Mar
30

How to make Instagram highlight covers for the Story Highlights on your profile page

Thinking about leaving your tech job, but getting lost in a sea of job postings?

On Tuesday, the jobs and recruiting site Glassdoor revealed its annual list, The 100 Best Places to Work in 2019, which could help those looking to narrow their job search. The ranking was decided based on employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor, and of the 100 best-reviewed companies to work at, 29 were tech companies.

Some are household names, like Facebook — which was #1 on the 2018 list but dropped several spots following a scandal-filled year. Others companies that made the cut are lesser known but are still providing exceptional experiences for their employees.

Here is Glassdoor's 2019 list of the best places to work in tech:

Original author: Nick Bastone

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Feb
05

Catching Up On Readings: Mobility Startups Funding 2017 - Sramana Mitra

New York City is the first US city to adopt a minimum wage for drivers working for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

The city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) said on Tuesday that it passed rules that will require "high volume" drivers of for-hire vehicles to receive a wage per trip that corresponds to $27.86 per hour, or $17.22 after expenses. The rules will go into effect in mid-January.

"New York City is the first city globally to recognize that the tens of thousands of men and women who are responsible for providing increasingly popular rides that begin with the touch of a screen deserve to make a livable wage and protection against companies from unilaterally reducing it," TLC chair Meera Joshi said in a statement.

According to the commission, the rules will result in the equivalent of a $10,000 annual raise for 96% of New York City's Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via drivers. A report commissioned by the TLC found that median earnings for high-volume drivers of for-hire vehicles decreased by over 10% between 2016 and 2017.

Read more: The company that's empowering ride-hailing drivers already has 20 million miles of data under its belt — and its launch in the US' hottest market should have Uber and Lyft very worried

Representatives for Uber and Lyft told Business Insider that the companies disagreed with the wage floor, saying it would have a negative effect on prices and driver behavior, respectively.

"The TLC's implementation of the City Council's legislation to increase driver earnings will lead to higher than necessary fare increases for riders while missing an opportunity to deal with congestion in Manhattan's central business district," an Uber representative said.

"The TLC's proposed pay rules will undermine competition by allowing certain companies to pay drivers lower wages, and disincentives drivers from giving rides to and from areas outside Manhattan. These rules would be a step backward for New Yorkers, and we urge the TLC to reconsider them," a Lyft representative said.

A Via representative did not indicate that the company opposed the wage floor.

"As the industry leader in driver earnings in New York City, we are looking forward to working with the TLC on implementing this rule," the representative said in a statement.

Juno did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The New York City Council in August voted in favor of establishing a minimum wage for ride-hailing drivers and preventing ride-hailing services from hiring new drivers for a year. The decision came after a report from transportation analyst Bruce Shaller that said ride-hailing services increased traffic congestion.

In July, the New York Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board issued a ruling that requires Uber to provide unemployment benefits for its drivers.

Original author: Mark Matousek

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Dec
04

The president of media giant Turner says content is still king, but television needs to evolve

The TV industry is changing dramatically, with people watching shows on all kinds of devices.

David Levy, president of media giant Turner, said he's confident he knows what the company's founder and his longtime boss Ted Turner would say about the current state of the business.

"Ted was a visionary," Levy said Tuesday at Business Insider's IGNITION Conference in New York in a conversation with Geoff Ramsey, chairman and cofounder of eMarketer. "He launched Cartoon Network. Everyone advised him not to launch a 24-hour news channel. He understood content was king."

"He would be very bullish on the TV industry," he added. "He would say, television is everything. We don't think about it as this thing on the wall. We think about it as generating fans, where fans are."

Part of the industry's response to the rise of Google and Facebook has been to get bigger. Levy discussed the benefits of AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, now WarnerMedia, which Turner belongs to. Levy said he's confident the merger will work because it serves both sides.

"Turner needed data," he said. "We needed to understand the consumer much better than we did. Having that understanding of first-party data would allow us to have better advertising products, understand consumers better. Being able to download B/R Live or having the CNN logo on your phone is extremely valuable. AT&T needed quality premium programming. There was a need for both, so I think it's a good marriage."

To adapt, Turner is developing more of a consumer-oriented mindset. The concept of "TV Everywhere" in its early form "was a little clunky. That catapulted Netflix into where it is today," Levy said.

Turner has focused on making content available wherever people want to see it. One recent experiment showed the effort is still a work in progress, when there were technical snafus that made it hard for people to watch Bleacher Report''s Tiger vs. Phil match.

"We had a little technical difficulty there," Levy acknowledged.

"You made it free, right?" said Ramsey.

"Thank you for reminding me," winced Levy.

The rise of Amazon, Netflix and other digital streaming companies funding original content means a plethora of premium content choices for viewers. Despite that, Levy said the competition is good, but Turner has plenty of its own premium programming.

"We have great brand with our own IP," he said. "Every SVOD product would love to have 'Rick and Morty.' We just had 33 Emmy nominations for our content."

Original author: Lucia Moses

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Jan
27

224th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Maxwell Wessel, SAP.IO - Sramana Mitra

A Fender guitar can be obtained for a very reasonable price, but for many players, it's the American-made instruments that are the beginning of their serious journey into the 72-year-old brand.

That journey used to commence with the American Special lineup, but now Fender has updated that offering for the first time in a decade and rechristened it "American Performer" to highlight a combination of value and excellence intended to appeal to gigging musicians.

The updated Stratocaster HSS. Fender

"The American Performer Series blends traditional Fender design with new elements for modern tone and performance," Fender said in a statement. "Together, the updates deliver sonic versatility, tonal flexibility and ease of use for performers, helping them create the perfect sound for every musical genre."

Fender upped its game for the new instruments.

"We put a lot more into these than in prior iterations," Justin Norvell, executive vice-president of product, said.

As with any update to Fender's iconic designs, there were challenges. "A Stratocaster from ten paces looks like a Stratocaster," Norvell said.

Input from performing artists was imperative, and Fender spent two years both refining stalwarts such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster while refining the Jazzmaster and the Mustang and introducing a Jazz, Precision, and Mustang bass. What Norvell described as "quirks" were addressed, such as the Mustang's notorious tremolo arm.

