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The Virtual Skinny: Cheers!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on in Internet & Tech, Newsletter

11.20.2015

Good to Know:  Singer Adele’s much-anticipated album, “25,” drops today. If you want to hear it in full, get ready to either fire up iTunes or physically make your way to a store. She’s keeping the album off of all streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Some people think this could backfire and make her fans pretty angry. But, we suspect many of you won’t care since Adele’s music is SO good. Cue the tears…  

THE SKINNY

Now That’s What We Call A Rally … 

Things were looking pretty bleak for mobile payments company Square when it set its IPO price at $9/share.  But, after making its New York Stock Exchange debut yesterday, its share shot up by 45%. By day’s end, the company was valued at $4.2 billion ($13.07/share). Hopefully, this performance will be the gift that keeps on giving for CEO Jack Dorsey who turned 39 yesterday.

Onwards and Upwards … 

Moving forward, Dorsey just wants to get back to business as usual. The company’s still focused on making payments easier via its infamous card reader.  But, investors are uncertain of the company’s ability to grow as it goes up against competitors like PayPal and Verifone.  Not to worry, Square’s looking to diversify its business with services that take care of company payroll or that help set up appointments. It’s even acquired a startup called Caviar that’s in the food delivery biz.

What Does This Mean? 

TBH, it’s unclear. There’s been speculation that Square’s low IPO price could mean that unicorns in Silicon Valley, private companies in the billion dollar club, would start to see low market valuations moving forward. It’s hard to say what’s really happening. While there’s certainly a shift towards more conservative valuations, financial experts are saying we shouldn’t expect to see any drastic changes.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON? 

Time’s Supposed to Heal Ya, But You Ain’t Done Much Healing … 

That’s probably because you’re still Facebook friends with your ex whose new fab life is taking over your newsfeed.  So, not cool!  Facebook doesn’t want you feeling down anymore when break ups happen.  The company’s testing out a new tool that’ll help people distance themselves from their exes without de-friending them. This means seeing less of the ex’s name, profile picture, and posts on your newsfeed.  Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner? Just saying …

When The Stakes Are Just Too Damn High … 

Starboard Value, an activist hedge fund, has an idea for Yahoo. It wants the Internet veteran to sell off its core advertising business.  Whaaa? It’s no secret that Yahoo is struggling and has tried almost everything under the sun to get back on track. Nothing has worked. One thing the company has tried to do is sell off its ownership stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba. But, pursuing this spin-off could take forever and who knows how the U.S. Internal Revenue Service would handle that transaction.  Basically, the spin-off comes with too much uncertainty and too much risk. Starboard wants Yahoo to strip down to just its stake in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.  That’s a sure thing in the company’s opinion.  No comment from Yahoo on this recommendation.

Keep A Closer Watch, Will Ya?

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants social media companies to make more of an effort when it comes to preventing terrorists from recruiting followers and spreading their ideas via companies’ platforms.  Hacker group Anonymous recently waged war against Islamist militant group ISIS and claims that it has personally closed down thousands of “pro-ISIS Twitter accounts.”  Companies like Facebook, YouTube  and Twitter say that they take this type of thing seriously, which is reflected in their policies. They keep a close watch on terrorist-type activity and have no problem taking down content or shutting down accounts when users violate these policies.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

Jack Dorsey, CEO of mobile payments company Square, wants to bring Square Wallet back. He thinks the digital wallet could work a second time around.

It’s a good day to be Diane Greene.  Google just brought on Greene, a veteran in the cloud computing industry, to run point on its growing enterprise cloud business. And, it also scooped up bebop, Greene’s enterprise development startup.

Online music streaming service Spotify says employees can take up to six months of parental leave. Did we mention, its six months PAID? The Swedish company wants make sure all of its employees world-wide are on the same page after their bundle of joy(s) arrive.

Oops! Their b … Indonesia only meant to cut off access to social and messaging platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Viber, but the government inadvertently kicked off a country-wide black out of the entire Internet instead. Could you imagine absolutely no Internet access for an hour? The horror!

 

The Virtual Skinny: Case of the Mondays?

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on in Internet & Tech, Newsletter

10.19.2015

Good to Know:  The new Star Wars trailer debuts today … 

THE SKINNY

Let’s keep it real … 

E-commerce company Amazon facilitates the sale of many things, but fake product reviews is not one of them.  The company is suing just over 1,000 unknown people for selling inauthentic reviews to Amazon’s U.S. merchants and manufacturers.

How did this happen? 

Looks like people took to Fiverr.com, an online marketplace where people search for minor tasks to take on in exchange for a bit of cash (we’re talking tasks that can cost as little as US$5). These freelancers offered to write fake positive reviews for merchants and manufacturers willing to pay.

On A Mission … 

Amazon is all about the customer and doesn’t appreciate efforts (no matter how big or small) that could negatively impact people’s ability to rely on product reviews while they shop on its site. The company went 007 and launched an investigation where it posed as potential clients for these fake reviewers.  Amazon has made it clear that Fiverr won’t be involved in the suit mainly because the online marketplace tries to clamp down on this sort of thing on its own site as well.  Amazon’s solely looking to go after the 1,000+ “John Does” responsible.  Trust is every-thang …

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When Someone’s word means nothing …

This past September, China’s President Xi Jinping paid a visit to President Obama. They had a nice chat and even broke bread during the White House state dinner. Promises were made by the U.S. and China to avoid “knowingly” supporting cyber theft of corporate secrets.  But, words are just words.  Software company Crowdstrike says it has reason to believe that the Chinese government is associated with about 7 cyber attacks on U.S. companies (5 tech and 2 pharmaceutical companies).  It’s alleged that the hackers are using a software program called Derusbi to steal companies’ intellectual property and their secret sauce (aka trade secrets). China’s response? Deny, deny, deny! Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, says China doesn’t support any of this.

