You can easily screen share with others on Houseparty — you simply have to recognize and click the icon used for that feature.You can use the feature on both mobile and desktop versions of the site.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

If you're new to the Houseparty platform, you may be somewhat overwhelmed by the various features and unfamiliar with how to navigate through everything. 

To get you started on your journey to mastering the platform, here's how to screen share on Houseparty on a computer or mobile device. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $859.99 at Walmart)

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (From $469.99 at Walmart)

How to screen share on Houseparty on a computer

1. Open the Houseparty app on your computer.

2. Go into a "house party" by selecting the desired person or group and going online.

3. In the house party, click the share screen button (it appears as a desktop icon).

Depending on the device version you're using, you may also see options to select which parts of your screen to share, like the app window or browser tab.

After enabling the feature, you'll see the message "You're sharing your screen" appear at the top of the house party box. Simply click "Stop" in that area when you're done sharing your screen.

Click on the desktop icon. Devon Delfino/Business Insider

How to screen share on Houseparty on a mobile device 

1. Open up the Houseparty app on your mobile device. 

2. Select the three dots in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

3. Tap "Share Screen" to enable the feature.

Select "Share Screen" after tapping the three horizontal dot icon. Devon Delfino/Business Insider

 

Original author: Devon Delfino

Facebook will launch its gaming service in app form on Monday as it looks to capitalize on the industry's current boom.Facebook Gaming lets users watch and create gaming-focused live streams, and also includes some casual games.The social media giant told The New York Times that the coronavirus pandemic led the company to accelerate its work on a number of gaming projects.The app is set to compete with the likes of Amazon-owned Twitch and YouTube.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook will launch the Facebook Gaming app on Monday as it looks to capitalize on the gaming industry's current, coronavirus-induced boom.

The app lets users watch and create gaming-focused live streams, and also includes some casual games.

It's set to compete with the likes of Amazon-owned Twitch and Google's YouTube, both of which are major services in terms of livestreaming games.

Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook app, told The New York Times that COVID-19's emergence has led the company to accelerate its work on a number of gaming projects.

"Investing in gaming in general has become a priority for us because we see gaming as a form of entertainment that really connects people," she said, citing "a big rise in gaming during quarantine."

The app will initially only be available on Android. The iOS app is awaiting approval.

Though this is the first time Facebook has launched a proprietary app focused on game live streaming, Facebook Gaming is already the third-largest platform in terms of hours spent watching other people play games.

According to research by Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet, people spent over 500 million hours on Facebook watching other people play games in the first three months of 2020. This compares with over 1 billion hours spent on YouTube's Gaming Live service and over 3 billion hours on Twitch.

Original author: Charlie Wood

Famed Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen has blamed US failures in dealing with the pandemic on its "widespread inability to build."Andreessen noted in a blogpost on Saturday that the US struggled to obtain medical equipment such as masks and gowns because manufacturing had been offshored to countries with cheap manual labor.Andreessen called for aggressive investment into new products and industries, saying that the price of building housing, schools, and hospitals needed to drop.But critics noted Andreessen's venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has funded software giants such as Facebook and should take some responsibility for an America where physical manufacturing is seen as less valuable.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has blamed America's failures during the pandemic on its "widespread inability to build."

The US is among the worst impacted countries globally by the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly 800,000 cases and more than 14,000 deaths. The Trump administration has drawn criticism for its flailing response, with Trump initially downplaying the threat of the virus, then promoting unproven drugs, then spreading misinformation about the availability of tests.

Andreessen notes shortages of personal protective equipment such as masks, ICUs, and ventilators, and blamed this on US reliance on sourcing goods from countries where labor is cheap. He doesn't explicitly mention China or any other Asian country, though this is where several US states are sourcing masks from.

Andreessen wrote: "Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. 

"Part of the problem is clearly foresight, a failure of imagination. But the other part of the problem is what we didn't *do* in advance, and what we're failing to do now. And that is a failure of action, and specifically our widespread inability to *build*."

He continued: "You don't just see this smug complacency, this satisfaction with the status quo and the unwillingness to build, in the pandemic, or in healthcare generally. You see it throughout Western life, and specifically throughout American life."

The complacency, he claimed, runs to housing, with the US unable to build housing fast enough in super-innovative cities like San Francisco. It also affects education, manufacturing, and transportation. "Where are the high-speed trains, the soaring monorails, the hyperloops, and yes, the flying cars?" he wrote.

Apart from American inertia, Andreessen claimed, some of the blame lies in "regulatory capture", where the government is operating in favor of big incumbents rather than the consumer.

He called for more aggressive investment in new products, industries, and science, especially from the right.

He wrote: "Our forefathers and foremothers built roads and trains, farms and factories, then the computer, the microchip, the smartphone, and uncounted thousands of other things that we now take for granted, that are all around us, that define our lives and provide for our well-being.

"There is only one way to honor their legacy and to create the future we want for our own children and grandchildren, and that's to build."

While Andreessen's post was widely shared on Twitter, his detractors noted that this was the same man who famously coined the phrase "Software is eating the world" — an apparent contradiction to his vision of an America that gets better at building physical goods. Andreessen Horowitz, like many other successful venture capital firms, has largely funded software firms such as Facebook, Zynga, Slack, and Instagram.

Andreessen is simultaneously lauded and controversial. He stepped back from Twitter in 2016, when he also landed in hot water for comments suggesting anti-colonialism had been bad for India. Andreessen has also apparently shown a growing interest in figures from the alt-right, recommending books from provocateur Douglas Murray and Canadian professor Jordan Peterson, and liking tweets from alt-right commentator Mike Cernovich.

