The Information

Huawei's headquarters in Germany. Photo by AP.

Huawei in Talks With Banks to Raise $2 Billion

By Juro Osawa · Jan 8, 2020 2:14pm PST · 1 comment

Huawei is in talks with several international banks as part of an effort to raise about $2 billion through loans and bond sales outside China, people familiar with the matter said. The fundraising is partly aimed at showing that the Chinese company can still get international banks on board for its future financing plans, despite U.S. sanctions.... Huawei is in talks with several international banks as part of an effort to raise about $2...

Twitch headquarters in San Francisco. Photo by Shutterstock

How Big Is Amazon’s Twitch? Revenues Reveal Ad Struggles

By Priya Anand · Jan 8, 2020 7:01am PST · 1 comment

After Amazon paid nearly $1 billion to acquire the streaming video service Twitch more than five years ago, it looked like the company had a shot at turning it into the next YouTube. That view got a boost when Twitch began pushing beyond its main audience of gamers into cooking and craft videos. So far, though, Twitch is falling short... After Amazon paid nearly $1 billion to acquire the streaming video service Twitch more than five...

Getaround to Lay Off About One-Fourth of Staff

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 7, 2020 11:11am PST · 2 comments

Car-rental startup Getaround plans to lay off roughly 150 employees, or about a quarter of its staff, in a bid to reduce rising costs, people familiar with the matter said. Getaround’s chief executive told The Information that the cuts mostly will involve employees handling day-to-day interactions between car owners and renters.Getaround... Car-rental startup Getaround plans to lay off roughly 150 employees, or about a quarter of its...

Art by Danielle Davis

Uber CEO Khosrowshahi Struggles to Find Formula for Success

By Amir Efrati · Jan 6, 2020 7:02am PST · 3 comments

Art by Danielle Davis

Uber CEO Khosrowshahi Struggles to Find Formula for Success

By Amir Efrati · Jan 6, 2020 7:02am PST · 3 comments

As 2020 begins, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi faces what is shaping up to be a year of reckoning. Uber’s market capitalization has dropped $29 billion since it went public in May. It likely lost five to six times as much money in 2019 as it forecast in presentations to banks two years ago. And it has lost ground in its ride-hailing, scooter... As 2020 begins, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi faces what is shaping up to be a year of reckoning....

A Revel moped being ridden in Brooklyn, N.Y., last year. Photo: Bloomberg

Brooklyn’s Moped Upstart Readies West Coast Expansion

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 3, 2020 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Revel, a startup that rents electric mopeds, had such high ridership after launching service in Brooklyn last May that it took all hands on deck to keep the mopeds running and on the street. Revel’s CEO had to personally swap out vehicle batteries when they ran low on power. It didn’t take long for Revel to expand elsewhere.... Revel, a startup that rents electric mopeds, had such high ridership after launching service in...

Apple AirPods at a Walmart story last month. Photo by Bloomberg

Apple AirPod Suppliers Seek Financing to Expand in Vietnam

By Juro Osawa and Wayne Ma · Dec 26, 2019 7:01am PST

The two Chinese manufacturers of Apple’s wireless earbuds are each in talks to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from banks to expand production in Vietnam, according to a person familiar with the matter. The discussions come as a growing number of electronics manufacturers move some operations out of China as a hedge against trade... The two Chinese manufacturers of Apple’s wireless earbuds are each in talks to borrow...

Grab president Ming Maa. Photo by Bloomberg.

How Grab of Singapore Is Learning Lessons of Uber

By Juro Osawa · Dec 24, 2019 7:02am PST

Grab, the ride-hailing and food-delivery app in Southeast Asia valued at $14 billion, doesn’t want to be compared to Uber. But comparisons are inevitable. Both companies are backed by SoftBank, are unprofitable, and face strong competitors. Grab even acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations last year.At the end of 2018, Grab was... Grab, the ride-hailing and food-delivery app in Southeast Asia valued at $14 billion,...

Didi president Jean Liu. Photo by Bloomberg

Didi Chuxing Aims to Jumpstart Growth After a Rough 2019

By Yunan Zhang · Dec 20, 2019 7:01am PST

Didi president Jean Liu. Photo by Bloomberg

Didi Chuxing Aims to Jumpstart Growth After a Rough 2019

By Yunan Zhang · Dec 20, 2019 7:01am PST

The bloody wars in the global ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses, which have unnerved investors in the U.S. so much this year, will open on a new front in 2020. Didi Chuxing is expanding its ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses in Latin America, ramping up the competitive threat for Uber in the region. Didi’s international... The bloody wars in the global ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses, which have unnerved...

Illustration by Laurent Bazart (@laurentbazart)

To Control Its Destiny, Facebook Bets Big on Hardware

By Alex Heath · Dec 19, 2019 7:01am PST · 3 comments

In Burlingame, California, a small city about 15 miles north of Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters, a monument to the social media giant’s future ambitions is taking shape. Construction is underway on a 770,000-square-foot new campus, with the capacity for about 4,000 employees, that will be devoted entirely to a burgeoning... In Burlingame, California, a small city about 15 miles north of Facebook’s Silicon Valley...

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian at a company event in April. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

By Nick Bastone, Kevin McLaughlin and Amir Efrati · Dec 17, 2019 7:01am PST · 2 comments

The clock is ticking for Google Cloud.The Google unit, which sells computing services to big companies, is under pressure from top management to pass Amazon or Microsoft—currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share—or risk losing funding. While the company has invested heavily in the business since last year,... The clock is ticking for Google Cloud.The Google unit, which sells computing services to big...

