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

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. Photo by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan.

YouTube Explores NFTs for Creators; Recur Sells NFTs From Big Brands

By Hannah Miller · Jan 25, 2022 5:10pm PST

YouTube is the latest social media giant exploring ways to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The details are vague, but Susan Wojcicki, CEO of the video platform, said in a blog post on Tuesday that the platform is looking ahead at ways it can help YouTube creators take advantage of the increasingly popular digital collectibles.On the... YouTube is the latest social media giant exploring ways to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs)....

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Pinterest and Peloton Have in Common

By Martin Peers · Jan 25, 2022 5:00pm PST

Here’s a thought experiment: How would Pinterest or Peloton be doing today if they weren’t controlled by their co-founders? Both companies appear to be in disarray—Pinterest is losing users and lately a string of executives, as The Information scooped today. Peloton’s challenges…well, let’s just say they’ve been well chronicled. Both companies... Here’s a thought experiment: How would Pinterest or Peloton be doing today if they weren’t...

Koji co-founders Dmitry Shapiro (left) and Sean Thielen. Photo: Koji

Creator Economy

Koji, the Creator Economy’s App Store, Raises $20 Million from Jump Capital

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 25, 2022 3:04pm PST

Koji, a startup that hosts a virtual store for apps used by creators, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Jump Capital. New investors include HBSE Ventures and Electric Feel Ventures, a venture firm set up by one of rapper Post Malone’s managers. The San Diego-based startup offers what’s known as link-in-bio web pages for... Koji, a startup that hosts a virtual store for apps used by creators, has raised $20 million in...

Workers in an Amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey, last November. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon Pauses ‘Pay to Quit’ Offers for Warehouse Workers

By Paris Martineau and Mark Di Stefano · Jan 25, 2022 2:02pm PST · 1 comment

Workers in an Amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey, last November. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon Pauses ‘Pay to Quit’ Offers for Warehouse Workers

By Paris Martineau and Mark Di Stefano · Jan 25, 2022 2:02pm PST · 1 comment

Faced with an increasingly tight labor market, Amazon has quietly paused a longstanding program through which it paid warehouse workers up to $5,000 to quit their jobs after the busy peak season, The Information has learned. Amazon instituted the program—known inside the company as Pay to Quit or simply The Offer—in 2014 to help the... Faced with an increasingly tight labor market, Amazon has quietly paused a longstanding program...

Ready Player Me avatars sporting New Year's outfits. Credit: Wolf3D/Ready Player Me.

Why Wolf3D Went All-In on Avatars With Ready Player Me

By Mathew Olson · Jan 25, 2022 11:03am PST

Everyone will need an avatar (at least one) in the metaverse, or so the thinking goes. That’s probably one of the few things that the tech giants, startups and non-profit groups driving toward its creation can agree upon. But while making convincing digital humans is one notoriously hard problem, building customizable avatars that can move from... Everyone will need an avatar (at least one) in the metaverse, or so the thinking goes. That’s...

Pinterest headquarters office in San Francisco. Photo by Bloomberg

Pinterest Has Lost at Least 7 Senior Execs in Recent Weeks

By Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel · Jan 25, 2022 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Pinterest has lost at least seven senior executives in roles ranging from creator marketing to corporate development in recent weeks as the online scrapbooking app grapples with a drop in U.S. users and slowing ad revenue growth. Among the executives leaving are Gary Johnson, Pinterest’s head of corporate development, and Omar Seyal, head... Pinterest has lost at least seven senior executives in roles ranging from creator marketing to...

Robinhood Hits New Low Amid Crypto Selloff; Lit Protocol Connects NFT Owners

Robinhood Hits New Low Amid Crypto Selloff; Lit Protocol Connects NFT Owners

By Akash Pasricha · Jan 24, 2022 5:10pm PST

Cryptocurrencies are down from their historic highs seen in November, as is Coinbase, the leading American cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. But Robinhood, the company operating a popular retail trading platform for both stocks and cryptocurrencies, has had the worst decline of the bunch. Bitcoin and ethereum are both down more... Cryptocurrencies are down from their historic highs seen in November, as is Coinbase, the leading...