Original author: Shona Ghosh

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

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

Google is working on physical and virtual debit cards as it looks to catch Apple's lead in the fintech space. TechCrunch reports that Google is working on physical and virtual debit cards which would link to an associated checking account.The UK has greenlit a £250 million rescue package to stop thousands of startups collapsing during COVID-19. Startups can apply for government cash, but must match taxpayer money with funding from private investors.Conspiracy theories blaming Bill Gates for the coronavirus pandemic are exploding online. A New York Times analysis found more than 16,000 Facebook posts linking Gates with the virus, as well as 10 YouTube videos espousing the conspiracy theories that had garnered 5 million views.Amazon is installing thermal cameras at warehouses to scan employees for fevers. Cases of the virus have been reported among staff at more than 50 of Amazon's US warehouses, and working employees have expressed safety concerns. $2 billion telehealth unicorn Babylon Health has furloughed 5% of its staff in response to COVID-19, Business Insider has learned. Babylon Health said it had seen an increase in demand for some services during COVID-19, but other parts of its business needed to be 'paused.'Buzzy recruiting-software startup Greenhouse cut close to 30% of its workforce, making it the latest in the industry to suffer as hiring across the country comes to an abrupt halt. Greenhouse Software confirmed the news in an emailed statement to Business Insider, adding that the cuts largely affected its sales and marketing teams. Airbnb laid off most of its contractors and postponed summer internships during a Zoom Q&A with the company's CEO Brian Chesky. An Airbnb contractor told Business Insider that many people were caught off guard by the announcement, which came during Chesky's weekly Q&A.Startup valuations at Series A are likely to compress by between 22% and 33% in the second quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, new analysis shows. US figures from Eddie Ackerman, head of financial analysis at Thomvest Ventures, indicate that pre-money startup valuations will drop, based on analysis of companies during the global financial crisis in 2008.  Some of WeWork's outsourced cleaners have lost their jobs — even as the coworking giant keeps offices open and charges members for space they can't use. WeWork cleaning staff were laid off by JLL, the publicly traded real estate company to which the coworking giant outsourced maintenance in December.Melinda Gates said in an interview with BBC Radio on Thursday that she and her husband, Bill, had been storing food in their basements for years in anticipation of a pandemic or other disaster. The couple speculated on a possible lack of clean water and food during a pandemic and prepared accordingly.

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.

You can also subscribe to this newsletter here — just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know."

Original author: Charlie Wood

Two examples of coronavirus-related Bill Gates conspiracy theories online, in shareable meme form, found on Twitter in April. Twitter

Mentions of coronavirus-related Bill Gates conspiracy theories have exploded on social media and TV: They were mentioned 1.2 million times in the last two months, according to data provided to the New York Times by the media intelligence firm Zignal Labs.

Those conspiracy theories have spread from fringe right-wing conspiracy theorists, like Alex Jones, to conservative pundits like Fox News host Laura Ingraham. "Digitally tracking Americans' every move has been a dream of the globalists for years," Ingraham tweeted in early April. "This health crisis is the perfect vehicle for them to push this."

The commentary was attached to another tweet, which linked to an article about Bill Gates on a conspiracy theory website that cites an answer Gates gave during a Reddit AMA earlier this year. Gates spoke of a hypothetical "digital certificate" that would certify if people were vaccinated from coronavirus. 

According to the piece, "The inevitable mass vaccination campaign to eradicate COVID-19 would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a worldwide digital ID. This system would store a wealth of information about each individual (including vaccination history) and would be used to grant access to rights and services."

It baselessly claimed that Gates — alongside other rich and powerful people — is using the coronavirus pandemic as a means of instilling a worldwide caste system based on a digital ID.

Ingraham's followers understood the message: "I will not take a #BillGatesVaccine," one responded.

Former Trump staffer Roger Stone, who was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison earlier this year, was more direct than Ingraham. "Whether Bill Gates played some role in the creation and spread of this virus is open for vigorous debate," Stone said in a radio interview, according to a New York Post report. "I have conservative friends who say it's ridiculous and others say absolutely."

Original author: Ben Gilbert

NASA created a search feature that allows you to look up photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on any given date.The Hubble Space Telescope launched in April, 30 years ago, and has been examining space for 24 hours a day, seven days a week ever since, uncovering some of humanity's biggest discoveries in outer space.Check out how you can use the portal to search for photos taken on your birthday.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

NASA is celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope's 30th birthday this year with a search feature that allows you to find photos Hubble took on your birthday, KDVR recently reported.

Hubble has been exploring the depths of outer space 24 hours a day, seven days a week since 1990.

During its 30 years of orbit around Earth, Hubble has captured images scientists could not have dreamed of, including the first images of a black hole, water vapor on a planet in a "habitable zone" beyond our solar system,  and gravitational waves, according to NASA's website.

Hubble has given humanity an entirely new view into the universe by expanding the scope of our exploration in ways most of human history lacked, according to NASA.

Here's how you can find photos Hubble took on your birthday:

Original author: Jessica Snouwaert

The coronavirus outbreak has led millions to spend their days at home under quarantine, and rely on the internet for communication with the outside world and entertainment to pass the time.Many of us have found ourselves navigating social platforms and news sites detailing death and destruction, while our eyes glaze over and our minds fail to absorb the information.There's now a term for that mindless habit: doomscrolling.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dragging a bit today because you stayed up too late reading about all the gloomy implications of the coronavirus pandemic? A term has now emerged to describe this self-destructive behavior: doomscrolling.

Since my life under lockdown began more than a month ago, my daily routine consists of watching Netflix, working from my laptop, going on TikTok, and spending hours in a semicomatose state swiping through tweets and news stories about coronavirus.

I am far from the only one who has found themselves sacrificing sleep, productivity, and their mental well-being to go down this mind-numbing spiral of pandemic-related headlines. 

"Doomscrolling" has been gaining momentum this week since the Los Angeles Times included it in a recent article about how coronavirus has introduced a new lexicon of words into our daily lives. The Times' Mark Barabak described doomscrolling as "an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of dystopian news."

However, the Times can't be credited with inventing the word. Quartz reporter Karen Ho has been posting regular reminders on Twitter — often, between the hours of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. — to stop doomscrolling and go to bed. But, as Ho pointed out, she spotted the term's use on Twitter in a post from October 2018 — and the word could easily have online origins even earlier than that.

