The DOJ’s Apple Ruling Could Spark the Super App Revolution and Redefine Retail
Bolt’s Ryan Breslow talks to WWD about how the Apple anti-monopoly ruling is poised to redefine digital commerce and consumer experiences.
In March 2024, the Department of Justice filed a case against Apple — accusing the tech giant of monopoly practices. This May, a federal judge ruled that Apple was in contempt of an injunction related to App Store restrictions — Apple is currently appealing the ruling.
In short, Apple’s App Store is being ordered to loosen its strict regulations. The judge ruled that Apple must allow App Store developers to direct users to other alternative payment methods and now prohibits Apple from collecting commissions on these external transactions.
Should the ruling be upheld, developers will finally be free to innovate and integrate seamless payments, loyalty payments and crypto wallets without having to navigate the platform’s strict rules and pay steep 30 percent fees to Apple. Moreover, this ruling could see the boom of super apps — multifunctional platforms that are already popular in places like Asia — in the U.S.
Here, Ryan Breslow, chief executive officer of Bolt, sat down with WWD to discuss why super apps are poised to thrive for the first time in the U.S. market, the potential opportunities for retailers and brands, the future of connected retail and financial integration and more.
WWD: With the recent DOJ Apple ruling, how can super apps now succeed in the U.S.? What opportunities are there for retailers and brands?
Ryan Breslow: The DOJ’s ruling against Apple is a game-changer. For the first time, developers have the freedom to innovate without Apple’s 30 percent tax or restrictive platform rules. This means super apps can finally bring seamless payments, loyalty and crypto wallets directly into iOS apps.
For retailers, this is about reclaiming control: recovering lost margins, building deeper customer relationships and unlocking new ways to engage shoppers without ceding control to Apple or other gatekeepers. It’s a chance to redefine what seamless, personalized retail can be across mobile, web and in-store. I know Bolt is going to lead the way.
WWD: In your opinion, why have super apps failed in the U.S. in the past — but thrived in other markets, particularly Asia?
R.B.: Super apps have struggled in the U.S. because of three major roadblocks. Apple and Google tightly restricted “apps within apps,” while platforms like WeChat and Alipay in China had government support to become multiservice giants.
Unlike Asia, the U.S. already had mature payment systems like credit cards and PayPal, where consumers leapfrogged to mobile payments with QR codes and real-time bank transfers.
Building a super app in the U.S. means navigating a fragmented regulatory landscape — 50 state money transmitter licenses and multiple federal agencies — while a single license in China or Indonesia can cover hundreds of millions of users.
But this is changing. The DOJ ruling, combined with innovations like FedNow — the Federal Reserve’s new real-time payment system — will soon make instant 24/7 bank transfers a reality in the U.S. This is a critical piece of infrastructure that could finally give super apps the foundation they need to thrive here: faster payments, lower fees and a more seamless user experience.
WWD: Consumers now expect seamless shopping experiences in-store and online. How do super apps facilitate an integrated omnichannel strategy for retailers and brands?
R.B.: Super apps create seamless shopping by unifying identity, payments and loyalty across channels. Imagine a shopper using a single Bolt ID to log in online, pay in-store and redeem rewards in real-time. The app can even shift into “store mode” as a customer walks in, surfacing personalized offers or connecting them directly to a sales associate. It’s about building continuous, personalized relationships at every touchpoint — the holy grail of omnichannel retail.
WWD: How do super apps leverage data analytics to provide personalized experiences without compromising privacy and data security?
R.B.: Personalization and privacy aren’t mutually exclusive — you can have both. Super apps can keep sensitive data on-device using cutting-edge encryption, tokenization and techniques like federated learning to deliver personalized experiences without exposing raw user data.
At Bolt, we prioritize zero-party data, where users choose to share their preferences directly rather than being tracked without consent. This isn’t just a better way to do business; it’s the future of digital trust. Tools like verifiable credentials let users prove facts, like being over 21, without revealing personal details, ensuring personalization and privacy. We believe the next wave of digital experiences will be built on this kind of transparent, user-first data philosophy.
WWD: How can Bolt’s integrating features like one-click payments, crypto wallets and peer-to-peer transactions enhance the shopping experience and loyalty programs for large retailers?
