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

A screengrab of One Piece: Blood Routes via YouTube

TikTok Owner ByteDance Finds Game Success Through Influencers

By Juro Osawa · Jun 22, 2021 9:01am PDT · 2 comments

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has proved it can generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue from online ads on its blockbuster video apps. Now it may finally have figured out how to get a bigger piece of the huge games market, after having made repeated missteps in the category. In April, ByteDance launched a new mobile... ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has proved it can generate tens of billions of...

Photos by Bloomberg. Photo illustration by Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Says Its Suppliers Must Protect Whistleblowers. This One’s in Jail

By Wayne Ma · Jun 22, 2021 6:01am PDT

Amazon says it expects its manufacturers to protect whistleblowers, but that wasn’t enough to help a manager who raised alarms about labor violations involving teenage workers at a Chinese factory that made Kindles and Echos. In 2019, the manager secretly sent records showing how the factory’s student interns were underpaid and... Amazon says it expects its manufacturers to protect whistleblowers, but that wasn’t enough...

Uber's San Francisco headquarters. Photo by Bloomberg.

Uber’s High-Price Grocery Delivery Bet

By Martin Peers · Jun 21, 2021 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Greetings!It’s boom time for lazy people! Well, at least those people who couldn’t be bothered leaving the house to buy a bottle of beer or pick up the groceries. Delivery service GoPuff today struck a deal to buy Liquor Barn, an alcohol retailer, its second such purchase in a few months. Uber, meanwhile, said it would spend $1.4 billion in... Greetings!It’s boom time for lazy people! Well, at least those people who couldn’t be bothered...

Views of Facebook's new podcast product. Photos courtesy of Facebook.

Why Facebook Needs to Get Into Podcasts

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

Views of Facebook's new podcast product. Photos courtesy of Facebook.

Creator Economy

Why Facebook Needs to Get Into Podcasts

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

Facebook could have chosen many moments over the last ten years to launch podcasts, say in 2018 when Google rolled out its own podcast app, or a year later, when Spotify bought popular producer Gimlet Media. Facebook’s decision to try podcasts now says a lot about how the medium has emerged as a part of a must-have toolset for creators—as well... Facebook could have chosen many moments over the last ten years to launch podcasts, say in 2018...

Mike Sullivan

China’s Bid to ‘Squash’ Bitcoin; Mining on the Move

By Hannah Miller · Jun 21, 2021 3:20pm PDT

Bitcoin prices tumbled Monday after China took fresh steps to rein in cryptocurrency activity by shutting down mining operations in Sichuan province. Ostensibly, Beijing’s latest move was tied to concerns about crypto mining’s toll on the environment. The new crackdown follows a wave of restrictions designed, in theory, to protect its citizens... Bitcoin prices tumbled Monday after China took fresh steps to rein in cryptocurrency activity by...

Unity Software CEO John Riccitiello. Photo by Bloomberg

The Big Interview

Unity CEO Predicts AR-VR Headsets Will Be as Common as Game Consoles by 2030

By Nick Wingfield · Jun 21, 2021 10:14am PDT

By his own admission, John Riccitiello has a long history of making predictions—some of them right, others not. Riccitiello, a long-time videogame industry executive who is now CEO of Unity Software, once blew it with a prediction that a new Sony PlayStation game console would come out a year earlier than it did. He did better in 2015... By his own admission, John Riccitiello has a long history of making predictions—some of...

Photo: Bloomberg

Shopify Seeks to Challenge Amazon Through Deals With BuzzFeed, Other Sites

By Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel · Jun 21, 2021 6:01am PDT · 2 comments

Shopify, which has become a major force in e-commerce by providing online tools to merchants, is rolling out a new service that will allow content publishers to link to merchants in the Shopify network in exchange for a cut of transaction revenue, according to people familiar with the situation. The nascent move into an area known as affiliate... Shopify, which has become a major force in e-commerce by providing online tools to merchants, is...

Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Is Clubhouse the Next Foursquare?

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 19, 2021 7:45am PDT · 14 comments

Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Is Clubhouse the Next Foursquare?

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 19, 2021 7:45am PDT · 14 comments

More than a decade ago, I was covering tech out of New York when a hot New York–based app hit the scene. It was called Foursquare, and the idea behind it was pretty radical—it allowed people to “check in” to locations from their phones to let their friends know where they were. If you had the most check-ins in one location, you could even become... More than a decade ago, I was covering tech out of New York when a hot New York–based app hit the...

Taxis pass in front of the New York Times Co. headquarters in New York. Photo: Bloomberg

Media’s On-Again, Off-Again Merger Dance

By Sahil Patel · Jun 18, 2021 5:13pm PDT

Media companies are often hunting for merger partners and spinning off units, but this year the pace has seemed particularly frenetic. That’s partly due to the pressure these companies face as big tech companies muscle into their businesses—taking ad dollars, streaming subscribers, time spent—and reducing the confidence of investors that they... Media companies are often hunting for merger partners and spinning off units, but this year the...

Playbook of Jonah — The 411 Podcast

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 18, 2021 12:43pm PDT

BuzzFeed might become the first of its generation of digital media upstarts to go public. How is CEO Jonah Peretti trying to grow the company? Cory talks to The Information's Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel about Peretti's consolidation strategy. Plus, reporter Paris Martineau discusses the implications of Amazon's growing air cargo... BuzzFeed might become the first of its generation of digital media upstarts to go public. How is...

Amazon's hair salon in London. Photo by Mark Di Stefano

What It’s Like Getting a Haircut at an Amazon Salon

By Mark Di Stefano · Jun 18, 2021 9:00am PDT

For a long time, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been saying the company has a simple criterion for opening new categories of physical retail stores: Can it significantly improve on the traditional store experience? With its Amazon Go chain, for example, it used sensors, cameras and software to get rid of cashier checkout lines. I had this in my head... For a long time, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been saying the company has a simple criterion for...

