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

Source: 7Park Data

Snapchat Now a Data Hog

By Reed Albergotti and Peter Schulz · Apr 5, 2016 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Snapchat’s U.S. fan base doesn’t appear to be growing like it was in the past—but existing users have been spending steadily more time on the app, new data shows. They’re also consuming a heck of a lot more data while on the app than they were a couple of years ago.These findings, from research firm 7Park, have both... Snapchat’s U.S. fan base doesn’t appear to be growing like it was in the...

Google's Clay Bavor. Photo by Bloomberg.

Google Sees AR, Not VR, as the Real Goal

By Amir Efrati · Apr 4, 2016 12:40pm PDT · 7 comments

At its developer conference in May, Google is expected to talk a lot about its plans for tailoring Android smartphones to virtual reality. But make no mistake: for Google, VR isn’t the ultimate prize—augmented reality is. Google leaders including CEO Sundar Pichai and Clay Bavor, who heads a newly formed VR unit at Google, have... At its developer conference in May, Google is expected to talk a lot about its plans for...

Art by Matt Vascellaro.

The Information’s Latest Free Agents

By The Information Staff · Apr 4, 2016 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

When companies stall, their executives look elsewhere—sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not. That’s clear from our latest installment of Free Agents, which includes two recent defectors from Twitter, a departure from Sprint and one from Millennial Media, the faltering mobile media firm recently acquired by Verizon’s AOL.All up,... When companies stall, their executives look elsewhere—sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not....

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.

Key Analytics Duo Leaves Salesforce

By Steve Nellis · Apr 2, 2016 9:59am PDT

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.

Key Analytics Duo Leaves Salesforce

By Steve Nellis · Apr 2, 2016 9:59am PDT

A pair of startup founders that helped Salesforce.com build out its analytics cloud have left the company, Salesforce confirmed.Vijay Chakravarthy and Ryan Lange co-founded EdgeSpring, a business intelligence service for slicing and dicing data into custom reports that Salesforce purchased in 2013. EdgeSpring formed a key part of... A pair of startup founders that helped Salesforce.com build out its analytics cloud have left the...

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Apr 2, 2016 8:02am PDT

Good Morning!In tech, it can be hard to figure out what’s an April Fool’s prank and what’s real even when it’s not April 1. For instance, we’re still trying to figure out if Friday’s report of Samsung’s folding smartphone was real. But as unbelievable as it may seem, all our stories are the real... Good Morning!In tech, it can be hard to figure out what’s an April Fool’s prank and...

The Information’s 411 — Symmetrical Players

By Tom Dotan · Apr 1, 2016 10:40am PDT

Stephen guest hosts this week and talks to Amir about commerce in Facebook Messenger, the obstacles for Workday and how AT&T may snub Google.You can find our RSS feed here or subscribe via iTunes and SoundCloud. Stephen guest hosts this week and talks to Amir about commerce in Facebook Messenger, the...

My Notes from China

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 1, 2016 7:00am PDT

The U.S. is continuing to lose power as a technology trendsetter. That was one of the many takeaways that ran through my visit to China.I’ve chronicled some other observations and interviews here, here, here and here. But after more than 50 meetings at dozens of companies, I simply have too many perceptions to share in articles alone. So,... The U.S. is continuing to lose power as a technology trendsetter. That was one of the many...

Workday CEO Aneel Bhursi. Photo by Bloomberg.

In Enterprise App Store Wars, Workday is Absent

By Steve Nellis · Mar 31, 2016 10:00am PDT · 2 comments

Workday CEO Aneel Bhursi. Photo by Bloomberg.

In Enterprise App Store Wars, Workday is Absent

By Steve Nellis · Mar 31, 2016 10:00am PDT · 2 comments

For modern business software providers, app stores have become a standard feature. Salesforce pioneered the practice of giving developers a shot at pitching directly to its customers with apps. Servicenow, NetSuite and Atlassian all followed. Workday, the maker of human resources and financial software, notably is absent from the list.... For modern business software providers, app stores have become a standard feature. Salesforce...

AppNexus CEO Brian O"Kelley. Photo by AP.

The Big Interview

AppNexus Tries to Bite at Google’s Heels

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 31, 2016 7:02am PDT

In the nine years since he founded ad-tech firm AppNexus, CEO Brian O’Kelley has established a reputation for blustery public pronouncements against the power wielded by digital ad-selling giants like Google. But until recently AppNexus didn’t have the weaponry in the form of digital ad selling software systems to be competitive with... In the nine years since he founded ad-tech firm AppNexus, CEO Brian O’Kelley has...

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. Photo by AP.

In Snub to Google, AT&T Looks to Sell Alternative Android Phone

By Amir Efrati · Mar 30, 2016 7:02am PDT · 11 comments

AT&T has recently discussed selling a smartphone powered by an alternative version of Android, the operating system developed by Google, according to one person with direct knowledge and one person briefed about the talks. If the proposed phone sells, it could weaken Google’s control of Android in the U.S. and set back its efforts to... AT&T has recently discussed selling a smartphone powered by an alternative version of...

