9.15.2019
Good to Know: It’s been a minute since our last newsletter. Where have we been? In full transparency, life got in the way. But as they say, onwards and upwards. Moving forward, we’ll be in your inbox once a week on Sundays. And this time, we want to hear from you! More details on how you can reach out to us below.
The Skinny
When Money, Power And … Competition Is Not the Key to Life … Or is it? On Friday, September 13, U.S. lawmakers made it clear that they’re not letting up on big tech companies. Looking at you Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. They want to see these companies’ receipts. You know, to make sure that these big companies aren’t violating antitrust laws. In other words, lawmakers are investigating whether these companies are causing harm to consumers by either stomping out the competition or not even letting them play in the first place.
When They Don’t Trust It … This request for receipts – including documents and internal executive comms – follows the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s July 2019 hearing with mid-level execs showing up to make their case. These companies say they’re doing right by the law. Other expert witnesses like Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu and Yale economic professor Fiona Scott Morton beg to differ. Morton says users have no choice but to give their privacy and be subjected to ads since there are no other alternatives.
When “the More” Doesn’t Necessarily Mean “the Merrier” …It’s not just the U.S. Congress that’s looking into this issue. You can also count the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Justice. While almost all 50 U.S. state attorney generals are looking into Facebook and Google’s market dominance, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into Amazon and Apple’s iPhone deal where Apple agreed to let Amazon sells its phone directly on the online marketplace. The FTC’s chatting even chatting with third party sellers to figure out how this deal impacted their business. Lastly, throw the European Union to the list. The EU’s former antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager turned EU “digital czar” is eyeing potentially broadening rules on how companies collect and use data. Phew! What a time …
What Else is Going On?
The Jig is up … Potentially on gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash etc. Recently, California passed a bill – aka Assembly Bill 5 – to provide protect workers and provide clarity on when a worker is considered contractor v. employee. Share economy workers being classified means benefits like health care, minimum wage and paid time off. The law extends to contractors outside of the sharing economy and has the support of California Governor Gavin Newsom. He needs to officially sign off before it becomes law. With that said, Uber doesn’t plan to go out like that. The company says it’s going to keep on keeping on classifying its drivers as contractors and not employees. Why? Uber says its drivers aren’t part of its “core business” – a key aspect of the bill – since it’s a tech platform. Hmmmm ok …
The Streets Are Talking …
MoviePass said “Imma head out.” It’s shutting down for now.
Security company Cloudflare showed up for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares were expected to go for $15 each but reached $19.53 before landing at $17.90 to close out its debut.
1 billion downloads. 150 markets in the world. 75 languages. Video-app Tik Tok owned by Chinese startup ByteDance is blowing up not only in China but across the rest of the world. It’s coming for the necks of other content platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and Snapchat.
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee surprised everyone when he announced that he’d “randomly select 10 families and give them a total of $120,000 over the next year as part of a pilot program for his universal basic income plan.”
France and Germany said nah to Libra – a cryptocurrency backed several entities including Facebook. Not a shocker given that Facebook is constantly under fire.
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