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

Five times/week

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.

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

Recent Editions

Art by Mike Sullivan, Shutterstock

A Survivor’s Guide to Braving the Crypto Winter

By Margaux MacColl · Jan 29, 2022 6:00am PST · 2 comments

There’s a cold front in the metaverse. Stoked by investor fears of rising interest rates and dried up liquidity, the price of cryptocurrencies plummeted this week, with the market shedding a trillion dollars from bitcoin’s all-time high in November. The swoon is giving crypto diehards flashbacks to 2018. That was the last time the industry... There’s a cold front in the metaverse. Stoked by investor fears of rising interest rates and...

Alphabet's Mountain View headquarters. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Dangers of War Against Google’s Ad Tech

By Martin Peers · Jan 28, 2022 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Google’s legal department has its hands full these days, given numerous antitrust lawsuits filed both by the Justice Department and individual states targeting different parts of its business. Our scoop today—about how a bipartisan group of senators is putting together a bill to force Google to divest its ad tech operations—will only add to the... Google’s legal department has its hands full these days, given numerous antitrust lawsuits filed...

From left: Sens. Mike Lee and Amy Klobuchar, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Photos by Bloomberg

Senators Target Google With New Bill to Break Its Grip on Murky Ad Tech Market

By Josh Sisco, Sarah Krouse and Mark Di Stefano · Jan 28, 2022 2:09pm PST · 2 comments

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators that has been trying to rein in Google and other big tech companies plans to introduce a bill that would regulate the shadowy world of online ads more like how the government regulates Wall Street. The draft bill, aiming to prevent potential conflicts of interest, would effectively force Google to sell or spin... A bipartisan group of U.S. senators that has been trying to rein in Google and other big tech...

Illustration by Danielle Davis.

After Winning a Buffalo, N.Y., Startup Competition, a Founder Trades Sand for Snow

By Annie Goldsmith · Jan 28, 2022 12:00pm PST

Illustration by Danielle Davis.

After Winning a Buffalo, N.Y., Startup Competition, a Founder Trades Sand for Snow

By Annie Goldsmith · Jan 28, 2022 12:00pm PST

In this week’s Decamped, we chat with Scott Wayman, CEO and founder of Kangarootime, a software company for child-care centers and preschools. Wayman moved from Long Beach, Calif., to Buffalo, N.Y., after winning the 43North startup accelerator competition, but he’s relocating his company for the long run. Why Buffalo: So 43North is an economic... In this week’s Decamped, we chat with Scott Wayman, CEO and founder of Kangarootime, a software...

Jacob Ward

Jacob Ward’s “The Loop” Peers Into the Black Box of Machine-Learning Algorithms and Returns With a Dire Warning

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 28, 2022 12:00pm PST · 3 comments

This is “10 Questions,” a new featurein which we ask tech authors to pull back the covers on their recently released books. Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity. In 2015, NBC science and technology correspondent Jacob Ward began to meet researchers who were doing revolutionary work on understanding unconscious human behaviors.... This is “10 Questions,” a new featurein which we ask tech authors to pull back the covers on...

Art by Mike Sullivan. All photographs courtesy the Temple of Light.

Prayers of the Tuluminati: Down in the Yucatan, a Temple and Its Tech Shaman Chase Enlightenment

By Zoe Bernard · Jan 28, 2022 6:00am PST · 5 comments

Ben Way—serial entrepreneur, investor, and seeker of higher truths—stands over the stovetop in his airy hacienda in Tulum, Mexico, stirring an enormous vat of pea soup. Because he is in the midst of an annual detox, which began on January 1, the soup will be Way’s first meal in five days. Despite this lack of sustenance, Way exudes tremendous... Ben Way—serial entrepreneur, investor, and seeker of higher truths—stands over the stovetop in...

Apple's new Mac laptop. Photo by Bloomberg.

Apple’s Mac Renaissance

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2022 5:19pm PST

For a company as routinely successful as Apple, continued success can get repetitive. Tonight’s earnings call, for instance, was so full of the usual hyperbole about record revenues that Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri repeated a segment of his commentary without missing a beat. But within the eye-glazing recitations of Apple’s various... For a company as routinely successful as Apple, continued success can get repetitive. Tonight’s...