R.B.: Bolt is moving from “one-click checkout” to “one-click everything” — transforming how people shop, pay and connect. Our 80 million users already drive higher conversions, but adding crypto wallets, NFT-based loyalty rewards and peer-to-peer payments takes this to the next level. Imagine turning loyalty into an asset: customers earn tokens they can trade, redeem or sell.
Peer-to-peer payments mean shoppers can split bills, share expenses or even resell items without leaving the app. This keeps engagement high and transactions inside your ecosystem, with a unified ledger giving brands real-time visibility, whether customers pay with cards, crypto or points. This is the future of connected commerce.
WWD: What challenges do you foresee with this financial integration into retail apps and how is Bolt preparing to address compliance across different markets?
R.B.: Regulatory compliance is a critical piece of the puzzle for super apps, but we’ve built Bolt to tackle these challenges head-on. We hold money transmitter licenses in 45 U.S. states and e-money licenses in Europe, giving us a strong foundation for global growth. We’ve also developed a unified Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering system, which means users only need to verify their identity once across all merchants on our platform. KYC is the process of verifying a customer’s identity to prevent fraud and ensure security, while AML is a set of safeguards that prevent criminals from using financial systems to disguise the origins of illegally obtained money.
To further enhance security, we monitor crypto transactions in real time and work with insured banks to safeguard digital assets like stablecoins, which are digital currencies designed to maintain a stable value. Our platform is also designed to be modular, allowing brands to toggle features based on local regulations, whether GDPR in Europe or state-specific privacy laws in the U.S. We’ve made these early investments so brands can confidently integrate financial tools without worrying about constantly shifting regulatory landscapes. It’s about building trust at scale.
Snap’s Spiegel: Company Is on ‘Cusp’ of Computing Transformation
The Takeaway
• Spiegel hopeful AR glasses will be bigger than Apple Watch
• Spiegel says super-voting rights helped company stick to long-term bets
• Snap will allow Trump back on the platform
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel defended his company’s ability to stay independent despite competition from deep-pocketed rivals like Meta Platforms, predicting that the Snapchat parent was on “the cusp of a real transformation in the way that people think about and use computers.”
That transformation, Spiegel said, will involve his company’s augmented reality glasses, Spectacles. He said that he expected consumers to widely adopt AR glasses by the end of the decade and that he hoped they would be “a lot bigger than the Apple Watch,” a popular Apple product that he described as “a phone accessory.”
Spiegel reiterated his belief in AR in a wide-ranging conversation at The Information’s The Future of Influence event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He also spoke about his attitude toward selling the company, Snap’s relationship with President Donald Trump, and his thoughts on the government’s attempts to force Facebook-owner Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.
The government’s recent antitrust trial against Meta revealed that Snap turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Facebook in 2013. “It was really hard for us to imagine joining one of those companies and then really staying true to those values” of creating a platform different from other social media companies, Spiegel said, in rare public remarks about that period.
As to whether he would consider a sale in the future, he noted the company is focused on its vision “to help create the next computing platform.”
“As long as we can stay true to our values and stay true to our vision, that’s really what’s important to us as a business, and we’d consider anything in light of that,” he said.
Snap first introduced its AR glasses in 2016 and now is in the fifth generation of the device, which it currently sells only to developers. Spiegel acknowledged that he was able to pursue his long-term vision of creating a new platform for computing because he and his co-founder Bobby Murphy have super-voting shares that give them control of most matters presented to shareholders.
“If investors aren’t aligned with our long-term vision, then they can sell our stock and go buy another stock where they see more long-term opportunity,” he said.
He said Snap has gone through these periods before, when “people don’t see the long-term opportunity with glasses, or they don’t see that progress yet, and they wonder why we’re spending all this money”—only to see those bets, say on disappearing stories, pay off.
By 2018, Snap’s share price had fallen to about one-third of its $17 initial public offer price, dropping to less than $5 before surging to an all-time high of more than $83 in 2021. It’s now down nearly 90% from that peak, to just over $8.
“While folks may be disappointed that we’re not making more cash today, I think there’s a lot of investors who appreciate and understand our consistent ability to innovate and also actually really value our ability to invest over time.”
Snap’s free cash flow surged six times last year, to $219 million, though it’s never turned an annual profit on a net income basis.
Trump Welcome Back at Snap
A government break-up of Instagram and WhatsApp could upend Meta’s dominance in social networking. But Spiegel dismissed the notion that a forced breakup could help Snap.
