The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Macy's is testing Facebook's new ad-measuring technology. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook, Google Try Again to Prove Ads Help Stores

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 7, 2017 10:01am PST · 5 comments

Facebook and Google are trying to keep their mobile ads businesses humming by executing what they’ve largely failed to do so far: prove to brick-and-mortar retailers that their ads drive customers into stores.Both companies say this will be a big investment year toward solving the problem. They’re marshalling data scientists and... Facebook and Google are trying to keep their mobile ads businesses humming by executing what...

Snap co-founder Bobby Murphy (left) and Google's Urs Hölzle in 2014. Photo by Bloomberg.

Behind Snap’s Marriage to Google and the Cloud

By Amir Efrati · Feb 7, 2017 7:01am PST · 17 comments

Snap is the biggest consumer internet company to be built from scratch on top of cloud computing infrastructure it doesn’t own. That makes it an important symbol for the public cloud industry led by Amazon, Microsoft and Google, all of whom would like future Snaps to grow up on their clouds.Last week Snap disclosed in its IPO filing that... Snap is the biggest consumer internet company to be built from scratch on top of cloud computing...

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet. Photo by Bloomberg.

NetEase Offers Google a Way Back to China

By Juro Osawa, Shai Oster and Amir Efrati · Feb 6, 2017 9:01am PST · 1 comment

Ever since Google left mainland China nearly seven years ago, it’s been looking for a way back in. The latest hope is a proposed tie-up to launch Google’s mobile app and digital-media store in China with NetEase, one of the country’s first internet brands.NetEase has approached Google to form a joint venture to launch the... Ever since Google left mainland China nearly seven years ago, it’s been looking for a way...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Bloomberg.

Snap’s Spiegel Poised to Gain Sole Control After IPO

By Alfred Lee · Feb 6, 2017 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Bloomberg.

Snap’s Spiegel Poised to Gain Sole Control After IPO

By Alfred Lee · Feb 6, 2017 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Snap’s IPO won’t just make CEO Evan Spiegel richer. It also will likely give him sole voting control of the company, according to an analysis of last week’s IPO filing.That’s because the bonus that Mr. Spiegel will receive for taking the company public will be in the form of so-called supervoting shares, which carry more... Snap’s IPO won’t just make CEO Evan Spiegel richer. It also will likely give him sole...

Art by Matt Vascellaro

Gen Z Rising

By Brit Morin · Feb 5, 2017 10:01am PST · 10 comments

As a millennial entrepreneur, I’ve spent the past five years connecting with the darlings of my generation while building my online media and e-commerce business, Brit + Co. But lately, I’m beginning to feel like I’m no longer part of the popular crowd at school. The focus has shifted to a new group of kids in town: Generation... As a millennial entrepreneur, I’ve spent the past five years connecting with the darlings...

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Feb 4, 2017 8:02am PST

Happy Saturday!Snap is pitching itself to Wall Street as a ”camera company.” After reading Snap’s S-1, we think “camera company” is a much better choice than “advertising-sales company that lost $500 million last year due to server costs. Happy Saturday!Snap is pitching itself to Wall Street as a ”camera company.” After...

The Information’s 411 — Snap’s Lumpiness

By Tom Dotan · Feb 3, 2017 2:44pm PST

Tom and Reed go deep on Snap's IPO filing and debate whether it has a growth problem, why it's pitching itself as a camera company, and if it makes sense to keep pursuing hardware. Tom and Reed go deep on Snap's IPO filing and debate whether it has a growth problem, why...

The New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Bloomberg.

Snap’s Revenue Growth Hiccup

By Tom Dotan · Feb 3, 2017 7:01am PST · 3 comments

The New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Bloomberg.

Snap’s Revenue Growth Hiccup

By Tom Dotan · Feb 3, 2017 7:01am PST · 3 comments

The message from Snap’s executives in the company’s IPO filing is clear: Don’t buy the stock based on Snapchat’s audience size. Focus on the quality of its audience and the revenue it can make from it. But the quarterly revenue growth Snap disclosed Thursday could make it tougher to convince investors its opening share... The message from Snap’s executives in the company’s IPO filing is clear: Don’t...

A Snap "Ghostface Chillah" figure. Photo by Jessica Stark.

The Hidden Costs of Snap’s Employee Shares

By Alfred Lee · Feb 2, 2017 6:05pm PST · 3 comments

Snap could be the biggest tech IPO in years but its employees don’t yet have many shares to sell off, according to the company’s filing for an initial public offering on Thursday. That’s partly because of a policy that requires them to wait longer than usual for their stock awards to vest. It could also hurt Snap’s share... Snap could be the biggest tech IPO in years but its employees don’t yet have many shares to...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook’s Fearless Spending

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 2, 2017 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Facebook’s announcement on Wednesday that it would hike capital expenses to as much as $7.5 billion this year was more audacious than many analysts expected. But it’s savvy for Facebook to use its profit cushion from a recent hot streak to execute an expensive video-centric strategy. The capital expenses projected for the coming... Facebook’s announcement on Wednesday that it would hike capital expenses to as much as $7.5...

