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

Photo by Bloomberg

TikTok Still Has Key Software Developers in China Despite Effort to Move Offshore

By Juro Osawa, Amir Efrati and Shai Oster · Aug 26, 2021 12:11pm PDT · 1 comment

TikTok has worked to separate its operations from Chinese owner ByteDance, particularly as foreign governments have scrutinized or punished the video app over fears that Beijing could hijack it for its own purposes. TikTok is incorporated in California; its CEO sits in Singapore; its chief information security officer is based in the U.S.; and... TikTok has worked to separate its operations from Chinese owner ByteDance, particularly as...

Pico's Neo 3 Pro headset, a standalone VR device similar to the Quest 2. Credit: Pico Interactive

ByteDance Eyes a VR Hardware Acquisition

By Mathew Olson · Aug 26, 2021 11:00am PDT

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is considering purchasing the VR headset maker Pico Interactive. An acquisition could see Pico push its standalone headsets more aggressively as competition for Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2.Based in Beijing (with U.S. headquarters in San Francisco), Pico is already a leading consumer VR hardware maker in... ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is considering purchasing the VR headset maker Pico...

Illustration by Haejin Park

Apple Was the Most Secretive Company in Tech. Then it Developed a Slack Habit.

By Mark Di Stefano and Wayne Ma · Aug 26, 2021 6:00am PDT · 7 comments

There was a time when employees at Apple—long one of Silicon Valley’s most secretive companies—wouldn’t dare to speak openly about their employer in public without permission. Often they were too spooked to talk to colleagues in other parts of the company, if they could even figure out who they were. But in the past few... There was a time when employees at Apple—long one of Silicon Valley’s most secretive...

Facebook executive David Marcus. Photo: Facebook

Facebook’s David Marcus is Not a Fan of Dogecoin, Warns of Investor Risk With DeFi

By Hannah Miller · Aug 25, 2021 6:29pm PDT

Facebook executive David Marcus. Photo: Facebook

Facebook’s David Marcus is Not a Fan of Dogecoin, Warns of Investor Risk With DeFi

By Hannah Miller · Aug 25, 2021 6:29pm PDT

Facebook could soon be an important player in the cryptocurrency industry. That was one of my takeaways from interviewing David Marcus, Facebook’s top crypto exec. The social networking giant is pushing to launch its Novi digital wallet this year, even if the diem cryptocurrency that the company is helping to develop isn’t ready. (You can read... Facebook could soon be an important player in the cryptocurrency industry. That was one of my...

President Joe Biden (right) and Google CEO Sundar Pichai at a meeting at the White House on ransomware and other cybersecurity threats.

Jassy and Nadella Go to Washington

By Nick Wingfield · Aug 25, 2021 5:24pm PDT

The tech industry’s top CEOs made a pilgrimage to the White House on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the growing problem of ransomware and other cyber threats. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at that meeting to see the side-eye between Andy Jassy, Amazon’s new CEO, and Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s leader. The tech industry’s top CEOs made a pilgrimage to the White House on Wednesday afternoon to...

OnlyFans CEO Tim Stokely. Photo: OnlyFans.

Creator Economy

The Numbers Behind The OnlyFans Flip-Flop; Clubhouse Teases a Creator Marketplace

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 25, 2021 4:24pm PDT

OnlyFans is giving performers and observers serious whiplash. At first, the company banned sexually explicit content, although it said nudity would still be allowed. Less than a week later, it overturned the ban, saying it received “assurances” from banking partners that it can support payments for all types of creators.On one hand, the back and... OnlyFans is giving performers and observers serious whiplash. At first, the company banned...

Facebook executive David Marcus. Photo: Facebook

Q&A

Facebook’s David Marcus: Ready to Launch Crypto Wallet This Year

By Hannah Miller · Aug 25, 2021 3:09pm PDT · 1 comment

Facebook staff “feel pretty committed” to the launch this year of a digital wallet that would allow its 2.9 billion users to store cryptocurrencies, said David Marcus, the social network’s top crypto executive, in an extended interview with The Information. That release could potentially happen before the introduction of diem,... Facebook staff “feel pretty committed” to the launch this year of a digital wallet...

