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Briefings

TiKTok-Parent ByteDance Generated Nearly $7 Billion in Cash
Oct. 2, 2023
Instacart, Facing Slowing Growth, Sees Stock Drop Sharply
Oct. 2, 2023
X Signs Live Shopping Deal with Paris Hilton
Oct. 2, 2023
Amazon Plans AI Chatbot for Search
Oct. 2, 2023
Flexport Asked Dave Clark to Sign NDA After Ouster as CEO
Oct. 2, 2023
TikTok Is Testing a $5-Per-Month, Ad-Free Version of Its App
Oct. 2, 2023
Microsoft Was Willing to Lose $15 Billion Annually to Win Apple Search Deal
Oct. 2, 2023
Tesla Deliveries Decline in Third Quarter
Oct. 2, 2023
Big Tech Critic Luther Lowe Leaves Yelp
Sept. 29, 2023
Marc Lore’s Wonder to Buy Blue Apron for $103 Million
Sept. 29, 2023
X’s Daily Active Users Have Dropped Since Musk Bought Company
Sept. 29, 2023

Subscriber comments

Pano anthos

on Why Dave Clark and Ryan Petersen Butted Heads at Flexport

Pano anthos

on A Tangled Mess of Tech: JPMorgan’s Tall Task to Integrate First Republic

Tech is the least of their issues. They have essentially disavowed the commitments and strategy that FRB executed with the private equity and startup community. The defections in the key banking roles testify to this. We had high hopes for Chase but better systems do not compare to relationships and networking, which is how the startup world works, unfortunately. Chase is treating FRB clients like SMB accounts. Good luck!

Jud Valeski

on OpenAI Considers Creating an App Store for AI Software

Reckoning is coming for OpenAI… they’d be smart to get the marketplace going in earnest. Playing with what mostly amounts to a hallucinating NLP engine is losing steam quickly. Time for thousands of adjacent flowers to bloom.

Joseph Bohrer

on Investors Say They’re Fed Up With Amazon’s Big Bets

I feel like I've been waiting 15 years to read an article like this. Aside from the lack of discipline and transparency on unrelated investments, the retail business has never delivered the consistent profits that were promised years ago and that were the reason investors held a profitless company all those years.

Brad Templeton

on SoftBank’s Onetime Pizza-Robot Darling Shuts Down

It was a silly investment for the time. One obvious flaw is that the pizza tasted terrible. Which is odd because we should start seeing foods that robots make flawlessly -- if given a great formula and training from a great chef, allowing that food to scale in a way it could not before. But pizza already scales.

Yutaka Okura

on Google Invests in AI Startup Runway to Wrest Cloud Business From AWS

Google used to always aim high - like B-HUG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) as they call it internally. But their recent investment looks like just following social technical trend, rather than setting the trend. I would like them to regain dynamism of leading the society, further investing in moonshot type of activities such as they used to do it at GoogleX.

Carsten Schmidt

Carsten Schmidt

on TikTok Is Not the Enemy

While TikTok is certainly shady, there hasn’t been any clear evidence that shows they are guilty. I think the government owes it to the people to provide clear evidence of this being a clear security threat before banning a service.

Latest Articles

ByteDance's Singapore offices. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Exclusive

TikTok’s Owner Generated Nearly $7 Billion in Cash From Operations in First Quarter

By Amir Efrati · Oct. 2, 2023 3:16 PM PDT

The cash machine of TikTok’s owner is getting bigger. ByteDance’s revenue rose 34% to $24.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023, a slight slowdown from its 38% revenue growth in the 2022 calendar year,...

Image: ByteDance's Singapore offices. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Photo by AFP via Getty.

Instagram Looks for Ways to Revive Interest in Threads

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Oct. 2, 2023 3:11 PM PDT · 1 comment

Three months ago, Threads, Meta Platforms’ answer to Twitter, was the hottest social media app around. In just days, 100 million people had signed up for it. Since then, usage has plunged, prompting Meta staffers to look for ways to revive interest in the app. One top priority is getting creators to post more often, as a way of boosting... Three months ago, Threads, Meta Platforms’ answer to Twitter, was the hottest social media...