The range of advice that Fender received was thanks to location: with an office in Hollywood, near numerous recording studios, the company could rely on a steady stream of musicians providing opinions. According to Norvell, their preferences in Fender instruments ranged from "super modern to super vintage."

Pickups were of particular interest. New "Yosemite" units are intended to combine muscle and finesse in a single instrument. A double-tap humbucking pickup enables a player to switch between the single-coil cut that Fenders are known for, yet also access humbucking beef, without have to compromise volume.

Tuners also got an update, with a modest, vintage look, but more precise and stable tuning.

The new Jazzmaster. Fender

Overall, the revamped American Performer range seeks to continue Fender's process of improving its classics for musicians who aren't as indebted to styles of the past and might want to treat the six-string (as well as the bass) as a sort of synthesizer, creating sonic textures through the use of effects pedals and a wide variety of amplifiers (both of which Fender also makes).

When it came to personal favorites from the new range, Norvell highlighted the Stratocaster HSS, which replaces the traditional single-coil bridge pickup with a humbucking unit, solving the problem of Stratocaster players avoiding the bridge and favoring the guitars legendary neck pickup. The new Performer Strat HSS is about $1,000.

He also enthused over the Jazzmaster, a guitar that was a failure for Fender when introduced decades ago, but a massive success much later when cheap axes were taken up by punk-rock musicians in the 1980s. A new trem system borrowed from the Strat provides a simpler way to whammy. The new Jazzmaster is priced at about $1,200.

Original author: Matthew DeBord

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Dec
04

We just got our best look yet at the killer feature for next year's Android phones (QCOM, VZ, T)

Chipmaker Qualcomm announced its new mobile processor, the Snapdragon 855, which will enable mobile devices to connect to the latest mobile networking standard, 5G.

5G is the evolution of the 4G LTE networks that most smartphones connect to for data and internet. The main benefits of 5G include significantly faster data speeds, as well as significantly less latency. If you have any issues streaming a video over the current 4G LTE network, for example, 5G should supposedly fix that.

Qualcomm's announcement means that some Android smartphones in 2019 are likely to have 5G connectivity, provided manufacturers take advantage of the chip.

There are two variants of the Snapdragon 855 processor: One with 5G support, and one without. While each new generation of Snapdragon usually finds its way into flagship Android phones, it's unclear which models will run the Snapdragon 855 with 5G connectivity.

Samsung's Galaxy S9 phone. Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

So far, Verizon and AT&T have confirmed that Samsung will release a 5G-capable smartphone in the first half of 2019. Which device, exactly, wasn't specified, but almost every finger is pointing towards Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S10 smartphone.

With that said, Verizon and AT&T's 5G networks will only be available in a small number of markets when smartphones running Qualcomm's 5G-enabled chips roll out.

So far, AT&T's 5G rollout will only include 12 cities in the USA by the end of 2018: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Waco, Jacksonville, Louisville, New Orleans, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Indianapolis, and Oklahoma City.

As for Verizon, the company has only just begun rolling out its 5G home internet service this year to four cities, including Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. Verizon's 5G service for smartphones will only begin rolling out in "early 2019."

T-Mobile is also developing its 5G network with an estimated roll-out of 2020. The carrier is promising that its own 5G network will be available nationwide rather than in a few cities.

A worker climbs on a cellular communication tower on March 6, 2014 in Oakland, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty

5G poses an exciting prospect, as it promises faster and more reliable connectivity to common data-intensive tasks, like streaming video, video calls, streaming music, and general smartphone use. 5G will, indeed, be the killer feature for smartphones of 2019, and it'll be a big differentiator.

However, 5G won't burst onto the smartphone scene. At first, 5G's rollout is likely to be slow and gradual, with only a few devices having 5G connectivity at first, and it'll only be available in a few markets initially.

We also have yet to see how well 5G will work on mobile devices, as 5G primarily transmits on the "millimeter wave" spectrum that has trouble penetrating walls and other obstacles. It's even been said that a tree's leaves could interfere with the strength of a 5G signal. The potential limitation of 5G could be a reason why it's unlikely we'll see 5G-capable iPhones next year.

Either way, early 2019 will give us a better idea of what to expect with 5G.

Apart from 5G connectivity, Qualcomm also announced its "3D Sonic Sensor," a fingerprint scanner for smartphones that will lay underneath the screen completely hidden from sight. The 3D Sonic Sensor will use ultrasonic waves to register fingerprints, which is said to be more accurate and reliable than similar in-display fingerprint sensors you'd find on phones like the OnePlus 6T.

Original author: Antonio Villas-Boas

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Dec
04

The big tech stocks just lost $141 billion in market value. That's enough to buy McDonald's. (AAPL, FB, AMZN, NFLX, GOOGL, INTC, MSFT, NVDA, AMD)

You could just about buy McDonald's with the amount of value the most widely watched tech stocks shed on Tuesday.

If you include Microsoft's market losses, you could snap up Burger King's owner as well — or a heck of a lot of Big Macs and Whoppers.

On a down day for the markets, the big tech stocks got crushed. Collectively, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google parent company Alphabet, lost $141 billion in market value, as their stocks declined 4.5% on average.

Microsoft, which has been vying with Apple for the title of most valuable public company in the world, saw its shares fall 3%, as the company's market capitalization dropped $27 billion.

Read more: Microsoft's surprising comeback over Apple is the outcome of two new CEOs with radically different game plans

By comparison, McDonald's has a market value of $143 billion and Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Burger King, has a market value of $26 billion.

Among the big tech shares, Amazon was the biggest loser. With its stock falling nearly 6% to $1,668.40, the e-commerce giant's market capitalization plunged $51 billion. That's about the same amount that General Motors is worth in total.

Apple was the next biggest loser, at least in terms of the market value it lost. The iPhone maker saw its capitalization drop $39 billion thanks to its stock falling 4% to $176.69.

In terms of percentage declines, Netflix was second to Amazon. Its stock fell 5% to $275.33, resulting in a drop in its valuation of $6.5 billion.

The sell-off in shares of the big tech companies has been going on for months amid broader concerns about slowing growth and stricter regulations. Although Facebook only saw its shares and market valuation drop by 2% Tuesday, its stock has declined the most from its peak this year of any of its peers. Since hitting their apex in July, Facebook's shares are down nearly 37% at $137.93.

