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

Apple CEO Tim Cook and executive Eddy Cue during the 2019 Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley. Photo by Bloomberg.

At Sun Valley, Tech Rifts, Media Talks in Spotlight

By Jessica Toonkel · Jul 1, 2021 6:01am PDT

Media and tech executives gather at Allen & Co.’s conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, next week, for the first time since 2019—and they’re at a crossroads for their industries. Most of the entertainment media is in the middle of a transition to streaming, with companies jostling for an edge. And tech titans are battling... Media and tech executives gather at Allen & Co.’s conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, next...

Didi's office in Hangzhou, China. Photo by Bloomberg.

Didi’s Uninspiring Public Debut

By Martin Peers · Jun 30, 2021 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

Executives at Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global can relax. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange today and, hey, it went up! Not by much—1%—but that’s better than Uber achieved two years ago. Yes, when it comes to ride hailing and Wall Street, the bar for success is low.You can’t blame investors for being dubious about the... Executives at Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global can relax. The company went public on the...

Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. Photo: Cameo

Creator Economy

Cameo Targets $200 Million-Plus in Video Sales This Year

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 30, 2021 4:22pm PDT

The pandemic shut-downs proved to be great for Cameo’s business of selling personalized video messages from celebrities such as Snoop Dogg or “Tiger King” star Carole Baskin. After growing faster than it expected last year, the startup, which takes a 25% cut of these video sales, aims to book $200 million to $300 million in celebrity shoutouts... The pandemic shut-downs proved to be great for Cameo’s business of selling personalized video...

Safety Standards Trends for Autonomous Vehicles

By The Information Staff · Jun 30, 2021 4:02pm PDT · 1 comment

Safety Standards Trends for Autonomous Vehicles

By The Information Staff · Jun 30, 2021 4:02pm PDT · 1 comment

The Information hosted a breakout session on “Proving the Robots are Safe” at our annual Autonomous Vehicles Summit. The conversation, hosted in partnership with deep-learning AI software provider Deepen AI, also included executives from robotaxi developer Motional and delivery robot maker Nuro. The discussion focused on how industry... The Information hosted a breakout session on “Proving the Robots are Safe” at our...

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, shown in 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Coinbase’s App Store Ambitions; BitGo’s Coin Vaults

By Hannah Miller · Jun 30, 2021 2:49pm PDT

Apple’s legal battle over its control of the App Store hasn’t swayed Coinbase from wanting to become the cryptocurrency equivalent of the tech giant when it comes to selling apps. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post Tuesday that he wants to open a marketplace for decentralized apps, which run on blockchains and other... Apple’s legal battle over its control of the App Store hasn’t swayed Coinbase from wanting to...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo by Bloomberg

SoftBank’s $12 Billion Bet on Didi Returns 14%

By Amir Efrati, Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Jun 30, 2021 2:31pm PDT · 2 comments

SoftBank Group has been hailed as a big winner from Didi Chuxing’s initial public offering on Wednesday. But in actuality, its returns are piddly. SoftBank invested a total of around $12 billion in the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. Based on Didi’s closing price today of $14.14—up 1% from its IPO... SoftBank Group has been hailed as a big winner from Didi Chuxing’s initial public offering...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Bloomberg

Snap’s Viber Deal Shows Spiegel’s Long Term Play

By Mathew Olson · Jun 30, 2021 11:00am PDT

When it comes to AR, Snap’s Evan Spiegel truly is playing the long game.That is particularly evident in a partnership announced today between Snap and the messaging app Rakuten Viber, in which Viber will incorporate Snap’s AR technology into its app. We don’t know whether Snap makes much money from this, as terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.... When it comes to AR, Snap’s Evan Spiegel truly is playing the long game.That is particularly...

Jack Antonoff of Bleachers performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2019. Photo by AP

Spotify Explores Expansion Into Events

By Jessica Toonkel · Jun 30, 2021 9:00am PDT

Jack Antonoff of Bleachers performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2019. Photo by AP

Spotify Explores Expansion Into Events

By Jessica Toonkel · Jun 30, 2021 9:00am PDT

Spotify is considering entering the events business, using data about consumer interests gleaned from its music-streaming service to host virtual and possibly live concerts, according to people familiar with the situation. The move could help Spotify improve its relations with music artists, which historically have been strained, with musicians... Spotify is considering entering the events business, using data about consumer interests gleaned...

Image courtesy of Waymo

Investors Pressured Waymo to Focus on Business Sooner

By Sarah Krouse · Jun 30, 2021 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

When dozens of self-driving Jaguar prototypes developed by Alphabet’s Waymo started criss-crossing San Francisco in February, it was a sign that the pioneering company had decided it was ready to graduate from the suburbs of Phoenix, the first place where it charged customers for driverless rides, to a more difficult urban environment. But... When dozens of self-driving Jaguar prototypes developed by Alphabet’s Waymo started...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Bloomberg.

Uber Joins Tech Shift to More Remote Work

By Martin Peers · Jun 29, 2021 5:16pm PDT

Uber told employees today it will let people work remotely half the time, the latest example of a company fine-tuning its remote work policies as a return to the office gets closer. Uber’s policy, allowing more remote work than planned just a few months ago, is to go into effect in September. Based on anecdotal evidence, that month appears to be... Uber told employees today it will let people work remotely half the time, the latest example of a...

Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox. Photo: Bloomberg

Creator Economy

Why Facebook’s Substack Competitor Will Do Just Fine

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 29, 2021 4:49pm PDT

It’s easy to dunk on Facebook when it rolls out another copycat product, in this case, its newsletter publishing platform that goes head-to-head with Substack. Facebook’s new Bulletin site, as the breakdown below shows, shares many basic features of its rivals. And the social network’s tactic of spending big to draw early buzz, as it did with... It’s easy to dunk on Facebook when it rolls out another copycat product, in this case, its...

