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

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Recent Editions

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Startups Shouldn’t Worry About Inflation

By Tomasz Tunguz · Feb 9, 2022 9:00am PST · 3 comments

Startups have enjoyed a phenomenal decade. The confluence of low interest rates and flat costs enabled a thousand $1 billion flowers to bloom. To start off 2022, inflation has surged to multidecade highs. Meanwhile, the Fed hasn’t minced words in declaring its intent to raise interest rates. The market’s swift response: Valuation... Startups have enjoyed a phenomenal decade. The confluence of low interest rates and flat costs...

Illustration by Jesus Escudero

From TikTok to Twitch, Employees Juggle Conflicts While Moonlighting as Influencers

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 9, 2022 6:00am PST

When Jenna Palek applied for a sales position at TikTok in the spring of 2020, she did something creative to help her get hired: She posted a 58-second clip of herself on the short video–sharing app highlighting her qualifications while performing dance moves popularized on TikTok. It worked. Palek nabbed the job after the video went... When Jenna Palek applied for a sales position at TikTok in the spring of 2020, she did something...

Etoro is among the crypto companies planning to go public via a SPAC this year. Photo: Bloomberg

A Wave of Crypto SPACs Approaches; Katie Haun’s Newest Hire

By Aidan Ryan · Feb 8, 2022 5:51pm PST

Can a wave of crypto SPACs shake the IPO market out of its doldrums? A group of blockchain startups and their merger partners is going to try. Despite a slow start for public listings this year, at least two crypto startups have already announced plans to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company this year. More are... Can a wave of crypto SPACs shake the IPO market out of its doldrums? A group of blockchain...

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Demise of Nvidia-Arm Deal Says About Regulators’ Impact

By Martin Peers · Feb 8, 2022 5:00pm PST

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Demise of Nvidia-Arm Deal Says About Regulators’ Impact

By Martin Peers · Feb 8, 2022 5:00pm PST

It’s been an action-packed 24 hours in tech and, unlike most of the past month, the stock market didn’t drive today’s developments. If there is a common thread running through the latest news, it’s the specter of big tech companies expanding their market power. That’s most obviously true in Nvidia’s abandonment of its Arm acquisition, confirmed... It’s been an action-packed 24 hours in tech and, unlike most of the past month, the stock market...

How Often Meta and Facebook Execs Have Mentioned Reels (Chart)

Creator Economy

How Often Meta and Facebook Execs Have Mentioned Reels (Chart)

By Mahira Dayal · Feb 8, 2022 3:30pm PST

Meta Platforms’ earnings call last week was a clear indication of what the owner of Facebook and Instagram is focused on this year: Reels. In the earnings call for the fourth quarter, executives mentioned Reels 34 times and analysts used it another six, according to a transcript of the call. Combined, the 40 instances amount to a mention of the... Meta Platforms’ earnings call last week was a clear indication of what the owner of Facebook and...

From left: An Amazon fulfillment center, GoPuff advertisements in NYC; Instacart workers in a grocery store. Photos by Bloomberg

Amazon Talent Decamps For Instacart, Gopuff by the Hundreds

By Paris Martineau · Feb 8, 2022 1:35pm PST · 1 comment

Amazon has lost at least 200 corporate employees who defected to Instacart and Gopuff over the past year as the two delivery players scooped up talent to expand their logistics operations and build out their advertising businesses. Instacart’s and Gopuff’s hiring, the scope of which hasn’t previously been reported, includes... Amazon has lost at least 200 corporate employees who defected to Instacart and Gopuff over the...

A promotional image for Meta's upcoming Quest 2 Super Bowl ad campaign. Credit: Meta Platforms.

VR and AR at the Super Bowl; Tobii’s CEO on the Rise of Eye Tracking

By Mathew Olson · Feb 8, 2022 11:00am PST

Super Bowl ads don’t come cheap. This year, broadcaster NBC said that some 30-second spots sold for up to $7 million, setting a new record for what’s routinely the most-watched U.S. sports event. And this Sunday’s game is poised to include some of the biggest advertising pushes for immersive tech yet.Pepsi will integrate AR features as part of... Super Bowl ads don’t come cheap. This year, broadcaster NBC said that some 30-second spots sold...

