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

An image from Warplanes: WW1 Fighters, the first App Lab game to later be released on the official Quest store. Credit: Home Net Games

Oculus’s App Lab Overload

By Mathew Olson · Aug 12, 2021 11:00am PDT

Facebook’s approach to the Quest’s VR app store is intended to make sure that users see a wide variety of vetted, quality VR releases. For many VR developers, though, the bottleneck between them and the store seems impassable. One result is that the App Lab, a sort of shadow app store Facebook launched in February, is piling up with games and... Facebook’s approach to the Quest’s VR app store is intended to make sure that users see a wide...

Illustration by Danielle Davis

The Dark Side of the Funding Boom: Skimpy Due Diligence, Burnout

By Kate Clark · Aug 12, 2021 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Eye-popping valuations. Mega rounds. Lawyers so busy they’re turning away clients. It may seem like the greatest moment in history to be a venture capitalist, founder or one of the many service providers that caters to startups. But a grim reality underlies the pace of such a frenetic market: burnout. Many venture capitalists,... Eye-popping valuations. Mega rounds. Lawyers so busy they’re turning away clients. It may...

A DoorDash delivery person. Photo by Bloomberg

What Instacart’s Failed Deal Outreach Reveals

By Martin Peers · Aug 11, 2021 5:00pm PDT

It’s becoming clear that Instacart over the past six months or so has been a company in an almost constant state of turmoil. Our story today that Instacart initiated talks both with DoorDash—looking for a merger—and Uber—looking for a sales partnership—is an extraordinary insight into the challenges Instacart faces.We already knew that Instacart... It’s becoming clear that Instacart over the past six months or so has been a company in an almost...

Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. Credit: Quora

Quora CEO D’Angelo On Paying its Writers; High Schoolers Love Shared Calendars

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 11, 2021 4:00pm PDT

Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. Credit: Quora

Creator Economy

Quora CEO D’Angelo On Paying its Writers; High Schoolers Love Shared Calendars

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 11, 2021 4:00pm PDT

Question-and-answer sites can feel like a forgotten era of an older internet. Yahoo Answers, founded in 2005, shut down this year. But Quora, started four years later, is chugging along—and reinventing itself. Last week the company announced new subscription products aimed at creators, or the popular writers, on its site. On Tuesday, I... Question-and-answer sites can feel like a forgotten era of an older internet. Yahoo Answers,...

Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta. Photo by Bloomberg.

DoorDash Recently Held Talks to Buy Instacart

By Josh Sisco, Martin Peers and Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 11, 2021 3:36pm PDT · 2 comments

DoorDash held talks to buy Instacart over the past two months, say people familiar with the situation, for a price that likely would have been between $40 billion and $50 billion. It would have combined a leading restaurant-delivery service with one of the leading grocery-delivery services. But the talks fell apart in recent weeks, at least... DoorDash held talks to buy Instacart over the past two months, say people familiar with the...

SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Photo: Bloomberg

Inside the $600 Million DeFi Hack; Gensler’s Crypto Power Push

By Hannah Miller · Aug 11, 2021 3:07pm PDT · 1 comment

A $600 million theft in crypto assets, one of the biggest exploits in cryptocurrency history, made a surprise twist on Wednesday: an unnamed hacker returned almost half of the stolen money.While that’s good news for PolyNetwork, the platform hit by the hack, as well as its users, the hacker’s give-back does little to soften the ‘buyer beware’... A $600 million theft in crypto assets, one of the biggest exploits in cryptocurrency history,...

Unity CEO John Riccitiello. Photo by Bloomberg

Unity’s Parsec Purchase; John Hanke’s Metaverse Alternative

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

Unity Technologies’s $320 million purchase of desktop streaming company Parsec, unveiled yesterday, may one day shape videogames or AR/VR apps built with Unity. But in the near term, the deal gives Unity more of an opportunity to capitalize on a shift to remote work.Amongst the many streaming products that let users access and control a PC... Unity Technologies’s $320 million purchase of desktop streaming company Parsec, unveiled...

Illustration by Jesus Escudero

How Three Startups Are Racing to Beat Amazon in One-Click Checkouts

By Malique Morris · Aug 11, 2021 10:55am PDT

Illustration by Jesus Escudero

How Three Startups Are Racing to Beat Amazon in One-Click Checkouts

By Malique Morris · Aug 11, 2021 10:55am PDT

For more than a decade, Amazon’s one-click–checkout feature gave it an edge over other online retailers by eliminating the hassle of reentering passwords and payment information. Then four years ago, the patent for that process expired. That has opened the door to a cluster of startups that have developed similar technology for... For more than a decade, Amazon’s one-click–checkout feature gave it an edge over...

Photo by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan

How Ruth Porat Tamed Google’s Spending Binge

By Sarah Krouse · Aug 11, 2021 6:01am PDT · 8 comments

For several years, a team inside X—the secretive research lab within Alphabet, Google’s parent company—has been working on a gadget to give people augmented-hearing abilities that would let them listen to select voices in a crowd. Recently, though, X told the team that they would no longer be pursuing the project, known as... For several years, a team inside X—the secretive research lab within Alphabet,...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo by Bloomberg

SoftBank’s Son Doubles Down on Personal Risk Exposure

By Martin Peers · Aug 10, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Investing in tech is, by definition, a risky endeavor, given the high failure rate of new enterprises. But SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, whose tolerance for risk has always been unusually high, is doubling down on his personal exposure. Son revealed on Tuesday that he plans to invest $2.6 billion personally in the company’s Vision Fund 2, which he... Investing in tech is, by definition, a risky endeavor, given the high failure rate of new...

