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

Illustration by Danielle Davis

Behind Some Low Amazon Prices: Stolen Goods

By Reed Albergotti · Aug 8, 2018 7:02am PDT · 2 comments

A few years ago, GoPro was grappling with an exasperating problem: Unknown sellers were offering stolen GoPro cameras on Amazon.com at a discount.While the stolen items accounted for only a small percentage of GoPro’s total sales, the discounting created a domino effect as competitors tried to match the low price. Amazon would first cut... A few years ago, GoPro was grappling with an exasperating problem: Unknown sellers were offering...

The Dorm Room Fund team. Photo by Dorm Room Fund

First Round Capital’s Eyes and Ears on College Campuses

By Britton O'Daly · Aug 7, 2018 2:06pm PDT · 1 comment

When Udit Jain, a 21-year-old Yale University student, walked into a campus coffee lounge late one night in 2016, all he wanted was a strawberry, Greek-yogurt smoothie. He walked out with what became his first venture capital investment.In the cafe, he ran into Kevin Tan, who was busy at a laptop writing code for an app he was building to alert... When Udit Jain, a 21-year-old Yale University student, walked into a campus coffee lounge late...

Photo: Bloomberg

Airbnb Looks to Settle Old Fights, Faces New Threats

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 7, 2018 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

Airbnb’s regulatory roller-coaster ride has taken new twists as the company enters its second decade. When the home rental site sent employees updates on its talks with local governments in June, it heralded positive momentum with politicians in two of its “toughest markets,” Barcelona and Berlin. It decried a... Airbnb’s regulatory roller-coaster ride has taken new twists as the company enters its...

Amazon's Echo and Echo Plus devices. Photo by Bloomberg

The Reality Behind Voice Shopping Hype

By Priya Anand · Aug 6, 2018 10:01am PDT · 10 comments

Amazon's Echo and Echo Plus devices. Photo by Bloomberg

The Reality Behind Voice Shopping Hype

By Priya Anand · Aug 6, 2018 10:01am PDT · 10 comments

Amazon and Google both tout voice shopping—the ability to make purchases and check on the status of orders with verbal commands—as significant features of their smart speakers. Some forecasts call for annual voice shopping sales to reach $40 billion in just a few years. But it appears that only a small fraction of smart speaker... Amazon and Google both tout voice shopping—the ability to make purchases and check on the...

Uber Eats delivery people in Moscow. Photo by Bloomberg

How Uber Eats Became a Hit Business

By Amir Efrati · Aug 6, 2018 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

In 2015, then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was under pressure. His beloved product, the food delivery service that was supposed to prove Uber could be more than a ride-hailing company, was struggling. To offer fast delivery, the company was buying a few kinds of prepared meals ahead of time and waiting for people to order them. Demand was... In 2015, then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was under pressure. His beloved product, the food delivery...

Google’s Real Motive in China

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 4, 2018 10:45am PDT · 3 comments

I remember Google co-founder Sergey Brin calling me up in 2010 to tell me why Google was shutting down its censored Chinese search engine. China has "made great strides against poverty and whatnot," he told me. "But nevertheless, in some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance... I remember Google co-founder Sergey Brin calling me up in 2010 to tell me why Google was shutting...

The Information’s 411 — The Rent Is Too Damn High

By Tom Dotan · Aug 3, 2018 4:41pm PDT · 1 comment

Priya talks to Cory about how the Bay Area's high cost of living is pushing tech companies out of the area. Tom checks in with Jon Victor about the Information's new crypto newsletter. Priya talks to Cory about how the Bay Area's high cost of living is pushing tech companies...

Carsten Breitfeld, co-founder and chief executive of Byton. Photo: Bloomberg

China’s Byton Seeks to Eclipse Rivals With Didi Deal

By Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Aug 3, 2018 10:34am PDT

Carsten Breitfeld, co-founder and chief executive of Byton. Photo: Bloomberg

China’s Byton Seeks to Eclipse Rivals With Didi Deal

By Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Aug 3, 2018 10:34am PDT

The two German automobile executives who founded Byton, a Chinese electric car startup, are confident that they can build a reliable vehicle. But they worry that manufacturing alone won’t make their company a success.That’s why Byton also wants a piece of China’s $30 billion ride-hailing market. The company is in talks with... The two German automobile executives who founded Byton, a Chinese electric car startup, are...

Beau Brooks at the Los Angeles premiere of Awesomeness Film’s Janoskians:Untold and Untrue in 2015. Photo by AP

Can a Dose of Awesomeness Save Viacom?

By Jessica Toonkel and Tom Dotan · Aug 3, 2018 7:01am PDT

Two years ago, as media mogul Shari Redstone was assuming control of her family’s cable TV firm Viacom, she asked Brian Robbins, then CEO of the popular online video company, AwesomenessTV, for his thoughts on how to fix the beleaguered company, according to people familiar with the situation. Viacom ended up installing Mr. Robbins in a... Two years ago, as media mogul Shari Redstone was assuming control of her family’s cable TV...

GitHub's office in San Francisco. Photo: Bloomberg

Narrow Option-Exercise Windows Frustrate Employees

By Alfred Lee and Cory Weinberg · Aug 2, 2018 7:00am PDT · 8 comments

When GitHub was acquired for $7.5 billion by Microsoft in June, friends texted Rachelle Gupta, an early GitHub recruiter, to congratulate her on what they assumed to be a windfall from her stock options.She told them she didn’t have any options. She had unknowingly let her stock options expire, because she wasn’t aware that she had... When GitHub was acquired for $7.5 billion by Microsoft in June, friends texted Rachelle Gupta, an...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai at an event last month in San Francisco. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Developing News App for China

By Wayne Ma and Juro Osawa · Aug 1, 2018 9:41pm PDT · 5 comments

Google is developing a news-aggregation app for use in China that will comply with the country’s strict censorship laws, part of a plan to re-enter the world’s largest internet market in the near future, according to three people familiar with the project.Google has been working on the app since last year and had been meeting with... Google is developing a news-aggregation app for use in China that will comply with the...