Tom Brady celebrating a Super Bowl victory in February. Photo: AP

Biometric Blockchain; FTX Adds Tom Brady to Lineup

By Hannah Miller · Jun 29, 2021 3:26pm PDT

Tom Brady celebrating a Super Bowl victory in February. Photo: AP

Biometric Blockchain; FTX Adds Tom Brady to Lineup

By Hannah Miller · Jun 29, 2021 3:26pm PDT

Today we learned of a cryptocurrency startup that aims to put a new twist on distributing payments. Worldcoin uses biometric data from a person’s eyes to help people receive cryptocurrency payments through a blockchain-style network, according to a Bloomberg report. The company has developed a basketball-shaped device that can detect the... Today we learned of a cryptocurrency startup that aims to put a new twist on distributing...

Facebook's Project Aria device, research glasses to help guide the design of future AR glasses. Photo by Facebook

Looking Past Facebook’s Trillion Dollar Value to the AR Hurdles Ahead

By Mathew Olson · Jun 29, 2021 11:00am PDT

As Facebook made headlines yesterday for—at least temporarily—rebuffing federal and state antitrust cases and hitting a $1 trillion market value, I was listening to Facebook Reality Labs VP Andrew Bosworth muse on the company’s future in AR/VR. It struck me that as strong as Facebook’s business may look today, overcoming challenges posed by AR... As Facebook made headlines yesterday for—at least temporarily—rebuffing federal and state...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Apple’s Spending on Google Cloud Storage On Track to Soar 50% This Year

By Amir Efrati and Kevin McLaughlin · Jun 29, 2021 6:00am PDT

Apple executives have taken swipes at Google in the past over its privacy practices. But the iPhone maker trusts Google enough so that over the past year it has dramatically increased the amount of Apple user data it stores in Google’s cloud, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The increase cements Apple’s... Apple executives have taken swipes at Google in the past over its privacy practices. But the...

The FTC's Washington D.C. office. Photo by AP

Judge’s Facebook Ruling Embarrasses FTC, States

By Martin Peers · Jun 28, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Lawyers at the Federal Trade Commission have egg on their faces after a federal judge ruled the agency, in its antitrust case against Facebook, hadn’t made the case the company had a monopoly. Even more embarrassing was the judge’s outright dismissal of a case filed by a group of 40 states. The FTC’s case wasn’t dismissed, in contrast, and the... Lawyers at the Federal Trade Commission have egg on their faces after a federal judge ruled the...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; photo by Bloomberg

FTC’s Court Loss Against Facebook Could Spur Congress on Antitrust Reform

By Josh Sisco · Jun 28, 2021 4:17pm PDT · 1 comment

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; photo by Bloomberg

FTC’s Court Loss Against Facebook Could Spur Congress on Antitrust Reform

By Josh Sisco · Jun 28, 2021 4:17pm PDT · 1 comment

A federal court ruling on Monday handed Facebook an unexpected and dramatic win—for now—in its defense against U.S. antitrust lawyers who were seeking to force the company to spin off Whatsapp and Instagram. The ruling by a federal judge to toss out a pair of antitrust lawsuits filed last fall by the Federal Trade Commission and a... A federal court ruling on Monday handed Facebook an unexpected and dramatic win—for...

Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Creator Economy

The Most Overlooked Creator Economy Startup of 2021

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 28, 2021 4:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Today we released our first-of-its-kind database of startups in the creator economy. To begin, we focused on U.S. startups that raised outside capital this year. This is just a start: we’ll keep updating it so it’s the most useful database of companies in this fast-growing sector. The most surprising revelation from our data? The... Today we released our first-of-its-kind database of startups in the creator economy. To begin, we...

Mike Sullivan

New Regulatory Roadblocks; Preserving a Pro-Democracy Daily

By Hannah Miller · Jun 28, 2021 2:15pm PDT

More regulatory stumbling blocks have cropped up for cryptocurrency. Robinhood’s initial public offering has been delayed because of questions the Securities and Exchange Commission had over its crypto business. On Saturday, regulators banned top crypto exchange Binance from operating in the U.K. Binance also pulled out of Ontario on Friday... More regulatory stumbling blocks have cropped up for cryptocurrency. Robinhood’s initial public...

Creator Economy Database

What We Learned From TI’s Creator Economy Database

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 28, 2021 12:35pm PDT · 5 comments

You may have heard about Patreon and Substack, but what about Splice or Kajabi? These are just a few of the startups focused on serving creators that make up our just-launched database of 50 private U.S. companies. View the full interactive list here. This list sheds some light on the opportunity founders see in serving the millions of... You may have heard about Patreon and Substack, but what about Splice or Kajabi? These are just a...

An image from the VR-based LGBTQ+ museum.

How a VR Museum Will Tell LGBTQ+ Stories

By Mathew Olson · Jun 28, 2021 11:19am PDT

An image from the VR-based LGBTQ+ museum.

How a VR Museum Will Tell LGBTQ+ Stories

By Mathew Olson · Jun 28, 2021 11:19am PDT

While I enjoyed a week of rest and relaxation away from VR and AR (and, most of the time, WiFi), there was still plenty of news during 2021’s first week of summer. In the newsletter’s last installment, I covered Facebook’s first foray into advertising inside VR games. Those plans quickly changed: Resolution Games, developers of the multiplayer... While I enjoyed a week of rest and relaxation away from VR and AR (and, most of the time, WiFi),...