reality, everyone is capable of getting along.”

Past instances have seen digital entrepreneurs placing their bets on speech as the upcoming significant trend in social media. However, Airchat’s utilization of asynchronous, threaded messages provides a distinct experience compared to the transient live chat rooms that briefly gained popularity on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces. Norgard claimed that this method eliminates the obstacle of stage fright when it comes to participation, as individuals have the freedom to make multiple attempts at producing a message without anybody being aware.

Indeed, he stated that during discussions with the first users, the team discovered that the majority of individuals currently utilizing AirChat exhibit introverted and timid characteristics.

Personally, I have not yet persuaded myself to publish anything. I was primarily intrigued by observing how other individuals were utilizing the application. Additionally, I had a complex emotional connection with the auditory perception of my own speech.

However, there is value in listening to Ravikant and Norgard articulate their perspective instead of solely relying on written transcriptions, as the latter may overlook subtle aspects such as excitement and tone. I am particularly interested in observing how deadpan humor and shitposting are conveyed, or not, in audio format.

I also encountered some difficulty with the velocity. The application automatically sets the audio playing to double the normal speed, which I found to be artificial, especially considering that the main purpose is to promote human interaction. To reset the speed, simply press and hold the pause button. However, when the speed is set to 1x, I observed that I would begin to skim through longer postings while listening, and I would often jump forward before listening to the entire audio. However, perhaps that is acceptable.

However, Ravikant’s conviction in the efficacy of speech to reduce hostility does not always obviate the requirement for content-filtering functionalities. According to him, the feed operates based on intricate regulations that aim to conceal spam, trolls, and those that either you or they may prefer not to receive messages from. However, at the time of publication, he had not yet replied to a subsequent user inquiry regarding content moderation.

When questioned about monetization, namely the introduction of advertisements, whether in audio format or otherwise, Ravikant stated that the company is currently not under any obligation to generate revenue. (He characterized himself as “not the exclusive investor” but rather as a significant stakeholder in the company.)

“Monetization is of little importance to me,” he stated. “We will operate this project with minimal financial resources if necessary.”

Rick Osterloh, Google’s SVP of devices and services, says the Pixel 8 Pro will be the first hardware to run Google’s generative AI models.

At an event today, Osterloh said the Pixel 8 Pro’s custom-built Tensor G3 chip, which accelerates AI workloads, can run “distilled” versions of Google’s text- and image-generating models to power image editing and other apps.

Osterloh said, “We’ve worked closely with our research teams across Google to take advantage of their most advanced foundation models and distill them into a version efficient enough to run on our flagship Pixel.”

Google improved Magic Eraser, its photo-editing tool, to remove larger objects and people smudge-free using on-device models. Osterloh claims that this improved Magic Eraser creates new pixels to fill in shot gaps, producing a higher-quality image.

Osterloh says a new on-device model will “intelligently” sharpen and enhance photo details, improving zoom.

On-device processing benefits audio recording. The Pixel 8 Pro’s recording app will soon summarize meeting highlights.

Gboard will use a large language model on the Pixel 8 Pro to power smart replies. Osterloh claims that the upgraded Gboard will provide “higher-quality” reply suggestions and better conversational awareness.

Osterloh said an update in December will add on-device generative AI features except for Magic Eraser, which appears on the Pixel 8 Pro at launch.