Photo of Guy Rosen by Alex Dunne/Flickr. Illustration by Mike Sullivan

The Guy at the Center of Facebook’s Misinformation Mess

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 18, 2021 6:00am PDT

Photo of Guy Rosen by Alex Dunne/Flickr. Illustration by Mike Sullivan

The Guy at the Center of Facebook’s Misinformation Mess

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 18, 2021 6:00am PDT

Earlier this month, Facebook made headlines by banning Donald Trump from its platforms for two more years and ending a policy that allowed politicians to publish incendiary posts even if they violated Facebook’s rules. Behind the scenes, little-known executives such as Guy Rosen, who has been Facebook’s vice president of integrity... Earlier this month, Facebook made headlines by banning Donald Trump from its platforms for two...

Signage is displayed at the TikTok Creator's Lab 2019 event hosted by Bytedance Ltd. in Tokyo. Photo: Bloomberg

ByteDance’s Big Victory Dance

By Amir Efrati · Jun 17, 2021 6:12pm PDT

This morning, the business world learned two things about TikTok owner ByteDance as it moves toward a public stock offering, the most anticipated consumer tech listing since Alibaba in 2014. First, the company revealed its 2020 revenue and operating loss to employees—and by extension, to the press. Using some back-of-the-envelope math,... This morning, the business world learned two things about TikTok owner ByteDance as it moves...

YouTube video producers Colin Rosenblum (l) and Samir Chaudry (r). Photo: Jesse Leon

Creator Economy

The Week Social Audio Went Mainstream (Table); An Interview With YouTubers Colin & Samir

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 17, 2021 4:00pm PDT

This week marked the evolution of live social audio from a company to a feature. Since Clubhouse popularized the concept during the pandemic, Twitter, Facebook and now Spotify have rushed in with their own versions. I’ve spent some time listening to conversations across all four products this week, and the experience feels pretty similar... This week marked the evolution of live social audio from a company to a feature. Since Clubhouse...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The New York Times and The Athletic End Acquisition Talks

By Sahil Patel · Jun 17, 2021 3:07pm PDT · 1 comment

The New York Times and subscription sports news site The Athletic have ended their acquisition talks, according to people familiar with the matter. The demise of the deal—which would have united one of media’s best known legacy brands with a respected up-and-comer—came down to money. The people familiar with the matter said the... The New York Times and subscription sports news site The Athletic have ended their acquisition...

Art: Mike Sullivan

Sports NFTs Are No Slam Dunk

By Hannah Miller · Jun 17, 2021 2:50pm PDT · 1 comment

Art: Mike Sullivan

Sports NFTs Are No Slam Dunk

By Hannah Miller · Jun 17, 2021 2:50pm PDT · 1 comment

The list of pro athletes getting paid in crypto is growing—Landon Cassill will become the first Nascar driver to be compensated entirely in digital currency as part of a sponsorship deal. He is getting a portfolio of assets that include litecoin and bitcoin. But even as more sports figures and franchises are jumping on the crypto bandwagon,... The list of pro athletes getting paid in crypto is growing—Landon Cassill will become the first...

A screenshot from Blaston. Image: Resolution Games

Facebook Tiptoes Into Advertising Inside VR Games

By Mathew Olson · Jun 17, 2021 11:00am PDT

Over the next few weeks, people with Oculus Quest headsets will start seeing some advertisements in virtual reality. Facebook calls the introduction of these in-app ads “a key part” of building a sustainable VR business. But many VR users are likely to view them as intrusive. And the ad rollout is sure to raise concerns about whether the... Over the next few weeks, people with Oculus Quest headsets will start seeing some advertisements...

Photo of Jonah Peretti by Bloomberg. Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Inside Jonah Peretti’s Rollup Playbook

By Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel · Jun 17, 2021 6:01am PDT · 1 comment

In 2018, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti issued a cri de coeur to the digital media industry, telling his fellow moguls that all of them, BuzzFeed included, needed to start merging so they could more effectively stand up to Google and Facebook, the internet’s advertising powerhouses. But then a funny thing happened: Peretti went dark on the... In 2018, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti issued a cri de coeur to the digital media industry, telling...

A Waymo minivan arrives to pick up passengers for an autonomous vehicle ride, Wednesday, April 7, 2021, in Mesa, Ariz. Photo: AP

Way Mo’ Cash for High-Tech Cars

By Amir Efrati · Jun 16, 2021 5:08pm PDT · 1 comment

Alphabet’s self-driving car subsidiary Waymo on Wednesday said it raised $2.5 billion from investors, with an asterisk: Alphabet was the lead investor in the round, according to a person familiar with the deal. In Silicon Valley, the lead designation usually belongs to the party that contributed half of the total amount in the round. So... Alphabet’s self-driving car subsidiary Waymo on Wednesday said it raised $2.5 billion from...

Left to right: Linktree co-founders Anthony Zaccaria, Alex Zaccaria, Nicky Humphreys. Photo: Linktree.

Why Everyone’s Excited About Link-in-Bio Startups

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 16, 2021 4:17pm PDT · 2 comments

Left to right: Linktree co-founders Anthony Zaccaria, Alex Zaccaria, Nicky Humphreys. Photo: Linktree.

Creator Economy

Why Everyone’s Excited About Link-in-Bio Startups

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 16, 2021 4:17pm PDT · 2 comments

Since we started this newsletter, startups offering what’s known as “link-in-bio” services have made regular appearances, from raising venture funding to launching new ways for creators to make money. Today we explain what they are—and why investors and founders seem so hot about this technology. The concept for these services rose from a... Since we started this newsletter, startups offering what’s known as “link-in-bio” services have...