Meta Platforms Org Chart: The Leaders Driving a Make-or-Break Reinvention

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Feb 8, 2022 6:00am PST

Meta Platforms Org Chart: The Leaders Driving a Make-or-Break Reinvention

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Feb 8, 2022 6:00am PST

As Facebook owner Meta Platforms charts an uncertain new direction into what CEO Mark Zuckerberg refers to as the metaverse, teams across the business have been undergoing shakeups amid a string of executive departures. More than 40 changes are reflected in our updated org chart of around 160 senior executives and managers at Meta, including... As Facebook owner Meta Platforms charts an uncertain new direction into what CEO Mark Zuckerberg...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son (left) and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

Nvidia Disarmed: What’s Next After Aborted $66 Billion Acquisition of SoftBank-Owned Arm

By Josh Sisco and Stephen Nellis · Feb 7, 2022 8:57pm PST

Nvidia has called off its $66 billion acquisition of chip design firm Arm Holdings, ending an 18-month regulatory review process that had long been doomed because the deal drew opposition from many quarters of the semiconductor industry that depend on Arm’s technology. But the megadeal’s demise, first reported by the Financial Times... Nvidia has called off its $66 billion acquisition of chip design firm Arm Holdings, ending an...

A Coinbase sign in New York at the time of its April direct listing. Photo: Bloomberg

How Coinbase Reaped Rich Rewards for Late-Stage Private Investors

By Aidan Ryan · Feb 7, 2022 5:15pm PST

Coinbase has proven to be a disappointment for investors who bought soon after the crypto exchange’s April direct listing. But that’s far from the case with the handful of venture firms that snapped up shares in the company’s last private fundraising. As I wrote in a story on Friday, Tiger Global Management is a big winner here: Coinbase... Coinbase has proven to be a disappointment for investors who bought soon after the crypto...

A Rivian truck driving past the Nasdaq in New York the day of Rivian's IPO. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Problem With Amazon’s Big Rivian Gain

By Martin Peers · Feb 7, 2022 5:00pm PST

Here’s a puzzle: Did Amazon’s fourth-quarter profit rise or fall? Depending on what you read, it could be either. One metric, Amazon’s net income, nearly doubled while another, slightly nerdier metric called operating profits, fell by about half. It might sound confusing. But all anyone needs to know is that the net income increase was... Here’s a puzzle: Did Amazon’s fourth-quarter profit rise or fall? Depending on what you read, it...

Riley Bell, the creator behind the Instagram account @memequeen. Photo: Riley Bell

Why Static Video Memes Are All Over Instagram

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 7, 2022 3:39pm PST

Riley Bell, the creator behind the Instagram account @memequeen. Photo: Riley Bell

Creator Economy

Why Static Video Memes Are All Over Instagram

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 7, 2022 3:39pm PST

A quirky form of video posts has taken over Instagram, the consequence of Meta Platforms’ recent push to prioritize Reels and other videos on its Facebook and Instagram apps as it counters the rise of rival TikTok. I’m dubbing this creator growth hack the static video meme. Here’s how it works: Creators who run photo-focused accounts, such... A quirky form of video posts has taken over Instagram, the consequence of Meta Platforms’ recent...

An illustration of the new "personal boundary" system in Horizon Worlds. Credit: Meta.

Meta’s Personal Space Patch; PC VR Figures and an Earnings Roundup

By Mathew Olson · Feb 7, 2022 11:00am PST

To sell people on the potential of AR and VR, Meta Platforms has often referred to “superpowers” that the technology can grant people, such as teleportation. Meta wants people to embrace these ideas not as sci-fi fancies, but as shorthand for how people will go about their lives with the aid of the metaverse. But a problem arises whenever Meta... To sell people on the potential of AR and VR, Meta Platforms has often referred to “superpowers”...

Illustration by Josh Brill

Why Netflix Rivals Are Ditching Binge Watching

By Jessica Toonkel · Feb 7, 2022 10:30am PST · 4 comments

Netflix turned itself into an entertainment empire by getting the world hooked on binge watching. That used to be a model rivals tried to copy, but now it’s starting to look outdated. Cranking out entire original seasons to drop all at once is costly, and viewership can be hit or miss. And if users are accustomed to the instant... Netflix turned itself into an entertainment empire by getting the world hooked on binge watching....