TikTok's booth at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Photo via Getty.

ByteDance Valuation Falls 26% to $223.5 Billion in New Employee Share Buyback

By Kaya Yurieff and Amir Efrati · Oct. 2, 2023 12:56 PM PDT

TikTok parent company ByteDance is planning to buy at least $300 million worth of stock from current and former U.S. employees in a deal that values the privately-held company at $223.5 billion, down 26% from a similar buyback offer a year ago, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Current and former employees must... TikTok parent company ByteDance is planning to buy at least $300 million worth of stock from...

Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos via Shutterstock and AP.

Meta, OpenAI Square Off Over Open Source AI

By Jon Victor · Oct. 2, 2023 10:32 AM PDT

Artificial intelligence leaders and policymakers are divided on a key question: Are cutting-edge AI models too powerful to hand to just anyone? That question has pitted companies such as Meta Platforms, which recently made the code for its conversational AI freely available on the internet, against rivals such as OpenAI that sell proprietary AI... Artificial intelligence leaders and policymakers are divided on a key question: Are cutting-edge...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo rings the Nasdaq opening bell on Sept. 19. Photo via Nasdaq.

Instacart’s Bleak Second-Half Outlook: Slower Growth, Lower Profits

By Cory Weinberg · Oct. 2, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 3 comments

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo rings the Nasdaq opening bell on Sept. 19. Photo via Nasdaq.

startups Finance

Instacart’s Bleak Second-Half Outlook: Slower Growth, Lower Profits

By Cory Weinberg · Oct. 2, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 3 comments

Instacart’s first couple of quarters on the public markets could come with slower revenue growth and lower profits than it reported in the first half, according to private forecasts from analysts at banks that underwrote Instacart’s initial public offering this month. The low expectations could further dent Instacart’s stock... Instacart’s first couple of quarters on the public markets could come with slower revenue...

Art by Clark Miller.

How a Videogame CEO Became the Boss of the Weight Room

By Margaux MacColl · Sept. 30, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 5 comments

Adventurer: Strauss Zelnick Escapades: 6 a.m. weightlifting, skiing the mountains of Montana, cycling through the Canadian Rockies Plenty of tech execs flex about their fitness regimen. But few can flex like Strauss Zelnick, CEO of videogame holding company Take-Two Interactive Software, which is responsible for hit games like BioShock,... Adventurer: Strauss Zelnick Escapades: 6 a.m. weightlifting, skiing the mountains of Montana,...

Meredith Whittaker is an outspoken critic of the tech industry, but still hopes to find allies who believe in the right to privacy. Art by Clark Miller.

Signal Chief Meredith Whittaker Could Use Some Backup in the Fight for Encryption

By Julia Black · Sept. 29, 2023 12:00 PM PDT · 1 comment

I was about to sit down for coffee in Brooklyn with Meredith Whittaker when she started apologizing for the messages blowing up her phone. “Sorry, we’re launching our post-quantum protocol today,” she said while tapping away in—what else—her Signal app. Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation, the... I was about to sit down for coffee in Brooklyn with Meredith Whittaker when she started...

Meet the AI Agents

Why Your AI Startup is Probably Already Dead w/Special Guest Scott Belsky

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sept. 29, 2023 10:31 AM PDT

Just when I thought I understood the basics of what’s happening in AI, the field moves again. This week we welcomed our first “fifth wheel”—Scott Belsky, who runs emerging products for Adobe and is also its chief strategy officer. Scott has been living and breathing AI and brought us inside the latest on agents, promising... Just when I thought I understood the basics of what’s happening in AI, the field moves...

Two children of San Francisco from opposite sides of the tracks: Mayor London Breed and philanthropist Daniel Lurie. Art by Clark Miller; Breed photo by Getty Images.

Daniel Lurie Started Tech’s Favorite Charity. Can He Save Its Favorite City?

