Telemedicine will save the healthcare industry $21 billion a year globally by 2025, increasing from $11 billion in 2021, reported Juniper Research Monday. Savings will be confined to developed nations where access to required devices and internet connectivity is most prevalent along with the proliferation in telehealth services, it said. Juniper predicts that more than 80% of savings by 2025 will be attributable to North America and Europe. It estimates that 348 million telehealth visits took place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with 280 million in 2019. “The activities of third party healthcare service developers will be crucial in accelerating the deployment of emerging telemedicine services, and increasing the uptake amongst healthcare providers,” said Juniper.

Facebook should abandon plans to launch Instagram Kids, the National Association of Attorneys General wrote the company Monday, citing harms posed to young social media users (see 2104050035). Forty-four AGs -- from states, Washington, D.C., and territories -- argued social media can be harmful to children physically and emotionally, citing concerns about cyberbullying, Facebook’s “checkered” past and kids’ inability to navigate platforms. "As every parent knows, kids are already online,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “We want to improve this situation by delivering experiences that give parents visibility and control over what their kids are doing.” The company is consulting experts and looks forward to working with legislators and regulators, Facebook said. It committed to “not showing ads in any Instagram experience we develop for people under the age of 13.”

Walmart will buy telehealth provider MeMD as a complement to its Walmart Health brick-and-mortar locations, said the retailer Thursday. “People expect omnichannel access to care, and adding telehealth to our Walmart Health care strategies allows us to provide in-person and digital care.” Walmart Health bills itself as offering primary care, optometry, dental and lab services at affordable prices. The MeMD transaction is expected to close in “coming months.” Transaction terms weren't disclosed. The company didn't respond to questions Friday about whether it plans to keep the MeMD branding after the transaction is complete.

The FTC 4-0 finalized its nonmonetary settlement with a photo app that allegedly “deceived consumers” about face scanning technology and retention of user photos and video (see 2101110027), the agency announced Friday. Everalbum allegedly failed to delete photos and videos from deactivated accounts when it promised to remove the content. It faces $43,280 fines for future violations and is required to delete content from deactivated accounts. Everalbum is "excited to move forward" with a "mindful tone," said a spokesperson. "We take our role as face recognition technology provider very seriously, and are committed to the ethical development and use of this important technology" in accordance with company principles and guidance.

PayPal believes the “shift” in consumer behavior to e-commerce will stay “essentially unchanged in a post-COVID world,” said CEO Dan Schulman on a Q1 call Wednesday. “Consumers have expanded their digital lives into a seamless online and off-line experience.” Shaping a future “where everyone can participate fully in this new digital paradigm has never been more important,” he said. PayPal transactions in the quarter reached about 4.4 billion, growing 34% year over year, said Schulman. It added 14.5 million net new active accounts, ending the quarter with 392 million, up 21% from Q1 2020, he said. It expects to exceed 400 million active accounts by the end of Q2, he said.

April online sales grew 20% from a year ago and 96% from April 2019, Mastercard reported Thursday. E-commerce sales remained elevated, at 22% of total retail spending, including 62% of apparel. “People are excited to gather again and they're refreshing their look for the occasion,” said analyst Steve Sadove.

Over-the-top video and e-gaming software downloads sparked another quarter of "very strong" internet traffic growth, said Akamai CEO Tom Leighton on a Q1 call Tuesday. Traffic reached an all-time high of 200 Tbps March 16, 19% higher than the peak in Q1 2020, and two and a half times the traffic peak in Q1 2019, he said. Daily peaks were high in Q1, averaging 143 Tbps, exceeding 110 Tbps “pretty much around the clock,” he said. Akamai is starting to see “some early signs” of recovery in internet traffic from the hotel and travel sector, said Chief Financial Officer Ed McGowan. “It's probably still a few quarters before we start to see that business return to a growth engine for us.” Retail internet traffic remains “a mixed bag,” he said. There are some Akamai retail accounts “that are doing well, some that aren't doing well,” he said. “We’re optimistic, but still a ways to go before we declare a victory there.”

Students increasingly participate in online learning outside their home, with 92% relying on Wi-Fi to do so, the Consortium for School Networking reported Tuesday. Students often use multiple devices simultaneously for online learning. With more than 85% of network traffic among the 13 highlighted school districts used for video, per-student bandwidth requirements should "be multiplied by the number of students in the household and adjusted for other household members and factors impacting internet usage," CoSN recommended.

Facebook should stop reversing WhatsApp privacy protections and not collect payment and transaction data from users, said about three dozen advocacy groups, announcing a campaign Monday. “This latest move to encroach upon the privacy of WhatsApp users is further proof that Facebook is using exploitative practices and abusing its dominant market power,” said Public Citizen Digital Rights Program Director Burcu Kilic. Facebook is scheduled to make the change May 15. PC, the Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Privacy Information Center and Fight for the Future signed. They cited Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s promises in 2014 not to “change plans around WhatsApp and the way it uses user data.” The company didn’t comment.

Apple rules imposed on music streaming app developers violate EU competition law, the European Commission said. Its tentative findings in a statement of objections announced Friday tentatively said Apple has a dominant position in the market for distribution of music streaming apps through its App Store. For app developers, it's the only gateway to consumers who use the smart mobile devices running on Apple's iOS operating system, the EC said. Apple devices and software form a "closed ecosystem" in which the company "controls every aspect of the user experience for iPhones and iPads." The App Store is part of that ecosystem, and it's the only app store iPhone and iPad users can turn to for downloading apps for their mobile devices. Consumers are loyal to the brand and don't switch easily, so to service iOS users, app developers must distribute their apps via Apple's store, subject to mandatory and non-negotiable rules. Two rules are under investigation: (1) Mandatory use of Apple's proprietary in-app purchase system (IAP) for distribution of paid digital content, on which Apple charges a 30% commission on all subscriptions bought, and (2) "Anti-steering provisions" that hamper app developers from telling users about alternative -- and generally cheaper -- purchasing possibility outside of apps. These rules distort competition in the market for music streaming services by hiking the costs of competing music streaming app developers, raising consumer prices, the EC said. They make Apple the intermediary for all IAP transactions. Spotify had complained. "At the core of this case is Spotify's demand they should be able to advertise alternative deals on their iOS app, a practice that no store in the world allows," an Apple spokesperson said. Spotify doesn't pay Apple any commission on over 99% of its subscribers, and just 15% on those remaining subscribers acquired through the App Store. The EC argument on Spotify's behalf "is the opposite of fair competition," said the spokesperson. A recent Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on app store competition "heard troubling allegations about Apple and Google's behavior," said Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.: The EC would "only reaffirm" that app store policies and conduct need careful scrutiny in the U.S. as well. The European Consumer Organisation welcomed the charges.