Netflix is a close second in that category. Its shares are down 35% since they peaked in June.

Tuesday's decline in tech shares extended far beyond the giants, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index falling 3.8% to $7,158.43.

Intel's shares fell by 5% to $47.75. Western Digital, Micron, and Nvidia all saw their shares drop by more than 7% to $43.04, $36.88, and $157.11, respectively. E-Trade declined by 8% to $48.65. And AMD shares fell by a whopping 11% to $21.12.

Original author: Troy Wolverton

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Feb
04

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Victoria Pettibone of Astia Angels (Part 3) - Sramana Mitra

Amazon's annual cloud conference, AWS re:Invent, is a gargantuan spectacle of crowds, EDM and a seemingly never-ending stream of new announcements.

Most of all, it's a finely-choreographed production designed to hammer home the message of Amazon Web Service's dominance in the cloud computing market.

Financial research firm Wedbush estimates that about 30% of computing workloads are in the cloud today, and that the number will reach 55% by 2022. It's a colossal market worth hundreds of billions of dollars and Amazon is vying for all the customers it can get.

As the dust settles on Amazon's annual show, industry observers and analysts say this year's conference had one clear takeaway: The increasingly fierce and heated battle with Microsoft.

Onstage, AWS CEO Andy Jassy knocked at Microsoft Azure, constantly referring to it as the "next closest provider." But there's a reason why Amazon wants to bolster itself as the lead. Last quarter, Microsoft Azure saw 76 percent growth, and analysts say it's likely to continue its cloud momentum in the next 12 to 18 months.

Here's what analysts that Business Insider spoke to have to say about AWS's recent announcements.

Hybrid cloud is the reality

On Wednesday, Amazon announced AWS Outposts, which lets users run Amazon cloud services or VMware Cloud in data centers and at on-premises facilities. That's a big deal because until now AWS hadn't invested much in on-premises infrastructure, in which servers and computer storage are located at the customer's facilities rather than at Amazon's datacenters.

A Microsoft data center. Microsoft Outposts is a sign that Amazon is embracing reality — the fact that, at least in the near future, many customers need a "hybrid" cloud that combines on-premise and remote offerings. And IBM's recent announcement that it would acquire Red Hat, as well as its push into hybrid cloud also underlines this fact. It's also an acknowledgement that pure public cloud growth is slowing, and the direction in cloud is shifting to hybrid, wrote analysts at BTIG.

Many customers are not yet ready to go all-in on cloud, says Sanjeev Mohan, senior director analyst at Gartner, even if they embrace a cloud strategy.

"A lot of customers are going to be on-prem for some time in the near future," Mohan told Business Insider. "I've talked to customers who tell me they will not move some of their workloads to the cloud, but their strategy is cloud-first. This information is so sensitive, they won't move it to the cloud, even though their strategy is cloud first."

AWS's closest competitor, Microsoft Azure, had long embraced a hybrid cloud. But Amazon is a trendsetter, and with the announcement of Outposts, it's going to set off a wave of companies moving to hybrid, whether in AWS, Azure or other cloud providers.

"Until Bezos and AWS embraced it was not going to reach significant momentum in enterprise," Daniel Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told Business Insider. "Now that AWS has embraced this, I think it's a significant catalyst to more hybrid cloud workloads, both on AWS and Azure, on the coming year."

A stronger partnership with VMware to take down Microsoft

Underpinning Ouptosts is a partnership between AWS and VMware. And that's one of the other major takeaways: a tighter partnership between the two enterprise companies. While AWS is still the winner in the cloud wars, Microsoft Azure is a looming threat. The gap between the two companies is closer than Amazon would like customers to think. In fact, analysts say, Microsoft's on a roll with cloud now.

What Amazon lacks that Microsoft thrives in, Ives says, is a longstanding enterprise presence. Microsoft knows this, too, so it's massively amped up its spending among enterprises and hybrid cloud deployments. AWS and VMware have been partners for a while, but this stronger partnership will likely attract more enterprise customers.

"VMware gives AWS a partner and really fills a hole or a void when they go up against Microsoft," Ives said. "When you look at the VMware-AWS partnership, as more enterprises move to the cloud, where Amazon lacks is they don't have an enterprise presence. They weren't an established enterprise presence like VMware or Microsoft."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GoX9h_gD3M

Ives believes that this stronger partnership has been forged by competition with Microsoft Azure. AWS's partnership with VMware will be a key ingredient in the recipe for sustaining its #1 position in the cloud wars.

"As they get more aggressive in traditional partnerships, that VMware lynchpin is going to be crucial to the AWS success," Ives said. "Without VMware in tow, it would be difficult going up head-to-head (with Microsoft)."

Read more: Amazon's cloud is now embracing an idea that it spent almost a decade trashing — and it's a big sign that Microsoft was right

More artificial intelligence technologies

AWS came out with a barrage of artificial intelligence technology, including a document-reading AI called Textract, a machine learning chip called Inferentia, and even DeepRacer, a mini AI-powered autonomous racecar.

"They're constantly lowering the barrier and usage of AI," Mohan said. "They are making it faster, cheaper and leveraging open source frameworks. They make it easier for the general public to take advantage of machine learning without having to know machine learning."

These new technologies will also give AWS an edge in competing with Microsoft in the coming year, especially now that companies need to move more complex workloads to the cloud, analysts say.

Microsoft also has been arming Azure with AI capabilities, and this year it's made a series of acquisitions of AI startups. Last month, Microsoft announced it would acquire XOXCO, a Texas-based AI startup.

Even more databases

At re:Invent, Jassy asserted that Amazon will move off of Oracle's databases by the end of 2019, and Amazon CTO Werner Vogels even said onstage that moving off of Oracle's largest data center in November was his happiest day at Amazon this year.

Jassy also highlighted AWS's massive portfolio of databases, notably Amazon Aurora and DynamoDB. AWS also announced a new database, called Amazon Timestream, which helps users quickly analyze and store time-stamped events.

"Companies say I have a relational database, no-relational database, check check," Jassy said onstage. But AWS, he boasted, has 11.

However, more databases isn't always a good thing for cloud providers, Mohan says. Customers may get "analysis paralysis."