Peloton executives when the company went public in 2019. Photo by Bloomberg.

Tech Stock Slump Hits 2021 Stock Comp

By Martin Peers · Jan 24, 2022 5:00pm PST

Peloton executives when the company went public in 2019. Photo by Bloomberg.

Tech Stock Slump Hits 2021 Stock Comp

By Martin Peers · Jan 24, 2022 5:00pm PST

Tech company managers have some interesting compensation discussions coming up with their direct reports, thanks to the bear market affecting much of tech. If those subordinates receive annual awards of stock or options, they’ll very likely hear both good and bad news. The good news is that grants made this year will have lots of upside as the... Tech company managers have some interesting compensation discussions coming up with their direct...

Photo credit: AP

Creator Economy

TikTok Creators Air Grievance Over Fund Payouts

By Mahira Dayal · Jan 24, 2022 4:17pm PST · 2 comments

TikTok has long been cloudy about how the money in its $1 billion Creator Fund, announced July 2020, is distributed. Some creators have told us they generate meager earnings through the fund, despite accumulating millions of views on the app. In recent days, they’ve used their social media megaphones to draw attention to their... TikTok has long been cloudy about how the money in its $1 billion Creator Fund, announced July...

Container ships and bulk carriers offshore from Singapore. Photo by Bloomberg

Startup Powering China’s Consumer Export Blitz in Talks to Raise $800 Million

By Juro Osawa · Jan 24, 2022 12:28pm PST

Xingyun Group, a seven-year-old startup that helps Chinese makers of everything from Bluetooth speakers to laundry detergent sell directly to overseas consumers, is in talks with investors to raise $800 million, and it is seeking a pre-money valuation of $5 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The startup is... Xingyun Group, a seven-year-old startup that helps Chinese makers of everything from Bluetooth...

A 3D face rendered and animated in real-time with Ziva's ZRT Face Trainer tech. Credit: Ziva Dynamics.

Unity Buys Ziva in Photoreal 3D Race; Game Makers Balk at Metaverse

By Mathew Olson · Jan 24, 2022 11:00am PST

Game engine maker Unity is acquiring Ziva Dynamics, a company that uses machine learning to make more lifelike and efficient models of human characters. Its tech opens the door to creating hyper-detailed characters (and not just photorealistic ones) for games and AR/VR apps while also more easily letting those characters interact with users in... Game engine maker Unity is acquiring Ziva Dynamics, a company that uses machine learning to make...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Tech’s Great Headhunter Shortage: Employers Shower Recruiters With Better Pay, Benefits

By Mark Matousek · Jan 24, 2022 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan

Tech’s Great Headhunter Shortage: Employers Shower Recruiters With Better Pay, Benefits

By Mark Matousek · Jan 24, 2022 6:00am PST · 2 comments

In the middle of 2020, not long after the Covid-19 pandemic began sparking layoffs across the country, Joe Price watched as eight members of the recruiting department at an automotive software company he worked for lost their jobs. It turned out to be a fleeting downturn in his field. By the end of the year, tech companies were bombarding Price... In the middle of 2020, not long after the Covid-19 pandemic began sparking layoffs across the...

VW is aiming the ID.4 at mainstream consumers. Photo: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg

What GM, Ford and VW Need to Do to Avoid Selling EVs At a Loss

By Steve LeVine · Jan 23, 2022 2:00pm PST

Welcome back to The Electric! The spiking cost of battery metals is wreaking havoc on the expected economics of early electric vehicles. This week, we look at some of the strategies the automakers will have to undertake to avoid huge losses on their sales. Major automakers seem prepared to proceed on schedule with the collective launch... Welcome back to The Electric! The spiking cost of battery metals is wreaking havoc on the...

Art by Haejin Park. Photograph courtesy of Caroline Spiegel.

The Information Weekend: The Queen of Audio Porn; the Temptation of the Sneakerheads; a Heretical Wedding; and Parentverse Takes Your Kid Questions

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 22, 2022 8:21am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!With apologies to next month’s annual Hallmark holiday, the theme of this weekend’s issue is love. Annie writes about a well-connected founder building an audio platform for better self-love. Malique talks to sneakerheads about their love of fresh Nikes and Adidas, and asks whether that love will translate... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!With apologies to next month’s annual Hallmark holiday, the theme of...

