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

A poster for the Disney movie "Alice Through the Looking Glass" at a movie theater in Yichang in China in 2016. Photo by AP.

Hollywood Wins Concession From China, but Overall Deal Stalled

By Wayne Ma and Matt Pressberg · Jul 19, 2018 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

For more than a year, the U.S. has been negotiating with China to let Hollywood film studios expand their business in China. The U.S. made some progress late last year when, The Information has learned, Chinese officials tentatively agreed to an increase in the number of major Hollywood films that could be released annually to 44 from 34. But on... For more than a year, the U.S. has been negotiating with China to let Hollywood film studios...

The FTC's Lina Khan (left), and Rep. Ro Khanna. Photos: New America/Flickr and AP

Amazon Antitrust Push Slowly Gains Ground

By Priya Anand · Jul 19, 2018 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

When President Donald Trump slams Amazon on Twitter, it is easy to dismiss the attacks as social media bluster, motivated by antipathy towards Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos because of his personal ownership of the Washington Post. But there are other signs that Amazon critics are gaining influence in Washington, D.C., with arguments that the... When President Donald Trump slams Amazon on Twitter, it is easy to dismiss the attacks as social...

Tom Gruber. Photo: Flickr/JD Lasica

Siri’s Last Remaining Cofounder Is Out at Apple

By Aaron Tilley and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 18, 2018 6:59pm PDT · 1 comment

Tom Gruber, one of the original Siri cofounders, has left Apple, where he was recently the head of Siri’s Advanced Development group, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Apple’s head of search, Vipul Ved Prakash, has also left the company. An Apple spokeswoman confirmed both departures. Mr. Gruber is retiring and... Tom Gruber, one of the original Siri cofounders, has left Apple, where he was recently the head...

Visitors on the Great Wall of China. Photo by shankar s./Flickr

Airbnb Looks to Keep China Momentum

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 18, 2018 10:01am PDT

Visitors on the Great Wall of China. Photo by shankar s./Flickr

Airbnb Looks to Keep China Momentum

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 18, 2018 10:01am PDT

Airbnb’s increasing popularity with young Chinese travelers has made the country an important growth driver over the past year. Revenue from Airbnb’s China division is expected to climb by more than half to roughly $130 million this year, two people familiar with the matter said. While that growth rate is lower than last year’s... Airbnb’s increasing popularity with young Chinese travelers has made the country an...

Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Instagram’s Growing Bot Problem

By Reed Albergotti and Sarah Kuranda · Jul 18, 2018 7:01am PDT · 4 comments

Instagram, which recently reached a billion users, might have as many as 95 million bots posing as real accounts on its platform, according to a new study conducted for The Information by the research firm Ghost Data.That tally is somewhat higher than in a similar study the research firm did in 2015. The increase is concerning, experts say,... Instagram, which recently reached a billion users, might have as many as 95 million bots posing...

Vudu's app on an iPhone. Photo by Bloomberg

Walmart Plots Rival to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

By Jessica Toonkel, Tom Dotan and Priya Anand · Jul 17, 2018 10:32am PDT · 7 comments

Walmart is considering launching a subscription streaming video service to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, people familiar with the situation told The Information. Such a move could be enormously costly for the retailer but would demonstrate its determination to compete on multiple fronts with Amazon in particular.The Bentonville,... Walmart is considering launching a subscription streaming video service to compete with Netflix...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Photo: Bloomberg

In Reversal, Facebook Mulls Switch to Google Apps

By Kevin McLaughlin and Sarah Kuranda · Jul 17, 2018 7:00am PDT · 4 comments

Facebook, which stopped using Google email and productivity applications inside the company a few years ago, is now mulling a switch back to the Google services for its employees, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. Such a move would be an embarrassing setback for Microsoft, whose applications Facebook currently uses.If it... Facebook, which stopped using Google email and productivity applications inside the company a few...

Former Qualcomm executive chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs. Photo: Bloomberg

Behind Qualcomm’s Retreat From Data Center Business

By Aaron Tilley · Jul 16, 2018 10:02am PDT · 3 comments

Former Qualcomm executive chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs. Photo: Bloomberg

Behind Qualcomm’s Retreat From Data Center Business

By Aaron Tilley · Jul 16, 2018 10:02am PDT · 3 comments

Three years ago, Qualcomm mounted an attack on Intel in the market for server chips used in the highly profitable data center business. By June the effort was a shambles. As the company laid off hundreds of workers in the data center unit in North Carolina, a collection of tech giants—including Microsoft, Intel, Samsung and... Three years ago, Qualcomm mounted an attack on Intel in the market for server chips used in the...

An app tied to the World Cup launched after the tournament started because of a lengthy review by Facebook. Photo: AP

Facebook Scrutiny Slows Approval of Messenger Apps

By Sarah Kuranda · Jul 16, 2018 7:00am PDT

Leading up to the World Cup, GameOn Technology built a Facebook Messenger app for getting scores and game highlights. But as the World Cup kicked off last month, the app was still on the sidelines, awaiting Facebook’s approval.GameOn isn’t alone. The Information spoke to nearly a dozen developers frustrated by significant recent... Leading up to the World Cup, GameOn Technology built a Facebook Messenger app for getting scores...

Why Sun Valley Lost Interest in Silicon Valley

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 14, 2018 8:26am PDT

There was a time when Silicon Valley was the next big thing at Sun Valley. By that I mean that this annual conference—in its 36 years as a summer camp for old-school media moguls—was all about the “disruptors” from the Valley. Travis Kalanick was mobbed by attendees. Mark Zuckerberg was the person everyone wanted to meet.... There was a time when Silicon Valley was the next big thing at Sun Valley. By that I mean that...