Information Score = More Optimistic - Less Optimistic

Subscriber Survey

Subscriber Sentiment Towards Tech Improves

By Peter Schulz and Martin Peers · Mar 29, 2016 10:01am PDT

Sentiment among our subscribers towards tech, particularly private firms like Snapchat and Dropbox, improved markedly in the past month, according to our latest subscriber survey.The turnaround suggested that pessimism sparked at least partly by the market sell-off around the start of the year may be lifting. The survey also showed that optimism... Sentiment among our subscribers towards tech, particularly private firms like Snapchat and...

Wang Xiang. Art by Matt Vascellaro.

Xiaomi’s New IP Guy

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 29, 2016 7:01am PDT

Wang Xiang. Art by Matt Vascellaro.

The Big Interview

Xiaomi’s New IP Guy

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 29, 2016 7:01am PDT

BEIJING—There’s no shortage of questions hanging over Xiaomi, one of the most highly valued—and in my opinion, one of the most ambitious—private companies on the planet. After vaulting to a leading position in the Chinese smartphone market, can it maintain its momentum as the country’s growth slows? Can it make... BEIJING—There’s no shortage of questions hanging over Xiaomi, one of the most highly...

Art by Sam Lessin.

Modest Proposals

Why Tech Needs Epic Failures

By Sam Lessin · Mar 28, 2016 10:00am PDT · 4 comments

If you were to read the headlines about big technology company launches over the last few years, things might look pretty bleak. There have been a lot of epic failures.Apple’s Watch, the Amazon’s Kindle Fire phone, Google’s repeated forays into social, Facebook’s Home, Paper, and Indian Free Basics initiative—they... If you were to read the headlines about big technology company launches over the last few years,...

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook Messenger Prepares In-Store Purchase Service

By Cory Weinberg and Amir Efrati · Mar 28, 2016 7:02am PDT · 3 comments

Tucked inside the code for Facebook’s Messenger are clues for how the chat app plans to become a marketplace, including an unreleased feature that lets people use the app to buy things in stores.Other new features hinted at in the software include “secret conversations,” presumably a reference to encrypted chats, something now... Tucked inside the code for Facebook’s Messenger are clues for how the chat app plans to...

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Mar 26, 2016 8:00am PDT

Happy Easter!What a week! We really got the tech world talking this week with a couple of blockbuster exclusives. Happy Easter!What a week! We really got the tech world talking this week with a couple of...

The Information’s 411 — Many Hats

By Tom Dotan · Mar 25, 2016 7:10pm PDT

The Information’s 411 — Many Hats

By Tom Dotan · Mar 25, 2016 7:10pm PDT

Reed Albergotti comes on to discuss Nest and its struggles and what that says about the broader hardware industry.You can find our RSS feed here or subscribe via iTunes and SoundCloud. Reed Albergotti comes on to discuss Nest and its struggles and what that says about the broader...

Travis Kalanick. Photo by Boao Forum for Asia.

Zuckerberg and Kalanick in China: Two Approaches

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 25, 2016 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

This week, two Silicon Valley titans buttered up Beijing. Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick worked two Chinese conferences, rubbing elbows with business and political leaders in an effort to open doors here. I heard Kalanick speak at Boao Forum—a Davos-like confab of government leaders in Hainan, where I participated in two panels with... This week, two Silicon Valley titans buttered up Beijing. Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick...

Tony Fadell. Photo by Flickr/LeWeb. Art by Jeff Greco.

Inside Tony Fadell’s Struggle to Build Nest

By Reed Albergotti · Mar 24, 2016 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

At a November all-hands meeting for engineers at Nest’s Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters, co-founder Matt Rogers said he was “losing sleep” over an exodus of staffers—roughly 70 in about six to 12 months, out of its workforce of roughly 1,000.Tony Fadell, the company’s CEO, interrupted, pointing out that many of... At a November all-hands meeting for engineers at Nest’s Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters,...

Tony Fadell. Photo by AP.

Four Nest/Google Products Still Under Wraps

By Reed Albergotti · Mar 24, 2016 7:00am PDT

In the two years since Nest was acquired by Google, the company hasn’t released a new hardware product, besides an updated version of a camera it inherited with the Dropcam acquisition. Yet several products are in development, many of which revolve around a home security system. If released, these products could further shake up the home... In the two years since Nest was acquired by Google, the company hasn’t released a new...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg.

Inside Apple’s Cloud Infrastructure Troubles

By Amir Efrati and Steve Nellis · Mar 23, 2016 7:01am PDT · 7 comments

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg.

Inside Apple’s Cloud Infrastructure Troubles

By Amir Efrati and Steve Nellis · Mar 23, 2016 7:01am PDT · 7 comments

Apple’s move to tap Google to handle parts of its iCloud traffic is a sign that the Cupertino company has failed to build its own cloud infrastructure despite years of work, say people with knowledge of the situation. The company is still years away from being able to completely leave its existing cloud vendors, which also include Amazon... Apple’s move to tap Google to handle parts of its iCloud traffic is a sign that the...