Photo credit: Bloomberg

Creator Economy

How YouTube’s Crackdown on Unboxing Videos Could Play Out

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 10, 2021 4:27pm PDT

New moves by YouTube to better protect minors could have consequences for social media creators who create toy-focused videos for children. On Tuesday, YouTube and its parent company Google announced new safety features for users under 18, following a similar move by Instagram last month. Changes include allowing minors to ask for their... New moves by YouTube to better protect minors could have consequences for social media creators...

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. Photo by Bloomberg

FTC Investigating Uber’s Gopuff Partnership Alongside Drizly Deal

By Josh Sisco and Mark Di Stefano · Aug 10, 2021 3:45pm PDT

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. Photo by Bloomberg

FTC Investigating Uber’s Gopuff Partnership Alongside Drizly Deal

By Josh Sisco and Mark Di Stefano · Aug 10, 2021 3:45pm PDT

The Federal Trade Commission is scrutinizing a partnership struck in May between Uber and Gopuff that allows people to order items from Gopuff through the Uber Eats delivery app, according to two people familiar with the matter and a document seen by The Information. The FTC is looking to see whether the agreement could hamper competition in... The Federal Trade Commission is scrutinizing a partnership struck in May between Uber and Gopuff...

An image from ZED RUN, an online game that allows players to race, breed and sell NFT horses. Photo: Virtually Human Studio

The Rise of NFT Gaming; Infrastructure Bill Passes the Senate

By Hannah Miller · Aug 10, 2021 3:01pm PDT

The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed the Senate on Tuesday without any changes to language surrounding new tax-reporting requirements for cryptocurrency businesses. Despite two competing amendments that aimed to narrow and clarify which types of companies would have to follow these proposed rules, neither made it to the final bill, which is... The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed the Senate on Tuesday without any changes to language...

Kat Harris, a developer, wearing Snap's AR Spectacles. Photo by Snap

Snap Hires AR Leader From Facebook; Niantic’s Scanning Acquisition

By Mathew Olson · Aug 10, 2021 11:00am PDT

Snap’s hiring on Monday of Facebook AR executive Joe Darko to oversee AR Developer Relations demonstrates just how much Snap and Facebook are vying for not only the same consumers but even the same pool of AR developers and creators.Darko helped launch the Spark AR Partner Network in his time as the global lead for Facebook’s AR ecosystem. His... Snap’s hiring on Monday of Facebook AR executive Joe Darko to oversee AR Developer Relations...

Amazon Ad Prices Surge, As Demand From Sellers Intensifies

By Mark Di Stefano · Aug 10, 2021 6:01am PDT · 3 comments

The cost to place key ads on Amazon’s main marketplace has surged more than a third since the start of the pandemic, a sign of the intense demand among merchants to promote their wares on the platform. But the rapid rise in ad prices also raises the possibility that Amazon may be pricing itself out of the picture for many sellers. Consumer... The cost to place key ads on Amazon’s main marketplace has surged more than a third since...

The Electric Flash Analysis: Researchers Resurrect the “Air” Battery, But Cost Remains An Issue

By Steve LeVine · Aug 10, 2021 3:00am PDT

The Electric Flash Analysis: Researchers Resurrect the “Air” Battery, But Cost Remains An Issue

By Steve LeVine · Aug 10, 2021 3:00am PDT

Form co-founder Yet-Ming Chiang. Photo by Bloomberg.Two weeks ago, Form Energy, a Massachusetts startup with celebrity founders and funders, attracted much battery industry attention by publicizing an exotic “iron-air battery,” a long-lasting technology it said was so cheap that it would undercut natural gas in electricity generation.Today, a... Form co-founder Yet-Ming Chiang. Photo by Bloomberg.Two weeks ago, Form Energy, a Massachusetts...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Unsurprising Reality Behind the Apple Privacy Storm

By Martin Peers · Aug 9, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Nuance and complexity don’t translate well in today’s news media, so you can reliably bet that any time a complicated story is dominating the headlines, some key facts are astray. Witness the Apple child safety controversy of the past few days. Based on an Apple’s memo today, and a more thoughtful analysis published by Apple-watcher John Gruber,... Nuance and complexity don’t translate well in today’s news media, so you can reliably bet that...

Creator Economy

All Social Networks Look The Same Now

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 9, 2021 4:03pm PDT

Our latest chart shows how many features social media networks have in common, ranging from livestreaming to TikTok competitors and shopping. It’s a sign of the social media market maturing, similar to how smartphones and laptops now share similar interfaces and functions. The pandemic has also made competition even more fierce among social... Our latest chart shows how many features social media networks have in common, ranging from...

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., speaks as Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, listens at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Monday. Photo: Bloomberg. Illustration: Mike Sullivan

Crypto Tax Plan in Limbo; Circle Wants to Become a Bank

By Hannah Miller · Aug 9, 2021 3:03pm PDT

The bipartisan infrastructure bill has thrust the cryptocurrency industry into the national spotlight. And until Monday afternoon, it looked like the industry was headed for a major victory.Earlier Monday, a group of five senators from both political parties said they had worked with the U.S. Treasury Department to clarify language in the bill... The bipartisan infrastructure bill has thrust the cryptocurrency industry into the national...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Six Networking Startups to Watch

By Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 9, 2021 12:50pm PDT · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan

Six Networking Startups to Watch

By Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 9, 2021 12:50pm PDT · 1 comment

Chipmaker Marvell’s $1.1 billion acquisition last week of Innovium, a chip startup that competes with networking chip behemoth Broadcom, signaled a major shift in the chip market. After years in which investors had shied away from putting money into the networking sector, nervous about taking on Broadcom, attitudes have changed. A variety... Chipmaker Marvell’s $1.1 billion acquisition last week of Innovium, a chip startup that...