Doomscrolling is just one of the words that have recently resurged in popularity to become need-to-know parts of our vocabulary. Terms like "asymptomatic," "social distancing," and "herd immunity" have all entered our lexicon in the wake of COVID-19.

Beyond that, the pandemic has infiltrated internet slang and produced newfound words. There's "the rona," a shortened term for coronavirus; "Zoombombing," the act of trolls infiltrating video calls to spam them with disruptive and hateful messages; covidiot, an individual who isn't taking lockdown and social distancing orders seriously; and quarantini, an alcoholic drink for virtual happy hours.

Doomscrolling has already spread on Twitter and to other corners of the internet. Predictably, it's on Urban Dictionary, where doomscrolling is described as the act of "obsessively reading social media posts about how utterly f--ked we are."

So, there it is: We now have a word to describe those late nights and early mornings of scrolling through social media, unable to stop ourselves even as we dig ourselves into deeper pits of despair. Let me know if you've figured out a solution to doomscrolling — you can find me on Twitter at 2 a.m., refreshing my feed yet again.

Original author: Paige Leskin

Hello!

The White House this week released a plan to open up the country, and just yesterday hundreds crowded newly reopened beaches in Florida. In Europe, six countries are starting to lift restrictions, including Spain and Italy. 

But, as Insider global editor-in-chief Nich Carlson writes here, a return to any sense of normality is likely a long way off, as the world awaits immunity testing, an effective treatment, and a vaccine. Here's the latest:

Immunity testing

An effective treatment

The stock market popped on Friday after it was reported that remdesivir, an antiviral drug from Gilead, had seen promising results. Andrew Dunn reported:

The reporters Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper wrote Thursday for STAT that a leaked video recording showed University of Chicago doctors describing positive outcomes for the vast majority of a small group of COVID-19 patients who took the antiviral drug, called remdesivir.

But as Andrew explained, biotech analysts are urging caution on the latest data. From Andrew's story:

The UBS analyst Navin Jacob cautioned that the University of Chicago trial represented about 3% of Gilead's clinical-trial program. While Jacob said he was "encouraged" by the report, he also noted "many caveats" given the lack of a control group and no detailed data on how healthy or sick the patients were.

You can read the story in full here:

Not 'a zero' or 'a silver bullet': Biotech analysts are urging caution on the latest data on Gilead's coronavirus drug as stocks surge

A vaccine

As for a vaccine, lots of folks have been talking about an 18-month timeline.  But Andrew reported that SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges thinks there's a less than 20% chance that we will have a widely available vaccine that is proven effective in 2021.

"No one's done all those pieces and then said 18 months," Porges said. "They've just effectively taken Tony Fauci's 'not for 18 months,' and that's become gospel."

You can read the story here:

A top Wall Street analyst is 'deeply skeptical' of Anthony Fauci's 18-month timeline for a coronavirus vaccine. He told us there's only a 50% chance we'll have one by 2023.

Lastly, Morgan Stanley researchers this week released their own timeline for how they think all of the above will come together. You can read more on that here:

Morgan Stanley just released a comprehensive timeline of the coronavirus outbreak. Here's when analysts think the US will increase testing, get a vaccine, and finally return to work.

And in related news, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, who had coronavirus, this week explained how he's thinking about getting people back into the office safely.

Stock market exuberance

The Dow surged on Friday, locking in the second straight week of stock market gains. That's even as US weekly jobless claims hit 5.2 million, wiping out all jobs created since the Great Recession in just four weeks. That dichotomy has some questioning whether the stock market has gotten ahead of reality. For example:

Business Insider

C-Suite reading list

Martin Coulter reports: 

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses all around the world to shut down their offices and tell employees to work from home. 

Amazon, Facebook, and Google are just a few of the biggest companies to close down their offices all around the world, forcing senior executives to strategize the future of their firms while relying on video-calls and text messages. 

Perlego – an online library startup dubbed the "Spotify of textbooks"– has analyzed the most popular books ordered by more than 600 C-suite executives using its platform. 

Titles include bestsellers by the likes of Nike cofounder Phil Knight, Nobel Prize-winning economist Jean Tirole and Ben Horowitz, one of the best-known investors in Silicon Valley. 

You can read his story here: 

Here are the 20 economics, self-help, and strategy books C-suite execs are reading right now to get their firms through COVID-19

Below are headlines on some of the stories you might have missed from the past week. Stay safe, everyone.

-- Matt

Inside a 38,000-person remote work rollout at Goldman Sachs: sleepless nights, assembly lines, and an Amazon-like hub on a Manhattan trading floorWeWork members are getting fed up paying rent while the coworking giant tries to catch a break on its own leases. Here's how 4 entrepreneurs are trying to get out.These 15 companies could be acquisition targets for Amazon, Microsoft, and Google as the coronavirus crisis ratchets up the cloud wars and crushes tech valuationsFormer employees of Quip, a $170 million electric toothbrush startup that cut 10% of staffers weeks before the coronavirus hit, say a range of issues could frustrate its ability to ride out the pandemicThe top 19 talent managers and agents for TikTok influencers who are helping build the careers of a new generation of digital starsLayoffs and furloughs hit holding companies WPP, Omnicom, and MDC Partners as advertisers slash spendingBatteries, fusion, and hydropower: Meet the 24 clean-energy startups that Bill Gates is backingThe next stimulus plan could include more checks for Americans. Here's what else DC power players want to cram into the bill — and who would benefit most.

 

 

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Original author: Matt Turner

Turbocharged engines have become a widespread option across many auto brands, from luxury marques to mass-market options.Turbochargers used to be the province of European cars, but they're appearing on more American nameplates. I've driven turbos from Porsche, Ferrari, McLaren, and Audi, but also from Ford and Chevy.Here's rundown of some favorites.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When I was a youngster, turbochargers were exotic, European fare. Americans drove big V8- and V6-powered cars. Sometimes, supercharged. But mostly, all motor.

I still love a naturally aspirated eight or six, but in today's auto market, engines that lack forced-induction of some sort are becoming more rare than the norm.