By Jon Steinberg · Sept. 29, 2023 10:00 AM PDT · 10 comments

Two children of San Francisco from opposite sides of the tracks: Mayor London Breed and philanthropist Daniel Lurie. Art by Clark Miller; Breed photo by Getty Images.

Daniel Lurie Started Tech’s Favorite Charity. Can He Save Its Favorite City?

By Jon Steinberg · Sept. 29, 2023 10:00 AM PDT · 10 comments

At 11 a.m. last Tuesday, a San Francisco icon stepped up to the podium at the century-old Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. With the Financial District’s half-vacant towers gleaming in the distance and the golden September sun streaming through the windows, the venue seemed stage-designed for a biopic: the room where a political star... At 11 a.m. last Tuesday, a San Francisco icon stepped up to the podium at the century-old Potrero...

Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo by Shutterstock

e-commerce asia

Indonesian Ban Could Kill Nearly One Third of TikTok Shop’s Business

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Sept. 29, 2023 9:04 AM PDT

TikTok just cannot escape government scrutiny. Even as the hugely popular ByteDance-owned app expands in the U.S. despite a persistent threat of a ban, the Indonesian government has decided on a new regulation to ban online shopping on social media. That would hobble TikTok’s fast-growing shopping service in Indonesia, which is the single... TikTok just cannot escape government scrutiny. Even as the hugely popular ByteDance-owned app...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

How a Hidden Bar Code in iPhone Screens Saved Apple Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

By Wayne Ma · Sept. 29, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 3 comments

Next time you try to wipe a smudge off your iPhone screen, take a closer look. See if you can spot one of the two tiny QR codes etched into its glass. Chances are you won’t be able to find them. Both codes are tiny—one is the size of a grain of sand and can only be seen with special equipment, while the other, roughly the size of the... Next time you try to wipe a smudge off your iPhone screen, take a closer look. See if you can...

Dave Rogenmoser, cofounder of Jasper. Photo via Getty.

Jasper, an Early Generative AI Winner, Cuts Internal Valuation as Growth Slows

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sept. 28, 2023 6:40 PM PDT · 8 comments

Jasper AI, an early darling of the generative artificial intelligence boom, has cut the internal value of its common shares 20%, according to former employees who were notified by the company. The drop in Jasper’s internal valuation could indicate that the growth of its AI-powered writing tool for marketers has slowed since the company... Jasper AI, an early darling of the generative artificial intelligence boom, has cut the internal...

Left to right: Sarah Guo, founder of Conviction; Saam Motamedi, general partner at Greylock; and Nat Friedman, investor and former CEO of GitHub. Photos via Getty, Greylock and Erin Beach (right).

VCs Dangle AI Chips to Woo Founders

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kate Clark and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sept. 28, 2023 1:24 PM PDT

Left to right: Sarah Guo, founder of Conviction; Saam Motamedi, general partner at Greylock; and Nat Friedman, investor and former CEO of GitHub. Photos via Getty, Greylock and Erin Beach (right).

VCs Dangle AI Chips to Woo Founders

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kate Clark and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sept. 28, 2023 1:24 PM PDT

Venture capitalists have long flaunted their ties with startup founders. Lately they have been touting a different relationship: their connections with the biggest providers of artificial intelligence chips. VC partners competing to win sought-after investments in AI startups have been highlighting their relationships with Amazon, Microsoft... Venture capitalists have long flaunted their ties with startup founders. Lately they have been...

From left: Paul Graham, Garry Tan and Michael Seibel. Photos by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Y Combinator’s Garry Tan Goes to the Mat

By Kate Clark · Sept. 28, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 5 comments

Garry Tan was in his happy place. Surrounded by food trucks and techies basking in San Francisco’s September sun, the CEO of Y Combinator snapped selfies with entrepreneurs as he meandered through a crowd of 2,700 attendees at the startup accelerator’s annual alumni event. A week earlier, though, Tan had been blowing a fuse. In a... Garry Tan was in his happy place. Surrounded by food trucks and techies basking in San...