"When you have a lot of choices, you have to spend a lot of time figuring out what are the best solutions," Mohan said.

Still, BTIG analysts note that AWS continues to make strides on all its databases, as it continues moving its operations onto its own databases.

Original author: Rosalie Chan

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Feb
03

Unicorns gorge as investors dish up bigger rounds, more capital

Facebook temporarily took down a post by a former employee that complained of racism at the company and alleged the social network was failing its black users.

Last week, Mark Luckie, a strategic partner manager for influencers, publicly announced his departure from the company, and shared the goodbye note he had written to his Facebook colleagues earlier in the month.

It was a highly critical memo, detailing his experiences of racism at Facebook and highlighting what he says are the company's failures to build a more inclusive workplace that is supportive of people of color.

"Facebook's disenfranchisement of black people on the platform mirrors the marginalization of its black employees," he wrote. "Too many black employees can recount stories of being aggressively accosted by campus security beyond what was necessary."

Facebook has been reeling from successive scandals over the past year or so, from Cambridge Analytica to the spread of misinformation on the platform amid genocide in Myanmar. Luckie's memo sparked a fresh firestorm of criticism of the company. But he subsequently discovered that the social network temporarily blocked users' access to the post.

He wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: "Turns out Facebook took down my post challenging discrimination at the company, disabling users' ability to share or read it."

(It's not clear how long the post was unavailable to other users; Luckie only discovered the issue had occurred on Tuesday morning, having spent the last several days moving.)

Do you work at Facebook? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via Signal or WhatsApp at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Telegram or WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at @robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

In a statement, Facebook spokesperson Anthony Harrison said the company was investigating why it was blocked. "Mark Luckie's post does not violate our Community Standards and is available on our site. We are looking into what happened," he said.

There's no indication that Facebook deliberately tried to suppress or censor Luckie's message. Instead, it seems more likely that it was taken down as a result of overzealous moderation efforts by Facebook, given its sensitive subject — though whether this was a result of a human moderator or an automated system isn't yet clear.

But the incident highlights the extraordinary power Facebook has to shape public debate that happens on its platform, and how apparent mistakes can have significant consequences. And it raises questions as to how frequently moderation mistakes might occur when non-high-profile users discuss sensitive subjects, those who don't have the company or media connections to seek recourse.

In the original memo, Luckie had said that black users appeared to be unfairly targeted by Facebook's moderation efforts, writing: "Black people are finding that their attempts to create 'safe spaces' on Facebook for conversation among themselves are being derailed by the platform itself. Non-black people are reporting what are meant to be positive efforts as hate speech, despite them often not violating Facebook's terms of service. Their content is removed without notice. Accounts are suspended indefinitely.

"There is a prevailing theory among many black users that their content is more likely to be taken down on the platform than any other group. Even though the theories are mostly anecdotal, Facebook does little to dissuade people from this idea."

While we don't yet exactly what happened with Luckie's post, it's an unfortunate coincidence that it was subject to the exact same problems that he sought to highlight.

"Further proves my point," he tweeted.

Original author: Rob Price

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Dec
04

The iPhone XR is available in six colors: Here's how to decide between them (AAPL)

Apple announced three new iPhones in 2018: the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR.

The iPhone XS and XS Max are only available in three colors — black, gold, and silver — but the iPhone XR is available in six colors.

If you don't feel like visiting an Apple Store to see the new iPhone XR colors for yourself, YouTuber Marques Brownlee, a.k.a. "MKBHD," spent some time with the colorful phones at Apple's big September launch event and took some beautiful footage with his 8K camera rig.

Take a look at the red, blue, yellow, white, black, and "coral" versions of the new iPhone XR.

Original author: Dave Smith

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Dec
04

Faraday Future is reportedly putting at least 250 employees on unpaid leave

The electric vehicle startup Faraday Future has put at least 250 employees on furlough, The Verge reports. The automaker has reportedly decreased its US workforce from around 1,000 employees as of October to under 350.

Faraday confirmed in a statement to the press that it had put additional employees on furlough, but the automaker did not disclose the number of employees who had been affected. The statement said the automaker had received interest from investors and hopes to solve its funding problems within three months.

Read more: The company that's empowering ride-hailing drivers already has 20 million miles of data under its belt — and its launch in the US' hottest market should have Uber and Lyft very worried

Faraday has attributed its financial difficulties to one of its investors, Evergrande Health, which the automaker claims has failed to make scheduled payments while preventing Faraday from seeking outside funding. Evergrande said in an October filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange that Faraday had not met the terms necessary to receive the disputed funding.

Evergrande did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

According to The Verge, Evergrande had wanted Faraday CEO Jia Yueting to resign from director positions at other companies affiliated with Faraday and to give up his controlling stake in the automaker. Faraday and Evergrande reportedly failed to reach a resolution over whether the automaker had fulfilled those two requirements, and Faraday is attempting to cancel its $2 billion deal with Evergrande.

The automaker says it is awaiting the results of an arbitration case against Evergrande, though it was allowed in October to seek a maximum of $500 million in outside funding, according to an Evergrande filing.

This latest round of furloughs follows a round of layoffs and wage cuts first reported by The Verge in October. Nick Sampson, one of the automaker's founders, reportedly resigned in October, saying Faraday Future is "effectively insolvent" in an email to employees.

Faraday Future was founded in 2014 and has struggled to build its planned FF91 electric SUV amid financial concerns. The automaker has faced lawsuits and liens from suppliers who claim they have not been paid, and the first pre-production version of the FF91 caught fire hours after it was shown to employees and their families, according to The Verge.

Yueting, who is also the founder and chairman of the Chinese tech company LeEco, last year had $182 million in assets frozen by the Chinese government because of unfulfilled loan payments.

You can read Faraday Future's full statement below:

FF's recent financial crisis was brought about by investor Evergrande Health refusing to make its scheduled payments. The investor has further breached its contractual obligations to FF and refused to release its liens over FF's assets as it was required to do. This has resulted in making it more difficult for FF to achieve short-term financing through asset-backed loans resulting in the current temporary cash flow difficulties. This action has unequivocally harmed FF employees worldwide, our suppliers, our partners and all of our reservation holders.