Photos courtesy Delian Asparouhov and Nadia Eghbal.

Scene and Heard

Meet the Couple Who Got Surprise-Married at Peter Thiel’s Hereticon Conference

By Margaux MacColl · Jan 22, 2022 7:00am PST · 8 comments

This year, Peter Thiel’s Hereticon conference changed lives. Some attendees left with fresh tattoos and piercings, others with a newfound belief in UFOs. But Delian Asparouhov and Nadia Eghbal arguably made the greatest leap of all: Between speeches about sex rings and sessions on hypnosis, the couple squeezed in a wedding. From the start,... This year, Peter Thiel’s Hereticon conference changed lives. Some attendees left with fresh ...

A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Bloomberg

Netflix Stock Slump Drags Down TV Stocks

By Martin Peers · Jan 21, 2022 5:00pm PST

A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Bloomberg

Netflix Stock Slump Drags Down TV Stocks

By Martin Peers · Jan 21, 2022 5:00pm PST

Greetings!Another day, another market sell-off. And things are getting a little indiscriminate. Take today’s 5% to 7% drop in the stocks of Disney, Discovery and ViacomCBS, apparently triggered by a 22% plunge in the price of Netflix. It’s a little like a teacher punishing an entire class for the misdeeds of one student. Penalizing TV stocks for... Greetings!Another day, another market sell-off. And things are getting a little indiscriminate....

Art by Mike Sullivan

Advertisers Love TikTok. Now They’re Looking to Double Their Spending on It.

By Sahil Patel · Jan 21, 2022 2:21pm PST

A top ad agency will triple its spending on TikTok this year to 5% of its roughly $2 billion social media ad budget, and TikTok’s share of the budget will double to 10% in 2023, a senior executive at the agency told The Information. At another ad agency, Mekanism, spending on TikTok has gone from zero a few years ago to roughly... A top ad agency will triple its spending on TikTok this year to 5% of its roughly $2 billion...

Art by Haejin Park.

Dear Parentverse: My 8-Year-Old Is Clamoring for Animal Crossing Amiibos—Any Reason to Say No?

By Emily Dreyfuss · Jan 21, 2022 12:00pm PST · 2 comments

This is Parentverse, The Information Weekend’s advice column for tech-savvy parents. Email us your questions at [email protected]. Or, if you don’t mind sharing them with your fellow subscribers, post them in the comments below. Dear Parentverse: My 8-year-old loves the game Animal Crossing, and she keeps pestering me about getting... This is Parentverse, The Information Weekend’s advice column for tech-savvy parents. Email us...

Illustration by Josh Brill.

The Shoe Industry Is Hyping Virtual Sneakers for the Metaverse. So Far, Real Sneakerheads Aren’t Buying

By Malique Morris · Jan 21, 2022 12:00pm PST

TJ Keasal has been dressing up her videogame characters in new-release Nikes and Adidas since she was in middle school. Long before Fortnite let players outfit their avatars, Keasal, a 32-year-old Michigan native, would win tokens in games like NBA Live and use them to upgrade her players’ on-court style with whatever was hottest at the time, be... TJ Keasal has been dressing up her videogame characters in new-release Nikes and Adidas since she...

Art by Haejin Park. Photo courtesy Caroline Spiegel.

Caroline Spiegel’s Porn Revolution

By Annie Goldsmith · Jan 21, 2022 12:00pm PST · 8 comments

Art by Haejin Park. Photo courtesy Caroline Spiegel.

Caroline Spiegel’s Porn Revolution

By Annie Goldsmith · Jan 21, 2022 12:00pm PST · 8 comments

Birds chirp and wind rustles through leaves—the sounds of early fall. “Man, it’s beautiful out here,” remarks a deep, crackly male voice. “All the trees, the green. The leaves are just starting to turn colors. “What are you looking at me like that for?” he continues, chuckling. “No, I know that look. You are up to something naughty. “Whoa, whoa,... Birds chirp and wind rustles through leaves—the sounds of early fall. “Man, it’s beautiful out...