“Our view has always been that by the time regulators get around to dealing with monopolies, oftentimes market forces have already prevailed,” Spiegel said, citing Microsoft’s antitrust woes in the late 1990s and subsequent missteps with mobile phones.
When asked whether Snap would be interested in joining a group of investors to buy WhatsApp or Instagram—if a forced breakup were to occur—Spiegel said he hadn’t considered the idea.
“If we can invest more incremental dollars, they’re going to be more focused on us winning the future of augmented reality and AI with our new glasses than a backwards-looking strategy around Instagram or WhatsApp,” he said.
Snapchat has differed from social media platforms including Meta and Google’s YouTube, which reinstated Trump’s accounts after suspending him in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots. The messaging app in 2021 permanently disabled the president’s personal account for violating its policies.
Spiegel said Trump could rejoin the app if he wanted. “The president does have access to the White House account, and if he wants to make a new account, he’s welcome to,” he said.
Snap has long taken a more private approach to engaging with governments and has found that yields “the most productive conversations,” Spiegel said. The company has met with the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy “to try to understand their priorities, their investment areas,” such as advanced manufacturing in the U.S., he added.
Saks Said to Pursue Joint Venture to Expand Bergdorf Goodman
Saks picked up the uber luxe Bergdorf’s as part of its $2.7 billion buyout of Neiman Marcus.
The reinvention at Saks Global might be about to touch the Bergdorf Goodman business.
Sources said the company has had “preliminary discussions about potential joint venture opportunities” for the uber luxe retailer.
Exactly what kind of deal those discussions could lead to remains uncertain, but there would certainly be any number of players that could be interested in at least thinking more about partnering up with Bergdorf’s.
Financial sources have been buzzing that Saks was shopping Bergdorf’s to Middle Eastern funds interested in trophy retail properties, looking to quickly raise roughly $1 billion to shore up its liquidity. “Phone calls have been made, it’s in play,” one source said.
But Saks said not so fast and threw cold water on the speculation.
Marc Metrick, chief executive officer of Saks, told WWD: “We’re not selling the business. It’s core to our strategy — it’s the data, it’s the brand positioning, it’s part of our story. It’s not something we would do.”
Metrick is in the process of “resetting” luxury multibrand retailing in the U.S., integrating Neiman’s into Saks, setting up a storefront on Amazon, extending payment terms on vendors and more.
Along the way there have been partners of all kinds. Amazon, Salesforce and G-III Apparel Group all contributed to the Neiman’s deal.
Saks also linked with Jamie Salter’s licensing giant Authentic Brands Group to form Authentic Luxury Group. Initially, that joint venture included Authentic’s Barneys New York, Judith Leiber Couture, Hervé Léger and Vince brands, which could get more exposure in Saks properties. The group is also expected to keep an eye out for other designer brands that could play a similar role.
Authentic Luxury Group is also said to be working with Centric Brands to put Saks Fifth Avenue-branded men’s in Costco.
Partnering is the name of the game at the moment and Bergdorf’s is jumping in.
For now, Metrick has some financial breathing room to push his reset.
Last week Saks lined up a $300 million FILO credit facility as well as a $50 million secured term loan, both of which are expected to close by June 30 and are from SLR Credit Solutions.
That sets the company up to have $700 million in liquidity by the end of the month — enough to fund $240 million in bond interest payments this year, the $275 million in past-due bills owed to vendors and other expenses.
“Saks is in it and we’re going to do something great,” Metrick said after securing the financing. “The most important thing to me is reestablishing the credibility that we have with our partners and [realizing] synergies [between Neiman’s and Saks] well ahead of plan.”
DeepSeek may have used Google’s Gemini to train its latest model
Last week, Chinese lab DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 reasoning AI model that performs well on a number of math and coding benchmarks. The company didn’t reveal the source of the data it used to train the model, but some AI researchers speculate that at least a portion came from Google’s Gemini family of AI.
Sam Paech, a Melbourne-based developer who creates “emotional intelligence” evaluations for AI, published what he claims is evidence that DeepSeek’s latest model was trained on outputs from Gemini. DeepSeek’s model, called R1-0528, prefers words and expressions similar to those that Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro favors, said Paech in an X post.
That’s not a smoking gun. But another developer, the pseudonymous creator of a “free speech eval” for AI called SpeechMap, noted the DeepSeek model’s traces — the “thoughts” the model generates as it works toward a conclusion — “read like Gemini traces.”