In the past decade, the turbocharger has become ubiquitous. Why? Well, by using exhaust gases to spin a turbine and cram air into combustion chambers, you can offer higher-displacement power on a smaller motor, and pick up some MPGs in the process. Or not: You can also bolt a turbocharger or two on an already beefy motor and extract more horsepower, MPGs be damned.

I wasn't actually sure how many turbocharged engines we'd tested in the past five or six years at Business Insider. Once I dove in, I stopped after crossing the 50-vehicle barrier. 

Turbos! They're everywhere! Here are some good ones. Actually, a whole lot of good ones:

Original author: Matthew DeBord

Apple announced the new iPhone SE on Wednesday, an updated version of the company's smaller and cheaper iPhone originally released in 2016.Apple also still sells the iPhone XR, one of the company's more affordable iPhones.The SE and XR are comparable, but the SE is cheaper and has an upgraded processor, though the XR has a bigger display.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Wednesday, Apple announced the second-generation of its cheaper iPhone SE, originally released in 2016.

The new iPhone SE will start at $399, using the same processor as 2019's iPhone 11, but at a lower price point.

The new iPhone is available for preorder starting on Friday, and Apple says it will ship starting on April 24, replacing the current budget option of the $449 iPhone 8 in Apple's lineup.

Customers looking to buy a new iPhone without spending a lot will likely be choosing between the new iPhone SE and the next cheapest, the older iPhone XR, which retails for $599

Here are the differences between the two:

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

A Danish architecture firm is building a prototype for eventual lunar habitation, asking "what does it take to live on the moon?".Two architects will live in the prototype for a three month simulated moon mission this fall.The test will take place in northern Greenland, which the architects determined was closest to conditions on the moon.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Two space architects in Denmark are working on a prototype that could be used for future habitation on the moon. 

Danish architects Sebastian Aristotelis and Karl-Johan Sorenson both attended the Royal Danish Academy School of Architecture and International Space University, where they won an award for a Mars habitat prototype. Now, their design firm SAGA, focuses on space and what they call "terra-tech," making space livable for humans. 

Here's what the prototype is like. 

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

Ashton Kutcher was once reportedly saved by Instagram founder Kevin Systrom after a ski house they were staying at went up in flames.That's according to Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier's new book, "No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram."Kutcher had invited Systrom to a weekend trip in Utah, along with several other startup founders. But around 4 a.m., the wall next the fireplace started on fire. Systrom woke up Kutcher and all the other guests and made sure everyone got out safely. While the incident sparked a friendship between Kutcher and Systrom, Kutcher — a prolific tech investor — was initially bothered that Systrom wouldn't take his suggestion to add a "re-gram" feature to Instagram.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When Ashton Kutcher met Instagram founder Kevin Systrom in 2011, he wasn't immediately impressed with him — until Systrom saved his life. 

According to the new book "No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram" by Sarah Frier, Kutcher was introduced to Systrom around the time Instagram had 10 million users. Kutcher had started investing in startups like Spotify, Airbnb, and Path, a competitor to Instagram.

Kutcher and his investing partner, Guy Oseary, were interested in Instagram, but had a difficult time securing a meeting with Systrom. When the meeting finally came about, Kutcher pushed Systrom to consider adding a "re-gram" feature — essentially, letting users repost images other people had taken, similar to Twitter's retweet feature. Systrom said no. 

Frier reports that while Kutcher was "put off" that Systrom wouldn't take his advice, he still decided to invite him to a ski weekend in Utah with a group of other founders, including investor Joshua Kushner.

But around 4 a.m., Systrom barged into Kutcher's room, alerting him that the wall next to the living room fireplace was on fire, and that Kutcher and all the other guests needed to immediately get out of the house, which was filling with smoke. 

Kutcher told Frier that the experience made him realize that Systrom was a good leader, and the two became friends. Kutcher eventually helped Instagram get celebrities on board, introducing Systrom to actors and musicians who would go on to gain millions of followers on the platform.

Over the years, Kutcher has become one of the most active tech investors in Hollywood, reportedly putting more than $3 billion into startups and participating in more than 170 funding rounds.

Instagram went on to be acquired by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012, and Systrom, along with Instagram cofounder Mike Krieger, stayed on until 2018, when they both left the company after reportedly experiencing tensions with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Original author: Avery Hartmans

Airbnb employees thought that 2020 would be a time of celebration for them as the short-term rental startup was expected to go public in one of the most anticipated IPOs of the year.Instead they found themselves digging into their own pockets to donate to their customers to keep just a small portion of them afloat.Employees contributed $1 million collectively to a $17 million fund that will offer up to $5,000 to badly hurt hosts. (Airbnb founders kicked in $9 million and investors kicked in $7 million).It's a beautiful gesture that points to a bigger problem. The small businesses owners that are the backbone of the sharing economy are shouldering more than their fair share of business risk.But there are some hopeful signs of how this could change, and the sharing economy could truly become a win-win.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As the COVID-19 crisis brought travel to a screeching halt, the people that rent rooms, condos and all sorts of other abodes on Airbnb suddenly found themselves with little to no income.

What's more, Airbnb instituted cancellation policies that allowed guests to get full refunds, a policy that made sense given the situation but which left many hosts with the short end of the stick.

GoFundMe campaigns have sprung up across the nation to help small businesses like bookstores and restaurants survive until the virus recedes and people begin to roam about again.

And in that vein, Airbnb employees created the Airbnb Superhost Relief Fund, a program intended to help at least some of its highest-rated hosts, known as "superhosts" to survive. The fund is limited to superhosts who can prove Airbnb is their main source of income, have been on the platform for at least a year and have two or less properties (a nod to regulatory pressure to limit hosts building big hotel-like businesses on Airbnb, with multiple listings).

The fund is invitation-only; Airbnb chooses who can apply. Superhosts will get up to $5,000 apiece as a grant, not a loan, although they'll be responsible for their own taxes.

Airbnb's weathly founders put $9 million into this fund. Company investors put in $7 million.

And Airbnb's employees contributed $1 million from their own pockets, the company says. Airbnb has its share of highly paid engineers, but it also has an army of of hourly workers.

