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

CEO Tim Cook at the start of the WWDC keynote. Photo: Apple.

The AR News From WWDC; Apple Courts Favreau for Headset Content

By Mathew Olson · Jun 6, 2022 12:15pm PDT · 1 comment

Today marks the kickoff of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, an event that always results in a trickle of additional news following the flashy and, er, lengthy keynote. If you’ve been keeping up with all the recent Apple hardware coverage from The Information and other publications, then you knew not to expect major announcements... Today marks the kickoff of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, an event that always...

Nate CEO Albert Saniger. Art by Mike Sullivan

‘AI’ Shopping Startup Exaggerated Tech Capabilities to Potential Investors

By Malique Morris · Jun 6, 2022 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Some startups are bold and original. And some, like Nate, had more modest goals: automatically filling out shoppers’ contact and payment information on retailers’ websites. In exchange for sparing them a minute or two of data entry on their phones, Nate charged shoppers $1 per transaction. But it struggled to turn even that vision... Some startups are bold and original. And some, like Nate, had more modest goals: automatically...

Massive volumes of lithium are found amid the salt of Calama, Chile, but a huge shortfall of the metal is still forecast for the 2020s. Photo: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg

The Electric: The World of EVs and Batteries Is in Chaos. So Why Are These Analysts So Darn Optimistic?

By Steve LeVine · Jun 5, 2022 2:00pm PDT

Welcome back to The Electric! For a year, the electric vehicle and battery industries have faced a growing list of troubles, especially over snags in their respective supply chains. But through the industries' ups and downs, one voice has remained bullish—that of BloombergNEF, the renewable energy research firm. This week, we explore ... Welcome back to The Electric! For a year, the electric vehicle and battery industries have...

Garry Tan vs. Chesa Boudin: The San Francisco Political Scene Gets a New Tech Combatant

Garry Tan vs. Chesa Boudin: The San Francisco Political Scene Gets a New Tech Combatant

By Jon Steinberg · Jun 4, 2022 8:00am PDT

Garry Tan vs. Chesa Boudin: The San Francisco Political Scene Gets a New Tech Combatant

Garry Tan vs. Chesa Boudin: The San Francisco Political Scene Gets a New Tech Combatant

By Jon Steinberg · Jun 4, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Though “normal” is relative in these pandemic times, this summer is offering at least a semblance of normalcy when it comes to travel. (Or revenge travel, as we’re now calling it.) By the time this newsletter lands in your inbox, I’ll be on a plane heading abroad for a two-week break—my first foreign travel... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Though “normal” is relative in these pandemic times, this...

Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla

Bolt, Facing Challenges, Cuts Costs and Lowers Growth Target

By Erin Woo · Jun 3, 2022 7:35pm PDT · 1 comment

Bolt, a developer of online checkout software, became a symbol of overheated startup funding during the pandemic thanks to its $11 billion valuation—more than 300 times its revenue—as well as its outspoken co-founder, Ryan Breslow, and revelations that its most prominent customer was suing it over allegedly faulty technology. As... Bolt, a developer of online checkout software, became a symbol of overheated startup funding...

Elon Musk at a SpaceX launch last year. Photo by Bloomberg

Musk’s Super-Bad Feeling; an Amazon Exec Ships Out

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 3, 2022 5:32pm PDT

Elon Musk says Tesla will lay off 10% of its salaried employees. Where have we heard that before? Sure, these cuts—and Musk’s “super bad feeling” about the economy, as was reported by Reuters—might be another proof point for a market downturn. But at Tesla, layoffs have also become an annual tradition of sorts.Recall that in 2018 Musk cut 9% of... Elon Musk says Tesla will lay off 10% of its salaried employees. Where have we heard that before?...

Amazon's Dave Clark. Photo by AP

Five People Who Could Replace Amazon Consumer Chief Dave Clark

By Paris Martineau and Nick Wingfield · Jun 3, 2022 3:43pm PDT · 2 comments

Help wanted: An executive to run Amazon’s sprawling retail and operations organizations at a moment when sales growth has plummeted and the company has dramatically overspent on warehouses and hiring. Readiness to be grilled by regulators in Washington, D.C. is a plus. Those are the types of skills Amazon is likely to seek as it hunts for... Help wanted: An executive to run Amazon’s sprawling retail and operations organizations at...

Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk

‘Two Kids, a White Picket Fence and a Quarter of a House’: Real Estate Startups Compete to Sell Buyers on the Fractional Lifestyle

By Zoe Bernard · Jun 3, 2022 2:00pm PDT · 4 comments

Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk

Market Research

‘Two Kids, a White Picket Fence and a Quarter of a House’: Real Estate Startups Compete to Sell Buyers on the Fractional Lifestyle

By Zoe Bernard · Jun 3, 2022 2:00pm PDT · 4 comments

Tarek Fadel, a longtime Chicago resident, has dreamed of escaping his city’s bitter winters for years. But it was only after he sold his education software company three years ago that he was able to pursue the plan. Undecided on whether to uproot his family from Chicago entirely, he settled on a compromise: Earlier this year, he bought four... Tarek Fadel, a longtime Chicago resident, has dreamed of escaping his city’s bitter winters for...

Art by Clark Miller

Meet the Mathfluencers: Teachers Are Turning to TikTok to Sharpen Kids’ Math Skills

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 3, 2022 1:35pm PDT · 2 comments

Sixth graders at Polly Ryon Middle School in Richmond, Tex., clamored to get into a certain math class at the beginning of the last school year. That’s not because they’d heard rumors that the class was easy or that they’d get to watch a lot of movies between lessons. The reason: The class was taught by Deidre Kelly, a teacher with1.5 million... Sixth graders at Polly Ryon Middle School in Richmond, Tex., clamored to get into a certain math...

Art by Clark Miller.

Screentime: The Inventor of the Hashtag Is Still a Twitter Loyalist

By Annie Goldsmith · Jun 3, 2022 1:34pm PDT · 1 comment

Welcome toScreentime,where tech leaders divulge their most personal phone habits. In spite of everything, the man who invented the hashtag is still enthralled with Twitter. Chris Messina, the “product therapist” who first proposed the hashtag function in a 2007 blog post,, said that Twitter is still the most used app on his phone. Formerly at... Welcome toScreentime,where tech leaders divulge their most personal phone habits. In spite of...

Art by Clark Miller

Let Everyone Else Have Miami: Garry Tan Will Take San Francisco

By Scott Alan Lucas · Jun 3, 2022 12:00pm PDT · 5 comments

It’s often said that politics in San Francisco is like a knife fight in a phone booth: up close, slashing and surprisingly vicious. But there’s a reason for the hand-to-hand combat. The small city—with a mere 875,000 residents, fewer than in Columbus, Ohio—is massively important to Democrats nationally, having produced the current vice president... It’s often said that politics in San Francisco is like a knife fight in a phone booth: up close,...

Illustration by J. Escudero.

Disappearing Term Sheets and Down Rounds: Inside Venture Capital’s New Normal

By Kate Clark · Jun 3, 2022 6:00am PDT · 6 comments

Illustration by J. Escudero.

Disappearing Term Sheets and Down Rounds: Inside Venture Capital’s New Normal

By Kate Clark · Jun 3, 2022 6:00am PDT · 6 comments

On a Monday in February, founder Annafi Wahed downed two glasses of wine, called her best friend and had a good cry. A venture capitalist had just emailed to say he was walking back a verbal agreement he made late last year to lead a seed round in The Flip Side, her media startup, with a $500,000 investment. The investor was abandoning the... On a Monday in February, founder Annafi Wahed downed two glasses of wine, called her best friend...

The Lilium Jet. Photo: Courtesy Lilium Air Mobility

The Electric: A Troubled Air Taxi Company Attempts to Answer Its Critics

By Steve LeVine · Jun 3, 2022 4:00am PDT

On Sunday, we discussed the race to commercialize air taxis, and the challenges that make it likely that the industry will be smaller than a lot of the companies suggest. One particularly challenged company is Germany’s Lilium Air Mobility, which has been plagued by doubts over whether the unusual design of its electric air taxi makes the... On Sunday, we discussed the race to commercialize air taxis, and the challenges that make it...

