On this week's episode of The MadTech Podcast, Lisa Goodchild, founder and chief troublemaker at Digilearning, joins ExchangeWire's Anne-Marie Sheedy and Rachel Smith to discuss eBay's acquisition of KnownOrigin, the growing introduction of premium subscription tiers, and calls for the US's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Apple and Google for collecting and selling users' data.

eBay buys NFT platform KnownOrigin

Is this a sign that the digital and physical retail worlds are colliding?

Online auction site eBay has announced the purchase of KnownOrigin, which describes itself as one of the ‘world’s first and largest NFT marketplaces’.

eBay started allowing NFT sales on its site last year and the KnownOrigin acquisition, eBay has the opportunity to control a proper digital marketplace where NFT transactions can be both monitored and controlled.

This week also saw Meta join with brands such Balenciaga and Prada to offer clothes for digital avatars. Are the physical and digital retail worlds colliding? And does a company like eBay’s involvement legitimise the sale of NFTs?

More companies are launching ‘Premium tiers’

Is the subscription model sustainable?

Both Telegram and Snapchat are working on adding ‘premium tiers’ to their services. Telegram’s top tier will improve speeds and allow for extra-large file sends, while Snapchat’s Snap+ service offers early access to new features.

"After giving it some thought, we realised that the only way to let our most demanding fans get more while keeping our existing features free is to make those raised limits a paid option," said Telegram founder Pavel Durov.

Are paid tiers the future for the industry? And can companies rely on their users to keep paying additional subscriptions in tough times.

Apple and Google facing further legal trouble

Is big tech facing a legal reckoning?

The Wall Street Journal has reported that four senators want the FTC to investigate Apple and Google for collecting and selling their users’ data.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has looked to become more stringent on data issues in recent years, and even as Apple claim to be leading the way on user privacy, a letter cosigned by four senators called for further investigations into their practices, as well as Google’s.

“These identifiers have fuelled the unregulated data broker market by creating a single piece of information linked to a device that data brokers and their customers can use to link to other data about consumers.”

What needs to happen for big tech to take lasting action on data privacy? Are Apple leading the way or just paying lip service to user privacy? Will the threats of legal intervention ever come to anything?