The Information’s 411 — The Best Never Vest

By Tom Dotan · Jul 13, 2018 2:30pm PDT · 1 comment

Jessica checks in from Sun Valley to give an inside look at what media and tech moguls are talking about. Amir explains why self-driving truck technology is back in fashion. Alfred talks about why companies' delaying their IPOs could come back to haunt employees' equity. Jessica checks in from Sun Valley to give an inside look at what media and tech moguls are...

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy at a company event last year. Photo: Bloomberg

Amazon Web Services Targets Cisco in Networking

By Wayne Ma and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 13, 2018 10:03am PDT · 9 comments

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy at a company event last year. Photo: Bloomberg

Amazon Web Services Targets Cisco in Networking

By Wayne Ma and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 13, 2018 10:03am PDT · 9 comments

Amazon Web Services already dominates the market for cloud services. Now, it is eyeing a part of the cloud business it doesn’t already control: the $14 billion global market for data center switches.AWS is considering selling its own networking switches for business customers—hardware devices that move traffic around networks,... Amazon Web Services already dominates the market for cloud services. Now, it is eyeing a part of...

Airbnb is one of numerous private companies facing expiring employee stock option grants. Photo: Bloomberg

Delayed IPOs Undercut Startup Employee Options

By Alfred Lee · Jul 13, 2018 7:02am PDT · 5 comments

When Airbnb assured employees last month that it aimed to go public before their stock grants expired, the company became the latest example of a private tech firm grappling with a once unheard-of problem. Tech companies are staying private longer than ever, but most employee stock grants aren’t designed to last quite so long. Stock... When Airbnb assured employees last month that it aimed to go public before their stock grants...

Photo: AP

China’s Huawei Plots AI Push With ‘Project Da Vinci’

By Juro Osawa and Aaron Tilley · Jul 12, 2018 10:16am PDT · 3 comments

Once a month, a top Huawei executive huddles with colleagues to talk about how to bring artificial intelligence into everything the Chinese tech giant makes, from telecom base stations and cloud data centers to devices like smartphones and surveillance cameras. The broad effort is code-named Project Da Vinci—referred to as Project D by... Once a month, a top Huawei executive huddles with colleagues to talk about how to bring...

Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Facebook Watch Is Struggling to Win Fans

By Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel · Jul 12, 2018 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

Facebook Watch, the company’s bid to dethrone YouTube, has had a shaky first year.In the months after Watch’s launch last August, the number of people who visited the social network’s new section every day to watch shows produced by ABC, A&E Networks, Discovery and other smaller media companies disappointed some show... Facebook Watch, the company’s bid to dethrone YouTube, has had a shaky first year.In the...

An Imax theater in Bengaluru, India. Photo: VR Bengaluru

Imax’s Best Feature: Global Expansion

By Matt Pressberg · Jul 11, 2018 10:01am PDT

An Imax theater in Bengaluru, India. Photo: VR Bengaluru

Imax’s Best Feature: Global Expansion

By Matt Pressberg · Jul 11, 2018 10:01am PDT

Movie theater stocks like AMC and Cinemark slumped last spring and haven’t recovered, thanks to a historically bad summer movie season, the rise of streaming services and even dying shopping malls, which have reduced foot traffic. Among those hit by the sell-off was Imax, the company responsible for giant screen movies.But Imax isn’t... Movie theater stocks like AMC and Cinemark slumped last spring and haven’t recovered,...

Photo: Henge Docks

An Apple Accessories Maker Scrambles to Keep Up

By Wayne Ma · Jul 11, 2018 7:01am PDT · 2 comments

By getting into the electronics accessories market, Matthew Vroom picked one of the most unforgiving businesses in tech, where startup failures abound. Mr. Vroom made life even harder for his company, Henge Docks, by specializing in high-quality docking stations for notebooks made by Apple, whose secrecy about new product designs has forced... By getting into the electronics accessories market, Matthew Vroom picked one of the most...

How Investors Line Up Behind Scooters, Bikes

By Cory Weinberg and Mike Sullivan · Jul 10, 2018 11:38am PDT

Large investors are putting their weight behind bike and scooter startups, setting up what likely will be a years-long, multibillion-dollar fight over the future of urban transportation. (See chart.)Funding is pouring into scooters and bikes far faster than in the early days of ride hailing. Two leading U.S. scooter startups, Lime and Bird, have... Large investors are putting their weight behind bike and scooter startups, setting up what likely...

After Self-Driving Cars Get Billions, Trucks Get Second Look

By Amir Efrati · Jul 10, 2018 7:01am PDT

The self-driving truck market is getting more congested. Three new startups—including one whose existence hasn’t been disclosed before—are developing autonomous truck-related software. All three were founded by entrepreneurs with ties to Uber, which has seen turmoil in its autonomous vehicle unit.The companies are seeking to... The self-driving truck market is getting more congested. Three new startups—including one...

DeepMap co-founders Mark Wheeler, left, and James Wu. Photo: Bloomberg

Silicon Valley Mapping Startup Tries to Navigate Its Way Into China

By Yunan Zhang · Jul 9, 2018 10:01am PDT

DeepMap co-founders Mark Wheeler, left, and James Wu. Photo: Bloomberg

Silicon Valley Mapping Startup Tries to Navigate Its Way Into China

By Yunan Zhang · Jul 9, 2018 10:01am PDT

DeepMap, founded by former Google mapping whizzes and backed by big-name Silicon Valley investors, is in talks to strengthen its ties to China with up to $60 million in fresh cash from Alibaba, Didi Chuxing and automaker BAIC Group, according to two people with direct knowledge of the fundraising.The Palo Alto, Calif., company, which makes... DeepMap, founded by former Google mapping whizzes and backed by big-name Silicon Valley...