How Subscription Take Rates Compare; Interview With a TikTok Baker

How Subscription Take Rates Compare; Interview With a TikTok Baker

By Mahira Dayal · Jan 27, 2022 5:10pm PST

How Subscription Take Rates Compare; Interview With a TikTok Baker

Creator Economy

How Subscription Take Rates Compare; Interview With a TikTok Baker

By Mahira Dayal · Jan 27, 2022 5:10pm PST

Some companies, like Substack and Patreon, earn revenue by taking a cut of subscriptions, the monthly recurring fees that followers pay to access creators’ content. Other social media companies have caught on and realized that subscriptions are a way to expand creators’—and the platforms’—revenues. Our latest chart shows how different... Some companies, like Substack and Patreon, earn revenue by taking a cut of subscriptions, the...

Photo by AP. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Robinhood to Take Crypto International; Meta’s Diem Dreams End in Fire Sale

By Hannah Miller · Jan 27, 2022 4:09pm PST

The end of 2021 didn’t bode well for Robinhood. The company reported its fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday, posting a loss of $423 million for the quarter, compared with net income of $13 million for the same period last year. Monthly active users on the trading platform also fell to 17.3 million in the fourth quarter, down from 18.9... The end of 2021 didn’t bode well for Robinhood. The company reported its fourth-quarter financial...

A look at the forward-facing cameras in Magic Leap's new AR headset. Credit: Magic Leap.

New Details on the Magic Leap 2; Twitter Says Goodbye to Oculus

By Mathew Olson · Jan 27, 2022 11:10am PST

Earlier this week, Magic Leap disclosed some new information about its upcoming headset at a conference held by the International Society for Optics and Photonics. In particular, Magic Leap detailed plans for the Magic Leap 2’s controller and operating system that make the device sound promising.While pivoting to enterprise AR to and reset its... Earlier this week, Magic Leap disclosed some new information about its upcoming headset at a...

Chinese premier Xi Jinping marks the centenary of the Chinese Community Party, July 1, 2021. Photo by Bloomberg

Top China VC Seeks U.S. Investors for $1.5 Billion Fund, Bucking Political Headwinds

By Juro Osawa · Jan 27, 2022 10:45am PST · 2 comments

Matrix Partners China, one of the most prolific early-stage venture capitalists in China, is looking to raise at least $1.5 billion, mainly from U.S. institutional investors, for its biggest-ever fund, according to people with knowledge of the matter. If successful, it would become one of the largest pools of money dedicated to young startups... Matrix Partners China, one of the most prolific early-stage venture capitalists in China, is...

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan. Photo by Bloomberg.

Zoom, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow Stocks Deserve More Respect

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2022 9:03am PST · 1 comment

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan. Photo by Bloomberg.

Zoom, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow Stocks Deserve More Respect

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2022 9:03am PST · 1 comment

Talk about a descent to earth. Zoom Video, the rocket ship of the pandemic, has turned into a modern-day blimp in the stock sell-off of the past 12 months. Its stock has dropped 75% from the highs set in the fall of 2020 to Wednesday’s close of $140.33 as investors abandoned high-growth stocks. But Zoom has fallen too far. In a rising... Talk about a descent to earth. Zoom Video, the rocket ship of the pandemic, has turned into a...

Photos by AP; Bloomberg

M&A Watch: 8 Potential Targets as Tech Stocks Sink

By Aidan Ryan · Jan 27, 2022 6:00am PST · 2 comments

A sharp sell-off in tech stocks over the past few months has caused investors a lot of pain—but could be the trigger for more mergers. A drop in valuations could make companies more attractive to buyers, said Barry O’Brien, co–chief operating officer of global tech, media and telecom investment banking at Goldman Sachs.... A sharp sell-off in tech stocks over the past few months has caused investors a lot of...

Photo by AP.