We are filing the new emergency relief application on the main arbitral tribunal soon. Since the ruling may be delayed by two to three months, FF will continue to experience a negative impact on our already very tight cash flow, therefore we unfortunately must take further cost-reduction measures to deal with the current financial situation which includes putting additional employees on furlough beginning this week. We are grateful to all of the one thousand global employees, especially hundreds of employees in the US who are willing to stay and continue to work on the FF 91 production and delivery as well as those who will be on a temporary furlough.

This was an extremely tough decision to make, and we recognize the emotional stress and financial strain this puts on people's personal lives. In addition, we take our relationships with our suppliers seriously, and we hope to receive support and understanding from our global partners as FF overcomes our difficulties.

The FF executive team is receiving interest from investors from around the world who see strong value in FF's seasoned tech and automotive management. We will continue to push forward on the delivery of the hyper-performance FF 91 luxury vehicle and secure our medium- and long-term strategies. We hope to solve the funding issue in 2-3 months.

Original author: Mark Matousek

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Dec
04

'The live TV market is robust': Hulu CEO Randy Freer talks about accelerating subscriber growth and profitability at the company

Hulu will add more subscribers in the second half of the year than it did in the first half, CEO Randy Freer said Business Insider's IGNITION Conference in New York on Tuesday.

"We think the live TV market is robust," Freer said. "DirecTV Now announced their numbers in 3Q. We grew 10x of where DirecTV was. We'll have our best October, our best November."

DirecTV, which is owned by AT&T, reported that it added 49,000 new subscribers in the third quarter. Hulu's live TV offering launched in 2017 and added 3 million this year through May, to top 20 million subscribers. At that rate, his comment suggests that Hulu will have more than 23 million subscribers by the end of the year.

Freer said he's optimistic about the opportunity to grow the business, while the industry should focus on profitability.

"I think we all have to ultimately run a business that can turn profit," he said. "We closed the gap on margin from where we started by 50%, and we see that continuing. Our ad revenue has grown north of 50% over the last year."

Looking ahead, Freer said live sports will be on Hulu's radar.

"We're a subscription driven business, and we know over history that sports has a tendency to drive subscriptions," Freer said. "We will certainly be evaluating sports as an opportunity and hopefully be at the table when the time comes."

Original author: Abby Jackson

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Dec
04

Take a look at all the awesome bikes and gear at the 2018 NY motorcycle show

The New York motorcycle show is one of my favorite events of the year.

The 2018 installment didn't disappoint. The floor at the Javits Center on Manhattan's West Side was crammed with all manner of two-wheeled delights (as well as some three- and four-wheeled attractions).

All the major players were represented. We had big ole hogs from Harley-Davidson, cool flat-track racers from Indian, style machines from Triumph, Ducati, and Aprilia, and some flash new bikes from Royal Enfield, the freshest brand to hit the US market.

Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda, and Kawasaki also showcased their wide range of bikes, ATVs, and of course, JetSkis.

I also sampled helmets, riding gear, and even tires!

Let's have a look.

Original author: Matthew DeBord

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  100 Hits
Dec
04

Instacart shoppers say that customers' orders are likely delayed because of frustration with the company's new payment system

Instacart rolled out a new payment system last month, and many of its shoppers weren't too happy about it.

Instacart is a grocery delivery company that relies on contract workers — whom it calls "shoppers" — to pick out and transport items to customers.

Hundreds of shoppers took to social media and Reddit forums to complain about the changes, saying that they had caused substantial cuts to their earnings. Some are now rejecting jobs while others are threatening to boycott the company.

Read more: Instacart workers are threatening to boycott the company over a payment policy change that they say has cut their wages

And it seems that this could be having a domino effect on the customer experience.

Several Instacart customers have recently taken to Twitter to complain about delays in the service.

"Order was supposed to be delivered between 9 & 10pm. It's 11:11 & still no order... oh don't worry it's not like I have to be up at 6 and or anything," one customer wrote on Twitter on November 27.

"My order is 40 minutes late, no one has started shopping, and I'm sitting here on hold. Fuming. WTF?" another said a few days later.

Several Instacart shoppers responded to these tweets by saying that the delays were likely due to some shoppers declining orders because they thought they weren't worth their while financially.

A spokesperson for Instacart denied that any recent delays were related to the payment changes.

"We value our 70,000 dedicated shoppers and appreciate all of their feedback. As our business has grown over the last year to 15,000 stores in 4,000 cities, we've also been investing in our shopper experience with new tools and features to make our shopper's jobs easier. As we've scaled our new earnings features to more shoppers over the last month, we've seen no meaningful impact on delayed customer orders as a result of those changes," a spokesperson for Instacart told Business Insider on Tuesday.

In a call with Business Insider on Monday, Instacart's chief product officer, David Hahn, said that average earnings for shoppers had stayed the same under the new payment structure. He added that the response from shoppers so far has been "overwhelmingly positive."

The new payment structure, which is currently running in certain parts of the United States and will be rolled out nationwide by the end of the year, has been causing problems for some shoppers, who say they have seen their wages cut as a result.

In the new system, shoppers are no longer paid a set fee for delivery but rather a variable fee determined by the order's number of units, the type of items, the overall weight of the order, the trip length, and the location.

Facebook/Instacart

Instacart said it made the changes to ensure that shoppers are adequately reimbursed for more complex or heavier orders, but shoppers say that under the new system, Instacart's payment is typically low and seemingly random.

"While a bonus for heavy deliveries is meant to be factored into the new incentive fee, it is not always consistent," Mark Johnson, who has been an Instacart shopper in the Seattle area for 14 months, told Business Insider. "I've seen crazy jobs of 30 to 50 items for $10 or $15. Before, we were making twice as much."

Before these changes, Johnson said he would be averaging around $25 to $30 an hour for his work. In the new system, he barely makes $20 an hour. "It's a significant cut," he said.

Hahn said the fee may seem more random because more factors are being taken into consideration to determine it.

"Now that we are taking all these inputs into the batch, there are more variants in the batch price than there was in the old system," he said, adding that the changes are going to be a "continuous process."

But as a result of these changes, many shoppers say they are now declining more orders that they believe to be too low-paying to be worth their while.

Andrew P., who has been a shopper since February, said that up until these changes were put in place, he hadn't rejected a single job. He said that since the changes were made in his market on November 19, he has turned down six jobs in two weeks.