Clutch Decision … 

Last Friday, Google locked down a major “W” in a case that’s been going on for a decade. Quick trip down memory lane:  In 2005, the Author’s Guild, the group repping writers, was upset by Google’s Book project. You know what we’re talking about … It’s the reason why when you search for a book, the Google machine may return a scanned version and give you access to bits and pieces of the text for your reading pleasure.  The Authors Guild thought Google was violating authors’ copyright and sued.  In the case’s recent chapter, a NY federal appeals court said that what Google is doing is totally fair under U.S. copyright law. Good news for Google because taking the “L” on this one would’ve cost the company billions of dollars.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’ 

The parent company of swiping left and swiping right, Match Group, is going public. The company, soon to be known on the streets (Wall Street) as ‘MTCH’, is well aware of its challenges. Namely- there are a ton of dating sites/apps so competition is tough, and successfully matched people won’t be returning to the service (or so we hope).

Competing with the best of ’em … Netflix is making good on its plans for international expansion. The service debuts in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and 13 other European countries this week.  But, Netflix’s got its work cut out for it.  Europeans already have their go-to video on demand services, and regulatory restrictions are not helping its case.

When David beat Goliath … Apple has been ordered to pay University of Wisconsin $234 million for using the school’s patented technology in iPhones and iPads without acquiring licenses to do so.

Yahoo’s Chief Development Officer Jacqueline Reses is switching teams and going over to Square.

Apparently teens are so over FB and prefer Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat (in that order).

Speaking of teens, 18-year-old Tiffany Zhong (nickname: Tiff) is already an analyst and associate at Binary Capital, a venture capital firm.  Don’t know about you, but we’re probably going to re-evaluate our lives now …

The Virtual Skinny: Net Neutrality is Winning

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on in Internet & Tech, Newsletter 0 Comment

7.16.2014

GOOD TO KNOW:  So, the FCC’s electronic filing system crashed.  In just 24 hours, the number of comments submitted on net neutrality climbed from 677,000 to 780,000 (and counting). Good work, people.  
 

THE SKINNY.

 

WHAT TO DO NOW?

The FCC pushed the deadline from midnight last night to Friday.  For those of you planning to weigh in (looking at you, procrastinators), it’s a good time to let the Commission know what you think of its proposal.

THIS IS HISTORY.

Here’s a quick rundown of the highest number of comments federal agencies have seen:

  • FCC 2006 Change to Media Ownership: 236, 315
  • IRS Proposal to Curb Social Welfare Orgs’ Political Actions:  143,497
  • Keystone Pipeline: 127,206

About 1.4 million submitters sounded off on the Janet Jackson (and Justin Timberlake) Super Bowl debacle.  However, that indecent exposure wasn’t part of an official rulemaking, comment period. Given that this is just the first round of comments, net neutrality is well on its way to reaching the 1 million mark.  We don’t speak for others, but Tim Berners-Lee is probably proud.

LOOK WHO’S TALKING NOW.

Mozilla says the FCC’s proposal is “rife with risk.”  It wants to see the Commission go down the Title II route and reclassify broadband services as a utility.  The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, on the other hand, wants the FCC to avoid Title II like it’s the plague.  Comcast has also chimed in and supports “putting in place legally enforceable rules to ensure that there is a free and open Internet, including transparency, no blocking, and anti-discrimination rules.”

SHOTS FIRED.

Meanwhile, Verizon doesn’t want over burdensome regulation and wants to be able to enter into “differentiated arrangements with broadband providers if they believe they can provide a service customers may want.” The ISP took this opportunity to point fingers at Google and Netflix as prime examples of content companies with growing market power. Verizon wants everyone to know that it cares about network openness and wants it just as much as the rest of us.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

 

NO ACTUALLY MEANS NO.

Ryan Block and his wife simply wanted to cancel their Comcast service. But, the customer service agent wasn’t having it.  After 10 minutes into the conversation, Block decided to record the back and forth.  The agent tries at all cost to convince the husband and wife otherwise.  Trying to assess why your consumer is unhappy with your service is fair, but sometimes you just gotta “let it go.”  Yup, we went there.

BUT, EVERYONE’S DOING IT.

Chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen testified in front on Congress on the U.S. economy, which hasn’t quite fully rebounded.  According to The Fed, people are overpaying for stocks in certain sectors, including for social media and biotech firms.  Subsequently, shares of our go to social media sites declined.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

 

Google is teaming up with Novartis, a European drug maker, to create “smart” content lens that could monitor blood sugar levels.  This information could be transferred via smart devices for real time monitoring by doctors and patients.  Pretty friggin’ cool.

Yahoo!’s ad prices decreased on average by 24% last quarter. The company previously saw improvements in its sales, but this step back may indicate that the company’s new ad offerings aren’t pulling in advertisers.

Amazon and Simon & Schuster are in the “talking” phase of a potential business relationship.  No word yet on the exact nature of these discussions.