Three Questions Facing Bitmain

By Jon Victor · Aug 1, 2018 12:24pm PDT · 1 comment

Crypto Newsletter

Three Questions Facing Bitmain

By Jon Victor · Aug 1, 2018 12:24pm PDT · 1 comment

Welcome to The Information's new weekly cryptocurrency newsletter. Our mission is to deliver serious, exclusive crypto reporting and curation to business readers, and if you are wondering how this newsletter will be different than others, we’d like to highlight a few of our goals.1) Exclusive reporting. Building on what The... Welcome to The Information's new weekly cryptocurrency newsletter. Our mission is to deliver...

Cristiano Amon (L) and Anand Chandrasekher. Photos by Bloomberg

Intel CEO Search Yields New Candidates

By Aaron Tilley · Aug 1, 2018 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

Two new names have landed on the list of executives Intel is considering to become its CEO—Anand Chandrasekher, a former Intel and Qualcomm executive, and Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s current president—a person briefed on the chip giant’s search said.Intel is still in the early stages of its hunt for a replacement for... Two new names have landed on the list of executives Intel is considering to become its...

A Capital One branch in New York. Photo: Bloomberg

Google Inks Cloud Apps Deal With Capital One

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 31, 2018 11:07am PDT · 2 comments

Capital One Financial Corp. is in the process of moving more than 40,000 employees from Microsoft’s cloud email and productivity applications to Google’s competing products, according to two people with knowledge of the agreement. A Capital One spokeswoman confirmed the deal late Monday.Capital One is the latest big-name customer to... Capital One Financial Corp. is in the process of moving more than 40,000 employees from...

An Ele.me delivery courier in Shanghai in April. Photo by AP

Alibaba’s Ele.me Gears Up for Costly Subsidy War With Meituan, Didi

By Yunan Zhang and Juro Osawa · Jul 31, 2018 7:02am PDT · 2 comments

Chinese food delivery app Ele.me, which was acquired by Alibaba a few months ago, is going on a spending spree to gain market share from its biggest rival, Meituan. That’s making consumers like Chen Dabo happy. Mr. Chen, an education startup founder in Shanghai, has signed up for Ele.me’s VIP membership for 10 yuan ($1.47) a month.... Chinese food delivery app Ele.me, which was acquired by Alibaba a few months ago, is going on a...

Scooters: The New Self-Driving Cars

By Sam Lessin · Jul 30, 2018 10:01am PDT · 11 comments

Modest Proposals

Scooters: The New Self-Driving Cars

By Sam Lessin · Jul 30, 2018 10:01am PDT · 11 comments

The dockless scooter wars are in full swing. With the announcement of huge funding rounds at billion-dollar valuations, deals with ride-hailing companies and a spate of local regulatory action, there is a lot of attention being paid to the scooter market, and a lot of wild predictions being made by industry watchers.As timelines for... The dockless scooter wars are in full swing. With the announcement of huge funding rounds at...

While San Francisco has long tested people’s budgets, the city has seen ‘unprecedented’ growth in housing prices recently. Photo: Bloomberg

Bay Area’s High Costs Drive Away Some Tech Firms

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 30, 2018 7:01am PDT · 3 comments

Jeff Cavins employed many typical Silicon Valley tactics as he tried to grow his new company. The startup Outdoorsy—which helps people rent out their RVs to other travelers—got into a Palo Alto-based accelerator, raised more than $25 million in venture capital and eventually showed hints of success with $150 million in gross sales... Jeff Cavins employed many typical Silicon Valley tactics as he tried to grow his new company. The...

Eight Themes We’re Following Closely

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 29, 2018 6:58am PDT

I want to step back this week and talk themes. In the early days of The Information, we couldn’t cover everything so we made our mark where we could, focusing on themes like the rise and significance of messaging (culminating in Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp) and the underlying business performance of then (and still) late-stage... I want to step back this week and talk themes. In the early days of The Information, we...

The Information’s 411 — The Jobs Tapes

By Tom Dotan · Jul 27, 2018 1:23pm PDT

Sarah and Martin explain why Facebook and Twitter's earnings set off a panic among investors. Nick reflects on his interview with Steve Jobs, which took place a decade ago at the dawn of the App Store. Sarah and Martin explain why Facebook and Twitter's earnings set off a panic among...

Los Angeles Lakers' Josh Hart and Portland Trail Blazers' Zach Collins during an NBA game earlier this month. Photo by AP

How Cord-Cutting Is Turning Local Sports TV Into Winners and Losers

By Matt Pressberg · Jul 27, 2018 10:02am PDT · 2 comments

Los Angeles Lakers' Josh Hart and Portland Trail Blazers' Zach Collins during an NBA game earlier this month. Photo by AP

How Cord-Cutting Is Turning Local Sports TV Into Winners and Losers

By Matt Pressberg · Jul 27, 2018 10:02am PDT · 2 comments

The growth of low-cost subscription streaming services such as YouTube TV and DirecTV Now, signing up people who don’t want to pay for cable, is giving a new burst of life to many cable channels getting carried on the services. But there’s one group of channels that aren’t so lucky—and that’s those local sports... The growth of low-cost subscription streaming services such as YouTube TV and DirecTV Now,...