Tangle's 2D, AR-tracked avatars shown in a meeting window. Credit: Absurd Joy

Ex-VR Developers Unveil a Slack Competitor With AR Features

By Mathew Olson · Aug 25, 2021 11:00am PDT

Tangle's 2D, AR-tracked avatars shown in a meeting window. Credit: Absurd Joy

Ex-VR Developers Unveil a Slack Competitor With AR Features

By Mathew Olson · Aug 25, 2021 11:00am PDT

Famously, Slack did not start with the intention of creating a ubiquitous workplace communication app. The app instead grew out of the communication tools that the Slack team, then called Tiny Speck, used during game development. It seems like a new company named Absurd Joy (stylized as "absurd:joy") wants to chart a similar path with its... Famously, Slack did not start with the intention of creating a ubiquitous workplace communication...

Brex co-CEO Henrique Dubugras . Photo: Bloomberg

Brex Launches $150 Million Venture Debt Business

By Kate Clark · Aug 25, 2021 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Brex co-CEO Henrique Dubugras has had little trouble raising funding for his $7.4 billion valuation startup, which offers other startups high-limit charge cards. But he said he wishes he hadn’t given so much of his company’s stock to venture capitalists. Instead, he could have raised more money in the form of venture debt, loans... Brex co-CEO Henrique Dubugras has had little trouble raising funding for his $7.4 billion...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg

In Defense of Tim Cook

By Nick Wingfield · Aug 24, 2021 5:31pm PDT

Tuesday was a good day for Tim Cook. On the 10-year anniversary of his appointment as Apple CEO, tributes to his leadership of the company began flowing—drowning out, for a moment, the gripes from some of his critics.The most common of the Cook complaints is that Apple has lost its creative razzle-dazzle. His predecessor, Steve Jobs, hit a... Tuesday was a good day for Tim Cook. On the 10-year anniversary of his appointment as Apple CEO,...

Photo: Bloomberg

Creator Economy

The Race for Social Shopping is Wide Open; OnlyFans CEO Speaks Out

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 24, 2021 4:12pm PDT

Nearly every social network now offers some sort of in-app shopping, including Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest. And why not? These features could lead to new sources of income, say by sales commissions, and help attract creators, who often promote products. But despite the wide interest, it’s not clear how successful any of them have been.On... Nearly every social network now offers some sort of in-app shopping, including Instagram,...

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and his self-portrait Exploding the Self, which is being sold as an NFT next month. Photo by Luo Sang, courtesy of Cai Studio.

Stablecoin Wars Heat Up; A $999 High-Art NFT; Infrastructure Bill Is Back

By Hannah Miller · Aug 24, 2021 3:15pm PDT

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and his self-portrait Exploding the Self, which is being sold as an NFT next month. Photo by Luo Sang, courtesy of Cai Studio.

Stablecoin Wars Heat Up; A $999 High-Art NFT; Infrastructure Bill Is Back

By Hannah Miller · Aug 24, 2021 3:15pm PDT

Paxos, one of the smaller companies competing for share in the growing market for stablecoins, is undergoing an image makeover. The New York-based company said Tuesday that it renamed its Paxos Standard stablecoin as Pax Dollar, with USDP as its ticker symbol. Paxos said the change will help customers more easily grasp that USDP is backed by the... Paxos, one of the smaller companies competing for share in the growing market for stablecoins, is...

Sequoia Capital China's Neil Shen. Photo by Bloomberg

Sequoia Capital’s China Affiliate Launches Hedge Fund for Health, Biotech Stocks

By Juro Osawa · Aug 24, 2021 12:51pm PDT

Sequoia Capital China, the Chinese affiliate of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has quietly launched a new fund to buy and sell shares of publicly listed health and biotech companies, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. This marks the firm’s second hedge fund as the traditional boundaries between public and... Sequoia Capital China, the Chinese affiliate of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has...

A scene in "I Expect You to Die 2: The Spy and the Liar." Credit: Schell Games

A Veteran Designer Talks VR’s ‘Commodore 64 Moment’

By Mathew Olson · Aug 24, 2021 11:00am PDT

Game designer Jesse Schell, the CEO and founder of Schell Games, has worked on VR since the early ‘90s, pushing primitive hardware to its limits with teams of Disney Imagineers and student researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. Along the way, Schell also helped create one of VR gaming’s biggest hits: “I Expect You to Die,” a puzzler where... Game designer Jesse Schell, the CEO and founder of Schell Games, has worked on VR since the early...