Tiger Global, Alkeon Slash Startup Valuations Amid Public Stock Selloff

By Berber Jin and Kate Clark · Jan 26, 2022 6:28pm PST · 5 comments

For more than a year, startup founders have watched in awe and some trepidation as hedge funds and other large investors flooded private startups with big checks, pushing up valuations and making it easier than ever to raise money. Those freewheeling days may be numbered as a sell-off in public tech stocks bleeds into the startup world. Among... For more than a year, startup founders have watched in awe and some trepidation as hedge funds...

Neil Young. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Neil Young’s Protest Means to Spotify

By Martin Peers · Jan 26, 2022 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

You can be a huge fan of Neil Young (guilty!) but still acknowledge that his decision to pull his music off Spotify, in a protest over its hosting of Joe Rogan, probably won’t cause millions of people to cancel their Spotify accounts. Yes, Spotify subscribers could switch to Apple. Given the likely age of the 76-year-old rocker’s typical fan,... You can be a huge fan of Neil Young (guilty!) but still acknowledge that his decision to pull his...

David Yovanno, CEO of Impact. Credit: Impact

Influencer Startup Impact Plans IPO Filing for Third Quarter

By Mahira Dayal · Jan 26, 2022 4:16pm PST

David Yovanno, CEO of Impact. Credit: Impact

Creator Economy

Influencer Startup Impact Plans IPO Filing for Third Quarter

By Mahira Dayal · Jan 26, 2022 4:16pm PST

For some creator economy startups whose growth took off during the pandemic, the prospect of going public is now a reality. But one of the most turbulent stock markets in two years could muddy those plans. Impact, a provider of marketing software that last valued at $1.5 billion, aims to file confidentially to go public in the third quarter... For some creator economy startups whose growth took off during the pandemic, the prospect of...

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. Photo by AP. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Robinhood Earnings Preview; Ripple Labs Boosts Valuation Amid SEC Lawsuit; Diem’s Potential Demise

By Hannah Miller · Jan 26, 2022 4:06pm PST

Robinhood will report fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday, only the third report it has issued since it went public in July. Eyes will be on the money the company earns from crypto trading. In the third quarter of 2021, Robinhood reported $51 million in revenue from crypto transactions, a 78% decline from the $233 million it made during... Robinhood will report fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday, only the third report it has...

Population: One, a Meta-owned VR game with many cosmetic options. Credit: BigBox VR/Meta.

Meta VP Tempers Gaming NFT Hype; Snap Upgrades Its AR Shopping

By Mathew Olson · Jan 26, 2022 11:00am PST

You have to hand it to Meta. While the company has talked up the potential of the metaverse, it hasn’t gone overboard with the potential riches of NFTs the way some in the NFT market have. Instead, Meta executives have stuck to talking about the potential of NFTs for small businesses and digital items like concert merchandise. On Tuesday,... You have to hand it to Meta. While the company has talked up the potential of the metaverse, it...

Art by Shutterstock; Mike Sullivan

Bitcoin Is Failing Its Original Mandate. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Worthless

By Eswar Prasad · Jan 26, 2022 9:00am PST · 12 comments

By plenty of standards, Bitcoin is a failure. Transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain take at least 10 minutes to process, which would make it cumbersome for day-to-day transactions if its wildly fluctuating price hadn’t already rendered it useless as a means of exchange. As the product of an algorithm with no inherent value or claim to a... By plenty of standards, Bitcoin is a failure. Transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain take at...

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman (left) and Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. Photos by Snowflake, Bloomberg. Collage by Mike Sullivan

Snowflake vs. Databricks: How Onetime Friends Became Fierce Cloud Rivals

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 26, 2022 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman (left) and Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. Photos by Snowflake, Bloomberg. Collage by Mike Sullivan

Snowflake vs. Databricks: How Onetime Friends Became Fierce Cloud Rivals

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 26, 2022 6:00am PST · 2 comments

A few years ago, Snowflake and Databricks were up-and-coming cloud software startups that were so friendly, their sales teams regularly passed customer leads to each other. Both companies made unglamorous but critical components for businesses—from Shell Oil to DoorDash—that helped them boost sales or reduce costs by making better... A few years ago, Snowflake and Databricks were up-and-coming cloud software startups that were so...