
Optimove Reports Reveal 80%+ of US Consumers Have Anxiety Over Tariffs Across 2025 Shopping Seasons
Optimove, the creator of Positionless Marketing, frees marketing teams from the limitations of fixed roles, giving every marketer the power to execute any marketing task instantly and independently. Its platform is used by leading global B2C brands.
'These findings are a wake-up call for marketers,' said Pini Yakuel, CEO of Optimove. 'Now more than ever, consumers feel economic pressures. Marketers need agility and empathy to respond in real time. Brands must acknowledge financial anxiety through supportive, empathetic messaging.'
Survey results also revealed that while consumers are anxious, many remain willing to spend if presented with value and trust-driven engagement. Irrelevant messaging leads to fatigue and missed opportunities.
Yakuel added, 'Brands that cannot listen to consumers' needs and wants and respond in real time will appear tone-deaf. Positionless Marketing helps eliminate these inefficiencies by enabling smarter, more personalized engagement at scale.'
About Optimove
Optimove, the creator of Positionless Marketing, frees marketing teams from the limitations of fixed roles, giving every marketer the power to execute any marketing task instantly and independently. Positionless Marketing has been proven to improve campaign efficiency by 88%, allowing marketing teams to create more personalized engagement with existing customers.
Optimove is recognized as the Visionary Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs. Being a visionary leader is a hallmark of Optimove. It was the first CRM Marketing Platform to natively embed AI with the ability to predict customer migrations between lifecycle stages in 2012.
Today, its comprehensive AI-powered suite is at the leading edge of empowering marketers to optimize workflows from Insight to Creation and through Orchestration. Optimove provides industry-specific and use-case solutions for leading consumer brands globally.
For more information, go to Optimove.com
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Axios
41 minutes ago
- Axios
What investors see in the sale of AI chips to China
Nvidia and AMD can sell their AI chips to China for the low price of 15% of their revenue, paid out to the U.S. government. Investors are unfazed. Why it matters: Shareholders are focusing on the revenue opportunities that come with more access to Beijing, not on the unprecedented involvement of the Trump administration in Nvidia's business dealings. What they're saying: "There's way more upside," Daniel Newman, principal analyst and CEO of The Futurum Group, tells Axios. Catch up quick: The Trump administration previously backed export controls on Nvidia's H20 chips, which are "orders of magnitude" less powerful than Nvidia's Blackwell chips, Newman says. A month ago, the administration signaled that it was shifting course on these controls, but did not issue the licenses required for sales to be possible. That appeared to change after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with President Trump. Nvidia walked away with promises of licenses so long as the chip giant cut the U.S. government a check for 15% of its China revenue. Zoom in: Nvidia stock is up nearly 0.5% since the news broke Monday, with investors and analysts bullish on the deal. The lifting of the export controls could lead to a $15 billion revenue windfall for Nvidia. Both Nvidia and AMD have pricing power, given the strength of demand for AI chips in China, according to a note from Bank of America. That means the 15% expense could be passed on to Chinese customers. Between the lines: While the deal could lead to billions of dollars in additional revenue for the U.S. government, it's not just about the money. It's also about access to rare earth magnets, Newman says. The U.S. has powerful AI chips that China wants. China has rare earth metals the U.S. wants. When the administration first changed course on export controls in July, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC that selling the "fourth best" AI chip to China wasn't material. Lutnick also said the export control rollback was tied to a rare earths deal, though those details have not fully materialized. Yes. but: Export controls are typically put in place for a reason: in this case, national security concerns. The 15% revenue split, first reported by the Financial Times, includes an anonymous source quote that points to the security concerns: "What's next — letting Lockheed Martin sell F-35s to China for a 15% commission?" Situational awareness: Beijing is urging local companies to avoid buying chips from American companies because of its own security concerns. Newman says that may be political theater – an effort for China to keep the upper hand in ongoing negotiations. Chinese companies will likely still want access to the best possible chips. Be smart: In just January of this year, investors feared China outpacing the U.S. in the AI arms race given the reported success of DeepSeek.