"While I can't be certain I will receive an invite to apply, I cried tears of gratitude for the @Airbnb superhost grant fund. Losing my sole source of income overnight was tough," one host posted on Twitter. 

The employees' $1 million-worth of contribution to the fund is especially noteworthy given that Airbnb employees thought 2020 would be a jubilee year for them, as the company was expected to go public in one of the biggest IPOs of the year. That IPO is now on ice, and their employer is scrambling until the travel industry comes back. Airbnb has had to obtain $2 billion in two new financing deals this month.

Such generosity by people who are facing their own uncertain future is beautiful. 

But it also shows a scary side of our the so-called sharing economy.

It's not really sharing.

You take the risk, I take the money

The so-called independent workers running their own businesses are beholden to the tech company that owns the platform.

The tech company assumes very little of the business's risk. In Airbnb's case, it doesn't hold the mortgages or clean the rooms or pay the utilities or the taxes. In Uber's case, it doesn't make the car payments or pay for the maintenance. For Amazon's third party sellers, the retail giant doesn't pay for the products.

These platforms are built on the backs of these small business owners who don't share the power. If the platform changes a policy (which they have been known to do), they can devastate the people who risk it all to provide the platform with the products it sells.

Because Airbnb has been so lucrative, some people have leveraged themselves to the hilt with many mortgages, an unwise risk in hindsight. Those people won't be helped by the Superhost Relief Fund, as one angry host points out in a tweet.

"@Airbnb I don't understand [the] superhost relief fund NOT including the hosts who have dedicated everything to being AirBNB hosts (those w MANY listings). We are the ones whose sole income is #airBNB and we are the ones with HUGE mortgage costs sitting on our necks during #COVID2019"

Airbnb says these hosts may have qualified for small business loans under the emergency funding CARES Act, but the $349 billion federal relief program for US small businesses ran dry on Thursday, the SBA said.

If there were no Airbnb, those landlords would likely have been renting their rooms and apartments to long-term tenants. Airbnb properties are now flooding onto the rental market, which could lead to falling rents and, some say, will exacerbate an impending real estate collapse. 

Power to the suppliers

Obviously, no one wants to go back to a world where there are no tech platforms and no opportunities to build a global small-businesses accessible with the tap of the smartphone. The platforms provide the software, hire the engineers and pay the bills for the big cloud services that link everyone together.

But we may not want to go back to a world where the economic risk is not shared more equally by everyone. Whatever happens to the Airbnb property owners or the Uber drivers or other gig workers, the founders of these platforms are already billionaires and the well-paid engineers will likely land on their feet at other jobs.

There may be two outcomes after COVID-19. We may see the rise of some form of a union for platform suppliers where suppliers can band together and, in essence, collectively bargain. The platform will be forced to consult with the suppliers before it tinkers with policies that could badly hurt them. We've already heard whisperings of tenant associations forming in some parts of the real estate world.

Another intriguing potential outcome of the current crisis is the emergence of a new type of tech platform in which gig workers — that is, the "suppliers" in a platform business model — have greater control of their individual business.

For instance, a startup called Dumpling is doing this for grocery delivery workers. It offers software that lets personal shoppers build a grocery shopping client base, independent of, say, an Instacart. 

Dumpling was named by VCs as one of the startups that will thrive in the post coronavirus world. 

Supply-side platforms like this would allow sharing economy workers to use the broader platforms — whether for grocery delivery, transportation or home rentals — while also building their own, truly independent businesses.

Are you an Airbnb employee or insider with insight to share? Contact Julie Bort via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on encrypted chat app Signal at (970) 430-6112 (no PR inquiries, please). Open DMs on Twitter @Julie188.  

Original author: Julie Bort

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced firms all around the world to shut down their offices and work from home – with many wondering what the future holds. Perlego – the "Spotify for textbooks" – analyzed data from more than 600 of its C-suite customers to find out what business leaders were reading in these strange times. Standouts include books by Nike cofounder Phil Knight, Nobel Prize winner Jean Tirole and tech investor Ben Horowitz. Perlego CEO Gauthier Van Malderen said senior execs were using their time in isolation to learn the "crucial skills" needed for businesses to survive. Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses all around the world to shut down their offices and tell employees to work from home. 

Amazon, Facebook, and Google are just a few of the biggest companies close down offices their offices all around the world, forcing senior executives to strategize the future of their firms while relying on video-calls and text messages. 

Perlego – an online library startup dubbed the "Spotify of textbooks"– has analyzed the most popular books ordered by more than 600 C-suite executives using its platform. 

Titles include bestsellers by the likes of Nike cofounder Phil Knight, Nobel Prize-winning economist Jean Tirole and Ben Horowitz, one of the best-known investors in Silicon Valley. 

"Many CEOs, executives and other managers are using our platform to access a great source of new information," said CEO Gauthier Van Malderen.

"They're reading books on leading in times of crisis, dealing with stress, engaging a remote workforce, preparing for a post-COVID world and many more topics."

We broke down the top 20 most popular books among C-suite execs stuck in isolation: 

Original author: Martin Coulter

Robocallers are using the coronavirus pandemic to scam Americans out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Scammers are also targeting the $1,200 stimulus checks that began hitting people's bank accounts this week. Data provided exclusively to Business Insider showed an eightfold increase in calls in March. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Scams seeking to capitalize on the coronavirus pandemic have exploded, and one company is warning it will only get worse.

Robocalls increased more than eightfold in the final weeks of March, as lawmakers approved the $2 trillion CARES act, which includes a $1,200 stimulus payment to Americans below a certain income threshold.

Hiya From the week of March 16, when the coronavirus-related scams first began occurring, to the week of March 23, call volumes surged 844%, according to data tracked by Hiya, a company whose mobile apps help identify potentially fraudulent calls. The following week saw a continued increase of 73%. And as the payments begin to hit American's bank accounts, they're likely to continue.

"The recent COVID-19 epidemic has opened a prime opportunity for scammers to find new victims," Hiya said, noting that the most popular scams involve asking for someone's banking information, claiming it's needed for direct deposit of the stimulus check. Others, not unlike those that existed pre-coronavirus, include asking for social security numbers.

