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

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 Microsoft or Amazon—currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share—or risk losing funding. While the company has … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market

Two years ago, Apple launched an aggressive battle against ads that track users across the web. Today executives in the online publishing and advertising industries say that effort has been stunningly effective—posing a problem for advertisers looking to reach affluent consumers. … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market

Two years ago, Apple launched an aggressive battle against ads that track users across the web. Today executives in the online publishing and advertising industries say that effort has been stunningly effective—posing a problem for advertisers looking to reach affluent consumers. … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Our Apple App Store Ordeal

It all started with the price.Peter Schulz, who leads our product and engineering teams, walked into my office and told me that we couldn’t charge what we had planned for our upcoming news app because Apple had “tiers” of pricing app developers must follow. Our planned price of $ … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Four Paths Forward for ‘Social Products’

A broad-based belief in Silicon Valley is that new opportunities for social networks occur only with “platform shifts,” such as the growth of mobile. Only then, so this theory goes, do consumers have the cognitive bandwidth and interest to seek out new social products—and can bud … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses

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, … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Trump Visa Crackdown Hits Outsourcing Firms

Tech outsourcing firms known for bringing workers from India to the U.S. have seen rejection rates for new skilled worker visas surge under the Trump administration, according to an analysis of U.S. government data.Most affected are companies such as Cognizant Technology Solution … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Alphabet’s Internet Balloon Business Strikes Deal in the Amazon

Alphabet’s internet beaming balloon business, Loon, penned one of its first major deals to bring mobile internet access to parts of the Peruvian Amazon, the company announced on Thursday.  Loon, which uses high-altitude balloons in the place of traditional cell towers, can deli … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Freemium Love: Tech Transforms Dating in San Francisco – The Information

When a venture capitalist invited Jane Dinh, an entrepreneur in San Francisco, out for a second date a couple years ago, he had an unusual question for her. Would she be interested in pretending to be homeless with him for a night?The venture capitalist, whom Dinh met through a d … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Freemium Love: Tech Transforms Dating in San Francisco

When a venture capitalist invited Jane Dinh, an entrepreneur in San Francisco, out for a second date a couple years ago, he had an unusual question for her. Would she be interested in pretending to be homeless with him for a night?The venture capitalist, whom Dinh met through a d … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Apple Eyes 2022 Release for AR Headset, 2023 for Glasses

Apple is aiming to release an augmented-reality headset in 2022 and a sleeker pair of AR glasses by 2023, The Information has learned.Apple executives discussed the timelines, which haven’t been previously reported, in an internal presentation to employees at the company’s Cupert … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Apple Eyes 2022 Release for AR Headset, 2023 for Glasses

Apple is aiming to release an augmented-reality headset in 2022 and a sleeker pair of AR glasses by 2023, The Information has learned.Apple executives discussed the timelines, which haven’t been previously reported, in an internal presentation to employees at the company’s Cupert … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

The Key Themes That Matter for the Future of Work

A few years ago, if you asked most technologists around Silicon Valley which technologies would affect the future of work, the discussion would have centered around AI, self-driving cars, fully digital assistants and the inevitability of long-term technological unemployment. Ever … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Google Discourages Culture Fit in Hiring with ‘Googleyness’ Update

When Google interviews job candidates, it has long considered a handful of attributes, including the applicants’ leadership, knowledge about the roles they are applying for and “general cognitive ability.” But in a move little noticed outside the company, Google has clarified the … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Sony Explores Sale of Vue, Signaling Shift on Streaming

Sony Corp. is exploring the sale of its Playstation Vue service, which offers a slimmed-down version of cable TV delivered over the internet, said people familiar with the situation. Sony’s move is the latest sign that the four-year-old trend toward cheaper cable-like streaming s … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

WeWork shareholders: who's underwater and who's not

SoftBank has given WeWork a new lease on life. But some of the company’s biggest shareholders, including Hony Capital, Fidelity and thousands of employees—as well as SoftBank itself—are now in the red.WeWork’s new valuation of $11.60 a share is below what was paid by every outsid … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Lime’s Loss to Top $300M in 2019

Scooter rental operator Lime has touted itself as one of the fastest-growing startups ever, blanketing cities such as Berlin, Paris and Los Angeles with thousands of two-wheeled electric vehicles. But the firm is losing money nearly as quickly as it expands in part because the co … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Lime’s Loss to Top $300M in 2019