Time Magazine
43 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
YouTube to Estimate Users' Ages Using AI
YouTube is one of the most popular online platforms in the U.S. among all age groups. But not all content on the video-sharing site is appropriate for all ages. While the platform, like most, has restrictions on certain content, such as violence and nudity, for users under 18, these safeguards have in the past been easy for young users to circumvent by entering an older birthdate on their account. But now, the company is rolling out an artificial intelligence-powered tool to estimate a user's age based on their activity on the platform 'and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protection,' said James Beser, director of product management at YouTube Youth, in blog post last month. The technology, according to Beser, has been used in other markets 'for some time' and will begin being tested in the U.S. on Wednesday before a wider rollout. 'We're proud to again be at the forefront of introducing technology that allows us to deliver safety protections while preserving teen privacy,' Beser said. 'Families trust YouTube to provide a safe and enriching experience, and we'll continue to invest to protect their ability to explore safely online.' Here's what to know about YouTube's plans to estimate the ages of American users. How the AI-powered tool works According to Beser, the model will 'interpret a variety of signals' from users to estimate their age. These include, he says, 'the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, or the longevity of the account.' If the model flags that a user is under 18, YouTube will automatically apply age-specific protections. These include disabling personalized advertising, turning on digital wellbeing tools like reminders to take breaks and go to bed, and installing safeguards to recommendations such as limiting repeated exposure to certain types of content. 'We will only allow users who have been inferred or verified as over 18 to view age-restricted content that may be inappropriate for younger users,' Beser said. According to a support forum on parent company Google, YouTube won't require all users to upload their IDs. But if the model wrongly estimates that a user is underage, they will be able to verify that they are 18 or older through a credit card, a selfie, or a government-issued ID. Users deemed underage can choose not to upload these, though protections for teens would remain in place. The new model may also have a 'limited impact' on creators, according to the same forum. If a user is identified as a teen, YouTube may set their uploads as private by default and may restrict their ability to earn from gifts on vertical live streams. 'This may result in a decrease in ad revenue,' said a YouTube employee, 'since we only serve non-personalized ads to those viewers.' Why is YouTube doing this? With teenagers constantly finding ways to get around age restrictions, platforms like YouTube are facing increasing political pressure in the U.S. to do more in protecting minors through stricter measures. In June, the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional a Texas law that required age verification for websites hosting sexually explicit content. Some states have also introduced laws that order restrictions on social media for minors. And the bipartisan-backed Kids Online Safety Act, which would require platforms to take greater steps to minimize harm to minors, was reintroduced this year in Congress. It's also part of a broader global trend. In Australia, the government is moving towards a nationwide ban of children under 16 from social media (YouTube included), and has also introduced age checks for search engines. In the U.K., an Online Safety Law targeting adult sites requires users to confirm their ages, though non-adult platforms like Spotify, Reddit, and X have reportedly also sought age verification from users. Some of these policies, however, have hit legal snags primarily over concerns about privacy and free speech. What are the implications and concerns? Age-estimation technology, according to internet civil rights group Center for Democracy & Technology, may deprive some users from technology they should be able to access. For example: 'Should an adult be misclassified as a child user simply because they watch a lot of roleplay game reviews on YouTube, they will have to choose between appealing the decision by the service and uploading their ID or foregoing access to the service entirely.' YouTube's age-estimation plan is also under scrutiny over potential privacy infringement: a petition against the rollout has collected over 68,000 signatures to date. The petition says that 'mass surveillance and data control' are at stake, since the age estimation model analyzes users' viewing behaviors and watch history. It also argues that the move by YouTube could set a dangerous precedent: 'Once these systems are normalized, they rarely go away—they expand. If we don't speak up now, we risk losing our ability to browse, create, and enjoy content freely. This is about more than YouTube. This is about digital freedom.'


