The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

Get smarter about the day’s news in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Recent Editions

TikTok vice president Michael Beckerman photographs CEO Shou Zi Chew before he testifies to Congress on March 23. Photo by Getty.

ByteDance and TikTok Executives to Watch this Year

By Juro Osawa and Kaya Yurieff · Apr 19, 2023 9:29am PDT

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, thanks to his televised five-hour grilling by Congress last month and accompanying brush with viral TikTok fame, has become better known in the U.S. this year. But several other less well-known executives at the company are also playing critical roles and could gain visibility in the coming months. These include senior... TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, thanks to his televised five-hour grilling by Congress last month and...

Chia Network Founder and CTO Bram Cohen, left, and CEO Gene Hoffman, right.

Chia Network’s IPO Pitch: It's Just Another Software Company

By Akash Pasricha · Apr 19, 2023 9:00am PDT

Initial public offerings of any kind are notable these days, given that few IPOs have happened for more than a year. A crypto IPO is even more ambitious, given the regulatory crackdown on the industry. Despite all that, blockchain development company Chia Network, Inc. says it’s gearing up to go public. The company announced on Friday it... Initial public offerings of any kind are notable these days, given that few IPOs have happened...

Art by Mike Sullivan

How an Online Pharmacy’s Automation Project Went Awry

By Paris Martineau · Apr 19, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Last summer, Capsule—an online pharmacy startup that had won attention with its speedy prescription-drug deliveries and quirky practice of addressing customers in emails and over the phone as “dear”—had a crisis on its hands in New York, its most important market. Beginning in August, Capsule customers in the city began... Last summer, Capsule—an online pharmacy startup that had won attention with its speedy...

Photo by Shutterstock

Netflix Is Now a Real TV Firm: Slow-Growing but Printing Money

By Martin Peers · Apr 18, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Shutterstock

Netflix Is Now a Real TV Firm: Slow-Growing but Printing Money

By Martin Peers · Apr 18, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Netflix is looking more and more like an old-fashioned television company. In other words, it’s growing slowly but producing lots of cash. The video-streaming giant reported what can only be described as anemic growth in the first quarter. Revenue rose 3.7%, which is the kind of growth rate we associate with traditional TV firms like Fox Corp.... Netflix is looking more and more like an old-fashioned television company. In other words, it’s...

Chart by Shane Burke

Creator Economy

A Chart of Twitter Alternatives, From Mastodon to Spill

By Isabelle Sarraf · Apr 18, 2023 3:19pm PDT · 2 comments

I’ve been an avid Twitter user since April 2019, but I have to admit, the bird app isn’t doing it for me anymore. My user experience has worsened since Elon Musk took over the company in October, thanks to features that stop working and a string of changes to its verification system. More than a dozen social media apps, old and new,... I’ve been an avid Twitter user since April 2019, but I have to admit, the bird app isn’t doing it...

Marty Baron, former executive editor of The Washington Post, and The Information founder Jessica Lessin.

The Information’s Journalism Summer School

By The Information · Apr 18, 2023 10:33am PDT

The Information is delighted to again host a virtual summer journalism school for any student interested in a career in journalism. This year’s session will be hosted virtually on June 28, 2023. During these challenging times in the industry, our aim is to help connect aspiring journalists across career stages with industry leaders to... The Information is delighted to again host a virtual summer journalism school for any student...

Art by Clark Miller.

Buying Stocks Doesn’t Make You an Investor

By David Trainer · Apr 18, 2023 9:15am PDT · 9 comments

Last year was the worst year for the stock market since 2008—and for good reason. The nearly 19% drop in the benchmark S&P 500 in 2022 capped many years of wild speculation in capital markets driven largely by the Federal Reserve’s era of free money and government handouts. Dangerously loose fiscal and monetary policies sparked a... Last year was the worst year for the stock market since 2008—and for good reason. The...

Photo via Instacart.

Deal-Seeking Bidders Line Up for Instacart’s Private Stock

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 18, 2023 8:51am PDT · 2 comments

Photo via Instacart.

Deal-Seeking Bidders Line Up for Instacart’s Private Stock

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 18, 2023 8:51am PDT · 2 comments

For more than a year, investors have had little appetite for Instacart’s stock, available on the private market for tech shares. Now investors who may be hunting for bargains are starting to clamor for a piece of the grocery-delivery startup ahead of an expected initial public offering. For more than a year, investors have had little appetite for Instacart’s stock, available...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Microsoft Readies AI Chip as Machine Learning Costs Surge

By Anissa Gardizy and Wayne Ma · Apr 18, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

After placing an early bet on OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, Microsoft has another secret weapon in its arsenal: its own artificial intelligence chip for powering the large-language models responsible for understanding and generating humanlike language. The software giant has been developing the chip, internally code-named Athena, since as... After placing an early bet on OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, Microsoft has another secret weapon...

Photo by Bloomberg

Apple’s New Savings Account Makes iPhones More Valuable—for Thieves

By Martin Peers · Apr 17, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 4 comments

Apple is now paying you to have an iPhone! That’s right. Sign up for the savings account now available through Apple Wallet, administered by Goldman Sachs, and you will get an interest rate of 4.15%, Apple announced today. That’s a very good rate—most other digital-only banks aren’t offering terms quite as generous (as for big banks, forget it—... Apple is now paying you to have an iPhone! That’s right. Sign up for the savings account now...

From left to right: Kim Larson of YouTube, Marc and Heidi D'Amelio of "The D’Amelio Show," and creator Jon Youshaei. Photos: Getty and Jon Youshaei.