Photo by Bloomberg

Uber and Its Delivery Rivals Reveal Closely Guarded Data to Antitrust Investigators

By Josh Sisco · Feb 7, 2022 6:00am PST

Last October, Uber completed its $1.1 billion purchase of alcohol-delivery startup Drizly and began integrating the business into its Uber Eats food-delivery operation. But the Federal Trade Commission isn’t done reviewing the acquisition. A team of FTC lawyers in New York is scrutinizing the deal as part of a broader probe of whether Uber... Last October, Uber completed its $1.1 billion purchase of alcohol-delivery startup Drizly and...

Jagdeep Singh, CEO of QuantumScape. Photo: Courtesy QuantumScape

QuantumScape’s Fast-Charging Claims Have Sparked a Backlash

By Steve LeVine · Feb 6, 2022 2:00pm PST

Jagdeep Singh, CEO of QuantumScape. Photo: Courtesy QuantumScape

QuantumScape’s Fast-Charging Claims Have Sparked a Backlash

By Steve LeVine · Feb 6, 2022 2:00pm PST

Welcome back to The Electric! Save the date: As it has done for decades with oil and OPEC, the world is relying on a single point of supply for its future electric vehicle batteries—China. But how can the U.S. and Europe catch up and establish their own, competitive battery metals supply chain? One answer: by reinventing how battery metals... Welcome back to The Electric! Save the date: As it has done for decades with oil and OPEC,...

Tired of Being Sidelined by 'Another Boy's Club,' Women Are Demanding Their Piece of the Crypto Pie

Tired of Being Sidelined by 'Another Boy's Club,' Women Are Demanding Their Piece of the Crypto Pie

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 5, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Is there a cryptocurrency linked to schadenfreude? Because you can bet its price would have skyrocketed this week on the news of Meta suffering the biggest wipeout in U.S. corporate history, losing $230 billion in market value in a single day. It’s a safe bet that no tech company in history has built up the ill will... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Is there a cryptocurrency linked to schadenfreude? Because you can...

Art by Haejin Park.

Death of a Duopoly: Why It’s Time to Reconsider the Facebook-Google Rivalry

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 5, 2022 5:00am PST · 4 comments

Before I was an entrepreneur, my career as a tech journalist was marked by covering one story: the rise of the Facebook and Google advertising duopoly and everything it shaped.I started following Facebook as a cub college reporter when it had a few hundred users. Google was my first big corporate beat at The Wall Street Journal, and I spent... Before I was an entrepreneur, my career as a tech journalist was marked by covering one story:...

Meta Platforms' Menlo Park headquarters. Photo by Bloomberg.

Believing in Zuckerberg’s Startup Chops

By Martin Peers · Feb 4, 2022 5:00pm PST

Here’s a question for investors and employees contemplating Meta Platforms after this week’s stock drop: Do you think Mark Zuckerberg can do it again? If you believe the co-founder of Facebook still has the startup chops to turn Meta’s metaverse investment into a lucrative business, then you’re probably going to be buying Meta stock right now.... Here’s a question for investors and employees contemplating Meta Platforms after this week’s...

From top, Brit Morin, Tyra Banks, Jaime Schmidt and Mila Kunis. Art by Haejin Park. Photographs AP and courtesy BFF.

‘The Boys Are Getting Loaded Rich.’ Now Women-Led Crypto Groups Demand Their Turn

By Kate Clark · Feb 4, 2022 12:30pm PST · 1 comment

From top, Brit Morin, Tyra Banks, Jaime Schmidt and Mila Kunis. Art by Haejin Park. Photographs AP and courtesy BFF.

‘The Boys Are Getting Loaded Rich.’ Now Women-Led Crypto Groups Demand Their Turn

By Kate Clark · Feb 4, 2022 12:30pm PST · 1 comment

For Mila Kunis, the actress known for her starring roles in “That ’70s Show,” “Bad Moms” and “Black Swan,” the journey down the crypto rabbit hole involved a lot of lost sleep and some new gray hairs. As she developed the adult animated series “Stoner Cats”, which launched last summer with a collection of non-fungible tokens that grossed $8... For Mila Kunis, the actress known for her starring roles in “That ’70s Show,” “Bad Moms” and “...