Snap's chief strategy officer, Imran Khan, in September. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Matters and What Doesn’t in Snap’s S-1

By Tom Dotan and Amir Efrati · Feb 1, 2017 7:53pm PST · 2 comments

The first stage of Snap’s roadshow for investors is set to begin after the public release of its S-1, detailing its IPO offering, which could happen by the end of this week. The subsequent pitch to investors will rely both on the user growth, engagement, and financial figures (some of which The Information has learned, including last... The first stage of Snap’s roadshow for investors is set to begin after the public release...

Google Vice President Carl Schachter in 2013. Photo by Denisse Springer, Lotus Eyes Photogrphay

Senior Google Cloud Exec Departs After Reorg

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 1, 2017 4:02pm PST · 1 comment

Google Vice President Carl Schachter in 2013. Photo by Denisse Springer, Lotus Eyes Photogrphay

Senior Google Cloud Exec Departs After Reorg

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 1, 2017 4:02pm PST · 1 comment

Carl Schachter, a Google vice president who was one of the public faces of its cloud computing business under Diane Greene, is leaving the company, The Information has learned. The move came as a surprise to many at the fast-growing Google unit, as Mr. Schachter had been promoted in 2015 and received additional responsibilities late last year.... Carl Schachter, a Google vice president who was one of the public faces of its cloud computing...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

Snap Is Working on Smarter Lenses

By Tom Dotan · Feb 1, 2017 7:01am PST · 2 comments

Snap is working on a new version of its Lenses product that lets people overlay images onto landscapes in the real world, not just faces. The new technology is a notable expansion of the object recognition within Snapchat’s Lenses, one that could lead to more ad-friendly products.The new Lenses are currently being tested on Snap’s... Snap is working on a new version of its Lenses product that lets people overlay images onto...

Source: The Information

Subscriber Survey

The Information’s Private Company Index

By The Information Staff · Jan 31, 2017 6:31pm PST · 1 comment

Subscriber sentiment towards Uber continues to be overwhelmingly negative, improving only slightly in our latest monthly survey. In contrast, attitudes to Lyft are much more positive.Uber’s sentiment score was negative 75.5% for the April survey, compared with negative 79% a month earlier. It had plunged 59 percentage points in the March... Subscriber sentiment towards Uber continues to be overwhelmingly negative, improving only...

Source: The Information

Subscriber Survey

The Information’s Public Company Index

By The Information Staff · Jan 31, 2017 6:30pm PST

Subscribers got a little more positive about Twitter in the latest subscriber survey. Attitudes towards the company have been the most negative of any company in recent months, with the sentiment score getting as low as minus 72% in October. But in January, the sentiment score rose 16 percentage points to minus 42%, its best score since last... Subscribers got a little more positive about Twitter in the latest subscriber survey. Attitudes...

*LinkedIn's last trading day was Dec. 7, 2016; **As of end of day Jan. 30, 2017; Source: Yahoo Finance

Tech IPOs’ First Year Can Be Tough

By Mike Sullivan and Alfred Lee · Jan 31, 2017 10:58am PST · 1 comment

*LinkedIn's last trading day was Dec. 7, 2016; **As of end of day Jan. 30, 2017; Source: Yahoo Finance

Tech IPOs’ First Year Can Be Tough

By Mike Sullivan and Alfred Lee · Jan 31, 2017 10:58am PST · 1 comment

When Snap goes public in the next few weeks, it will hope to buck a troubling recent trend for ad-supported tech companies. Several, including social media and messaging rivals Facebook, Twitter and Weibo, had disappointing IPOs. After a first-day pop, their stocks traded down by the end of their first year of public trading.But the thing to... When Snap goes public in the next few weeks, it will hope to buck a troubling recent trend for...

Source: The Information

Subscriber Survey

Subscribers See Trump as Bad for Business

By Reed Albergotti and Mike Sullivan · Jan 31, 2017 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Subscribers to The Information are mostly pessimistic about the impact of the Trump administration on their business—despite being hopeful about the prospects for tax reform.Roughly two-thirds of the people responding to our latest subscriber survey said they had a negative view of how their business would be affected by the new... Subscribers to The Information are mostly pessimistic about the impact of the Trump...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

How Snap Is Guarding Against IPO Lawsuits

By Alfred Lee · Jan 30, 2017 7:01am PST

In the world of corporate law, Snap will set a precedent with its expected IPO. It will likely be the first company to go public with a novel legal defense against an increasingly common kind of IPO-related lawsuit, one sparked when a company’s stock price falls after the public offering. Snap added a provision to its charter last October... In the world of corporate law, Snap will set a precedent with its expected IPO. It will likely be...

Fitbit products on display. Photo by Flickr/Mike Mozart.

Fitbit To Cut Jobs After Weak Q4

By Reed Albergotti · Jan 29, 2017 5:16pm PST · 12 comments

Fitbit is to cut between 5% and 10% of its employees, the company will announce on Monday, while disclosing that its fourth-quarter results were below expectations. The disclosures are the latest sign of a slowdown in the wearables market, according to two people briefed on the news. About 1,600 people work at Fitbit so the job cuts affect... Fitbit is to cut between 5% and 10% of its employees, the company will announce on Monday, while...

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Jan 28, 2017 8:01am PST

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Jan 28, 2017 8:01am PST

Good Morning!From where we’re standing, it looks like the number of people reading this Digest would reach all the way to the Washington Monument. Good Morning!From where we’re standing, it looks like the number of people reading this...