David Sykes, head of Klarna North America. Photo: Klarna

Q&A

Klarna’s U.S. Chief: Expect a 12-Month ‘Land Grab’ in Buy Now, Pay Later Services

By Malique Morris and Mark Di Stefano · Aug 24, 2021 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Stockholm-based Klarna, the oldest and biggest of the payment firms dedicated to buy now, pay later services, isn’t a household name in the U.S. But that may soon change. Klarna has been going directly after deals with large U.S. retailers such as Macy’s, Sephora and Nike. Targeting big retailers—rather than focusing on deals... Stockholm-based Klarna, the oldest and biggest of the payment firms dedicated to buy now, pay...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg

Facebook's Own Goal on Giphy

By Amir Efrati · Aug 23, 2021 5:23pm PDT

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg

Facebook's Own Goal on Giphy

By Amir Efrati · Aug 23, 2021 5:23pm PDT

Last week, Federal Trade Commission lawyers made clumsy arguments when they refiled their antitrust case against Facebook. This week, it’s Facebook’s turn to look dumb and arrogant in its dealings with the FTC and the public.When Facebook acquired Giphy—a provider of animated GIFs—in May 2020, it structured the roughly $400 million deal in order... Last week, Federal Trade Commission lawyers made clumsy arguments when they refiled their...

Photos featured on the Accidentally Wes Anderson Instagram account. Photo credit: Wally Koval, @accidentallywesanderson, @sarahisle, @wherehayleygoes, @friiidaberg, @colewhitworth

Creator Economy

The OnlyFans Fallout Continues; Q&A With Instagram Account ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson’

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 23, 2021 4:10pm PDT

OnlyFans’ big announcement last week that it will ban sexually explicit content is still prompting a lot more questions from some performers—and observers—than answers. The latest: Over the weekend, OnlyFans responded to a backlash among sex workers to its policy change by acknowledging their importance to the U.K startup’s sucess. “The... OnlyFans’ big announcement last week that it will ban sexually explicit content is still...

Article Image Caption Tron CEO Justin Sun in Hong Kong in May, 2020. Sun said he spent $600,000 on an EtherRock. Photo: Bloomberg

PayPal Helps Push Bitcoin Past $50,000; The Problem With EtherRocks

By Hannah Miller · Aug 23, 2021 3:43pm PDT · 1 comment

The price of bitcoin crossed the $50,000 threshold for the first time since May on Sunday and then reached as high as $50,482 following news that PayPal now allows its customers in the U.K. to buy, hold and sell bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash. PayPal’s expansion marks the first time the payment service’s crypto offerings are... The price of bitcoin crossed the $50,000 threshold for the first time since May on Sunday and...

Jeremy King, Pinterest's head of engineering. Collage by Joanna Lin Su. Photo by Bloomberg

Q&A

How Pinterest Learned to Control Cloud Costs

By Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 23, 2021 2:25pm PDT · 6 comments

Like many other large Amazon Web Services customers, Pinterest at times has struggled to accurately forecast its cloud capacity needs in advance, causing it to pay for additional capacity at a higher price. But some of the measures implemented in recent years by Jeremy King, Pinterest’s head of engineering, show how the scrapbooking app... Like many other large Amazon Web Services customers, Pinterest at times has struggled to...

How Facebook Workrooms Compares to Other VR Work Apps

By Mathew Olson · Aug 23, 2021 11:00am PDT

How Facebook Workrooms Compares to Other VR Work Apps

By Mathew Olson · Aug 23, 2021 11:00am PDT

Facebook’s Workrooms is far from the only VR meeting app around. When comparing it against just a handful of its competitors on a limited set of features, it’s clear that there are many aspects of Workrooms that Facebook can improve. And there are many ways that apps from smaller companies have better features than Workrooms, at least for now.To... Facebook’s Workrooms is far from the only VR meeting app around. When comparing it against just a...