To avoid getting scammed, people should be reticent to give out personal details on the phone. 

"Under no condition would anyone from the federal government call asking for bank account details, social security numbers, or other personal information," Hiya says. "There are no known cures or preventative treatments for COVID-19 at this time. Never give credit card or checking account information to anyone claiming to sell Coronavirus tests or remedies."

US officials warned that scammers could make off with more than $100 million by the time everything is said and done.

On April 12, the Federal Trade Commission said it had received 16,788 reports of robocall scams since the beginning of the year. Nearly half of those reports said they lost money, totaling $12.78 million.

"We will not tolerate businesses seeking to take advantage of consumers' concerns and fears regarding coronavirus disease, exigent circumstances, or financial distress," Joe Simons, chairman of the FTC, said in a press release at the end of March.

You can report a coronavirus-related scam to the agency here.

Original author: Graham Rapier

A man looks for valuables in the damaged house of a relative after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria in Guayama, Puerto Rico, on September 20, 2017. Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

The Fix: Powerwall batteries

After Hurricane Maria knocked out power for Puerto Rico's 3.5 million residents in September 2017 and left them without basic resources like running water, Tesla pledged to help install battery packs and repair solar panels on the island. 

While the official death toll was 64, a study released in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 claimed that over 4,000 more people died in the three months after the hurricane, largely due to problems getting medical care or medicines. That total death toll is likely closer to 3,000, according to researchers at George Washington University.

Shortly after the hurricane, San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz said that it could take up to six months to restore the electric grid, and Tesla sent hundreds of its Powerwall batteries to help residents in the interim.

During an island-wide blackout in April 2018, Musk tweeted that Tesla batteries were delivering power to 662 locations in Puerto Rico, and that employees were working to install hundreds more. Two months later, Musk tweeted that Tesla has "about 11,000 projects underway in Puerto Rico." But since then, much of the equipment delivered to Puerto Rico has fallen into disrepair, according to a May 2019 HuffPost report, which found home and businesses with solar panels using diesel generators instead.

Musk has successfully provided power to areas affected by natural disasters before. In 2010, Musk and what was then SolarCity donated a solar power system to a hurricane response center in the Gulf Coast village of Coden, Alabama. The project, built by SolarCity and funded by the Musk Foundation, provided residents with an alternate source of power in case of an outage.

The following year, the Musk Foundation donated $250,000 to build a solar power system in Soma, a city in Japan's Fukushima prefecture that was devastated by a tsunami.

The verdict: He's helping, but with mixed results. 

Original author: Jeremy Berke and Avery Hartmans

WeWork cleaning staff were laid off on Friday by JLL, the publicly traded real estate company to which the coworking giant outsourced maintenance in December.All employees with the title "community service associate" were laid off, per an email seen by Business Insider. They'll be paid and have health insurance through the end of April, and while JLL is paying out vacation time, the company won't pay out sick time. In a December email, a WeWork exec told cleaning staff their benefits would be comparable. Now, they're receiving much less separation pay than laid-off WeWork employees. As the coronavirus has closed offices globally, WeWork's 300 US locations remain open with reduced, voluntary staffing. For more WeWork stories, click here.

WeWork's maintenance outsourcing provider has cut some of its cleaning staff even as buildings stay open during the coronavirus pandemic, per an email reviewed by Business Insider. 

JLL, one of the biggest real-estate services companies, laid off its community service associates on Friday via a conference call, said a source with knowledge of the situation, who was not authorized to speak to media. Business Insider has verified their identity. 

It's unclear exactly how many staff were cut; all employees with the title "community service associate" were laid off, per the email. A source with knowledge of the business said it was not a majority of the 1,000 WeWorkers who were outsourced to JLL in December. 

According to past online job postings, community service associates assure "positive Member experience through quality cleaning practices" and are responsible for duties like cleaning and maintaining restrooms, kitchens, and phone booths, disinfecting phone handles, brewing coffee, and maintaining emergency stairwells.

In New York, only about 5% of WeWork's members are using their office space, Business Insider reported on Friday. But according to its website, WeWork has not shut any of its US locations, explaining that because some of its members are essential and WeWork provides mail and other services, they can remain open.

Still, members have told Business Insider they were still expected to pay WeWork April rent, even if they are nonessential businesses that cannot enter the space. 

Smaller flexible-space companies, including Convene and The Wing, have closed and waived members' rent payments.

According to media reports, WeWork itself is planning further headcount reductions next month. Those cuts would come on top of thousands of jobs the coworking company has slashed after its IPO imploded. 

The layoffs come as businesses across industries are grappling with unprecedented drops in business and a massive shift for white-collar employees to work from home, leading to record unemployment claims. 

JLL employees laid off on Friday will receive a paycheck and benefits through the end of the month, and they'll be paid out for accrued paid time off, but not for sick days, per the email. JLL's separation pay packages vary by clients, a source with knowledge of the business said. 

"We understand that this news comes at a difficult time when people are being impacted due to the global economic slowdown," the Friday email said, directing employees toward unemployment sign-ups.

In December, WeWork said it would outsource its maintenance staff in the US and Canada to JLL in a cost-cutting move executives said was planned well before its failed initial public offering. A WeWork executive who left earlier this year told staff at the time that the outsourced workers' overall benefits would be comparable, per a leaked email.

In severance, though, employees' benefits vary widely. WeWork employees who were laid off in recent months have typically received three months of salary and health insurance coverage, not the JLL employees' 13 days of pay and benefits. 

Have a WeWork tip? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-1627 using a non-work phone, email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Twitter DM at @MeghanEMorris. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Meghan Morris

Congress is pressing insurance companies to cover the financial toll of the coronavirus on their business clients, but industry members say it would bankrupt them to backfill such sweeping losses under standard commercial policies.Vouch, a startup insuring other startups, shares that industry stance, but it's been helping clients choose coverage for specific liabilities that can a result from the outbreak, like cybersecurity insurance to bear the cost of data breaches when employees work from home. Vouch CEO Sam Hodges says that the coronavirus has been an "eye-opening" experience for the generation of startup founders who haven't yet steered companies through a recession. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Most experienced startup founders buy commercial insurance as a standard part of establishing a business, but there are always "trigger events" like the coronavirus that spur latecomer startups and other companies to scramble for business insurance policies, according to Sam Hodges. 

