'Sex Education' on Netflix. The video streaming services just hiked its US prices. Netflix

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.

1. Huawei's CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei broke a years-long silence to deny that his company spies for the Chinese government, and to say he misses his daughter, arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, 'very much.' Ren hasn't spoken to the international press for three years.

2. Ren Zhengfei tried to dispel the narrative that Huawei is a victim of the US-China trade war, calling President Donald Trump a great president. Ren called for collaboration and 'shared success' with the US.

3. Netflix is rolling out its biggest price increase ever to US subscribers. Netflix's most popular plan will see the biggest increase, to $13 from $11.

4. Snap's stock plummeted after the company confirmed it was losing its CFO after less than a year. Snap said in an SEC filing that Tim Stone was walking away after just eight months on the job.

5. Facebook is introducing new rules for employees about discussing politics and religion on its internal Workplace app. In an internal memo to employees seen by Business Insider, Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer said on Monday that the company has developed "a set of ground-rules for open and respectful communication at work, and a central moderation model."

SPONSOR CONTENT BY WEX, INC. In-vehicle technology has changed the way we view cars. Here's how it's driving innovation in the payments and fleet management industries.

6. $2 billion takeaway startup Deliveroo has lost its CTO, chief people officer, and chief legal officer in a big reshuffle. The departures come as expectation grows for a Deliveroo float, sale, or further fundraise.

7. Facebook says it's granting $300 million to news programs, partnerships and content over the next 3 years, matching Google's commitment of $300 million towards news initiatives last year. Facebook's project is meant to support local journalists with immediate newsgathering needs while helping them build long-term sustainable business models, on and off its platform.

8. Chinese tech giant Bytedance, the most valuable startup in the world, has launched a new video messaging app to compete with Tencent's WeChat. Named "Duoshan," the app lets people send ephemeral videos and GIFs.

9. 2019 was supposed to be a blockbuster year for tech companies going public — but the volatility of the public markets is making some employees at IPO-bound tech companies nervous. Uber employees worry about the firm's valuation, while Airbnb is doubling down on safety and customer service.

10. PewDiePie's has bucked YouTube's trend of slowing subscriber growth in his campaign to stay the most popular YouTuber. The vlogger managed to boost his monthly subscribers 700% in his effort to keep Indian channel T-Series from the top spot.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

The hot developer-focused startup PagerDuty has confidentially filed for an IPO, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

PagerDuty was last valued at $1.3 billion in its $90 million Series D, which closed in September. It's backed by big Silicon Valley venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Morgan Stanley will lead the IPO, according to Bloomberg.

PagerDuty helps companies quickly respond to IT incidents and alerts the best people to respond to any given incident, giving information about what happened and providing analysis. It's a vital tool in a DevOps workflow, where incidents have to be resolved quickly so the pace can continue.

DevOps got a vital boost in 2018 after Microsoft acquired the venture-backed GitHub for $7.5 billion in June. PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada leveraged investor excitement into a unicorn funding round at the end of last year, representing an impressive step up from its $650 million valuation a year earlier, in 2017.

While filing with the SEC puts PagerDuty in a good place for an early 2019 IPO, the company faces a major roadblock heading into its IPO. So long as the SEC and federal governement remain closed, IPO-ready companies aren't getting feedback on the paperwork they file, leaving most IPOs on hold.

PagerDuty did not immediately return a request for comment.

Read more: 2019 was supposed to be a banner year for IPOs, but now it's turning into a 's---show'

There are over 40 million PopSockets grips attached to phones around the world. Some of those grips belong to our very own editors, who regularly rave about the affordable phone accessory as one of the most useful things they own.

Their usefulness is clear, plus they come in hundreds of different designs (including swappable ones) to suit your personality, but... I still don't love them.

The accessory I prefer over PopSockets grips is Speck's GrabTab ($9.95).

Amazon

Read more:20 innovative and cool accessories for the new iPhone you got for the holidays

The GrabTab also sticks to the back of your phone and works as a grip and a stand. Instead of a button that pops out, it's a sliding loop that can be adjusted to your finger size or locked tightly in place.

Ever since I started using the GrabTab a few months ago, I can't imagine holding my phone without it. Because the loop is attached to the card-sized, 3 mm-thick backing, there's no way my phone will fall from my hands, unless my finger comes out of the loop. With PopSockets grips, I sometimes felt like I could drop my phone because there's nothing to catch the fall if my finger slips. With GrabTab grips, whether the train jolts unexpectedly or I fall asleep with my phone in hand, my phone is safe since I'm almost "wearing" it.