This trend may now be causing delays on the customer's side as the app works to find replacement shoppers:

Original author: Mary Hanbury

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Feb
03

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Victoria Pettibone of Astia Angels (Part 2) - Sramana Mitra

One of the main reasons that people buy the iPhone is for its ability to take high-quality, detailed photos. And it certainly does that!

But based on the results of a new video from YouTube vlogger Marques "MKBHD" Brownlee, it seems like another factor may be far more important: Brightness.

In a massive blind photo test that Brownlee conducted over social media, he pit 16 different smartphones against each other. Both the iPhone X and the iPhone XS flunked out in the first round to less capable smartphones — Xiaomi's Pocophone F1 and TCL's BlackBerry Key2, respectively.

That's right: Apple's flagship iPhone from this year and last failed out in the first round, against phones that are barely considered competition normally.

Google's flagship Pixel line did just as poorly, albeit against more technically competitive devices.

The photo on the left is from the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which won overall. The runner up, on the right, was the Pocophone.MKBHD/YouTube

His test was simple: Put two photos of the same subject next to each other and have his millions of social media followers vote on which looked better to them.

It's hardly a scientific poll, but that's not the point — what you see is what matters.

Most people are looking at photos on smartphone screens, through social media apps that compress images. They're using apps on their smartphone to edit images before sharing. They're trying to see faces clearly. Does the image "pop?" Is it bright?

That kind of interaction with photos leads to a different type of preference.

"The most important thing to people, when viewing these photos straight out of camera, was just exposure — brightness, basically," Brownlee says in the video. "Nine times out of ten, the brighter, more saturated, more punchy-contrasty photo, won. Every single round — it's pretty consistent."

Brownlee used a bracket system for the voting, a la March Madness — a necessity given the wide competition across 16 different smartphones.Marques Brownlee/YouTube

It says a lot about what actually matters in smartphone cameras, and what may matter to you.

Are you taking a lot of extremely detailed photos with your smartphone? If the answer is no, then maybe you can wait a little longer next time before upgrading your smartphone — or maybe it's finally time to start considering those mid-range, less expensive smartphones.

If nothing else, the video is a fascinating look into modern smartphone camera options — see it for yourself right here:

Original author: Ben Gilbert

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Jun
27

Almost half of millennials say they would rather give up shampooing for a week than stop using their phones

Ted S. Warren / AP Images

Amazon's cargo planes are poised to take market share from UPS and FedEx, Morgan Stanley said.The online retailer had leased 40 Boeing 767 cargo planes and invested aggressively in its first air-cargo hub.Amazon's air-delivery system could lead to as much as a combined 10% drop in revenue for UPS and FedEx.Watch UPS, FedEx, and Amazon trade live.

Amazon's cargo planes are poised to take market share from the logistics giants UPS and FedEx, Morgan Stanley says.

"The market is missing the risk Amazon Air poses to UPS/FDX growth," a group of Morgan Stanley analysts led by Ravi Shanker said Tuesday. 

In August 2016, the online retailer revealed its first cargo plane, Amazon One, — a converted Boeing 767 operated by Amazon partner Atlas Air — highlighting its desire to take over package-delivery logistics.

At the time, Amazon said it leased 40 fleet units through air cargo partners Atlas Air and ATSG, and had invested aggressively in its first air-cargo hub located in Hebron, Kentucky, in order to reduce its reliance on the traditional logistics companies like UPS and FedEx. The Wall Street Journal reported in February 2017 that the tech titan was planning a $1.5 billion investment in the air-cargo hub, which Morgan Stanley says could potentially handle 100 planes. 

According to the bank, Amazon can save $2 to $4 per package when using its Amazon Air deliveries, which could add up to savings of as much as $2 billion, or 6% of its global-shipping costs in 2019. Meanwhile, Amazon's cost effectivity could cause UPS and FedEx revenues to fall by a combined 10% by 2025.

"Though Amazon Air's rollout is in the early innings, we estimate a 200-300 bps impact on UPS and FedEx Domestic Air Volume growth already, with more erosion expected as Amazon Air is built out," said Shanker.

"We also estimate that Amazon that Amazon Air's lanes overlap with over two thirds of the volume flown by UPS+FedEx combined."

As a result, Morgan Stanley lowered its price target for UPS  to $87 from $92 and for FedEx to $230 from $240.

 

Original author: Ethel Jiang

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Feb
07

Aperio raises a $4.5M seed round to protect power plants from hackers

As the fight against climate change heats up, Cove.Tool is looking to help tackle carbon emissions one building at a time.

The Atlanta-based startup provides an automated big-data platform that helps architects, engineers and contractors identify the most cost-effective ways to make buildings compliant with energy efficiency requirements. After raising an initial round earlier this year, the company completed the final close of a $750,000 seed round. Since the initial announcement of the round earlier this month, Urban Us, the early-stage fund focused on companies transforming city life, has joined the syndicate comprised of Tech Square Labs and Knoll Ventures.

Helping firms navigate a growing suite of energy standards and options

Cove.Tool software allows building designers and managers to plug in a variety of building conditions, energy options, and zoning specifications to get to the most cost-effective method of hitting building energy efficiency requirements (Cove.Tool Press Image / Cove.Tool / https://covetool.com).

In the US, the buildings we live and work in contribute more carbon emissions than any other sector. Governments across the country are now looking to improve energy consumption habits by implementing new building codes that set higher energy efficiency requirements for buildings. 

However, figuring out the best ways to meet changing energy standards has become an increasingly difficult task for designers. For one, buildings are subject to differing federal, state and city codes that are all frequently updated and overlaid on one another. Therefore, the specific efficiency requirements for a building can be hard to understand, geographically unique and immensely variable from project to project.

Architects, engineers and contractors also have more options for managing energy consumption than ever before – equipped with tools like connected devices, real-time energy-management software and more-affordable renewable energy resources. And the effectiveness and cost of each resource are also impacted by variables distinct to each project and each location, such as local conditions, resource placement, and factors as specific as the amount of shade a building sees.

With designers and contractors facing countless resource combinations and weightings, Cove.Tool looks to make it easier to identify and implement the most cost-effective and efficient resource bundles that can be used to hit a building’s energy efficiency requirements.