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in April in India. Photo by Bloomberg

Coinbase’s Deep Freeze; Microsoft Subtweets Big Tech

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 2, 2022 5:35pm PDT

What a difference a few months makes. In February, as storm clouds were beginning to form over the economy, Coinbase announced a plan to hire 6,000 new employees, which would have more than doubled its head count. That ambitious plan came to a screeching halt on Thursday, when the cryptocurrency exchange announced it would freeze hiring “for the... What a difference a few months makes. In February, as storm clouds were beginning to form over...

Creator Caryn Marjorie. Photo: Ishan Goel

Creator Economy

Lessons From China’s Creator Economy; YouTuber Caryn Marjorie on YouTube’s Waning Influence

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 2, 2022 2:03pm PDT

By some measures, China has the world’s largest and most mature creator economy. Chinese sites embraced online tipping years before Western counterparts Twitch and YouTube. Before TikTok blew up in the West, the app’s Chinese version Douyin was already a hit in China. And the latest trend that has taken China by storm is livestreaming ecommerce,... By some measures, China has the world’s largest and most mature creator economy. Chinese sites...

Vice Media's office in Amsterdam. Photo by Shutterstock.

Vice Media Makes Cost-Cutting Push as it Eyes Sale Options

By Jessica Toonkel · Jun 2, 2022 12:02pm PDT

Vice Media's office in Amsterdam. Photo by Shutterstock.

Vice Media Makes Cost-Cutting Push as it Eyes Sale Options

By Jessica Toonkel · Jun 2, 2022 12:02pm PDT

Vice Media is looking to cut costs and had brought in consultancy AlixPartners in recent weeks to help review its business as it explores a sale of its studio arm or the entire company, according to people familiar with the situation. The New York-based media company is slowing down hiring and cutting other costs to attain positive cash flow and... Vice Media is looking to cut costs and had brought in consultancy AlixPartners in recent weeks to...

Kent Bye, host of the Voices of VR podcast. Photo illustration: Mike Sullivan.

Talking Ethics With VR’s Top Podcaster; Surreal Expands With New Partnerships

By Mathew Olson · Jun 2, 2022 11:02am PDT

Podcaster Kent Bye bought one of the early Oculus developer kits in 2014 and never looked back. In the eight years since he launched Voices of VR, an interview-focused podcast series, Bye has built up a library of over a thousand episodes, which together comprise one of the best historical resources for the VR and AR industry. Along the way, Bye... Podcaster Kent Bye bought one of the early Oculus developer kits in 2014 and never looked back....

Brian Dammeir. Art by Adyen.

This Stripe Competitor Says the Future of Payments Is on the Phone

By Malique Morris · Jun 2, 2022 10:39am PDT · 1 comment

After a huge surge during the pandemic, growth in online shopping is slowing. Inflation and worries about a possible recession have cast a cloud over retail. Payments players sit at the intersection of these factors. “There was a catapult during Covid, and then there’s a normalization now,” said Brian Dammeir, president of... After a huge surge during the pandemic, growth in online shopping is slowing. Inflation and...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Democracy Deserves Better Algorithms

By Tara McGowan · Jun 2, 2022 9:00am PDT · 9 comments

Once again, Americans are approaching a nationwide election cycle, and with it the threat of election misinformation and disinformation spreading via social media. This is not the first time we’ve been here. In many ways, we’re still living with the mistakes of the last election—most especially social media’s role in ... Once again, Americans are approaching a nationwide election cycle, and with it the threat of...

Photo by iStock, Screengrabs of Viya (Taobao), Li Jiaqi (TikTok). Art by Haejin Park

Why China’s Influencers Are Losing Their Influence

By Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Jun 2, 2022 6:00am PDT

Photo by iStock, Screengrabs of Viya (Taobao), Li Jiaqi (TikTok). Art by Haejin Park

Why China’s Influencers Are Losing Their Influence

By Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Jun 2, 2022 6:00am PDT

China’s love affair with influencers is starting to cool. For years, the country’s internet users have been under the spell of online celebrities who promote all kinds of goods—makeup, automobiles, kitchen appliances—in livestreams, at times moving billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise in a single broadcast.... China’s love affair with influencers is starting to cool. For years, the country’s...