The sliding design is also conducive to a range of finger sizes and holding positions. You can loop any of your fingers through, or loop more than one finger as well. Personally, I've found the most comfortable position (shown in the top image) is putting my middle finger through the loop while my other fingers rest lightly on the back and my phone sits in my palm.

Connie Chen/Business Insider

Read more: I used to think PopSockets Grips were unnecessary — now they're my favorite iPhone accessory under $10

Despite the fluid flexibility of the grip "mode," the GrabTab is sturdy and secure as a stand. When you slide the loop all the way to the end, it clicks into place and lets you prop up your phone. I've never realized how convenient a stand is when watching videos, but I've discovered (likely light years behind the general populace) just how nice it is to keep my hands free as I follow along cooking and workout videos or watch a TV show while eating lunch.

The GrabTab's slim construction is supposed to allow for wireless charging, but according to other reviewers, this capability can unfortunately be hit or miss. If you're looking for a wireless charging-compatible accessory, the GrabTab may not be reliable. However, as a general grip and stand, I've found it to be very reliable. It sticks firmly to my phone case and stays there, no matter how hard I try to pry it off, and always feels comfortable and secure in my hand.

The one area I will say that PopSockets is miles ahead in is the range of color and design options. Though there are a handful of solid colored, striped, and patterned GrabTab styles, they can't compare to the full rainbow of PopSockets available.

With these flaws in mind, the GrabTab still prevails for me and is where I would spend my $10.

Shop the GrabTab for $9.95 at Amazon here

Shop the GrabTab for $9.99 at Best Buy here

Microsoft President Brad Smith discussed the topic with Axios' Kim Hart at an editors' gathering in Redmond, Washington.

"I think we should all care about high quality journalism. ... I keep hoping that we're gonna see the journalism profession come out the other end. Remember, a decade ago, people were saying, 'Gee, there's no future in high quality audio visual entertainment.' It [was] being decimated by cable and then a new business model emerged."

Driving the news: Facebook says it's granting $300 million to news programs, partnerships and content over the next 3 years, matching Google's commitment of $300 million towards news initiatives last year and following Craig Newmark's $20 million donation to the CUNY Journalism School.

"Tech leaders recognize the promises of technology better than anyone. They are increasingly aware also of the challenges — from misinformation to declining trust in media — that while not new, are being propagated at record speeds due to the pace and growth of the changes in our media ecosystem."

— Jennifer Preston, VP for journalism, Knight Foundation

"There's a lot of critics out there in the local media space and there are a lot of bad feelings about algorithm changes Facebook made made last year. But local media still recognizes the need work with platforms and be more collaborative."

— Nancy Cawley Lane, president, Local Media Association

The bottom line: These efforts are often opportunistic investments, just as much as they are philanthropic efforts.

The robot takeover in financial services is not imminent.

That's the perspective of one big-bank executive, who says some customers might be willing to trade in the efficiency of using a financial tool backed by artificial intelligence for the comfort of dealing with a real person.

Colleen Briggs, the head of community innovation at JPMorgan Chase, told Business Insider in an interview that low-income households aren't as willing to use tools for managing money that are completely devoid of human interaction.

Briggs oversees the Financial Solutions Lab, which is run by the Center for Financial Services Innovation and JPMorgan and focuses on partnering with fintechs that are aimed at improving the financial health of consumers living paycheck to paycheck. On Tuesday, CFSI and JPMorgan announced the five companies it selected to join the lab.

In addition to being able to work with executives from CFSI and JPMorgan, the five startups will also receive $125,000 in capital. Since launching four years ago, the Financial Solutions Lab has worked with over 30 fintechs from a pool of over 1,600 applicants and raised over $500 million in funding.

Of the more than 300 firms that applied in 2018 to join the lab, Briggs said there was a noticeable trend of companies using a hybrid approach that included AI techniques and humans working hand in hand.

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"A digital-only solution might not be the right mix for somebody who is really financially stressed," Briggs said. "I think the really thoughtful solutions are coming with some interesting models to think about — 'all right, let's drive digital solutions through AI and machine learning when we can, but then also know when is the moment when I need to refer someone to a human touch or a human element to actually help them with a really particular pain point that they are facing.'"

Managing one's money is emotional, Briggs said, and some fintechs are recognizing customers' hesitancy to deal solely with computers. Cash-strapped consumers often feel that decisions about managing their money might require a conversation with an actual human.

Briggs said that while some are willing to adopt digital-only solutions for a majority of their financial needs, when it comes to specific, significant choices about their financial future, many customers feel more comfortable dealing with a real person.

