Facebook is banning non-essential business travel for its 45,000 employees.It will also conduct job interviews entirely via video-conferencing software.The new restrictions are due to mounting concerns around the global coronavirus outbreak.Facebook previously restricted visitors to its offices and encouraged Bay Area employees to work remotely.

Facebook is banning all non-essential business travel for its employees globally and will conduct job interviews entirely over video-conferencing software, in the latest sign of how the coronavirus is impacting major businesses.

On Saturday, the Silicon Valley social networking giant sent guidance to employees informing them of the new restrictions, Business Insider learned.

The move comes after Facebook encouraged its employees at its Bay Area headquarters to work remotely due to the viral outbreak, and previously banned social visitors to its offices, and shifted most — though not all — job interviews to video-conferencing.

Facebook's ban on non-essential business travel applies across all its offices for all 45,000-odd employees, as well as domestically within the United States.

At least two Facebook workers have tested positive for the coronavirus — a contractor in Seattle and an employee based in Singapore.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has sickened more than 100,000 people and killed nearly 3,500, and is causing mounting disruption around the globe — disrupting supply chains and forcing the closure of corporate offices and major events.

Many major tech companies in the Bay Area — the site of a US outbreak — have instituted remote work policies for at least some of their employees, including Apple and Google. Industry events including MWC, F8, and I/O have been cancelled, and on Friday, the SXSW tech and culture festival in Austin, Texas was also cancelled. 

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Original author: Rob Price

Fixer-uppers selling for at least $1 million in San Francisco regularly make headlines.In a city where housing demand outweighs supply, the value of homes and land is sky-high, meaning even dilapidated single-family homes throughout the city are worth a pretty penny.But the purchase of the property is only the first step in taking on a fixer-upper project — renovations typically mean shelling out millions more.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The glamour of flipping a "fixer-upper" has in part been fetishized by home-renovation TV shows on channels like HGTV. One of the most recent and high-profile ones that come to mind is of course Chip and Joanna Gaines' "Fixer Upper," where homeowners paid on average $173,221 for their fixers upfront in the Texas town of Waco before the famous couple gave it their signature touch.

It's common to not only watch on TV but read about how old, decaying structures are reborn into the homes of families' American dreams.

In San Francisco, though, the concept of a piece in the city's tight housing market being a "fixer-upper" has a wholly different connotation. The city's limited housing stock and subsequent housing shortage and crisis translate to even these dilapidated houses selling for north of $1 million.

Business Insider has reported on a portion of the city's "fixer-upper" homes in recent years, including a recent sale of one of the city's famed Painted Ladies purchased by a tech founder for $3.55 million (in cash, mind you.) 

Here's how San Francisco's fixer-uppers have fared on the market, why new owners can't simply demolish their new fixer-upper even if they want to, what their listing agents had to say about them, and what some of them are like inside.

Original author: Katie Canales

The sharing economy is booming, with giants like Airbnb and Rent the Runway, as well as a long list of smaller startups, targeting specific markets.From construction equipment and RVs to party supplies and luxury jewelry, consumers can rent almost anything.Some of these startups are peer to peer, while others offer an inventory of rentable items.We took a look at 14 startups and their venture-capital backers in the sharing economy.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Rent the Runway has shoppers renting everything from high-end designer clothes to everyday staples, and Airbnb lets users share entire homes or even spare rooms.

Similar apps and websites have sprung up all around the country, offering digital-forward twists on the not-so-new business of renting secondhand items.

Be it for cost, convenience, or storage constraints, US consumers are getting used to the idea of sharing through both peer-to-peer platforms and direct-to-consumer sites.

While some services offer users the option to buy their rented items, many of the brands say they're helping consumers shop more sustainably by sharing things they may use only once or twice.

And this all plays into a bigger theme: changes in the way we buy and pay.

Here's a look at 14 startups that are changing the way consumers think about shopping — and the venture capital that's backing them.