Cove.Tool users begin by specifying a variety of project-specific inputs, which can include a vast amount of extremely granular detail around a building’s use, location, dimensions or otherwise. The software runs the inputs through a set of parametric energy models before spitting out the optimal resource combination under the set parameters.

For example, if a project is located on a site with heavy wind flow in a cold city, the platform might tell you to increase window size and spend on energy efficient wall installations, while reducing spending on HVAC systems. Along with its recommendations, Cove.Tool provides in-depth but fairly easy-to-understand graphical analyses that illustrate various aspects of a building’s energy performance under different scenarios and sensitivities.

Cove.Tool users can input granular project-specifics, such as shading from particular beams and facades, to get precise analyses around a building’s energy performance under different scenarios and sensitivities.

Democratizing building energy modeling

Traditionally, the design process for a building’s energy system can be quite painful for architecture and engineering firms.

An architect would send initial building designs to engineers, who then test out a variety of energy system scenarios over the course a few weeks. By the time the engineers are able to come back with an analysis, the architects have often made significant design changes, which then gets sent back to the engineers, forcing the energy plan to constantly be 1-to-3 months behind the rest of the building. This process can not only lead to less-efficient and more-expensive energy infrastructure, but the hectic back-and-forth can lead to longer project timelines, unexpected construction issues, delays and budget overruns.

Cove.Tool effectively looks to automate the process of “energy modeling.” The energy modeling looks to ease the pains of energy design in the same ways Building Information Modeling (BIM) has transformed architectural design and construction. Just as BIM creates predictive digital simulations that test all the design attributes of a project, energy modeling uses building specs, environmental conditions, and various other parameters to simulate a building’s energy efficiency, costs and footprint.

By using energy modeling, developers can optimize the design of the building’s energy system, adjust plans in real-time, and more effectively manage the construction of a building’s energy infrastructure. However, the expertise needed for energy modeling falls outside the comfort zones of many firms, who often have to outsource the task to expensive consultants.

The frustrations of energy system design and the complexities of energy modeling are ones the Cove.Tool team knows well. Patrick Chopson and Sandeep Ajuha, two of the company’s three co-founders, are former architects that worked as energy modeling consultants when they first began building out the Cove.Tool software.

After seeing their clients’ initial excitement over the ability to quickly analyze millions of combinations and instantly identify the ones that produce cost and energy savings, Patrick and Sandeep teamed up with CTO Daniel Chopson and focused full-time on building out a comprehensive automated solution that would allow firms to run energy modeling analysis without costly consultants, more quickly, and through an interface that would be easy enough for an architectural intern to use.

So far there seems to be serious demand for the product, with the company already boasting an impressive roster of customers that includes several of the country’s largest architecture firms, such as HGA, HKS and Cooper Carry. And the platform has delivered compelling results – for example, one residential developer was able to identify energy solutions that cost $2 million less than the building’s original model. With the funds from its seed round, Cove.Tool plans further enhance its sales effort while continuing to develop additional features for the platform.

Changing decision-making and fighting climate change

The value proposition Cove.Tool hopes to offer is clear – the company wants to make it easier, faster and cheaper for firms to use innovative design processes that help identify the most cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions for their buildings, all while reducing the risks of redesign, delay and budget overruns.

Longer-term, the company hopes that it can help the building industry move towards more innovative project processes and more informed decision-making while making a serious dent in the fight against emissions.

“We want to change the way decisions are made. We want decisions to move away from being just intuition to become more data-driven.” The co-founders told TechCrunch.

“Ultimately we want to help stop climate change one building at a time. Stopping climate change is such a huge undertaking but if we can change the behavior of buildings it can be a bit easier. Architects and engineers are working hard but they need help and we need to change.”

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Dec
04

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shuly Galili of UpWest Labs (Part 4) - Sramana Mitra

Sramana Mitra: As part of UpWest, is there a panel of CISOs who look at your companies? Shuly Galili: We work with a lot of the industry CISOs locally in Silicon Valley as well as across the US....

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Original author: Sramana Mitra

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Feb
06

Placements.io raises $3.8M to help digital publishers manage their ad revenue

Telemedicine startup Nurx — once dubbed the “Uber for birth control” — has launched a direct-to-consumer Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing kit. The addition means its customers can in the comfort of their own homes test for the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. and a cause of genital warts and cervical cancer.

The Y Combinator graduate is backed with about $42 million in venture capital funding from Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, Lowercase Capital and others. It launched in 2015 to facilitate women’s access to birth control across the U.S. with a HIPAA-compliant web platform and mobile application that delivers contraceptives directly to customers’ doorsteps. Nurx’s telemedicine platform ensure its users can communicate with doctors and are provided the resources necessary in choosing the correct method of birth control.

The HPV test is free with insurance, aside from the $15 shipping and lab processing fee, and $69 for those without insurance. Beginning today, the kit is available to all current Nurx users and will be fully rolled out to new customers in 2019.

In addition to birth control and the HPV test, the company also ships PrEp, a once-daily pill that reduces the risk of getting HIV. Nurx’s expansion beyond birth control is part of the company’s goal of helping people take control of their health, especially the millions in the U.S. who live in “contraceptive deserts,” or areas where there is no reasonable access to a public clinic.

“Our mission here is to leverage telemedicine to change public healthcare,” Nurx co-founder and chief executive officer Hans Gangeskar told TechCrunch. “We are building a full-stack primary care telemedicine platform at an unparalleled cost.”

The HPV testing kit is only approved for women over 30 and is not a replacement for a Pap smear, which collects a sample of cells from the cervix to check for abnormalities. Still, the kit, which requires only a vaginal swab, is able to assess for 14 high-risks of HPV that lead to cervical cancer. The company says the test will be a game-changer for women who are not regularly able to get Pap smears or who have not had access to the HPV vaccine, like women who live in rural areas and those without health insurance.

Nurx raised a $36 million round with support from the Clinton Foundation in July. As part of the deal, Chelsea Clinton joined its board of directors. The company has used that investment to incorporate the HPV testing kit, as well as to expand into several new markets in 2018. 

Nurx is currently available in 22 states, including the District of Columbia.