Even younger generations, which are often lauded as early and welcome adopters of new technology, have shown an interest in more hybrid approaches.

"We see this even with millennials, who everyone says want to go purely digital," Briggs said. "When it comes to really tough decisions, they often want a person. I think it is, again, that emotional connection to money."

Here are the five fintechs that will be joining the Financial Solutions Lab:

Elon Musk's $30 billion rocket company, SpaceX, plans to lay off about 10% of its employees. A government document lists a majority of the positions being terminated.

SpaceX announced the layoffs to employees on Friday, and the Los Angeles Times reported the cuts shortly thereafter. The workforce reduction will terminate hundreds of employees at SpaceX facilities across at least seven states by March 12.

"This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary," a SpaceX spokesperson said in a statement sent to Business Insider (the full statement is below).

The company declined to provide a total number of people who will lose their jobs, though it said more than 6,000 employees will remain after the layoffs. That suggests about 700 positions were eliminated, given the company's last-reported size. (A rocket engineer and entrepreneur unaffiliated with SpaceX suggested on Twitter that as many as 850 people were let go.)

However, details about most of the layoffs can be found in a legally mandated document that the company sent to California's Employment Development Department. Business Insider obtained a copy of the document from the department; it states that SpaceX plans to terminate 577 people at its headquarters in Hawthorne (a city in the Los Angeles area), and it lists their job titles.

The chart below summarizes the main types of jobs SpaceX plans to eliminate at its headquarters, and what percentage of the 577 people laid off that each job represents.

A breakdown of 577 positions that SpaceX said it is eliminating at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Samantha Lee/Business Insider

Technicians — a critical role at any rocket company — make up the lion's share of laid-off employees, with 174 positions eliminated (30.2% of all layoffs in Hawthorne). Engineers come next with 97 jobs let go, or nearly 17% of the locally terminated workforce.

Managers and supervisors together make up about 7% of the layoffs in Hawthorne. Positions listed under "Other" include baristas, dishwashers, drivers, recruiters, writers, and an investigator.

Descriptive words used in the titles of the laid-off positions are summarized below.

The most frequently used descriptors attached to positions that SpaceX said it is eliminating at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Samantha Lee/Business Insider

The word "Sr." (senior) was attached to nearly 6% of the eliminated positions. "Structures" and "propulsion" — two key areas in the development of rocket bodies and engines — were associated with nearly 17% of all the jobs cut in Hawthorne.

The document that lists these job titles is a notice required by California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, also known as the WARN Act. The law says companies must tell workers and the state about layoffs at least 60 days in advance if more than 50 people are let go within a 30-day period.

This major reduction in workforce is not SpaceX's first round of cuts.

In fact, after the company terminated hundreds of workers in July 2014, some former employees sued the company based on what they saw as a lack of compliance with language in the WARN Act. SpaceX fought the class-action lawsuit but ultimately lost, according to Los Angeles County court documents.

SpaceX may have adjusted its layoff strategy this time after weathering that litigation — according to the LA Times, the company is now offering affected employees about eight weeks' severance pay and access to career resources.

An illustration of SpaceX's constellation of thousands of Starlink satellites to provide global high-speed, low-latency internet.Mark Handley/UCL; YouTube

Because SpaceX facilities outside of California are not subject to the state's WARN Act, it's not yet clear whether other locations saw job losses similar to those at the Hawthorne headquarters.

However, Musk said in 2018 that work on developing SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket— a workhorse launch system for the company — was ending. That's because the latest version of the rocket has a booster that Musk says can be reused 10 to 100 times. The company launched 21 of the rockets last year, breaking its own record.

Read more: An extraordinary year of rocket launches, meteor showers, and space exploration is here. This is a 2019 calendar of space events you can't miss.

Musk has also hinted that SpaceX is refocusing its resources on two keystone projects: a launch system for reaching Mars known as Big Falcon Rocket (or BFR or Starship/Super Heavy), and Starlink, a global satellite internet project.

SpaceX's "test hopper," an experimental stainless-steel ship, after it was built in Texas. A person is shown at the bottom to provide a sense of scale.Elon Musk/SpaceX via TwitteThe statement provided to Business Insider from a SpaceX spokesperson also attributed the cuts to this shift:

"To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company. Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations. This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team. We are grateful for everything they have accomplished and their commitment to SpaceX's mission. This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary."

SpaceX has been working relentlessly in recent weeks to build and start launching a "test hopper" prototype of the interplanetary rocket system in question.

