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

Five times/week

The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica E. 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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Photo by Getty

For Threads, Usage Is What Matters, Not Downloads

By Martin Peers · Jul 10, 2023 5:03pm PDT · 2 comments

It’s July, which means on the East Coast it’s hot and humid and in San Francisco it’s winter. It also means we’re in a news desert, which partly explains the breathlessness (not to mention brainlessness) of much of the coverage of Threads’ rapid rise to 100 million downloads. Leave aside the fact that it’s easier to get to 100 million... It’s July, which means on the East Coast it’s hot and humid and in San Francisco it’s winter. It...

Photo via Shutterstock

Creator Economy

How Much Influencers Really Make

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 10, 2023 2:29pm PDT

Earlier this year, we started asking our readers to submit their questions about the creator economy. Today I answer questions on how startups can reach creators, the downside of repurposing posts and how much influencers really make. Read previous Mailbag editions here and here. You can submit more questions through this page on The... Earlier this year, we started asking our readers to submit their questions about the creator...

Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer of Meta Platforms, speaks during an online event last October. Photo by Getty Images

Meta Tech Chief’s Power Grows, Despite Missteps

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jul 10, 2023 6:00am PDT · 12 comments

Mark Zuckerberg and his longtime lieutenant, Andrew Bosworth, were at odds. It was mid-2019 and the two men held a series of discussions about Meta Platforms’ plans to build futuristic eyeglasses, part of Zuckerberg’s ambitions to control the hardware underpinnings of the next wave of technology. Bosworth—the imposing 6-foot,... Mark Zuckerberg and his longtime lieutenant, Andrew Bosworth, were at odds. It was mid-2019 and...

China's Byd, manufacturer of the Han (above), uses only iron-based batteries. Photo: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: Recycling Changes the Economics for Iron-Based Batteries

By Steve LeVine · Jul 10, 2023 4:30am PDT

China's Byd, manufacturer of the Han (above), uses only iron-based batteries. Photo: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: Recycling Changes the Economics for Iron-Based Batteries

By Steve LeVine · Jul 10, 2023 4:30am PDT

As major Western automakers have struggled to make the transition to electric vehicles, they have stubbornly favored nickel-based batteries, even though they are costlier and subject to more supply chain snarls than the iron-based batteries used by market leaders Tesla and China’s Byd. A primary objection to iron-based batteries has been... As major Western automakers have struggled to make the transition to electric vehicles, they have...

An AI Company and Its Fanatical Following

An AI Company and Its Fanatical Following

By Jon Steinberg · Jul 8, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.Since we launched our Weekend section in November 2021, we’ve been near-obsessive chroniclers of the generative AI boom. Our very first cover story, written by yours truly, was on Sam Altman and his optimistic vision for OpenAI. We followed that up with reports on how AI image generators would disrupt the... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.Since we launched our Weekend section in November 2021, we’ve been...

Art by Clark Miller

The Next Platform for AI-Generated Art: Your Bicep

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Jul 8, 2023 6:00am PDT

Twelve days before last Christmas, Marina Rosa, an artificial intelligence engineer in São Paulo, Brazil, walked into a neighborhood tattoo parlor and laid her left arm on the table. Rosa then asked artist Nadine Guerra to give her a tattoo made up of various elements, including a 1950s-style female cyborg, an abstract squiggle, and four... Twelve days before last Christmas, Marina Rosa, an artificial intelligence engineer in São...

‘More or Less’: Twitter Won’t Die! Long Live Threads!

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 7, 2023 11:52am PDT · 1 comment

I knew that this week's conversation on Threads was going to be fun! For better or worse, the Morins and the Lessins have a lot of social media DNA. Dave built a social network Path and helped create the Facebook platform. Sam spent years working on Facebook's social network, wrestling with the balance of public and private content.... I knew that this week's conversation on Threads was going to be fun! For better or...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

A New VC-Beloved Startup Rips a Page From Meta’s Playbook

By Annie Goldsmith · Jul 7, 2023 11:00am PDT · 2 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan.

A New VC-Beloved Startup Rips a Page From Meta’s Playbook

By Annie Goldsmith · Jul 7, 2023 11:00am PDT · 2 comments

It’s a return to a simpler version of a popular social network. An app without fancy bells and whistles. A new iteration of a famously walled garden, one less commercialized, uncluttered (so far) by advertising, and with more palatable ownership. No, I’m not talking about Instagram’s Threads. This week, as Meta Platforms... It’s a return to a simpler version of a popular social network. An app without fancy bells...

Daniel De Freitas and Noam Shazeer were AI pioneers at Google before leaving to start Character.AI. Midjourney-generated art by Clark Miller

‘Sometimes, It Feels Real’: Character.AI Gives Humans the Chatbots They Desire

By Jon Victor · Jul 7, 2023 9:00am PDT · 5 comments

One Saturday morning earlier this year, Noam Shazeer, CEO of Character.AI and one of the world’s foremost machine-learning researchers, looked out his window to see a stranger perched on a folding chair outside his home in Palo Alto, Calif. The man had come to Shazeer’s quiet residential street to deliver a message that had been... One Saturday morning earlier this year, Noam Shazeer, CEO of Character.AI and one of the...

Photo by Getty

Pro Weekly: Stirrings in the IPO Market Prompt Updates to Our Tracker

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 7, 2023 8:00am PDT

Welcome back! If you squint, you can see the lineup for tech initial public offerings starting to shuffle together, after a year and a half of dawdling. There’s Arm, the SoftBank-backed chip designer that expects to list on the Nasdaq sometime after Labor Day. The fall could also bring debuts for Klaviyo, a marketing-tech firm backed by... Welcome back! If you squint, you can see the lineup for tech initial public offerings...