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Feb
07

David Sacks’s new startup wants to make it safer for old-guard industries to jump into crypto

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has approved new rules designed to provide a minimum hourly wage of $17.22 (after expenses) for drivers who work with app-based services like Uber, Lyft, Via and Juno.

Fast Company reports that the rules try to deliver that wage by requiring drivers be paid according to a formula that incorporates mileage, time and utilization rate (the average percentage of time drivers have passengers in their cars). They also call for a higher payment when drivers have to take passengers far outside the city (to compensate for them for the return trip).

A proposed bonus payment for drivers offering Uber Pool and other shared-ride options appears to have been removed from the rules.

The Independent Drivers Guild, a labor organization that advocates for drivers, has been advocating for these changes, and it praised the TLC vote in a press release.

“Today we brought desperately needed relief to 80,000 working families,” said IDG founder Jim Conigliaro, Jr. “All workers deserve the protection of a fair, livable wage and we are proud to be setting the new bar for contractor workers’ rights in America. We are thankful to the Mayor, Commissioner [Meera] Joshi and the Taxi and Limousine Commission, City Council Member Brad Lander and all of the city officials who listened to and stood up for drivers.”

And The New York Taxi Workers Alliance issued a statement from Executive Director Bhairavi Desai:

It’s the first real attempt anywhere to stop app driver pay cuts, which is an Uber and Lyft business practice at the heart of poverty wages … Ultimately, the TLC needs to regulate Uber and Lyft passenger rates, guarantee that app drivers get 80 percent of those rates, and regulate the yellow/green meter to charge the same minimum rates, so drivers across the industry can earn a raise.

Uber and Lyft, meanwhile, criticized the decision, though with careful wording emphasizing that the companies aren’t opposed to ensuring that drivers receive a living wage.

“Uber supports efforts to ensure that full-time drivers in NYC – whether driving with taxi, limo or Uber – are able to make a living wage, without harming outer borough riders who have been ignored by yellow taxi and underserved by mass transit,” said Uber Director of Public Affairs Jason Post in a statement. “The TLC’s implementation of the City Council’s legislation to increase driver earnings will lead to higher than necessary fare increases for riders while missing an opportunity to deal with congestion in Manhattan’s central business district.”

Post argued that the rules do not account for the bonuses and other incentive payments that Uber and other companies might make. He criticized the TLC for adopting “an industry-wide utilization rate that does not hold bases accountable for keeping cars full with paying passengers.”

And here’s the statement from Lyft:

Lyft believes all drivers should earn a livable wage and we are committed to helping drivers reach their goals. Unfortunately, the TLC’s proposed pay rules will undermine competition by allowing certain companies to pay drivers lower wages, and disincentive drivers from giving rides to and from areas outside Manhattan. These rules would be a step backward for New Yorkers, and we urge the TLC to reconsider them.

Specifically Lyft says that companies would be able to essentially pay drivers less by claiming a higher utilization rate than the industry average. It also says that it will be nearly impossible to implement the higher out-of-town payment rates in the 30-day window before the new rules take effect.

Update: You can read the new Driver Income and Transparency Rules here.

“Convenience costs, and going forward, that cost will no longer be borne by the driver,” said TLC Chair Meera Joshi in a statement. “Today’s rules will raise driver earnings by on average $10,000 a year and require companies to be completely transparent on how they calculate pay and car leasing costs.”

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Jan
31

Nuro’s self-driving vehicle is a grocery-getter and errand-runner

Uber Eats has effectively invented its own native ad unit. Uber confirmed to TechCrunch that a test quietly running in markets around India allows restaurants to bundle several food items together and sell them at a discounted price in exchange for promoted placement by Uber Eats in a featured section of local “Specials.” In some cases, restaurants foot the cost of the discount, while in others Uber pays for the discounts.

The Uber Specials feature demonstrates the massive leverage awarded to food delivery apps that aggregate restaurants. Users often come to Uber Eats and its competitors without a specific restaurant in mind. Uber can then point those customers to whichever food supplier it prefers. The suppliers in turn will increasingly compete for the favor of the aggregators — not just in terms of food quality, speed and review scores, but also in terms of discounts. The aggregators will win users if they offer the best deals; creating a network effect makes restaurants more keen to play ball.

TechCrunch first learned of Uber’s ambitions in the space from a mock-up of the Promoted Items Value Section feature spotted in its app by mobile researcher and frequent TC tipster Jane Manchun Wong. The fictional food items included “Best Beer” that “is made from only the finest gutter swill” and “Weird Fries” that “will so utterly decimate your sense of good food that you will be permanently reduced to a whimpering shell of your former self!” This jokey text that seemingly was never meant for public viewing also noted that the fries are so good you should “throw all your other food in the garbage right now!” Uber assured us these weren’t real.

But what it did confirm is that the discounts for promoted placement test is live in India. “We’re always experimenting with ways to make it easier to find your favorite foods on Uber Eats,, according to a statement provided by an Uber spokesperson.

The feature allows restaurants to create a bundled meal at a certain price point, such as a chicken sandwich, french fries and a drink at a price that’s less than the sum of its parts. The company tells me the goal is to take the friction out of ordering by giving people pre-set meals at a better price prominently available in the app. Attracting more customers that have plenty of other options could offset the discount. Businesses could also use it to bundle high-margin items, like soft drinks, with meals, or to get rid of overstock.

Ben Thompson’s aggregation theory describes how power accrues to aggregators that match supply with demand

It’s already common for restaurants to make “specials” out of food they have too much of. That butternut squash ravioli might only be featured because they can’t get rid of it. In that sense, you could think of Uber Specials as the inverse of surge pricing. When supply is too high, restaurants can offer discounts to gain more demand. It’s also not far off from Google Search’s keyword ads where business pay for more visibility.

Uber wouldn’t discuss whether it plans to bring the strategy to other markets, but it makes sense to assume it’s considering expansion. Done wrong, it could look a bit like Uber Eats is pressuring restaurants to surrender discounts if they want to be discoverable inside its app. If restaurants within Uber Eats get into heated competition to offer discounts, it could drive down their profits. But done right, Specials could look like a triple-win. Restaurants can offload surplus and bundle in high-margin items while scoring new customers from enhanced placement, customers get cheaper food options and Uber Eats becomes people’s go-to app for easy-to-order discounted meals.

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