Musk hopes to use that system to send a Japanese billionaire and a crew of artists around the moon and create the world's fastest transportation system. But the ultimate goal is to launch crewed missions to Mars, perhaps as soon as 2024. Each flight may be capable of ferrying up to 100 people and 150 tons of cargo, according to Musk and his top engineers.

Read more: Elon Musk says SpaceX is on track to launch people to Mars within 6 years — here's the full timeline of his plans to colonize the red planet

Plans for SpaceX's global space-based internet project, Starlink, call for launching 11,943 satellites into low-Earth orbit — many times more spacecraft than humanity has launched throughout history. The FCC approved the scheme on the condition that SpaceX complete its launches by December 2027. So far, the company has launched two prototypes into space.

The layoffs — which might save SpaceX up to $100 million per year, based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations— come less than a month after SpaceX announced plans to raise another $500 million in investment funding. The company had previously raised $507 million in April 2018.

Walt Hickey contributed to this story.

Tim Stone, the CFO of Snapchat parent company Snap, is quitting.

On Tuesday, the exec notified the beleaguered messaging app company of his intention to quit "to pursue other opportunities," Snap said in a SEC filing, becoming the latest in a growing line of Snap execs to part ways with the company. Snap's stock price is down around 8.5% in after-hours trading following the news.

Snapchat has struggled in recent years as Facebook-owned Instagram has aggressively cloned its features, siphoning off users and stifling the app's growth.

Stone, a former Amazon executive, had joined Snap less than a year ago, in May 2018, following a disastrous quarter for the company He replaced the company's first CFO, Andrew Vollero. It's not clear exactly why Stone is leaving now, though Snap says it is "not related to any disagreement with us on any matter relating to our accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices."

Stone was brought on with a $20 million pay package, scheduled to vest over four years — most of which he's now forfeiting. $1 million in "sign-on" grants vested six months after he came on board, meaning the money is his, but he's leaving well before the rest of the $19 million vested.

His exit is the latest of a growing line of Snap execs to jump ship from the company in recent months.

On Monday, Business Insider reported that the company's HR head Jason Halbert was leaving. Head of global strategic partnerships Elizabeth Herbst-Brady left earlier in January. Chief Strategy Ifficer Imran Khan bailed in September 2018. Other high-profile departures include communications VP Mary Ritti, product head Tom Conrad, and sales head Jeff Lucas.

Later on Tuesday, Cheddar's Alex Heath reported that Kristin Southey, the company's VP of investor relations, also quietly left in November 2018.

Here's what Snap said in its SEC filing:

"On January 15, 2019, Tim Stone, our Chief Financial Officer and principal financial officer, notified us of his intention to resign to pursue other opportunities. Mr. Stone has confirmed that this transition is not related to any disagreement with us on any matter relating to our accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices (financial or otherwise). Mr. Stone's last day has not been determined. Mr. Stone will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer to assist in the search for a replacement and an effective transition of his duties, including through our scheduled full year 2018 financial results announcement."

Reached for comment, Snap spokesperson Russ Caditz-Peck sent Business Insider the following statement, which was sent from CEO Evan Spiegel to the whole company:

This story is developing...

Apple released new battery cases for recent iPhone models on Tuesday.

The cases come in black and white and cost $129. There are compatible models available for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR.

According to Apple, the Smart Battery cases are compatible with wireless charging pads, and can power an iPhone for up to 21 hours of internet use, increasing the battery life an iPhone can get on a single charge.

Apple

Apple introduced its battery cases along with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7, but until Tuesday had declined to release new battery cases for the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and newer phones.

Unfortunately, it looks like iPhone X owners are out of luck. Apple did not release an iPhone X battery case. Some cases are compatible with both the iPhone X and iPhone XS, but none of the cases released on Tuesday list the iPhone X as a compatible device.

"The Smart Battery Case isn't compatible with iPhone 8 or iPhone X," according to a support page posted on Tuesday.

From the product listing:

"Engineered for iPhone XS Max, the Smart Battery Case gives you even longer battery life while offering great protection. Inside, a soft microfiber lining helps protect your iPhone. And on the outside, the silky, soft-touch finish of the silicone exterior feels great in your hand. A soft elastomer hinge design makes it easy to put the case on and take it off."

"The Smart Battery Case is compatible with Qi-certified chargers. You can charge your iPhone and battery case simultaneously for increased talk time up to 37 hours, Internet use up to 20 hours, and even longer audio and video playback.* With the Smart Battery Case on, the intelligent battery status is displayed on the iPhone Lock screen and in Notification Center, so you know exactly how much charge you have left."

You can get yours from Apple here.

