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

People wearing Oculus Go headsets in 2018. These devices have already been discontinued. Photo by Bloomberg.

How Facebook’s Open Standards Shift Will Cost AR/VR Developers

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

Facebook’s Oculus is going “all in” on support for OpenXR, a royalty-free open standard for AR and VR hardware, the company said Friday. You might think developers would welcome that move with open arms. Valve, Google, Microsoft, Unity, Epic Games have taken similar steps, so there’s clearly a broader move towards an open standard. Facebook... Facebook’s Oculus is going “all in” on support for OpenXR, a royalty-free open standard for AR...

Photo by Bloomberg.

China Tutoring Ban Hits ByteDance, Puts Tencent’s $3 Billion Stake in Danger

By Juro Osawa, Wayne Ma and Shai Oster · Jul 26, 2021 6:45am PDT

TikTok-owner ByteDance had made big plans for online education, hiring around 10,000 employees to tap a $100 billion market. China’s sudden ban of for-profit tutoring in school curriculum may have scuppered those plans. Some ByteDance employees who work on the company’s tutoring apps are already asking around for other job... TikTok-owner ByteDance had made big plans for online education, hiring around 10,000 employees to...

Salesforce president and chief operating officer Bret Taylor at a Salesforce conference in 2019. Photo provided by Salesforce

Bret Taylor Faces His Biggest Test at Salesforce

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 26, 2021 6:01am PDT · 3 comments

Five years ago, Salesforce paid $750 million to buy a startup called Quip that made an internet-based word processor and spreadsheet app meant to give Microsoft’s competing Office products a run for their money. That didn’t happen, but Salesforce did get a valuable asset out of the deal: Bret Taylor, Quip’s founder, who has... Five years ago, Salesforce paid $750 million to buy a startup called Quip that made an...

What Electric Vehicle Makers Don’t Get About BYD’s Game-Changing Battery

By Steve LeVine · Jul 25, 2021 2:09pm PDT

What Electric Vehicle Makers Don’t Get About BYD’s Game-Changing Battery

By Steve LeVine · Jul 25, 2021 2:09pm PDT

A BYD Dolphin powered by the Blade battery at the Auto Shanghai show in April. Photo by BloombergWelcome back to The Electric! (Our first two issues can be found here.)Save the date: We are excited to announce The Electric's first live video event on Aug. 10 at 11 a.m. PT with Yet-Ming Chiang, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor... A BYD Dolphin powered by the Blade battery at the Auto Shanghai show in April. Photo by Bloomberg...

Are Reporters Too Negative? Well, It Depends

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 24, 2021 7:45am PDT · 2 comments

These days, when I ask sources in Silicon Valley what I should write about, I get some version of: “The big story is really how great everything is going.”At that I roll my eyes. As a journalist, I’m wired to believe that the hype isn’t always as it appears. But lately I’ve been thinking more about the negative consequences of—well, being so... These days, when I ask sources in Silicon Valley what I should write about, I get some version...

Photo by Bloomberg

Cloudflare Complaint Pinpoints Amazon’s Antitrust Weak Spot

By Martin Peers · Jul 23, 2021 5:00pm PDT · 4 comments

Today’s blog post from top executives at Cloudflare blasting Amazon Web Services for the “egregious” fees it charges customers who move their data out of AWS’ servers raises an interesting question. Could the most fertile ground for pursuing antitrust action against Amazon lie in its cloud business, not the ecommerce business that gets all the... Today’s blog post from top executives at Cloudflare blasting Amazon Web Services for the “...

The Electric Flash Analysis: Why GM’s Bolt Recall Is a Bigger Crisis Than You Think

By Steve LeVine · Jul 23, 2021 2:32pm PDT

By issuing a recall of 69,000 electric Bolts on Friday following a series of battery-induced fires, General Motors was trying to stave off a potential crisis. But the totality of GM’s response to the problem has been so inadequate that it risks a crisis of confidence among its EV customers anyway.GM’s muddled response began in November, when it... By issuing a recall of 69,000 electric Bolts on Friday following a series of battery-induced...

Illustration by Danielle Davis.

Boxed, BuzzFeed Debt Deals Show New Financing Option for SPAC Mergers

By Berber Jin · Jul 23, 2021 11:24am PDT · 1 comment

Illustration by Danielle Davis.

Boxed, BuzzFeed Debt Deals Show New Financing Option for SPAC Mergers

By Berber Jin · Jul 23, 2021 11:24am PDT · 1 comment

In early March, when online retailer Boxed decided to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, it expected to raise $150 million by selling equity. But the company failed to attract investors, according to securities filings. To raise cash for its business—which Boxed estimated would lose $200 million before... In early March, when online retailer Boxed decided to go public through a merger with a special...

Matt Mochary. Illustration: Mike Sullivan

The Coach Behind the Coinbase and Robinhood CEOs

By Kate Clark · Jul 23, 2021 6:01am PDT · 2 comments

Matt Mochary was on a high. AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant had just told the leadership consultant and former startup founder that their 90-minute session had solved a problem Ravikant had been grappling with for decades. “He coached me out of my pit,” Ravikant later wrote in a review of Mochary’s 2019 book, “The Great CEO... Matt Mochary was on a high. AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant had just told the leadership consultant...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Bloomberg

Snap, Twitter Show Digital Ad Market is Booming

By Martin Peers · Jul 22, 2021 4:59pm PDT

Digital advertising was on fire in the second quarter, judging by results from Twitter and Snap today. That implies next week’s reports from Facebook and Alphabet could be even stronger than anticipated.Snap reported a stunning 116% top line increase, lifting its quarterly revenue to nearly $1 billion dollars. That means Snap’s growth rate has... Digital advertising was on fire in the second quarter, judging by results from Twitter and Snap...