Original author: Shannen Balogh

Tesla is bad at building cars, but getting better.Rival General Motors is better at building cars, but the company has never used its manufacturing power as a weapon in the electric-car market.That's about to change, as GM launches 22 new electric vehicles by 2023.Tesla needs to rapidly overcome its manufacturing weaknesses.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Production hell" is part of Tesla lore. CEO Elon Musk has even joked about it.

When the carmaker first showcased the Model 3 in 2017, I asked him to talk about production hell and how much of it he was about to face.

The answer was "at least six months." But he was quick to note that the then-upcoming Model 3 production hell would be less hellish than the hells the company endured with its previous three vehicles, the original Roadster, the Model S sedan, and the Model X SUV.

As it turned out, his welcome levity did nothing to mitigate a much more severe Model 3 production hell, which was ultimately the production hell to end all production hells. At one point, Tesla had to start building Model 3s under a makeshift structure in the parking lot of its Northern California factory.

So, production hell is no laughing matter. And Tesla is well aware of it. The graphic below, from Tesla's 2019 full-year financial summary, shows how the company's new factory in Shanghai should drastically improve on the manufacturing process at its plant in Fremont, CA.

Tesla's Fremont manufacturing flow vs. Shanghai. Tesla

I say "should" because when Fremont was called NUMMI and was jointly operated by General Motors and Toyota back before the financial crisis, the factory didn't have that much difficulty building over 400,000 vehicles per year.

Tesla is terrible as mass-producing automobiles

GM president Mark Reuss. GM

Tesla is impressive: No new US automaker has succeeded in decades, and with around 360,000 all-electric vehicles delivered in 2019, Tesla now dominates the still tiny EV market. Customers, for the most part, love their Teslas. The company spends effectively nothing on advertising, while traditional automakers spend many billions.

But until quite recently, Tesla was flatly terrible at mass-producing automobiles. Its Model S and Model X were relatively low-volume vehicles that sold for $100,000 on average, so Tesla's production challenges weren't such a big deal when S's and X's were all that people could buy. 

But moving to higher-volume manufacturing with Model 3 immediately exposed Tesla's lack of manufacturing capability. When the company revealed its tented assembly line, I gave it props for an innovation to an immediate problem (an automated indoor line had failed to work properly), but also noted that the way cars were being put together there would have been familiar to Henry Ford. Twenty-first-century best practices it was not. 

Last week, General Motors showcased a forthcoming fleet of new electric vehicles and also shared details of its battery technology, which uses a completely different architecture than Tesla employs: "pouches" versus cylinders. GM argued that its design is more flexible and with advances in battery chemistry — GM is reducing its reliance on materials such as cobalt — and could bring costs below an important threshold of $100 per kilowatt-hour.

What the company didn't overtly discuss was how the transformation of its products from gas-powered to electric-propelled, with 22 new EVs coming by 2023, would be leveraged by its manufacturing expertise. 

"We're really good at it," GM president Mark Reuss told me. "A big weapon is our manufacturing system." 

He added that a complete revamping of the company's Hamtramck facility in Michigan for dedicated electric-vehicle production should show how agile GM can be about responding to changing market demand. That agility would be well-supported by the new battery design, called "Ultium," which can scale from 50 kWh to 200 kWh packs and power everything from self-driving shuttles to the revived Hummer pickup truck.

Attacking an all-electric future

GM CEO Mary Barra. GM

GM sold almost eight million vehicles worldwide in 2019, but that achievement isn't really priced into the company's value; at about $50 billion, GM's market capitalization is far less than Tesla's $170 billion, minted largely in an epic rally over the past six months.

GM is about to bring that manufacturing strength to bear on a transformation of its business to attack what CEO Mary Barra has identified as an "all-electric future."

When asked this week about how many more new EVs would arrive after 2023, she said, simply, "Many."

It might not be a walk in the park to build a million EVs a year — Barra's expectation — but GM built eight times that many vehicles in 2019.

So make no mistake, Tesla has done something that nobody thought was possible. But now it has to deal with something it's never been able to do well, while a sleeping giant that can build cars from dawn to dark and then from dark to dawn starts to roll out a new electric vehicle every few months.