When Netflix first launched its streaming platform over a decade ago, it used a big catalog of traditional TV shows to kickstart viewership. Now, as more media giants plan to launch their own streaming competitors, Netflix is in jeopardy of losing some of its most popular shows.

NBCUniversal announced Monday that it plans to launch its own ad-supported streaming service in 2020 that would be free to users who already subscribe to traditional pay TV through companies like Comcast and Sky. The service could include popular NBC TV shows and Universal movies, as well as original content.

Users who don't already have pay TV will be able to subscribe to the service for a monthly fee around $10 a month, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited an anonymous source familiar with the matter.

READ MORE: Hulu gained on Netflix in the US during a year of massive user growth, but there's a big challenge it will have to overcome in 2019 to keep up the pace

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told the Journal that the company may consider moving "The Office" from Netflix to the new streaming service once the licensing agreement expires in 2021. NBC declined to comment further to Business Insider.

That's bad news for Netflix because "The Office" is its most popular show, according to data from analytics firm Jumpshot provided to Business Insider. And NBC's "Parks and Recreation" is its third most popular show.

The chart below shows the 10 most popular shows on Netflix of 2018, courtesy of Jumpshot, which "tracks five billion actions a day across 100 million devices to deliver insights into online consumer behavior":

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Netflix's second most popular show, the Warner Bros.-owned "Friends," is safe on Netflix — for now. The hit 1990s sitcom will remain on the service through 2019, but Netflix and AT&T, which bought Time Warner last year, are finalizing a deal to keep "Friends" on Netflix while also allowing AT&T the ability to put the show on its own platform that is expected to launch this year.

Netflix is paying up to $100 million for "Friends," according to The New York Times, significantly more than the $30 million it was paying per year for the rights.

A similar scenario could happen with "The Office," "Parks and Recreation," and more NBC shows. Other NBC shows in Netflix's top 50, according to Jumpshot, included "The Good Place" and "The West Wing." Would Netflix drop so much money for multiple shows when it's already investing heavily in original content? 85% of new spending in 2018 went toward originals.

Netflix anticipated the competition, so it will likely continue to focus on original programming over licensing agreements.

"The way we look at this long term is that our competitors will want that content on their own services," Netflix's content chief Ted Sarandos said during an earnings call in July. "That was a bet we've made a long time ago when we got into original programming."

It's been a hot few weeks for venture capital deals in the marijuana industry, and one firm has been behind most of the headlines.

Canopy Rivers, the venture arm of marijuana cultivation giant Canopy Growth, has so far participated in a $12 million funding round for marijuana analytics startup Headset, invested $6.8 in convertible debt into Greenhouse Juice Company to develop CBD beverages, and landed an $80 million loan from two of Canada's largest banks for a joint venture — all in the last two weeks.

The firm has raised $200 million so far, but some of that has already been deployed, a Canopy Rivers spokesperson confirmed.

The Greenhouse deal, announced on Monday, falls into what Canopy River's VP of business development Narbe Alexandrian calls "wave three" of the nascent cannabis industry.

"We look at the cannabis industry as coming in waves," Alexandrian, a veteran of OMERS Ventures, Canada's largest VC fund, said in an interview. "Wave number one was cultivation, wave two is ancillary technology, wave three is CPG [consumer packaged goods], wave four is pharma, and wave five is mass-market, where you have your Coke and Pepsi-type oligopolies in play."

'If you talk to a beer company, they don't own any hops farms'

Right now, it's all about CPG, Alexandrian said.

"We're really looking for brands in this new wave of cannabis," said Alexandrian. It comes down to simple supply-and-demand economics: being only a cultivator doesn't cut it — wholesale marijuana prices will eventually fall, and margins will collapse.

"If you talk to a beer company, they don't own any hops farms," said Alexandrian. "What they've developed is a strong marketing presence, and created a product that commands a premium because of the brand."

Read more: Marijuana could be the biggest growth opportunity for struggling beverage-makers as millennials ditch beer for pot

That's what led to the Greenhouse deal. Nominally an organic juice company, Greenhouse owns 15 brick-and-mortar stores as well as an e-commerce platform. But Alexandrian said they can easily plug CBD products into their suite.

"The technology behind how they develop their products is what really got us going," said Alexandrian.

CBD or cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive compound in marijuana that's become a trendy ingredient in food and beverages. The company aims to market CBD-containing products across Canada — and eventually, in every jurisdiction where the substance is legal.

"They've done a fantastic job of creating a brand locally, and we think that can be replicated over and over again," said Alexandrian.