Photo: Bloomberg

Creator Economy

What Snap Didn’t Say About Spotlight

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 22, 2021 4:28pm PDT

Snap’s second-quarter results left us with a lot of questions about how its TikTok competitor Spotlight is performing. The company’s splashy pledge last year to give away $1 million every day to people who make the most viewed short videos on Spotlight gave it an immediate boost. That program propelled the feature to 125 million monthly... Snap’s second-quarter results left us with a lot of questions about how its TikTok competitor...

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao

Binance’s Robinhood Moment, Jack Dorsey’s Favorite Miner

By Hannah Miller · Jul 22, 2021 3:07pm PDT

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao

Binance’s Robinhood Moment, Jack Dorsey’s Favorite Miner

By Hannah Miller · Jul 22, 2021 3:07pm PDT

Is Binance experiencing a case of bad news being a good thing? On Thursday, NatWest became the third major U.K. bank to block customers from making payments to Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, after local regulators last month banned the app without stating a reason—other than issuing a public warning about crypto’s... Is Binance experiencing a case of bad news being a good thing? On Thursday, NatWest became the...

A 3D display. Photo by Looking Glass Factory.

Why 3D Displays Deserve More Respect in AR/VR

By Mathew Olson · Jul 22, 2021 11:00am PDT

The conventional wisdom in AR and VR nowadays is that glasses and headsets will gradually come to replace most existing screens, especially as more content becomes available in 3D. Are proponents of that view missing the bigger picture?After all, companies like Sony and Google are pouring work into 3D screen tech, which won’t require accessory... The conventional wisdom in AR and VR nowadays is that glasses and headsets will gradually come to...

The Robotics Startup That Got Away (From Amazon)

By Mark Di Stefano · Jul 22, 2021 10:28am PDT · 3 comments

When Jeff Bezos attended a private robotics and artificial intelligence event in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2018, one presentation in particular caught the attention of the Amazon founder. It was a demonstration conducted by a frizzy-haired University of California, Berkeley, professor named Ken Goldberg, showing off a robot that could deftly pick... When Jeff Bezos attended a private robotics and artificial intelligence event in Palm Springs,...

Amazon streaming chief Mike Hopkins. Photos: AP; MGM

Mike Hopkins Wants to Make Amazon a Hollywood Powerhouse. MGM is Just the Start.

By Jessica Toonkel · Jul 22, 2021 6:01am PDT

Mike Hopkins had barely gotten his Amazon employee badge when Prime Video, the streaming service he oversaw for the internet retailer, had a possible crisis on its hands. Months after Hopkins joined Amazon in February 2020, one of the largest media and entertainment companies, WarnerMedia, started hinting it would no longer sell its television... Mike Hopkins had barely gotten his Amazon employee badge when Prime Video, the streaming service...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.

Salesforce Faces Skeptical Wall Street as Slack Deal closes

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.

Salesforce Faces Skeptical Wall Street as Slack Deal closes

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Salesforce completed its $27.7 billion purchase of Slack Technologies today, thus ending Slack’s roughly two-year sojourn as a public company. No one who bought Slack at the beginning would put it down as a barn burner of an investment. Slack shares began trading in June 2019 at just above $38 and the effective sales price is around $45.50. That... Salesforce completed its $27.7 billion purchase of Slack Technologies today, thus ending Slack’s...

Images of live-shopping app NTWRK. Photo: NTWRK

Creator Economy

How Live-Shopping Startups Compete

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 21, 2021 4:00pm PDT

As our latest table below shows, the race to find the modern version of QVC is getting crowded. At least six startups are competing to win customers with live shopping. And Amazon and Facebook are also making inroads.Here’s how the field looks: Most live-shopping services share features such as creator or celebrity hosts, commenting in real-time... As our latest table below shows, the race to find the modern version of QVC is getting crowded....

Autograph co-founder Tom Brady at the White House on Tuesday.

Tom Brady’s NFT Bump, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Bitcoin ‘Pump’

By Hannah Miller · Jul 21, 2021 3:27pm PDT

While Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and other high-profile crypto cheerleaders tried to shore up confidence in bitcoin during an online event on Wednesday, several sports stars made a bigger splash. Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter, Naomi Osaka and Tony Hawk said they signed exclusive, multi-year deals to produce non-fungible tokens with... While Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and other high-profile crypto cheerleaders tried to shore up...

How SketchFab announced it was being acquired by Epic Games. Image by SketchFab

Epic Games Pushes Further Into AR and VR; a Swan Song for Oculus Rift

By Mathew Olson · Jul 21, 2021 11:00am PDT

Epic Games’ planned purchase of Sketchfab, announced this morning, is the clearest sign yet that the maker of Fortnite takes AR and VR seriously.Sketchfab is a New York-based startup best known for its 3D asset marketplace where users can upload and sell ready-made 3D models for use in videogames, 3D animations or AR and VR experiences. Since... Epic Games’ planned purchase of Sketchfab, announced this morning, is the clearest sign yet that...

Robinhood’s Biggest IPO Winners

By Kate Clark · Jul 21, 2021 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Robinhood’s Biggest IPO Winners

By Kate Clark · Jul 21, 2021 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

When Robinhood was raising its early funding rounds, co-founder Baiju Bhatt kept a journal. In it were pages filled with the names of over 100 investors, most of them accompanied by an “X” mark to indicate they had passed on the investment, said an early investor who saw the journal. Those who were less skeptical of a commission-free... When Robinhood was raising its early funding rounds, co-founder Baiju Bhatt kept a journal. In it...