DeepSeek has been accused of training on data from rival AI models before. In December, developers observed that DeepSeek’s V3 model often identified itself as ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot platform, suggesting that it may’ve been trained on ChatGPT chat logs.
Earlier this year, OpenAI told the Financial Times it found evidence linking DeepSeek to the use of distillation, a technique to train AI models by extracting data from bigger, more capable ones. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft, a close OpenAI collaborator and investor, detected that large amounts of data were being exfiltrated through OpenAI developer accounts in late 2024 — accounts OpenAI believes are affiliated with DeepSeek.
Distillation isn’t an uncommon practice, but OpenAI’s terms of service prohibit customers from using the company’s model outputs to build competing AI.
To be clear, many models misidentify themselves and converge on the same words and turns of phrases. That’s because the open web, which is where AI companies source the bulk of their training data, is becoming littered with AI slop. Content farms are using AI to create clickbait, and bots are flooding Reddit and X.
This “contamination,” if you will, has made it quite difficult to thoroughly filter AI outputs from training datasets.
Still, AI experts like Nathan Lambert, a researcher at the nonprofit AI research institute AI2, don’t think it’s out of the question that DeepSeek trained on data from Google’s Gemini.
“If I was DeepSeek, I would definitely create a ton of synthetic data from the best API model out there,” Lambert wrote in a post on X. “[DeepSeek is] short on GPUs and flush with cash. It’s literally effectively more compute for them.”
Partly in an effort to prevent distillation, AI companies have been ramping up security measures.
In April, OpenAI began requiring organizations to complete an ID verification process in order to access certain advanced models. The process requires a government-issued ID from one of the countries supported by OpenAI’s API; China isn’t on the list.
Elsewhere, Google recently began “summarizing” the traces generated by models available through its AI Studio developer platform, a step that makes it more challenging to train performant rival models on Gemini traces. Anthropic in May said it would start to summarize its own model’s traces, citing a need to protect its “competitive advantages.”
We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update this piece if we hear back.
Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- ASAN -9.4%, CRWD -6.7% (also authorizes new $1 bln share repurchase program), DLTR -2.8%, BASE -2.5%
Other news:
- MRUS -5.5% (prices offering of 5,263,158 common shares at $57.00 per share)
- OBT -5.3% (prices offering of 1,720,430 shares of its common stock at $23.25 per share)
- ZBIO -3.9% (provides investor updates in presentation; highlights multipl upcoming Phase 2 and 3 data readouts)
- OM -2.5% (CFO steps down, names new CFO; reaffirms guidance)
- FLS -2.5% (Flowserve and Chart Industries (GTLS) to combine in all-stock merger of equals)
- QBTS -2.3% (files for $400 mln mixed securities shelf offering)
- SCL -1.9% (announces significant increase in production capacity for Alpha Olefin Sulfonates)
- UMC -1.9% (adjusts dividend ratio)
- STOK -1.4% (provides certain updates related to the Company's Phase 3 EMPEROR study of zorevunersen; initiated the Phase 3 EMPEROR study with the first United States sites initiated in May 2025)
Gapping up
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- GWRE +14.6%, THO +10.4%, YEXT +8.8%, REVG +7.6%, LITE +7.2%, HPE +6.2%, TTGT +5.9%, HQY +5.3%, GCO +4.3%, APPS +1.3%
Other news:
- SGMT +21.8% (announces Phase 3 Results for Denifanstat for the Treatment of Moderate-to-Severe Acne from Partner Ascletis met all endpoints)
- CRVS +7.3% (announces new interim data from the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating soquelitinib in patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis)
- TLX +6.7% (receives approval of Illuccix PSMA-PET imaging agent in Portugal)
- ANAB +4.4% (rosnilimab data updated in Phase 2b Trial)
- CANG +3.7% (enters third amendment to share-settled crypto mining assets acquisitions)
- TVTX +3.1% (to present new FILSPARI data)
- WFC +2.7% (Fed removes limits on growth in total assets)
- SNOW +2.5% (INFA expands collaboration with SNOW)
- NG +1.9% (NovaGold Resources and Paulson Advisers complete $1 billion acquisition of Barrick Mining's (B) 50% interest in Donlin Gold)