Creating the 'Nielsen' of cannabis

In order to make decisions about what products to develop, or what new markets to enter, they need data. That's where Canopy Rivers' Headset investment comes into play.

"Our thesis behind that was: there's a lot of companies out there in the industry right now that are posting large growth and high revenue numbers, but they don't follow the same DNA as traditional CPG companies where you do two years of R&D before pushing out a product," said Alexandrian.

Because the cannabis industry is so new, there are scant data to base decisions off of, so companies just push out product and "hope someone buys it," said Alexandrian.

Headset wants to provide that data — what Alexandrian calls the "Nielsen" of cannabis — to help brands and manufacturers understand trends, customer habits, and what the market looks like before making costly decisions about developing new products.

Overall, Alexandrian says it's "such a greenfield" for investing in marijuana.

"If you believe like I do, that legalization is going to spread and the end of prohibition is inevitable in a lot of the industrial countries in the world, it's very early in the game and you can get a lot of value for both companies and shareholders," said Alexandrian.

Read more: Marijuana M&A is already hot in 2019, with a pot tech-vape tie-up worth $210 million

And that data is going to be crucial as more traditional CPG companies look to either make strategic investments or acquire marijuana companies outright as more markets open up. Expect these companies to become Headset's clients, the startup's CEO, Cy Scott, told Business Insider.

"We're getting a lot of interest right now from consumer-packaged-goods industry companies like beverage/alcohol, tobacco, pharma, and even financial services who are all interested in the cannabis industry," said Scott in an interview.

Already major food-and-beverage companies have either pursued joint ventures or taken equity stakes in marijuana companies.

Bill Newlands, the incoming CEO of Constellation Brands — the beverage maker behind Corona — said on the company's earnings call earlier in January that marijuana "represents one of the most significant global growth opportunities of the next decade and frankly, our lifetimes."

Last year, Constellation closed a $4 billion investment into Canopy Growth, paving the way for other major corporations to move into the industry. Molson Coors entered a joint venture with Hexo in August, and Heineken's Lagunitas Brand has developed a hoppy, marijuana-infused sparkling water beverage for the California market.

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Reuters/Mike Blake

Netflix's price hike for US subscribers is a strong signal that its subscribers are growing strong, according to one Wall Street analyst.

The company on Tuesday said it's raising US prices by 13% to 18%, its biggest increase ever. As of January 15, Netflix's basic plan will see a $1 per month increase to $8.99 while its most-popular standard plan will jump to from $10.99 per month to $12.99. It's the fourth price hike over the past 5 years for Netflix's US product, but just the first hike for the basic tier. 

The price increase came two days before the streaming giant's fourth-quarter earnings release, prompting investors to speculate about whether the company's subscriber trends are strong enough to encourage it to raise price or too slow that it has to increase the price to offset the weakness. 

After Netflix raised its price globally in late 2017, subscriber growth continued to blow past Wall Street estimates. By Juenger's calculation, even as the standard plan increased to $12.99 per month, its users will still stick to the platform because of the value of the service. 

Juenger has an "outperform" rating $421 price target — 19% above where shares are trading Tuesday. Shares rallied 6% following the price-hike announcement.

And Eric Schiffer, CEO of the Patriarch Organization, a private investment firm agrees that Netflix's loyal consumers will embrace the price increase.

"This is not enough of an incremental price increase," Schiffer told Markets Insider. "That's not gonna horrify a large number of subscribers."

Schiffer added that the price hike provides Netflix an opportunity to raise cash for its content spending. 

Dear Readers,

After a short hiatus, we're back! Welcome to the first edition of BI's new Advertising and Media Insider newsletter. We've replaced our daily digest with a weekly version that publishes every Wednesday and will go deeper into the big stories we've been following. We'll play around with the format, so let me know what you like/don't like at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Voice is primed take off

You didn't have to be at CES to know that voice is shaping up to be one of the hottest areas for publishers and marketers this year. In a Reuters Institute survey, three quarters of digital publisher respondents said that audio is becoming a more important part of their content and business strategy.

As we reported, The New York Times recently provided a glimpse of what customized audio content for the devices will look like. The Times is also making money on the platform, with a skill it created for Audi. A lot of publishers have already been repurposing podcasts for voice assistants, but many publishers are building dedicated audio production units and content as well. "We don't want to be road kill," as one publisher confided to me about the urgency to get on voice assistants.

But voice comes with questions for publishers and marketers. Surveys have mixed results on how much people actually use the devices to pull up news. As with any platform, publishers have to think about the loss of control to the platforms, Amazon and Google, that dominate the market. At least when distributing on search and social networks, there's a possibility of getting traffic back to your site and visual brand recognition. Not so with voice.

