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

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How A Small Streaming Channel Struggles to Make Ends Meet

By Martin Peers · Oct 22, 2014 7:01am PDT · 3 comments

With a predominantly older audience of British television junkies, Acorn.TV is never going to threaten Netflix’s hold on mass market online video streaming. But the small streaming outlet is a fascinating case study in whether the online world can support niche channels as well as the pay television universe once did. Acorn.TV is a... With a predominantly older audience of British television junkies, Acorn.TV is never going to...

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The Cost of Abandoning Contract Workers: An Example

By Tom Dotan · Oct 21, 2014 12:22pm PDT · 1 comment

If anything, the rise of app companies providing on-demand services has been a golden era for the contract worker model. The current group of venture-backed startups that offer consumers an array of services—from rides to house cleaning to food delivery—have all been built on fleets of independent contractors, driving from place to... If anything, the rise of app companies providing on-demand services has been a golden era for the...

A phone running Android One. Photo by Bloomberg.

Google Combats Open-Source Android Smartphones

By Amir Efrati · Oct 21, 2014 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

Google is taking steps to curtail the proliferation of smartphones powered by open-source Android, which left unchecked could threaten Google’s revenue from the mobile operating system. New data show that open-source Android devices, once thought to be prevalent only in China, may represent more than 30% of total Android smartphones in... Google is taking steps to curtail the proliferation of smartphones powered by open-source...

What I’ve Learned Since Leaving Facebook

By Sam Lessin · Oct 20, 2014 10:01am PDT · 2 comments

Modest Proposals

What I’ve Learned Since Leaving Facebook

By Sam Lessin · Oct 20, 2014 10:01am PDT · 2 comments

I left Facebook six weeks ago, after working there for nearly four years. Working at Facebook is like working in a bubble. The company, like its peers in the tech industry, is highly effective at distributing everything from technology to food on-demand to make employees more efficient. So reentering the real world has afforded me the chance to... I left Facebook six weeks ago, after working there for nearly four years. Working at Facebook is...

Barry Silbert, founder of the Digital Currency Group. Photo by Associated Press.

Banks Freeze Out Bitcoin

By Eric Newcomer · Oct 20, 2014 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

With $40 million in investments, you’d think the bitcoin company Xapo would have an easy time finding a bank to hold all that money. But twice in the last year, banks have sent Xapo to the curb. “Here’s a cashiers check for all your cash, thank you for your business,” Xapo CEO Wences Casares recalls a U.S. bank telling... With $40 million in investments, you’d think the bitcoin company Xapo would have an easy...

Silicon Valley’s Frontman Problem

By Jessica Lessin · Oct 17, 2014 12:22pm PDT · 2 comments

Media interest in Silicon Valley is intensifying, often around a few vocal individuals. Marc Andreessen’s tweets about all matter of topics are being picked up by media outlets right and left. Every word out of Elon Musk, crazy or otherwise, spawns some (highly clickable) headlines. Peter Thiel’s remarks about Twitter management and pot hit a... Media interest in Silicon Valley is intensifying, often around a few vocal individuals. Marc...

HBO CEO Richard Plepler. Photo by Bloomberg.

HBO’s Online Pricing Trap

By Martin Peers · Oct 17, 2014 7:01am PDT

HBO’s broadband service looks doomed even before it starts. While HBO hasn’t disclosed details, pricing of the new broadband offering most likely won’t be less than HBO’s pay TV retail price of around $15 a month, according to a person familiar with the situation. That’s $6 more than the price of Netflix’s... HBO’s broadband service looks doomed even before it starts. While HBO hasn’t...

Sundar Pichai, the Google executive in charge of Android.

With Shades of Microsoft, Google’s Android Invites Antitrust Case

By Amir Efrati · Oct 16, 2014 11:44am PDT · 3 comments

Sundar Pichai, the Google executive in charge of Android.

With Shades of Microsoft, Google’s Android Invites Antitrust Case

By Amir Efrati · Oct 16, 2014 11:44am PDT · 3 comments

As European regulators continue their antitrust review of Google’s search engine, officials there have set their sights on the company’s Android mobile operating system, and it may only be a matter of time before their U.S. counterparts do too. A famous case provides a roadmap for how that might play out. Google’s handling of... As European regulators continue their antitrust review of Google’s search engine, officials...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discussing Azure last month. Photo by Bloomberg.

Inside the Race to the Cloud in China

By Steve Nellis · Oct 16, 2014 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

It’s too early to call the race to the cloud in China, but there’s one thing Microsoft can tout that others cannot: By navigating a maze of regulatory and technical issues, Microsoft became the first non-Chinese company to offer a public cloud in China. In the U.S., the business of storing and processing data remotely for... It’s too early to call the race to the cloud in China, but there’s one thing...

A scene from the HBO hit "Game of Thrones." Photo by HBO via Bloomberg.

How Unbundling HBO Could Come Back to Hurt Time Warner

By Martin Peers · Oct 15, 2014 10:44am PDT

HBO’s decision to finally offer a standalone broadband version of its service is likely to be a landmark step in the gradual breakup of the present pay TV ecosystem. Could it come back to hurt Time Warner? One of the risks to Time Warner of offering HBO to non-pay TV subscribers has long been the impact on other cable channels, most... HBO’s decision to finally offer a standalone broadband version of its service is likely to...