Scooter rental operator Lime has touted itself as one of the fastest-growing startups ever, blanketing cities such as Berlin, Paris and Los Angeles with thousands of two-wheeled electric vehicles. But the firm is losing money nearly as quickly as it expands in part because the co … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

AWS Customers Rack Up Hefty Bills for Moving Data

There are a lot of ways companies can rack up high bills for using cloud services, sometimes unexpectedly. One particularly stiff expense is the cost of shifting data from one cloud provider’s servers to another provider, or to a company’s own data center. The Information has lea … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

AWS Customers Rack Up Hefty Bills for Moving Data

There are a lot of ways companies can rack up high bills for using cloud services, sometimes unexpectedly. One particularly stiff expense is the cost of shifting data from one cloud provider’s servers to another provider, or to a company’s own data center. The Information has lea … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Ripple CEO Blasts Libra, Boasts of Warchest

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse blasted Facebook’s proposed Libra digital currency, suggesting that the initiative would have been met with less pushback had it been led by another company, such as PayPal.“I think that the way they approached it demonstrated, frankly, [from] my poin … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Airbnb’s Q1 Loss More Than Doubled

Airbnb’s operating loss more than doubled in the first quarter to $306 million from the year-earlier period, previously undisclosed financial data shows, a result in part of a sharply increased investment in marketing. While that spending could bring in a lot of new business, pro … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

US restrictions on tech exports have increased over last three years

The Trump administration has made it harder for U.S. tech companies to export sensitive U.S. technologies, such as encryption software, semiconductors and drones. Export license approvals have dropped and rejections have risen in recent years, data obtained by The Information sho … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Interactive Graph: Export of Sensitive U.S. Technology Slows Under Trump

The Trump administration has made it harder for U.S. tech companies to export sensitive U.S. technologies, such as encryption software, semiconductors and drones. Export license approvals have dropped and rejections have risen in recent years, data obtained by The Information sho … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

WeWork Plans to Shed One-Third of Technology Employees

WeWork expects to shed about 500 of the roughly 1,500 software engineers, product managers and data scientists employed in the company’s technology division, a person familiar with the matter said, as a result of layoffs and selling businesses. The job cuts could further dilute W … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Uber’s Stock Drop Weighs on Didi Chuxing’s Valuation

Uber’s disappointing IPO and WeWork’s recent implosion are casting a shadow over another of SoftBank’s big bets: Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.Some of Didi’s existing shareholders are looking to sell their stakes on the secondary market at much lower prices than the com … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

More WeWork Fallout: Unhappy Investors in Startups It Acquired

WeWork’s troubles are writing a cautionary tale that could fill a book on corporate finance and startup investing lessons. The latest chapter is on what happens when startup investors are paid in stock when their companies are acquired by other private companies.WeWork paid for s … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

WeWork Puts Three Businesses Up for Sale

WeWork will try to sell three companies it had acquired in the last few years that handle office cleaning services, group meetups and marketing services, according to two people familiar with the matter. It is a sign that the co-working space provider’s new management is moving a … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

WeWork Puts Three Businesses Up for Sale

WeWork will try to sell three companies it had acquired in the last few years that handle office cleaning services, group meetups and marketing services, according to two people familiar with the matter. It is a sign that the co-working space provider’s new management is moving a … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

The Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Hustle

Han Jin was in a panic. It was 2017 and the 29-year-old tech entrepreneur was saying goodbye to the final months of his third decade—and with them his dream of ever being selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.In the days before online nominations for the list closed, Jin and t … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

The Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Hustle

Han Jin was in a panic. It was 2017 and the 29-year-old tech entrepreneur was saying goodbye to the final months of his third decade—and with them his dream of ever being selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.In the days before online nominations for the list closed, Jin and t … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

WeWork, Bankers Have Discussed Laying Off One-Third of Workforce

As WeWork investors joust over CEO Adam Neumann’s future, a parallel debate by the company’s executives and bankers has centered on just how deeply the company should cut costs to save its business.In recent days, a group of executives from WeWork’s parent company and bankers hav … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Travis Kalanick’s ‘Bigger Than Uber’ Next Act

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s newest startup is known as CloudKitchens. But a better name might be WeWork for Food.Operating through a small startup he bought last year, and supported by hundreds of millions of dollars in loan facilities arranged with Goldman Sachs and other … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Andreessen Horowitz Returns Slip, According to Internal Data