The financial benefit is also limited since the device manufacturers have, probably wisely, kept them free of ad products. A utilitarian or entertainment approach seems to be the way to go. They also have to consider how their brand "sounds" on the device. Google has made grants to certain media companies to create content for its voice-activated Assistant, setting the stage for a situation of haves and have-nots in the space and tension between the tech giant and other publishers. It's a trend we'll continue to follow.

To read most of the articles here, subscribe to BI Prime, or sign up here and enter promo code AD2PRIME2018 for a 1-month free trial.

--Lucia

Here's what else we're reporting:

Chief customer experience officers are the new must-have role at CPG companies

Established brands are losing share to digitally born companies that have shaken up retailing, in part with great customer experience. Casper, for instance, lets customers try a mattress for 100 days and return it if they don't like it. Legacy brands are fighting back by appointing C-Suite executives to oversee every touchpoint with the customer. Around 12% of companies in the S&P 500 have chief experience officers, up from 6% three years ago, Forrester estimated.

We got a leaked document that shows how Amazon is courting influencers

Lauren Johnson looked into the online giant's program to get influencers to recommend products on Amazon to their fans on social media in exchange for a cut of the sale.

Amazon is promoting the program as a way to make easy extra money. But influencers we talked to said the money they're making varies widely. Ultimately, Amazon could be the big winner, by taking the data that influencers generate and using it to retarget customers on its own.

"There's so much data that Amazon can start to build within their advertising ecosystem," said Krishna Subramanian, a cofounder of Captiv8, an influencer marketing firm.

Gillette's #MeToo ad

Brands act at their own peril when it comes to being part of a cultural moment. When shaving giant Gillette created an ad addressing the #MeToo movement, it knew there would be a backlash, but it went ahead anyway to reach the next generation of consumers. The one-and-a-half-minute spot refers explicitly to #MeToo stories and calls for men to look inward and be the best versions of themselves.

Pay TV's problems are reshaping the cable business

The third quarter of 2018 was the worst ever for pay TV, with legacy-cable and satellite companies losing more than 1 million subscribers, and it's having a trickle-down effect on small cable operators. Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett predicts that, rather than fighting to keep video subscribers, cable operators will withdraw from the business to focus on higher-margin broadband products.

Publishers will roll out more paywalls this year, but face increasing resistance from readers

Subscriptions are a top priority for media companies this year, with 52% saying it's their main revenue focus, according to a Reuters Institute survey. But scores of publishers put up paywalls and created membership programs last year and people can only manage so many subscriptions. Reuters predicts there even will be a rise in paywall-blocking software.

How Sprinklr CEO's plans to survive the mar-tech consolidation

The CEO of the $1.8 billion social media-management platform says 80%-99% of marketing tech firms will go out of business. Ragy Thomas says his software-as-a-service model positions Sprinklr well. He sees a growing market for social media management as companies use digital channels to support customer service and other departments.

"We think it's going to go further because customer care is going to come into the fold," he told BI. "If I'm United Airlines and I talk about great customer service that isn't backed up by a real example in my content or messaging strategy, it's not going to be credible."

In tech news:

NEW YORK — "Say goodbye to the shoelace," Michael Donaghu, Nike's director of global footwear innovation, told a group of assembled media and influencers from a stage in the company's New York headquarters on Tuesday.

The presentation was held to reveal the Nike Adapt BB, the company's new version of a self-lacing shoe. It's a performance-focused and heavily upgraded version of Nike's first self-lacing shoe, the Hyperadapt 1.0, which was built for general consumers.

The BB stands for "basketball," and the shoes were created to be played in, first and foremost.

The new shoe is all about fit, Donaghu said, which is something top of mind for these players.

The Adapt allows for minute changes in tightness through a companion app, leading to 40% more "lockdown" for feet in the sneaker. Unlike the Hyperadapt, which was controlled by physical buttons on the side of the shoe, the app is the only way to control how this new shoe fits.

The app is a constant companion for the shoe. Nike

The new shoe is targeted directly at basketball athletes, but that's a market that is shrinking, according to NPD analyst Matt Powell. Fewer people are playing basketball, Powell tweeted, and sales of basketball sneakers are expected to decline this year.

The Adapt BB is smart enough, however, to adapt to a wearer's foot at the touch of a button. The app also lets users change the color of the glowing twin dots on the midsole of the shoe to 14 different colors.