The X (formerly Twitter) office in San Francisco on July 29. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Musk’s X Cuts Half of Election Integrity Team After Promising to Expand It

By Erin Woo · Sept. 27, 2023 11:11 AM PDT · 2 comments

Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, is cutting around half of the global team devoted to limiting disinformation and election fraud on the platform, including the head of the group, according to three people familiar with the situation. The cuts come less than a month after the company said it would expand the team and as X faces... Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, is cutting around half of the global team devoted...

Sam Bankman-Fried. Photo via Getty.

FTX Investors Are Back in the Spotlight—as Victims

By Aidan Ryan · Sept. 27, 2023 10:19 AM PDT · 3 comments

Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, set to kick off with jury selection on Oct. 3, will thrust the FTX founder and the collapse of one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges back in the spotlight. It will be a brutal reminder of a huge misstep by Sequoia Capital, Paradigm and other investors who poured a total of $2 billion into... Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, set to kick off with jury selection on Oct. 3, will...

Rene Haas, CEO of Arm, rings the opening bell during the company's IPO at Nasdaq MarketSite on Sept. 14. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Startups Squint to Read the IPO Tea Leaves

By Cory Weinberg · Sept. 27, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 2 comments

Rene Haas, CEO of Arm, rings the opening bell during the company's IPO at Nasdaq MarketSite on Sept. 14. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

startups Finance

Startups Squint to Read the IPO Tea Leaves

By Cory Weinberg · Sept. 27, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 2 comments

SeatGeek, a venture capital–backed ticketing app, may have a strong sales pitch when it starts early discussions with investors this week about a potential initial public offering led by Morgan Stanley. During recent quarters, revenue grew roughly 70% from the prior year, thanks to a boom in live concerts. While SeatGeek isn’t yet... SeatGeek, a venture capital–backed ticketing app, may have a strong sales pitch when it...

Merchandise purchased through Xiaohongshu (“little red book”) in Jinhua, China. VCG via Getty Images

startups e-commerce

Sequoia Capital China Buys Discounted Stake in Prominent E-Commerce App

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Sept. 26, 2023 10:26 PM PDT · 1 comment

Sequoia Capital China recently acquired a stake in Chinese social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu from existing investors at a discount to the company’s most recent equity financing valuation, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Sequoia China, which is preparing to separate from Silicon Valley’s Sequoia Capital next... Sequoia Capital China recently acquired a stake in Chinese social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu from...

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photos by Getty.

Designer Jony Ive and OpenAI’s Sam Altman Discuss AI Hardware Project

By Jessica E. Lessin and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sept. 26, 2023 6:51 PM PDT · 16 comments

Jony Ive, the renowned designer of the iPhone, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been discussing building a new AI hardware device, according to two people familiar with the conversations. SoftBank CEO and investor Masayoshi Son has talked to both about the idea, according to one of these people, but it is unclear if he will remain involved. Jony Ive, the renowned designer of the iPhone, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been...

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

FTC Alleges Secret Projects, Manipulative Pricing at Amazon

By Theo Wayt · Sept. 26, 2023 1:07 PM PDT · 10 comments

The Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit filed against Amazon in federal court in Seattle on Tuesday does not explicitly call for the break up of Amazon, but a close reading suggests that is definitely what the agency wants. The FTC argued in the lawsuit that anticompetitive practices in one business line can reinforce Amazon’s... The Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit filed against Amazon in federal court in Seattle on...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty

How Microsoft is Trying to Lessen Its Addiction to OpenAI as AI Costs Soar

By Aaron Holmes · Sept. 26, 2023 7:30 AM PDT · 3 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty

How Microsoft is Trying to Lessen Its Addiction to OpenAI as AI Costs Soar

By Aaron Holmes · Sept. 26, 2023 7:30 AM PDT · 3 comments

Microsoft’s push to put artificial intelligence into its software has hinged almost entirely on OpenAI, the startup Microsoft funded in exchange for the right to use its cutting-edge technology. But as the costs of running advanced AI models rise, Microsoft researchers and product teams are working on a plan B. In recent weeks, Peter Lee,... Microsoft’s push to put artificial intelligence into its software has hinged almost...