Q&A

Meet the Internet’s Newest Cloud Startup: Goldman Sachs?

By Steve Nellis · Oct 15, 2014 10:16am PDT

Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s biggest investment banks, but it is arguably also a major technology company. About a third of the firm’s employees are engineers. With hundreds of thousands of cloud computing processors working on its behalf, Goldman crunches more data each day than many Internet companies. Don Duet is co-head of... Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s biggest investment banks, but it is arguably also a...

Photo by Bloomberg.

Business Model Around Ultra-Fast Broadband Remains in Doubt

By Martin Peers · Oct 15, 2014 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Bloomberg.

Business Model Around Ultra-Fast Broadband Remains in Doubt

By Martin Peers · Oct 15, 2014 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

The promise of cheap, ultra-fast broadband speeds is spreading across America. Still to be worked out is the impact on broadband providers’ business model. Following the lead set by Google, Internet access providers including Cox Communications, CenturyLink and AT&T have announced plans to roll out speeds of up to a gigabit a second... The promise of cheap, ultra-fast broadband speeds is spreading across America. Still to be worked...

Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com's CEO, at Dreamforce. Photo by Bloomberg.

Burned Once, SAP and Oracle Confront Next Salesforce Threat

By Steve Nellis · Oct 14, 2014 11:04am PDT

When Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff takes the stage Tuesday to announce the company’s newest product, he’ll focus attention on the world of business intelligence, a multi-billion-dollar market even bigger than the customer relationship management realm. He’ll also up the stakes in the battle among Salesforce.com and enterprise... When Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff takes the stage Tuesday to announce the company’s...

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Associated Press.

Snapchat’s Real Business Plan is Platform, Not Ads

By Tom Dotan · Oct 14, 2014 7:01am PDT · 3 comments

Evan Spiegel was chatting on stage with Michael Bloomberg last week at a Vanity Fair summit in San Francisco when the topic turned to monetization. And the CEO of Snapchat, whose lips are near hermetically sealed when it comes to most plans around the ephemeral messaging app, finally dropped a clue. Ads, the 24-year-old revealed. Untargeted... Evan Spiegel was chatting on stage with Michael Bloomberg last week at a Vanity Fair summit in...

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Be Our Head of Sales and Business Development!

By Jessica Lessin · Oct 13, 2014 1:54pm PDT

While news publications everywhere are trying to save their business, we're building a new one from scratch—and it works. Now's the time to put our foot on the gas. We're seeking a head of sales and business development who wants the chance to lead the creation of a potentially massive business while... While news publications everywhere are trying to save their business, we're building a new...

This is our view!

Be Our Managing Editor!

By Jessica Lessin · Oct 13, 2014 12:06pm PDT

This is our view!

Be Our Managing Editor!

By Jessica Lessin · Oct 13, 2014 12:06pm PDT

The Information is seeking a managing editor to be the general manager of our growing newsroom. At The Information, our product is our stories, and nothing is more important than ensuring each article delivers unique value to our subscribers. This editor is the person who makes that happen, enforces... The Information is seeking a managing editor to be the general manager of our...

Illustration by Matt Vascellaro.

The Information’s Essentials

The Engineers Successful Tech Companies Can’t Do Without

By Eric Newcomer · Oct 13, 2014 10:48am PDT

Great software engineers are the backbone of any promising technology company—and they’re in rare supply. Big tech companies do everything they can to land talent, going so far as buying companies to acquire accomplished software engineers. In San Francisco, the median software engineer makes $100,000, according to the job site... Great software engineers are the backbone of any promising technology company—and...

Modest Proposals

Time to Hang up on Voice

By Sam Lessin · Oct 13, 2014 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

I recently spent some time playing with the new Moto 360 smartwatch to develop some intuitions about watches as a form factor for wearable technology. And it spurred some thinking about the utility of voice commands as an interface. Voice is not the future of interface design, and it isn’t going to be even as voice technology... I recently spent some time playing with the new Moto 360 smartwatch to develop some intuitions...

Why the Conventional Wisdom Around Messaging is Wrong

By Jessica Lessin · Oct 10, 2014 11:40am PDT

Investors are tripping over themselves to invest in messaging startups again. Eric, Tom and I hear Sequoia Capital and other VCs have been considering putting another round into productivity service Slack. We also hear Slack, which launched last year, has been seeking a valuation of as much as $1 billion, citing as a comparable the $1.2 billion... Investors are tripping over themselves to invest in messaging startups again. Eric, Tom and I...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in India this week. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook in Talks with Peer-to-Peer Lending Sites

By Tom Dotan · Oct 10, 2014 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in India this week. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook in Talks with Peer-to-Peer Lending Sites

By Tom Dotan · Oct 10, 2014 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

As murmurs about Facebook’s plans to offer payment services grow louder, the company has also been setting its sights in a different direction: lending. Facebook has been in talks with peer-to-peer lending services, including Lending Club and Prosper, about integrating a way for Facebook users to get loans into the social network,... As murmurs about Facebook’s plans to offer payment services grow louder, the company has...