Nike will begin offering the Adapt BB in February for $350 — less than half the Hyperadapt's original price of $720. It comes with a wireless charging mat, which can charge the shoes in three hours for two weeks of wear time.

The new shoe is also connected, unlocking its potential beyond offering exact fit.

"We're beginning to talk about more than just the product itself," Donaghu said.

Read more: Nike says it's going to make cooler, cheaper sneakers as sales soar

Much of that functionality won't be available at launch or in this first iteration, but it's the start of where Nike is going with its tech-enabled footwear.

The Adapt can send data about usage and analytics back to Nike, should users allow that. The data could also eventually be used to track athletes' movement and performance, which Nike says can help it offer new products or services to customers.

Nike's VP of Innovation Michael Donaghu Business Insider/Dennis Green

"We are essentially putting in a mobile sport research lab on the feet of athletes all over the world," Donaghu said, adding that Nike will provide incentives to share this data.

Users can also update the firmware on the shoe, potentially unlocking additional functionality.

It's also the beginning of the Adapt platform, which Nike said it hopes to expand into running and lifestyle categories with different shoes.

Nike allowed attendees hands-on experience with the shoe, along with a pre-paired smartphone for testing purposes. The first impression is that the adaptive lacing system is very comfortable, offering a very snug feeling. The interface is easy to use, and the shoes can get extremely tight.

The shoes were also surprisingly loud due to the speed at which the internal motors clamp down on the foot. For whatever reason, the experience was less disorienting than lacing up the Hyperadapt was.

Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics will debut the shoe in his team's game against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

Every day, thousands of people go to Apple's retail stores to pick up hot tech gadgets and other flashy products.

But Apple's store in New York's Grand Central Station received a visitor seeking to pick up a different kind of merchandise this summer: More than a pound of meth, according to law enforcement officials.

According to a press release issued by New York City's Special Narcotics Prosecutor on Monday, Richard Dean Desain, a 32-year-old from Los Angeles, was arrested at the Apple story in July when he allegedly arrived to pick up the shipment. According to the prosecutor, Desain had arranged for multiple shipments of meth "worth tens of thousands of dollars" to be distributed around the New York City area, though it's not entirely clear if one of the packages arrived at the Apple store by design or by accident.

At his arraignment on Monday, Desain pleaded not guilty; he is currently being held on $100,000 bail.

On July 7, 2018, an Apple employee at the Grand Central Terminal retail store opened a package addressed to "R De Sain" that, according to special narcotics prosecutor "ultimately proved to contain 559 grams (more than a pound) of methamphetamine." According to Brennan's office, someone had tried to reroute this package to a nearby Duane Reade pharmacy, but was unsuccessful.

The Apple store employee who discovered the package immediately reported it to the NYPD, and two days later, on July 8, Desain was arrested when he walked into the Grand Central Apple store while attempting to retrieve it. Brennan's office says police recovered "an additional quantity of methamphetamine weighing more than 100 grams from his person" during the arrest.

The surprise delivery Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York

A new indictment was handed down Monday from the Manhattan Supreme Court — the culmination of a nine-month investigation — alleged that Desain had been arranging the shipments of crystal meth around New York City and the surrounding area, including New Jersey, using package delivery services. The shipping labels said the packages were from "Dean Desain" of "Dean's List."

Authorities say they had wiretapped at least one of Desain's phones, and intercepted text messages where Desain had sent information about pricing and "standard sizes."

The indictment filed Monday charges Desain with conspiracy in the second and fourth charges, criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree, and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second and third degrees.

It's easy to stream the Super Bowl even if you don't have a cable or satellite subscription.

It's airing on CBS over-the-air and it's also going to be available through CBS All Access, an online streaming service.

Click here to watch in your browser.

CBS All Access costs $6 per month, but it offers one week trials for free— enough time to stream the Super Bowl. Just don't forget to cancel after the big game if you don't want to be charged for the next month.

The game kicks off on Sunday, February 3, at 6:30 p.m. ET in Atlanta, Georgia.

You can also stream the game through the CBS All Access app for iPhones, iPads, Android, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, PS4, Roku, and Xbox. You can also watch through the Yahoo Sports app.

The CBS streams are US-only. If you live in the UK, streams will be available from BBC and Sky Sports. In Canada, it will be aired on CTV, and available through the CTV Go app. The NFL will also host radio streams in various foreign languages.

The matchup hasn't been finalized yet, but it will feature either the New England Patriots or the Kansas City Chiefs representing the AFC against either the LA Rams or the New Orleans Saints from the NFC.

Compass nabs $400M, valuing the real estate technology startup at $4.4B