Creator Economy

What to Expect at Our Creator Economy Summit

By Kaya Yurieff · Apr 17, 2023 2:24pm PDT

I’m en route to Los Angeles today ahead of The Information’s third annual Creator Economy Summit on Thursday. This is the first time we’re hosting this event in person, and we are so excited to bring together more than 500 registered attendees, including creators, investors and entrepreneurs shaping the creator economy. (We are at full capacity,... I’m en route to Los Angeles today ahead of The Information’s third annual Creator Economy Summit...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by AP.

OpenAI Wraps Up Tender as AI Talent War Heats Up

By Jon Victor and Erin Woo · Apr 17, 2023 7:31am PDT · 2 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by AP.

OpenAI Wraps Up Tender as AI Talent War Heats Up

By Jon Victor and Erin Woo · Apr 17, 2023 7:31am PDT · 2 comments

OpenAI has told employees it has finalized a tender offer that allowed some staff to cash out their holdings, one person with direct knowledge of the situation said. The move caps a process that began last fall alongside talks to raise billions of dollars from Microsoft. Over the past few months, the San Francisco startup behind artificial... OpenAI has told employees it has finalized a tender offer that allowed some staff to cash out...

Nicola Mendelsohn and Mark Zuckerberg. Art by Shane Burke/Bloomberg

Meta Tries to Lure Advertisers With Reels Discounts, AI Tools

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Sahil Patel · Apr 17, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

After suffering its first-ever drop in ad sales, Meta Platforms has abandoned its once-brash tone with advertisers in favor of a more flexible approach to winning business. Instead of demanding that ad agencies commit to increases in spending of 20% or more, as they typically did in past years, Meta's salespeople are signaling... After suffering its first-ever drop in ad sales, Meta Platforms has abandoned its...

Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act, reversing decades of policy and putting the U.S. in the game of state-led industrial development. Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post/Getty

The Electric: Beware the Pitfalls of a Subsidized EV and Battery Industry

By Steve LeVine · Apr 17, 2023 4:30am PDT · 2 comments

For years, U.S. economists, politicians and pundits have denigrated China’s battery and electric vehicle industries, suggesting that because the government has subsidized them, they are somehow mere inventions and not real. Now the U.S. itself is aggressively pursuing the subsidy path to industrialization, arguably conceding that China has been... For years, U.S. economists, politicians and pundits have denigrated China’s battery and electric...

Photo of Bob Lee from Instagram. Art by Clark Miller.

His Death Turned Bob Lee Into a Symbol—His Friends Are Trying to Take Him Back

By Scott Alan Lucas · Apr 16, 2023 11:38am PDT · 10 comments

I’ve got some bad news. It’s about Bob.” A friend was on the phone, calling Jake Shields with news about their buddy Bob Lee. “Oh, shit. Is he OK?” said Shields, a mixed martial arts fighter who lives near Las Vegas. “No.” The news of Lee’s killing on April 4 spread quickly among the close-knit but... I’ve got some bad news. It’s about Bob.” A friend was on the phone, calling...

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 15, 2023 7:00am PDT

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

Why Parker Conrad Won’t Read This

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 15, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.While I hope everyone carves out some time this weekend to read Abe’s fascinating cover story about the tech hero-turned-villain-turned-hero-again Parker Conrad, there’s one person I know will not be reading it: Conrad himself.As the Rippling CEO admitted to Abe during a lengthy interview in Vermont earlier this... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.While I hope everyone carves out some time this weekend to read Abe’s...

Photo-illustration by Clark Miller

Market Research

Biohacking Spas Are Becoming the New Starbucks

By Zara Stone · Apr 15, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

The first time Joslyn Lacy tried neurofeedback, she was skeptical. A finance administrator for a large cloud software company, Lacy dealt in numbers, not woo-woo. But she’d long struggled with chronic pain and anxiety related to underlying medical conditions. “As an African American, I wasn’t feeling heard by my doctors,”... The first time Joslyn Lacy tried neurofeedback, she was skeptical. A finance administrator for a...

Art by Clark Miller.

Screentime: The Creator Who Quit Google to Experiment With AI

By Margaux MacColl · Apr 15, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Last December, Bilawal Sidhu was living a double life. By day, he was a full-time product manager at Google, working on projects like building virtual reality tools. By night, he was experimenting with a barrage of new artificial intelligence models like Midjourney and Dall-E. He started posting TikToks and YouTube videos showing off the... Last December, Bilawal Sidhu was living a double life. By day, he was a full-time product manager...

Art by Clark Miller

The Rise of the Not-Home Not-Office

By Arielle Pardes · Apr 14, 2023 11:00am PDT · 11 comments

When Jamie Snedden moved to San Francisco from London in late 2021, it occurred to him that he didn’t actually know how to make friends. In college, an abundance of common areas and extracurricular clubs had made it easy to meet new people. Now, working remotely for a startup, he barely left the house. He considered roving between coffee... When Jamie Snedden moved to San Francisco from London in late 2021, it occurred to him that he...

Rippling CEO Parker Conrad at his home in San Francisco on April 10, 2023. Photo by Carolyn Fong for The Information

Parker Conrad Takes the Pain

By Abram Brown · Apr 14, 2023 9:00am PDT · 8 comments

Rippling CEO Parker Conrad at his home in San Francisco on April 10, 2023. Photo by Carolyn Fong for The Information

Parker Conrad Takes the Pain

By Abram Brown · Apr 14, 2023 9:00am PDT · 8 comments

Parker Conrad was touring me around a personal sliver of heaven when I asked him to relive his personal hell. As we traipsed through his sister Louisa’s hilly 100-acre farm at the eastern base of Vermont’s Green Mountains—Louisa’s chickens strutting in the spring sun, her goats poking their heads amiably from their... Parker Conrad was touring me around a personal sliver of heaven when I asked him to relive his...