NBC News
43 minutes ago
- NBC News
Heritage comes at a steep price for this Oklahoma denim-maker
In the quiet town of Shawnee, Oklahoma, the rapid whir of sewing machines fills one of the last surviving American garment factories. Inside, denim from 100% American cotton is cut and sewn by hand into jeans, with a 'Made in USA' tag stitched into every pair. Founded in 1903, Round House Jeans is Oklahoma's oldest manufacturer. Vice President David Antosh, whose family has run the company for over six decades, describes making affordable American-made jeans as both his family's heritage and a way to support his community. 'Our No. 1 goal here at Round House Jeans is to make affordable American-made jeans that the average American can buy,' explained Antosh, who prices his denim pants at just $70 a pair and says he pays his employees above-market wages. It's a vision that comes at a high cost and low return. 'Our profit margins are extremely low,' Antosh admitted about his American factory. 'We make hardly any money on these jeans.' The company embodies a lot of President Donald Trump's 'America first' economic ethos, but it's also an example of how hard it'll be for the president to compel clothing manufacturers to move operations to the United States. Despite higher tariffs intended to reshore manufacturing, scarce and costly skilled labor, limited domestic materials, and outdated technology have made manufacturing overseas both cheaper and more efficient. Round House makes clothes in America with domestic cotton and paying above-market wages, but Antosh acknowledged it's only possible because he also sells jeans sewn in Bangladesh at far higher margins. He said the higher profits from those imported jeans subsidize the price of his American-made products and pay for his Shawnee factory. A pair of American-made jeans that Round House sells for $70 carries a 5% margin or less, meaning they cost above $66 to produce. By comparison, apparel retailers typically aim for at least 30% margin on products, according to Anna Livermore, CEO of V. Mora, a fashion consulting firm. Many target margins well above that, she said. Antosh said his biggest challenge is building his sewing workforce. With so few U.S. apparel companies still operating, experienced workers are hard to find. He trains every new hire from scratch, which is a process that can take months or years before they're fully productive. 'It's a very highly skilled job that requires a lot of patience, a lot of learning,' he said. Despite the above-market pay attracting plenty of applicants, about three-quarters of new hires quit within the first few months, unable to handle the demands of the job. By contrast, his Bangladesh-sewn jeans, which are still made with 100% American cotton, sell for $40 a pair, nearly half the price of the U.S.-made version, but deliver far higher margins of 20%. Round House has been hesitant to raise prices on its American-made jeans, both out of principle and fear of the consequences. 'Every time we have a price increase, we hear from customers who say I'd love to buy American-made but can no longer afford it,' Antosh said. He has seen competitors go out of business after price hikes drove customers away. According to a Conference Board survey released Monday, the appeal of 'Made in USA' has faded since 2022, as many Americans now link it to higher costs amid higher price sensitivity. Among the top goals for Trump and his administration in hitting trading partners with steep tariffs is bringing manufacturing capacity back to the U.S., even if it comes at the price of short-term market and economic duress. But Antosh said tariffs won't help his company. 'It's a hardship for us,' Antosh said. 'When jeans sewn outside the U.S. become more expensive from tariffs, we can't subsidize our American-made jeans as much and their price must go up, meaning fewer customers can afford Made-in-USA.' Clothing imports already faced tariffs of 12%-17% before Trump's presidency, according to the United States Fashion Industry Association. An additional 20% reciprocal tariff on Bangladeshi products, which became effective Aug. 7, would chip away at Round House's profits. But even with the added tariffs, producing jeans in Bangladesh still costs far less than in the U.S. Antosh maintained that even with a hypothetical 100% tariff, Bangladeshi production would still come out cheaper than making the same jeans in Oklahoma. Only 2.5% of clothing sold in America is produced domestically, according to a U.S. manufacturing advocacy group. The rest is imported from places like China, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh, where labor is much cheaper. In the 1990s, U.S. apparel factories employed almost a million people. Today, that number has dropped below 100,000. The U.S. lacks the capacity, materials and technology to meet fashion companies' sourcing needs, said Sheng Lu, a professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. He also sees no clear evidence that tariff policies have driven fashion companies to source more domestically. In his 2025 Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study, over 80% of apparel companies said they plan to diversify sourcing to offset tariffs, while just 17% expect to increase sourcing from the U.S. Another challenge for U.S. apparel manufacturing is its inability to produce a wide range of goods, said Joseph Ng, CEO of Shift Fashion Group, a consultancy that works with manufacturers. Aside from a handful of luxury brands, most U.S.-made apparel is limited to basic items like T-shirts, hoodies and socks, due to the fact that American factories 'don't have the skill set, machinery or materials to make anything beyond that,' Ng explained. Ng pointed to Louis Vuitton's Texas factory as an example of how brands attempting more complex products face steep challenges. Opened in 2019 during Trump's first presidency, the luxury brand's facility produces designer handbags but has a defect rate far higher than the industry norm, making it the company's worst-performing facility, according to a report from Reuters. To stay in business, Round House keeps things simple. 'We don't chase the latest fashion,' Antosh said. 'We're always about making things very similar to how we always have, even 100 years ago.' Chasing fast-changing fashion trends, he said, would require frequent retraining, making U.S. production inefficient and unsustainable. Round House's slim U.S. margins leave little room for error, Ng said. 'If he only had that business, he'd be one mess-up away from going out of business,' Ng cautioned, noting that garment manufacturing has multiple potential points of failure. A single mistake, such as misplacing rivets on a batch of jeans, could wipe out what little profit there is. But Antosh said the goal has never been about maximizing profits. His focus is on preserving his family company's heritage, keeping American manufacturing alive and sustaining his community with good jobs. As a testament to his commitment to his employees, many of his workers have stuck around for decades. 'There's very few factories like ours that still exist,' Antosh said. 'I don't know if anyone else could be making affordable American-made jeans, like we do. That's our reason for existence. If we weren't here, offering it at this price point, who would be?'