Neil Shen of Sequoia China, and Shailendra Singh of Sequoia India, now. Peak XV Partners. Photos by Getty.

Sequoia’s China and India Arms Court Global Backers After Split

By Juro Osawa and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jul 7, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Sequoia Capital’s Chinese and Indian arms are accelerating efforts to ensure that investors around the world back their funds after the Silicon Valley venture firm completes a landmark split from its Asian affiliates, ending a nearly two-decade partnership. Sequoia Capital China, led by star dealmaker Neil Shen, is planning to host a... Sequoia Capital’s Chinese and Indian arms are accelerating efforts to ensure that investors...

Photo by Getty

Why Threads Is Bad for the News Business

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 6, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 10 comments

Photo by Getty

Why Threads Is Bad for the News Business

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 6, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 10 comments

By now we have all read myriad analyses of Threads, Instagram’s new Twitter killer. You’ve probably seen that Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over the app, alleging that the company stole “trade secrets.” Hmm, I wonder how the lawsuit will affect the big MMA fight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk?While there are a lot of angles to... By now we have all read myriad analyses of Threads, Instagram’s new Twitter killer. You’ve...

Photo by Getty.

Top OpenSea Policy Executive Exits

By Aidan Ryan · Jul 6, 2023 3:55pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenSea, the non-fungible token marketplace that rocketed to a $13.3 billion valuation at the peak of the crypto boom, is looking for a new senior policy and government affairs executive after Loni Mahanta, the policy executive it hired from Zillow, quietly left the company after just over a year. In her first interview since her exit in late... OpenSea, the non-fungible token marketplace that rocketed to a $13.3 billion valuation at the...

Logan Paul and KSI pose with Prime Hydration bottles at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. Photo by Getty.

Creator Economy

The Creators Launching Their Own Brands; A Food Creator on Threads

By Isabelle Sarraf · Jul 6, 2023 3:30pm PDT

Our recently updated Creator Economy Database features four companies founded by some of the largest online creators, all of whom either raised funds or expanded their products to brick-and-mortar stores in the June quarter. Today we’re taking a closer look at what they’re up to. The pack includes YouTuber Emma Chamberlain’s coffee company, ... Our recently updated Creator Economy Database features four companies founded by some of the...

Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky. Photo via JayGraber.com

Betting on Bluesky

By Kate Clark · Jul 6, 2023 2:43pm PDT · 9 comments

If you’re like me, you’ve signed up for a minimum of three apps trying to compete with Twitter this year. First it was Mastodon, then Bluesky, and now comes Threads, the Instagram sibling app that launched yesterday and raked in an impressive 30 million sign-ups by this morning.It will be incredibly difficult for a tiny startup like Bluesky,... If you’re like me, you’ve signed up for a minimum of three apps trying to compete with Twitter ...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Inside Google’s Efforts to Develop Custom Chip for Pixel

By Wayne Ma · Jul 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Inside Google’s Efforts to Develop Custom Chip for Pixel

By Wayne Ma · Jul 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

Google has big ambitions to develop its own chips for its Pixel phones. So far, however, things haven’t gone according to plan. The search giant has delayed by at least one year the release of its first fully customized chip, which would act as the brains for its Pixel line of smartphones, according to two people with direct knowledge of... Google has big ambitions to develop its own chips for its Pixel phones. So far, however, things...

Battery making in Yichun, China. Photo: Deng Longhua/VCG/Getty

The Electric: The U.S. EV Industry is in the Line of Fire in China’s Trade Retaliation

By Steve LeVine · Jul 6, 2023 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Chinese restrictions on the export of two key materials for the high-tech and defense industries could be a harbinger of problems for Western makers of electric vehicles. China’s Commerce Ministry on Monday said it would require permits for the export of gallium and germanium beginning next month. The timing of the announcement, just ahead... Chinese restrictions on the export of two key materials for the high-tech and defense industries...

Photo by AP

What Threads Could Mean for Meta…and Twitter

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

If there’s a tech billionaire the news media hates more than Mark Zuckerberg, it's Elon Musk. That's why you're seeing an unusual deluge of positive coverage for Meta Platforms' Twitter rival app, Threads, which formally launched a short time ago. The positivity won’t last, to be sure. Before too long—give it a week—someone in the media will... If there’s a tech billionaire the news media hates more than Mark Zuckerberg, it's Elon Musk....

Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

Instagram’s Threads App Courts Creators; How One Reddit App Is Surviving

By Isabelle Sarraf · Jul 5, 2023 2:46pm PDT

Creators have told us they would like more texting features to reach fans on the platforms where they already spend time—and Instagram seems to be listening. Ahead of the rollout of Threads, its text-focused app expected to launch this week, it’s been courting creators. The separate app, which describes itself as a “text-based conversation... Creators have told us they would like more texting features to reach fans on the platforms where...

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti speaks with Justin Killion, former president of Complex Networks, and BuzzFeed's former COO Christian Baesler. Photo by Getty

BuzzFeed’s Peretti Is Hoping to Raise $150 Million From Sale of Complex Assets

By Sahil Patel · Jul 5, 2023 12:49pm PDT · 3 comments

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti speaks with Justin Killion, former president of Complex Networks, and BuzzFeed's former COO Christian Baesler. Photo by Getty

BuzzFeed’s Peretti Is Hoping to Raise $150 Million From Sale of Complex Assets

By Sahil Patel · Jul 5, 2023 12:49pm PDT · 3 comments

For months, BuzzFeed stock has traded so low that the Nasdaq recently threatened the company with delisting. With BuzzFeed’s effort to sell Complex Networks, a group of websites targeted at people in hip-hop, fashion and sports, CEO Jonah Peretti has the chance to transform Wall Street’s view of the company. Peretti is asking $150... For months, BuzzFeed stock has traded so low that the Nasdaq recently threatened the company with...