The Information

Apoorva Mehta, founder and CEO of Instacart, at an event last year. Photo by Bloomberg

Instacart Expected to Top $3 Billion in Orders This Year

By Priya Anand · Oct 3, 2018 7:01am PDT

Instacart is on track to surpass $3 billion in grocery orders this year, as the same-day delivery service expands the number of supermarkets it works with, The Information has learned. That figure would represent more than double its business from last year.The previously undisclosed figures show how Instacart has managed to thrive in the wake... Instacart is on track to surpass $3 billion in grocery orders this year, as the same-day delivery...

A Waymo self-driving van in Chandler, Ariz. Photo: Waymo

Waymo Collision Shows Flaws in Self-Driving Car Tests

By Amir Efrati · Oct 2, 2018 7:02am PDT · 8 comments

One morning in June, a self-driving car prototype developed by Alphabet’s Waymo unit drove itself northbound on the freeway not far from the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. The Waymo vehicle, a white Chrysler Pacifica minivan, traveled on a route that the company uses to test different versions of autonomous vehicle... One morning in June, a self-driving car prototype developed by Alphabet’s Waymo unit drove...

SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son, at a news conference in Tokyo, in August. Photo: Bloomberg

SoftBank Asserts More Control Over Startups

By Alfred Lee · Oct 1, 2018 7:01am PDT · 3 comments

SoftBank is changing the tech landscape by investing massive amounts of money in startups. Increasingly, that money is coming with more strings attached.As it deploys its nearly $100 billion Vision Fund, the investing giant is negotiating deal terms that can go to great lengths to protect its returns and give it greater control over key... SoftBank is changing the tech landscape by investing massive amounts of money in startups....

Byedance founder Zhang Yiming. Photo by Bloomberg

SoftBank in Talks to Invest in Bytedance

By Yunan Zhang · Sep 27, 2018 3:53am PDT · 3 comments

Byedance founder Zhang Yiming. Photo by Bloomberg

SoftBank in Talks to Invest in Bytedance

By Yunan Zhang · Sep 27, 2018 3:53am PDT · 3 comments

SoftBank and Primavera Capital are in talks to invest in Bytedance, the six-year-old startup behind news app Toutiao and other popular Chinese entertainment apps, which is raising money ahead of a possible initial public offering next year.The new round of financing could value Bytedance at as much as $75 billion, according to people familiar... SoftBank and Primavera Capital are in talks to invest in Bytedance, the six-year-old startup...

Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer earlier this year. Photo by Bloomberg

Lyft Shows Financial Improvement Ahead of IPO Filing

By Amir Efrati · Sep 26, 2018 10:26am PDT

Lyft appears to be getting better at controlling its costs.The ride-hailing firm more than doubled revenue to $909 million in the first half of 2018 compared with a year earlier, according to a person with knowledge of the figures. But tighter control of expenses such as promotions for riders and technical infrastructure and networking meant the... Lyft appears to be getting better at controlling its costs.The ride-hailing firm more than...

Adam Mosseri. Photo by Karen Obrist

Facebook Likely to Name Mosseri to Lead Instagram

By Sarah Kuranda · Sep 25, 2018 10:14am PDT · 3 comments

Facebook most likely will name Adam Mosseri as the new leader of Instagram, following the announcement on Monday night that the photo-sharing service’s two founders are leaving the company, according to people familiar with the matter. The departure of the two founders, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom and CTO Mike Krieger, was the culmination... Facebook most likely will name Adam Mosseri as the new leader of Instagram, following the...

IBM's David Kenny talking with Box CEO Aaron Levie at a Box conference in August. Photo by Bloomberg

IBM Shakes Up Its Public Cloud Leadership

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 25, 2018 7:00am PDT

One of IBM’s top cloud executives quietly departed the company a few weeks ago, amid a broader shakeup of the tech giant’s cloud management team. The changes follow IBM losing market share in the public cloud, where it had hoped to expand.IBM was overtaken by Alibaba in the first quarter for the fourth spot in the global market,... One of IBM’s top cloud executives quietly departed the company a few weeks ago, amid a...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Airbnb’s Engineering Chief to Depart

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 24, 2018 11:24am PDT · 1 comment

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

Airbnb’s Engineering Chief to Depart

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 24, 2018 11:24am PDT · 1 comment

Airbnb has another top job to fill: engineering leader. Mike Curtis, the company’s vice president of engineering for more than five years, will step down this year, he told the company earlier this month. The company will search for a chief technology officer as his replacement, an Airbnb spokesman said.His departure adds to the number of... Airbnb has another top job to fill: engineering leader. Mike Curtis, the company’s vice...

Jonah Peretti. Photo by Erin Beach

The Evolution of BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti

By Jessica Toonkel · Sep 24, 2018 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

More than most other entrepreneurs, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti has been the trendsetter of the past decade in digital media. Now, he is learning what it takes to build a sustainable media business. Interviews with more than two dozen people involved in BuzzFeed provide an inside look at how the company founder preferred to study how people... More than most other entrepreneurs, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti has been the trendsetter of the...

Chamath Palihapitiya. Photo by Bloomberg

Social Capital Founder Gives His Account of Turmoil at Firm

By Reed Albergotti · Sep 20, 2018 7:31am PDT · 6 comments

For the past year, venture firm Social Capital has been decimated by high-level departures and investor complaints about the firm’s founder, Chamath Palihapitiya, and his unpredictable and unilateral decision making.Now, in an exclusive interview in which Mr. Palihapitiya questioned the very nature of startup funding, he made clear he... For the past year, venture firm Social Capital has been decimated by high-level departures and...