Hodges is the founder and CEO of Vouch, a startup providing business insurance to other startups. Founded in 2016, the startup aims to disrupt the insurance industry by offering policies for a range of liabilities that it says go beyond the five areas of risk evaluated by more traditional insurance companies. 

Vouch currently offers 9 categories of coverage ranging from cybersecurity policies to business property insurance (which would cover the laptops, desks and chairs of an office). Its insurance is targeted toward the core risks that early-stage startups are likely to encounter, according to Hodges. The startup's mission to revolutionize startup insurance has helped it attract prominent backers including Ribbit Capital and SVB Financial Group, the parent organization of Silicon Valley Bank. 

Now, as the coronavirus outbreak brings devastation to significant swathes of the economy, Hodges says that Vouch's role is more important than ever. 

While insurance companies are telling customers that their standard policies don't cover the wide-ranging economic havoc wrought by the coronavirus outbreak, Hodges says that the virus has prompted his customers to begin thinking in more detail about the particular kinds of risks that their startups are running — and to purchase  insurance coverage for those specific liabilities. 

"This entire situation made people more aware of how risk and how enterprise risk impact their business," Hodges said. He called it an "eye-opening" experience for the generation of startup founders who have yet to steer a company through a recession. 

Hodges says that the experience has motivated startups to to look for vulnerable spots in their strategies, marketing, financing and operations. For example, as startups have shifted to remote work, they are growing more careful about their data security. Vouch's cybersecurity insurance has become more in-demand among customers as a result, Hodges said.

And given the number of companies that are laying off workers to cut costs, Hodges says that employee practice liability insurance has also grown more popular. 

"I think people are very aware of the fact that how they take care of the people in moments like this is really important,'' Hodges said. "So as part of that, frankly, having employment practice liability insurance is a really good idea."

As government measures to control the coronavirus pandemic keep workers home and many businesses closed, the insurance industry's reluctance to extend coverage for the resulting financial losses has become a point of contention between public officials and the industry.

A letter penned by 18 Congress members to different insurers last month asked insurance companies to define the coronavirus outbreak's financial wallop as a covered loss under their existing commercial property insurance policies.

"We urge you to work with your member companies and brokers to recognize financial loss due to COVID-19 as a part of policyholders' business interruption coverage," the letter said. 

The insurance industry has so far refused, arguing that the effects of the pandemic are so sweeping that the industry would go bankrupt. "You just can't underwrite risk like that, it's not affordable," one industry representative told the Washington Examiner.

Hodges agrees with the majority of insurance companies, telling Business Insider that it is "impossible" to insure broadly against all coronavirus losses because of the enormous scope of the damage that has resulted from it. 

So for now, he's counselling his startup customers to think about the massive changes that their companies could be going through in the coming months. They can then spot possible new areas of risk, and begin exploring their insurance options. 

Original author: Bani Sapra

"Animal Crossing: New Horizons" has been a quarantine hit, and many have praised its addictive, calming qualities. But in writer Jack Crosbie's experience, the game has been frustrating, tedious, and immensely boring.The user interface is poor, the characters are meaningless, and the only fun part — playing with your actual friends — can be challenging.Also, Tom Nook is a capitalist overlord.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A few days after purchasing Animal Crossing: New Horizons — the wildly popular Nintendo Switch game in which the player lives life and completes tasks on a tropical island — I got an invite to visit my friend Andy's island, Flavortown. Appropriately, Andy immediately gave me a pizza oven; I purchased matching sporty sunglasses from the blue hedgehog posted up outside Town Hall. 

Inside his house, one room was decked out like a club, and we ran around in circles and wiggled back and forth pretending to dance. Andy and I are both roughly 30 years old, but for a few minutes, I felt as happy as my small baby-proportioned avatar looked. 

But in the dozen hours I've put into the game so far, approximately 15 minutes have made me feel this way. Fourteen of them were spent on islands that are not my own, and one of them happened when my friend Dillon sent me a nice hat in the mail. 

The rest of the time has been frustrating, tedious, and immensely boring, mostly involving mashing buttons to get through endlessly repeating dialogue boxes with chibi animals mumbling gibberish and re-filling countless holes I dug in the wrong place. 

After a reasonable amount of casual play, here's what I'm left with: Animal Crossing New Horizons sucks, and I don't want to play it anymore. 

Nintendo

This is not a personal attack. I know and respect many people who love this stupid baby game. My friend Alexa described it as less a game than a "dopamine generator." If it makes you feel that way, please, do not let me spoil your soma. But thus far, my time on the game's sandy beaches has left me with far more complaints than compliments.

The user interface is slow, clunky, and infuriatingly designed.

It requires as many individual button presses as possible to accomplish the desired action, and you are forced to navigate it in order to perform basically every action required of you. 

Why is "put in storage" the second option on the list when I am operating the inventory inside my house, clearly trying to put things in storage? Why is it so hard to equip my net when I am being chased by a swarm of wasps? And why, for the love of Anthropomorphic Animal God, can I not eat the pizza in the pizza oven?

Why else would I be here? "Animal Crossing: New Horizons"/Nintendo

These are minor things, you might say. Fine. Let's get to more important things. Prior to this game, my exposure to Animal Crossing was largely through osmosis, with  Tumblr-era posts reminiscing about cute interactions with the lively denizens of their villages. (The game has several iterations dating back to 2001.) 

So imagine my surprise when I was placed on a deserted island with only two fellow residents, not counting our Tanuki landlord and his sycophantic offspring. My companions were an obnoxious purple rhinoceros with a tic for saying "yo" multiple times in a row and a gym bro tiger who was admittedly pretty dope. 

After I'd placed tents for my neighbors, they proceeded to do nothing.