One of Silicon Valley's best-known venture firms, Andreessen Horowitz, saw its performance slip significantly after the blockbuster results of its initial fund, internal data show, illustrating just how cutthroat venture capital has become as even big names struggle to deliver ou … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

WeWork Board to Meet Monday on Neumann’s Removal

Directors of WeWork’s parent, We Co., are scheduled to meet Monday morning to discuss the potential removal of Adam Neumann as CEO, people familiar with the matter said. Board members brought forward the meeting from its earlier scheduled time of midweek, one of the people said, … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Stripe Plans to Move Out of San Francisco

Stripe, one of the most successful companies born in San Francisco in the past decade, is planning to leave tech’s epicenter.Executives at the payments firm have told employees and others close to the company that it likely will jettison its San Francisco headquarters for an offi … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

In India, Many Internet Users, but Little Ad Revenue

India, home to 1.3 billion people, offers a temptingly huge target for global tech companies: one of the world’s fastest growing economies and more than half a billion internet users, second only to China. American titans like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Walmart and Uber, as well a … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Andreessen Horowitz Returns Slip, According to Internal Data

One of Silicon Valley's best-known venture firms, Andreessen Horowitz, saw its performance slip significantly after the blockbuster results of its initial fund, internal data show, illustrating just how cutthroat venture capital has become as even big names struggle to deliver ou … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Apple Pulls Back on Some iOS 13 Privacy Rules

In June, Apple announced a number of privacy changes to the upcoming iPhone operating system, iOS 13. Now, just before iOS 13 launches alongside its latest iPhones, the tech giant is relaxing some of these rules following complaints from developers.For Sign in with Apple, the com … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Internal Facebook Memo Reveals Guidelines for Showcasing News

Facebook has said repeatedly that it isn’t in the journalism business, but a team of human editors responsible for an upcoming news initiative by the company will exercise significant control over the presentation of top stories, including judging them over their use of anonymous … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Internal Facebook Memo Reveals Guidelines for Showcasing News

Facebook has said repeatedly that it isn’t in the journalism business, but a team of human editors responsible for an upcoming news initiative by the company will exercise significant control over the presentation of top stories, including judging them over their use of anonymous … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

New Uber Layoffs

Burning $1 billion per quarter has its downsides. Uber on Tuesday announced it was laying off 435 employees, mostly in the U.S., in product and engineering, representing 8% of those organizations’ headcount. The move is not entirely unexpected, and some within the Uber workforce … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Amazon's Cashierless Store Ambitions and Investment Revealed

Shortly after Amazon opened its first Amazon Go mini-mart to the public in Seattle last year, the company privately mapped out its ambitions for building more of the high-tech, cashierless stores.It projected that annual revenue from all Amazon Go stores would balloon from a mere … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Amazon Forecast $639M for ‘Go’ Stores by 2020 but Openings Fall Short

Shortly after Amazon opened its first Amazon Go mini-mart to the public in Seattle last year, the company privately mapped out its ambitions for building more of the high-tech, cashierless stores.It projected that annual revenue from all Amazon Go stores would balloon from a mere … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Google, Facebook Face Multiple Risks from New State Probes

Google and Facebook are likely to find it much harder to escape antitrust penalties now that more than two dozen state attorneys general have decided to launch their own probes of the tech giants.The states’ involvement ups the ante for Google parent Alphabet and Facebook in mult … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Apple Change Causes Scramble Among Private Messaging App Makers

A change Apple is making to improve privacy in an upcoming version of its iPhone operating system has alarmed an unlikely group of software makers: developers of privacy-focused encrypted messaging apps. They warn the change, which is already available in public test versions of … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Apple Change Causes Scramble Among Private Messaging App Makers

A change Apple is making to improve privacy in an upcoming version of its iPhone operating system has alarmed an unlikely group of software makers: developers of privacy-focused encrypted messaging apps. They warn the change, which is already available in public test versions of … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago

Zapier Taps Google Docs Co-Founder as Chief Product Officer

Zapier, a startup whose software connects different types of applications to automate personal computing tasks, has hired Google veteran Jonathan Rochelle as its new chief product officer, a company spokesperson told The Information exclusively in advance of an official announcem … | Continue reading


@theinformation.com | 4 years ago