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, speaks at an Oculus event last year. Photo by Bloomberg

Facebook Seeks Engineers for Custom AR Chips

By Aaron Tilley and Sarah Kuranda · Sep 18, 2018 7:01am PDT

Facebook is stepping up its investments in augmented reality, seeking to hire engineers to work on custom silicon chips for devices that enable the technology. In at least four job listings posted in recent days, a research group inside the company called Facebook Reality Labs advertised engineering positions requiring expertise in the design of... Facebook is stepping up its investments in augmented reality, seeking to hire engineers to work...

Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud, speaking at an event in July. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Cloud Tests Devices for Private Data Centers

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 17, 2018 10:01am PDT · 3 comments

Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud, speaking at an event in July. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Cloud Tests Devices for Private Data Centers

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 17, 2018 10:01am PDT · 3 comments

Executives at Google Cloud have said they are willing to meet large customers “where they are”—marketing-speak for their openness to extending Google cloud services into the private data centers of customers. As an example, Google in July announced a version of its Kubernetes software, which is used to manage large numbers of... Executives at Google Cloud have said they are willing to meet large customers “where they...

Tencent's Honor of Kings mobile game on an iPhone in Hong Kong last year. Photo by Bloomberg

Apple’s China App Store Loophole

By Wayne Ma and Juro Osawa · Sep 13, 2018 7:01am PDT

In Apple’s iOS App Store in China, videogames such as “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” “Modern Combat 5” and “The Walking Dead” are for sale. Those games aren’t supposed to be available in the country. They lack approvals from regulators, a prerequisite every game needs before it can be released in... In Apple’s iOS App Store in China, videogames such as “Grand Theft Auto: San...

Photos by Bloomberg, Company website. Source: The Information

The People With (Digital) Power at Walmart

By Priya Anand · Sep 12, 2018 7:01am PDT

Shortly after Marc Lore joined Walmart, an employee asked the company’s new U.S. ecommerce chief at an all-hands meeting if there were any books he read for inspiration. Mr. Lore replied that he wasn’t much of a reader, preferring instead to spend his time thinking, said one current Walmart employee who saw the presentation and... Shortly after Marc Lore joined Walmart, an employee asked the company’s new U.S. ecommerce...

Sentient CEO Babak Hodjat at a conference in New Orleans in May. Photo by Flickr/Collision Conf

AI Startup’s Stumbles Show Challenges in Crowded Market

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 11, 2018 10:30am PDT · 3 comments

Artificial intelligence startup Sentient Technologies seemed to have hit paydirt three years ago when it landed customers such as shoe retailer Zappos and shoe maker Skechers for its software, which uses AI algorithms to recommend products to shoppers. But in the past year Sentient has stumbled in efforts to diversify into advertising and... Artificial intelligence startup Sentient Technologies seemed to have hit paydirt three years ago...

An Amazon Go store in Seattle. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon to Open Cashierless ‘Go’ Store in New York

By Priya Anand · Sep 7, 2018 11:27am PDT · 2 comments

An Amazon Go store in Seattle. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon to Open Cashierless ‘Go’ Store in New York

By Priya Anand · Sep 7, 2018 11:27am PDT · 2 comments

Amazon’s cashierless convenience store is headed for its biggest stage yet: New York. On Thursday night, the internet retailer posted at least four job listings related to an Amazon Go store in the New York area. The listings seek candidates for a store manager, an assistant store manager, a learning and development manager, and a training... Amazon’s cashierless convenience store is headed for its biggest stage yet: New York. On...

Photo by Bloomberg

Apple Hires Former Condé Nast Executive for News App

By Aaron Tilley · Sep 6, 2018 3:00pm PDT

Apple is beefing up the management of its Apple News product, with the recent hiring of veteran media executive Liz Schimel.The hiring is another sign of the increasing importance of Apple’s news operation, which has become a significant source of traffic for many media organizations at a time when Facebook is placing less emphasis on... Apple is beefing up the management of its Apple News product, with the recent hiring of veteran...

Microsoft's AI research chief Harry Shum. Photo by Bloomberg.

Huawei Guns for Nvidia With Potential Microsoft AI Chip Deal in China

By Juro Osawa · Sep 5, 2018 10:00am PDT · 2 comments

Microsoft and Huawei Technologies are discussing the possibility of the U.S. company using Huawei’s newly developed artificial intelligence chips for data centers in China, people familiar with the matter said. While it is uncertain whether they will reach an agreement, a deal with Microsoft would be the Chinese company’s first step... Microsoft and Huawei Technologies are discussing the possibility of the U.S. company using...

Illustration by Mike Sullivan. Photos by Bloomberg, AP

Inside the World of Eddy Cue, Apple’s Services Chief

By Aaron Tilley · Sep 5, 2018 7:02am PDT · 3 comments

It is easy for Apple employees to tell when they have lost the attention of Eddy Cue, the leader of the company’s sprawling internet initiatives—from its music and video businesses to its maps service.During meetings, Mr. Cue is sometimes known to fall silent, shut his eyes and tilt his head back, leaving other participants to wonder... It is easy for Apple employees to tell when they have lost the attention of Eddy Cue, the leader...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son at a news conference in Tokyo last month. Photo: Bloomberg

Under Scrutiny, SoftBank Tries New Deal Structures

By Alfred Lee · Sep 4, 2018 10:02am PDT

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son at a news conference in Tokyo last month. Photo: Bloomberg

Under Scrutiny, SoftBank Tries New Deal Structures

By Alfred Lee · Sep 4, 2018 10:02am PDT

As the U.S. government puts foreign investments into U.S. companies under the microscope, one of the world’s biggest tech investors, SoftBank, is taking complicated steps to try to insulate its deals from regulatory roadblocks.SoftBank has split some recent venture capital deals into two parts: an initial component to acquire a voting... As the U.S. government puts foreign investments into U.S. companies under the microscope, one of...