I could talk to them, or give them gifts, but otherwise, they wandered around our little section of island taking up oxygen. Eventually, I got a barbell as a gift, but the buff tiger won't come lift it with me. What is the point of this if I cannot even lift? 

There are other tasks, but none are particularly rewarding. I could fish, although the mechanism is so basic it reduces the process to pulling the lever on a slot machine to see if the right critter comes out. I could collect fruit or plant trees, a time-consuming process that requires me to interact with the game's aforementioned atrocious UI. 

Consider Stardew Valley, another resource-management type game with an intricate internal economy and wealth of customization options. Stardew's sheer cosmetic variety is more fun, if slightly more limiting, than Animal Crossing. But what sets it apart is the compelling story and narrative at the heart of the game. 

This is thus far my biggest problem with Animal Crossing: I have no connection to any of the villagers or characters who come through the island.

Lies, all lies. "Animal Crossing: New Horizons"/Nintendo

The only saving grace is the option to visit your real life friends' islands.

But if I log on and none of my friends are playing, there is literally nothing that I want to do. The game relies heavily on its social aspects; without other human players its world is lifeless, dead, and repetitive.

Even those social aspects are hard to access. Playing with friends requires you to be in the same physical location, or have the Nintendo Online subscription, which costs an extra $3.99 per month. If your internet service is anything but flawless, it's also prone to booting friends off your island unexpectedly. And even if all those things go well, you still need to navigate several dialogue boxes and watch unskippable cinematics just to get one friend on land. 

My friend Chris, who has put so many hours into the game he refused to give me a definite count, says that at a certain point Animal Crossing becomes less of a resource management game and more of "a game about creativity/customization." That's fine if you're a zen hoarder or want to re-create weird rooms that appear in Twin Peaks, but for $60, I expected much more than a slightly more interactive Myspace page.

Also, Tom Nook is a capitalist overlord.

Tom Nook, seen here in an earlier iteration of Animal Crossing. Nintendo

The entire setting and motivation of Animal Crossing is indentured servitude to an aggressive loan shark who appears to be selling a timeshare scam to the rest of the world's inhabitants. In Stardew Valley, at least you get to choose whether or not to side with the monolithic megacorporation that threatens to overwhelm the diverse and thriving small town you live in. In Animal Crossing, you start the game as a cog in the machine, and there is no way to escape. 

One of the first items I got was a hamster cage, complete with a tiny, proportionally-hamster sized rodent in it. As cosmetic items largely serve little interactive purpose beyond binary on-off switches, you cannot do anything with the hamster. But if you zoom all the way in, you can see it running on its little wheel for hours, making no progress and never changing course. I feel for that poor guy. He's doing the same monotonous garbage as me, but he can't even change the wallpaper.

Jack Crosbie is a writer who covers politics, culture and whatever else publications will pay him to cover. He is thinking of adopting a cat. Follow him on Twitter @jscros, unless you are going to be mean, in which case please do not.

Read more: 

The Nintendo Switch is sold out nearly everywhere — and the ones you can buy are being sold at 2x to 3x the price

I just started playing the wildly popular game 'Animal Crossing' that has taken over the internet, and I'm convinced it's the perfect way to escape COVID-19 lockdown life

Meet Nintendo developer Katsuya Eguchi, who created Animal Crossing after being inspired by the loneliness of moving to a new city

Original author: Jack Crosbie

Amazon attempted to shut down a virtual event where workers spoke out about warehouse conditions by deleting employees' calendar invites to the event, according to The Seattle Times.Two organizers of the event, which took place Thursday, were fired by Amazon last week after publicly criticizing the company's coronavirus response.Amazon has now fired five workers since the pandemic began who were involved in protests or criticized the company's treatment of workers.A spokesperson told Business Insider that Amazon supports employees' right to criticize working conditions, "but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon attempted to shut down a virtual event where workers spoke out about working conditions at the company's warehouses by deleting employees' calendar invites, organizers told The Seattle Times.

Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two of the event's organizers who were fired by Amazon last week after publicly criticizing its coronavirus response, told The Seattle Times that the company deleted the invites from its internal calendar, though several hundred employees had already seen and accepted it.

"Amazon has shown they will not allow us to share details for how to join the meeting internally, so we are forced to gather externally," Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, the group behind the event, wrote in a Google form announcing the event.

"We want to tell Amazon that we are sick of all this – sick of the firings, sick of the silencing, sick of pollution, sick of racism, and sick of the climate crisis," Costa said Thursday during the event, which was attended by around 400 Amazon employees, according to Computer Weekly.

Amazon refused to comment on claims by Cunningham and Costa that it deleted calendar invites, but said in a statement to Business Insider: "We support every employee's right to criticize their employer's working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies. We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies."

The company has come under fire in recent weeks from workers who say Amazon hasn't done enough to protect them from COVID-19, with people testing positive for the disease in at least 74 of the company's facilities.

Workers have cited everything from conditions that make social distancing impossible to the company's limited paid sick leave policies, and have organized strikes in New York, Chicago, and Italy in addition to Thursday's virtual event, where employees called for a "sick out" on April 24.

Amazon has also faced scrutiny from lawmakers over its response to its workers speaking out. In at least four cases since the pandemic began, the company fired workers almost immediately after their involvement in organizing protests. A fifth told The New York Times he was terminated after giving the company notice that he would be resigning because he objected to the company's treatment of warehouse workers.

After Amazon fired warehouse worker Christian Smalls the same day he organized a walkout, New York City's human-rights commissioner opened an investigation into the termination. Later that week, a leaked memo obtained by Vice showed Amazon executives discussing efforts to mount a PR campaign against Smalls, calling him "not smart or articulate." Following news of the memo, Amazon told employees it may fire those who "intentionally violate" social distancing rules at work.

Amazon has been trying to balance the safety of its workers with increased demand for its services as coronavirus lockdowns worldwide fuel a surge in online shopping. The company said Monday it will add 75,000 more jobs on top of the 100,000 roles it added last month, which it said are now filled.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker