tipping
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Amazon is being sued for allegedly 'stealing' driver tips in DC
The District of Columbia is suing Amazon for allegedly 'stealing' delivery tips to cover drivers' base pay.
YouTube's Super Thanks tipping is now available to partners worldwide
YouTube has expanded its Super Thanks tipping to all eligible creators around the world.
Twitter lets you tip creators with Ethereum
Twitter just made it easier to tip creators using Ethereum as well as services like Barter and Paytm.
Twitter brings its in-app tipping feature to Android
After introducing its "tip jar" feature to all iOS users over 18, Twitter has brought the feature over to Android as well.
Twitter will soon let you tip other users with bitcoin
No surprise here: CEO Jack Dorsey is a known bitcoin evangelist.
Twitter makes in-app tipping official with 'Tip Jar'
Twitter is enabling some users to add a “tip jar” to their profile so other users can pay them without leaving the app.
Twitter teases new features for groups, tipping and ‘super follows’
Twitter plans to start testing several new features that could dramatically change how its users interact on its platform, including groups and paid features like tipping.
Twitter explores subscriptions to reduce its dependence on ads
Twitter is reportedly considering subscriptions and tipping as it tries to reduce its dependence on ads.
Google proposed, then abandoned, a website tipping feature
Google had been working on a tipping tool that let readers donate small sums of money to their favorite sites.
Washington, DC sues DoorDash for allegedly misleading users about tips
DoorDash's change in tipping policy has come too late to avoid legal repercussions. The District of Columbia Attorney General has sued DoorDash over claims it not only stiffed couriers (aka Dashers) through its tipping practices, but misled customers about where tips go. As DoorDash used tip money to replace a courier's base pay rather than add to it, that worker's pay wouldn't change for any tip under $10 -- but customers didn't know that, according to the District. The messaging in DoorDash's app and FAQ was reportedly "ambiguous, confusing and misleading," leading customers to believe that delivery people were being paid extra like "any reasonable consumer" would expect.
Tipping point: The gig economy hits delivery drivers in their wallets
Tipping is ubiquitous to the American service industry with consumers encouraged to give "a little something extra" to their waiters, bartenders, and baristas, dry cleaners, dog-walkers and delivery drivers. But it wasn't always like this. The practice of tipping started in England and made its way to our shores at the turn of the 18th century where it met strident social opposition. Deemed the "vilest of imported vices" by an 1899 NYT op-ed, anti-tipping sentiment reached its peak in 1915 when six states outlawed the practice outright. Since then, tipping has grown into the status quo, so much so that restaurants are allowed to pay their tipped staff less than the federal minimum wage and nobody even bats an eye, though the practice is once again falling out of favor -- this time at the hands of the gig economy.
DoorDash CEO announces that now your tips will go to delivery workers
Earlier this year, news reports exposed that not only did DoorDash (and others, like Instacart) sometimes lower its payout to delivery workers when customers tipped, its payment system didn't make clear that this was happening. Last month it changed payouts to show how much of "Dashers" income came from the company vs. tips, but it still used customer tips to account for some of the guaranteed fee it would otherwise pay for a delivery, instead of simply adding them on to an already set rate. Tonight, after a New York Times reporter gave a first-hand account of what it was like to make food deliveries for DoorDash and UberEats via Bike -- and after UberEats sent an email to customer touting the fact that they know where their tips are going -- DoorDash Tony Xu announced his company will change its policy. Without getting into specifics, which he said will be announced "in the coming days," Xu tweeted that his company misunderstood "that some customers who *did* tip would feel like their tip did not matter." So now, "the new model will ensure that Dashers' earnings will increase by the exact amount a customer tips on every order." Or, the way you probably thought tips worked.
Reddit is testing a real-money tipping system
Reddit is testing a new feature that allows users to provide a monetary tip to others. For the time being, the tipping feature is active in a single subreddit and only one user on the entire site can actually receive a tip. For the time being, only subscribers to the subreddit r/shittymorph can give a tip, and only Reddit user shittymorph -- best known for creating the the Hell in a Cell meme -- can cash in.
Instacart revises pay policy after accusations of tip stealing
Instacart is learning a hard lesson about the importance of paying workers properly. The grocery delivery service is revising its pay policies for shoppers after complaints that it was counting customer tips toward its minimum pay goals -- as far as workers were concerned, stealing tips. From now on, tips will "always be separate" from Instacart's contribution if it has to compensate a shopper to reach minimum pay. Instacart is also raising the minimum pay for all order batches. Where it used to pay shoppers at least $3, it'll now offer $5 for delivery-only batches (where someone else has already picked the groceries) or $7 to $10 for situations where workers both shop and deliver.
Lyft will offer automatic tipping and driver ratings
Lyft is launching another campaign to improve the experience for its drivers, and at least a few of the changes could affect you as a passenger. In December, it's conducting a limited launch for both default tipping and mid-ride tipping. If you always tip at the end of a journey or occasionally forget to tip after you've stepped out, this will make sure your driver gets your money. Only "select" passengers will see this at first, but it'll be more widely available in 2019.
Periscope's stream tipping is available outside the US
Periscope's livestream tipping system is no longer a US-only affair -- the Twitter-owned service has expanded its Super Broadcaster program to Canada, Ireland and the UK. As before, livestreamers who've received enough Super Hearts (which viewers pay for with in-app purchases) can apply to become Super Broadcasters and trade those Hearts in for real money. Periscope will only take a $1 cut. Effectively, it's a spin on Twitch's cheers or YouTube's Super Chat. You're rewarding streamers you like and encouraging them to treat it as more of a business than a hobby.
Tip your favorite Twitch streamer with PayPal
If you want to tip your favorite Twitch streamer, you need to use Bits. The video game-centric streaming service just recently added the tipping system of "cheering" with Bits to its mobile app in hopes that more folks would drop some cash. Now you can fund your Bits account or subscribe to streams with PayPal.
Ride-hailing services in NYC must now offer a tipping option
All ride-hailing services operating in NYC must make sure they offer in-app tipping, now that the city has made it a requirement. Authorities have passed a rule proposed by the Independent Driver's Guild (and backed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission) a year ago that requires a tipping option for all for-hire drivers. According to the pamphlet (PDF) distributed by IDG, it conjured up and submitted the proposal because the drivers that decided to take the ride-hailing route have lost out on hundreds of millions in tipping income.
You can now tip your Uber driver in select cities
Uber has been trying to win back the hearts and minds of its drivers and riders lately. With board members resigning, the CEO stepping down, and apology emails to drivers in NYC, the beleaguered ride-sharing company needs a couple of wins. Last month, the company promised some changes to make driving for Uber better, including tipping. Today, Uber is taking the feature live in 121 different cities in the US and Canada.
NYC taxi commission wants Uber to add in-app tipping
Uber has long had a complicated relationship with tips. As the company said last year, tipping is not "expected or required" when you take an Uber, and the app still does not provide an option to do so. That might change in New York City before long, though. Today, the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) announced it was supporting a petition from the Independent Driver's Guild that would require ride-hailing apps like Uber to include a tipping feature.
