The Information

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook’s Message to Content Makers: We Own the Audience

By Tom Dotan · Mar 27, 2015 7:00am PDT

Even before Facebook executives began talking about new plans for articles and videos on its platform at this week’s F8 developers conference, there was grumbling from the media executives present. Part of it was residual angst from a newspaper report that publications like the New York Times, National Geographic and BuzzFeed, among others,... Even before Facebook executives began talking about new plans for articles and videos on its...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks to developers Wednesday. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Facebook Should Learn from WeChat

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 25, 2015 12:12pm PDT · 2 comments

Facebook today announced big plans to open up Messenger to developers. This means Facebook wants to make your Messenger inbox as central a communication channel as News Feed. To start, you’ll be able to send stickers, videos and messages made in other apps through Messenger. And more significantly, you’ll be able to use Messenger, not email or... Facebook today announced big plans to open up Messenger to developers. This means Facebook wants...

Photo by Bloomberg.

Samsung Goes Loopy On Payments

By Steve Nellis · Feb 19, 2015 12:06pm PST

In buying LoopPay, Samsung is hoping to counter Apple’s jump into mobile payments. Instead, Samsung may have just acquired a white elephant, mobile payment technology that could become obsolete almost immediately. LoopPay looked attractive to Samsung because its technology doesn’t require merchants to have the same specialized chip readers... In buying LoopPay, Samsung is hoping to counter Apple’s jump into mobile payments. Instead,...

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Photo by Bloomberg.

Yahoo’s Product Problem

By Amir Efrati · Feb 3, 2015 10:00am PST · 2 comments

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Photo by Bloomberg.

Yahoo’s Product Problem

By Amir Efrati · Feb 3, 2015 10:00am PST · 2 comments

For Yahoo, there are some daunting things about relinquishing its stake in Alibaba Group Holding, not the least of which is this: In the two and a half years since Marissa Mayer became CEO, the company’s product group hasn’t been very productive. To survive after it sheds two-thirds of its value from the upcoming Alibaba stake spin-off, Yahoo... For Yahoo, there are some daunting things about relinquishing its stake in Alibaba Group Holding,...

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...

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...

H-P CEO Meg Whitman will run the new H-P Enterprise. Photo by Bloomberg.

‘Private Cloud’ is Must-Win for New H-P Enterprise

By Steve Nellis · Oct 9, 2014 1:28pm PDT

After Hewlett-Packard’s big split, the fate of the $51.6-billion-a-year Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will hinge on whether it can make its mark in an emerging battleground in the cloud computing wars: the growing business of private cloud computing. The best-known clouds today are the massive pools of servers owned and rented out by Amazon,... After Hewlett-Packard’s big split, the fate of the $51.6-billion-a-year Hewlett-Packard...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Associated Press.

Apple Event Shows Subtle Shift in Product Strategy

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 10, 2014 6:52am PDT

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Associated Press.

Apple Event Shows Subtle Shift in Product Strategy

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 10, 2014 6:52am PDT

Apple on Tuesday gave fans and customers a lot to be excited about, including an Apple Watch that seems to deliver great design at a competitive price. But Tim Cook and Apple’s growing leadership team also revealed an Apple that is bending its traditional approach to product releases at what could be a particularly opportune moment. First,... Apple on Tuesday gave fans and customers a lot to be excited about, including an Apple Watch that...

Zoosk co-founder Alex Mehr. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro

New Wave of Dating Sites Get a Market Test

By Eric Newcomer · Apr 17, 2014 11:04am PDT

When the online dating site Zoosk filed to go public on Wednesday, its competitors perked up: The IPO could validate an industry sector where there’s a lot of activity but limited investor interest. “You see a lot of hesitation among investors, and it’s because they haven’t seen a lot of validations about how big an... When the online dating site Zoosk filed to go public on Wednesday, its competitors perked up: The...

Bug Shows Deep Problems in Industry Approach on Security

By Amir Efrati and Katie Benner · Apr 9, 2014 11:46am PDT

A single programmer, supported by a few part-time volunteers, is responsible for managing the widely used OpenSSL encryption technology that was recently found to have a major security hole in it—a shocking illustration of the Internet industry’s heavy reliance on poorly funded, open-source Web technology. The discovery of the... A single programmer, supported by a few part-time volunteers, is responsible for managing the...

Rubicon Project CEO Frank Addante on the floor of the NYSE. Photo by Reuters/ Lucas Jackson

Ad Tech Sector Sees Solid IPOs, But Threats Loom

By Tom Dotan · Apr 4, 2014 3:03pm PDT

The IPO of the Rubicon Project this week is the latest indication that public markets have warmed to the ad tech sector, a diverse group of companies that has had its ups and downs on Wall Street despite the online advertising boom. But Google and other Internet giants, which operate their own ad networks and control huge swaths of ad inventory,... The IPO of the Rubicon Project this week is the latest indication that public markets have warmed...

Peter Larsen of Amazon shows the new Amazon Fire TV. Photo by Reuters/ Eduardo Munoz.

Amazon TV Box Shows Why Apps are Over

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 2, 2014 11:54am PDT

Peter Larsen of Amazon shows the new Amazon Fire TV. Photo by Reuters/ Eduardo Munoz.

Amazon TV Box Shows Why Apps are Over

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 2, 2014 11:54am PDT

Amazon.com’s new television box provides yet another way to watch TV shows, movies and Web videos from the comfort of your living room. But it also reinforces a paradigm shift that’s already affecting the entire digital content industry. The so-called Amazon Fire TV supports apps from Hulu, Netflix, MLB.tv and others, just as the... Amazon.com’s new television box provides yet another way to watch TV shows, movies and Web...

Matthew Vascellaro

With Maker Acquisition, Disney Takes on a Tough Challenge

By Tom Dotan · Mar 26, 2014 2:38pm PDT

Walt Disney Co.'s $500 million buyout of Maker Studios has been described as many things: An endorsement of the YouTube economy, an admission by a media giant that it can’t build digital properties in-house, and a seminal moment for Los Angeles’ startup scene. What it isn’t, though, is the acquisition of a... Walt Disney Co.'s $500 million buyout of Maker Studios has been described as many...

Matt Vascellaro

Crunch Time Coming in Online Storage Race

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 26, 2014 7:44am PDT

The online storage business is one of the hottest niches in Silicon Valley, with upstart Box unveiling its IPO plans this week and rivals Dropbox and Evernote boasting multibillion-dollar private market valuations. Just don’t call it the online storage business. The startups bristle at the label, insisting they’re... The online storage business is one of the hottest niches in Silicon Valley, with upstart Box...

Matthew Vascellaro

Games Take Center Stage in Mobile Ad Surge

By Eric Newcomer and Tom Dotan · Mar 24, 2014 7:02am PDT

The race for smartphone real estate among gaming apps is emerging as a major driver of mobile ad spending, helping Facebook in particular boost revenue but also raising questions as to whether the growth is sustainable. Advertisers spent about $18 billion on mobile internet ads in 2013, according to a new report from eMarketer, and that... The race for smartphone real estate among gaming apps is emerging as a major driver of mobile ad...

Photo by Reuters/ Albert Gea

In Debate Over PayPal, Lessons from Alibaba

By Katie Benner · Mar 21, 2014 1:38pm PDT

Photo by Reuters/ Albert Gea

In Debate Over PayPal, Lessons from Alibaba

By Katie Benner · Mar 21, 2014 1:38pm PDT

Ebay has rebuffed demands from investor Carl Icahn that it sell or at least partially spin out its PayPal division. In doing so, the e-commerce giant has painted Mr. Icahn as a self-serving vulture who doesn’t understand or care about innovation and the technology business. Yet the case for a PayPal spinoff is much stronger than the... Ebay has rebuffed demands from investor Carl Icahn that it sell or at least partially spin out...

Alibaba headquarters. Photo by Reuters/ China Daily

Alibaba Plans Niche Approach to U.S. Market

By Eric Newcomer · Mar 18, 2014 12:05pm PDT

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s decision to list its shares in the U.S. doesn’t mean it’s planning a major push into the U.S. online retail business—at least not right away. At the annual Morgan Stanley technology conference in San Francisco two weeks ago, Alibaba executive vice chairman Joe Tsai said the company had... Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s decision to list its shares in the U.S. doesn’t...

Mark Zuckerberg. Credit: TechCrunch

Why Facebook Had to Buy WhatsApp

By Eric Newcomer and Amir Efrati · Feb 19, 2014 4:36pm PST

Trying to understand why Facebook will pay as much as $19 billion to acquire messaging service WhatsApp in the biggest acquisition of a venture-backed company in history? Some exclusive data about WhatsApp’s penetration tells the tale. In a number of key countries, WhatsApp trounces Facebook’s messaging service in popularity,... Trying to understand why Facebook will pay as much as $19 billion to acquire messaging service...

Apple

Apple's Product Problem

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jan 28, 2014 12:15pm PST

Warning signs emerged for Apple investors this week when the company said its hot new iPhone 5C didn’t sell as expected and sales for the current quarter could be weak. But investors who want to understand the company for the long-term should focus on another potential problem. This one isn’t with individual products, like the iPhone... Warning signs emerged for Apple investors this week when the company said its hot new iPhone 5C...

What’s Really Behind Google’s DeepMind Bet

By Amir Efrati · Jan 27, 2014 2:18pm PST

What’s Really Behind Google’s DeepMind Bet

By Amir Efrati · Jan 27, 2014 2:18pm PST

Google’s acquisition of DeepMind Technologies for more than half a billion dollars might seem like a gross overpayment. The startup doesn’t have any commercial products and its main assets were its people, including several dozen experts in machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that tries to teach computers to think the way... Google’s acquisition of DeepMind Technologies for more than half a billion dollars might seem...