- ALV +1.8% (raises dividend and authorizes new stock repurchase program; reaffirms FY25 guidance at Capital Markets Day)
- KOS +1.6% (Kosmos Energy and partners sign MOU to extend Ghana production licenses to 2040)
- PSNL +1.4% (presents new clinical results from PREDICT DNA and SCANDARE studies; also new results from the CALLA phase 3 study)
- CPRX +1.2% (CEO bought 70000 shares)
- INFA +1.2% (INFA expands collaboration with SNOW)
- VTS +1.2% (has resolved this pending litigation in North Dakota with Hess)
Research Calls I
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Upgrades
- Agenus (AGEN) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at H.C. Wainwright, tgt $25
- AnaptysBio (ANAB) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at H.C. Wainwright, tgt $38
- Cactus (WHD) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays, tgt $54
- Dollar General (DG) upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer, tgt $130
- Embraer (ERJ) upgraded to Buy from Hold at HSBC, tgt $57
- NovaGold (NG) upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital, tgt $7
- Snowflake (SNOW) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS, tgt $265
- XP Inc. (XP) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman, tgt $23
- Yext (YEXT) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley Securities, tgt $10
- Yum! Brands (YUM) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman, tgt $167
- Agenus (AGEN) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at H.C. Wainwright, tgt $25
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Downgrades
- Algonquin Power (AQN) downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at National Bank, tgt $6.75
- Apple (AAPL) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham
- Aptiv (APTV) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim
- Constellation Energy (CEG) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup, tgt $318
- CrowdStrike (CRWD) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA Securities, tgt $470
- CrowdStrike (CRWD) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord Genuity, tgt $475
- CrowdStrike (CRWD) downgraded to In Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI, tgt $440
- Algonquin Power (AQN) downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at National Bank, tgt $6.75
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Others
- Akebia (AKBA) assumed with a Buy at H.C. Wainwright, tgt $8
- Banco Santander (SAN) reinstated with a Buy at Citigroup
- Centrus Energy (LEU) initiated with a Buy at BofA Securities, tgt $160
- Chagee (CHA) initiated with a Buy at Citigroup, tgt $43.70
- DraftKings (DKNG) initiated with an Outperform at Bernstein, tgt $46
- Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) initiated with a Market Perform at Bernstein, tgt $275
- Graphic Packaging (GPK) initiated with a Neutral at UBS, tgt $24
- INmune Bio (INMB) initiated with a Buy at Lucid Capital, tgt $25
- International Paper (IP) initiated with a Buy at UBS, tgt $60
- Liberty Formula One (FWONA) initiated with a Market Perform at Bernstein, tgt $105
- Lionsgate Studios (LION) initiated with a Hold at Loop Capital; tgt $8
- Live Nation (LYV) initiated with an Outperform at Bernstein, tgt $185
- NewAmsterdam Pharma (NAMS) initiated with an Overweight at Cantor Fitzgerald, tgt $42
- Packaging Corp. (PKG) initiated with a Neutral at UBS, tgt $200
- Primo Brands (PRMB) initiated with an Overweight at Barclays, tgt $40
- Sonoco (SON) initiated with a Neutral at UBS, tgt $48
- TAT Technologies (TATT) initiated with a Buy at Truist, tgt $35
- TKO Group (TKO) initiated with an Outperform at Bernstein, tgt $190
- Unicycive Therapeutics (UNCY) initiated with a Buy at Lucid Capital, tgt $12
- Warner Music (WMG) initiated with an Outperform at Bernstein, tgt $32
- Akebia (AKBA) assumed with a Buy at H.C. Wainwright, tgt $8
Early premarket gappers
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Gapping up:
- SGMT +37.5%, THO +12.9%, YEXT +11.6%, GWRE +11.1%, TLX +6.7%, ANAB +6.3%, HPE +5.9%, HQY +5.4%, LITE +5%, WFC +3.4%, CANG +3.4%, NG +3.2%, TVTX +3.1%, SNOW +2.5%, TRVI +2.4%, VTS +2.2%, ALV +2.1%, SOC +1.9%, KOS +1.6%, CLF +1.6%, MT +1.5%, TTGT +1.3%, PKX +1.2%
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Gapping down:
- ASAN -9.2%, CRWD -7.4%, MRUS -6%, OBT -5.3%, DLTR -3.8%, GTLS -2.8%, OM -2.5%, BASE -2.5%, RS -2.4%, QBTS -2.1%, SCL -1.9%, UMC -1.8%, FLS -0.9%