Illustration by Grant Kratzer

Amazon Learns a New Skill: Making Money From Alexa

By Priya Anand and Amir Efrati · Dec 16, 2019 7:00am PST

For most of Alexa’s five years in existence, Amazon has focused on making its voice assistant as ubiquitous as possible, putting it in everything from microwaves to wearable rings to its growing family of Echo devices. Now Amazon has a new focus for Alexa: making money from it. The company is exploring how it can profit from premium... For most of Alexa’s five years in existence, Amazon has focused on making its voice...

A WeWork office. Photo by Bloomberg

WeWork Trying to Unravel Office Lease Deals

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 12, 2019 10:01am PST · 1 comment

A WeWork office. Photo by Bloomberg

WeWork Trying to Unravel Office Lease Deals

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 12, 2019 10:01am PST · 1 comment

WeWork has tried to convey a semblance of strength in the midst of management upheaval and mass layoffs. It announced last week that it opened a record number of buildings in December, as coworking spaces long under construction were completed. But quietly, WeWork has been trying to shrink the number of buildings it leases even faster than is... WeWork has tried to convey a semblance of strength in the midst of management upheaval and mass...

TerraTrue COO Chris Handman (left) and CEO Jad Boutros. Photo by TerraTrue

Former Snap Executives Raise Funds for a ‘TurboTax for Privacy’

By Alex Heath · Dec 11, 2019 10:01am PST

Two former Snap executives have raised a first round of funding for a new startup building what they describe as a TurboTax for privacy. TerraTrue, created by former Snap chief security officer Jad Boutros and former general counsel Chris Handman, recently closed a $4.5 million round of seed funding led by Anthos Capital—a venture... Two former Snap executives have raised a first round of funding for a new startup building what...

Beijing headquarters of Kuaishou. Photo by AP

Tencent Nears $2 Billion Investment in Chinese Video App Kuaishou to Fight ByteDance

By Yunan Zhang and Wayne Ma · Dec 11, 2019 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Tencent is nearing a deal to invest another $2 billion in Kuaishou, creator of a popular short-video app by the same name that’s gained an especially strong following in China’s smaller cities and countryside, say people familiar with the matter. The investment is designed to counter the rise of ByteDance’s group of apps,... Tencent is nearing a deal to invest another $2 billion in Kuaishou, creator of a popular...

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in Vietnam at a conference in 2017. Photo by Bloomberg

Facebook and Google Balance Booming Business with Censorship Pressure in Vietnam

By Wayne Ma · Dec 10, 2019 7:00am PST

When Facebook and Google want to strike ad deals in Vietnam, salespeople in Singapore get on a plane and fly to major cities like Ho Chi Minh City. They rent out rooms in five-star hotels for meetings with small retailers looking to sell around the world or big brands wanting to reach Vietnamese consumers. Vietnam is the most important market in... When Facebook and Google want to strike ad deals in Vietnam, salespeople in Singapore get on a...

An Uber self-driving car prototype in February 2018. Photo by AP

Uber Nears Deal for Self-Driving Car Simulation Startup

By Amir Efrati · Dec 9, 2019 1:32pm PST

An Uber self-driving car prototype in February 2018. Photo by AP

Uber Nears Deal for Self-Driving Car Simulation Startup

By Amir Efrati · Dec 9, 2019 1:32pm PST

Uber is in advanced negotiations to acquire the team behind a small Silicon Valley-based startup, Foresight, that develops simulation software to help test self-driving car prototypes, said a person who has worked at Uber and has direct knowledge of the pending deal. The small deal, if completed, would aid Uber’s robo-taxi development... Uber is in advanced negotiations to acquire the team behind a small Silicon Valley-based startup,...

Magic Leap CEO and founder Rony Abovitz. Photo by Bloomberg

Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses

By Alex Heath · Dec 6, 2019 7:00am PST · 7 comments

As Magic Leap neared the release of its first augmented reality headset in August 2018, the company’s founder and CEO Rony Abovitz had a bullish target, telling investors and colleagues in meetings that he wanted to sell at least one million units within the product’s first year, according to four people who repeatedly heard the goal... As Magic Leap neared the release of its first augmented reality headset in August 2018, the...

A DoorDash delivery person. Photo by Bloomberg

With Public Debut Looming, DoorDash Projected $450M 2019 Loss

By Amir Efrati · Dec 4, 2019 7:01am PST · 2 comments

DoorDash, an on-demand food delivery firm most recently valued at $12 billion which plans to go public next year, expects to lose $450 million this year—but it is faring better than its main rivals, such as Uber Eats.The financial picture—including projections that DoorDash’s net revenue will be between $900 million and about... DoorDash, an on-demand food delivery firm most recently valued at $12 billion which plans to go...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, shown in 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Silicon Valley Braces for Belt-Tightening

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 2, 2019 7:02am PST · 2 comments

At Airbnb’s board meeting two weeks ago, one topic took center stage: how to contain accelerating costs. It is a question that until relatively recently received scant attention inside Silicon Valley’s big-name startups. But a string of rejections by the public markets of some of the tech industry’s superstars has prompted... At Airbnb’s board meeting two weeks ago, one topic took center stage: how to contain...

ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming. Photo by Bloomberg

TikTok Owner ByteDance in Talks to Borrow $2 Billion From Banks

By Juro Osawa and Yunan Zhang · Nov 27, 2019 8:31am PST

ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming. Photo by Bloomberg

TikTok Owner ByteDance in Talks to Borrow $2 Billion From Banks

By Juro Osawa and Yunan Zhang · Nov 27, 2019 8:31am PST

ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the wildly popular TikTok video app, is looking to borrow around $2 billion from banks, according to people familiar with the matter. The money would add to ByteDance’s war chest as TikTok challenges Facebook and Snapchat in the U.S. and other parts of the world. The latest fundraising comes as... ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the wildly popular TikTok video app, is looking to borrow...