Original author: Matthew DeBord

KoHub, a coworking space on the Thai island of Koh Lanta, attracts "digital nomads" from around the world looking to work remotely from the beautiful island.Founder James Abbott says that the one piece of advice all digital nomads should follow is to get a job that pays and allows remote work before starting their trip. Launching a trip as a digital nomad without knowing where your funding is coming from can cause people to cut corners and isolate themselves from the community, Abbott says. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

KOH LANTA, Thailand — Working from home is just the start. 

Over the last decade, "digital nomads" have gone from the fringe to the mainstream, as people move to work remotely while traveling the world. With the rise of remote work and the high cost of living in Western cities known for their tech scenes, such as San Francisco, Paris, and London, millions of people have kicked off careers as digital nomads. 

Six years ago, James Abbott established KoHub, a coworking space on Koh Lanta, an island in southern Thailand. Koh Lanta offers gorgeous beaches, a chill party scene, and lush jungle. Thanks to KoHub, it is also becoming a destination for digital nomads looking for a space to work remotely and a community of others doing the same. 

"I run it like an organized anarchy," Abbott recently told Business Insider. "So I let it evolve into what it needs to be — just trying to shape it, and keep it on the rails and financed."

Digital nomads swarm to KoHub during high season, escaping from the cold of the Northern Hemisphere to the balmy beach climate. And, according to Abbott, most take one crucial step before trying out a career as a digital nomad — or regret not doing so. 

Original author: Kate Taylor

Bob Chapek just became the CEO of Disney, and he might be looking for a new home to go with his new role. 

Chapek was named Bob Iger's successor at Disney on February 25. His Ventura County, California estate is now for sale, asking $3.49 million. The 27-year veteran of Disney's home has been on the market for over a year, according to realtor.com.

The home in Camarillo, California, is designed like a resort inspired by the Italian Renaissance. It has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, and consists of 6,000 square feet on the 20-acre property.

The property at 13723 Nightsky Drive is listed with Erin Pohl of Coldwell Banker Realty.

See inside here.

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

The coronavirus outbreak is causing electronics manufacturers major pain and delays, as suppliers based in China have struggled to keep factories running at full speed.IPC, an electronics equipment trade organization, found in a February survey that a majority of electronics manufacturers are expecting delays of four to five weeks.Suppliers and manufacturers are likely to bear the brunt of this crisis, and IPC chief economist Shawn DuBravac said consumers shouldn't expect empty aisles in the electronics department.That being said, if the situation continues to worsen and delays build up, shoppers may experience inconvenient "spot shortages."Even if factories become fully operational once more, many manufacturers worry about further delays and issues regarding shipping crucial components to the United States.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus is sparking anxieties among electronics manufacturers, the companies responsible for assembling everything from computers to lawnmowers to power generators. And if issues with suppliers based in China and potential shipping bottlenecks aren't resolved in a timely fashion, everyday consumers in the United States could start to notice by the summertime.

Many of these electronics manufacturers based in the United States or Europe rely on certain components built by suppliers in China. IPC, an electronics equipment trade organization, ran a survey in February in which 65% of 150 participating electronics manufacturers and suppliers reported delays from suppliers due to the spread of coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19. The outbreak has claimed over 3,400 lives around the world.

So far, these delays appear contained enough, and manufacturers and suppliers will likely be taking on the brunt of the problem for the time being. But IPC chief economist Shawn DuBravac told Business Insider that, if the outbreak continues to drag the industry down into April, regular shoppers may begin to notice the effects firsthand.

And, even if the suppliers themselves become fully operational once more, manufacturers still worry over the strain put on what the IPC report described as "limited" and "finite" transportation networks.

"Where some uncertainty still lies is, even after manufacturing is back online, to what extent is it back online?" DuBravac said. 

'The worst is yet to come'

Many of the electronics manufacturers in IPC's survey work across different industries and domains. These firms typically operate by acquiring necessary electronics components from different suppliers. Suppliers receive orders and ship the requested parts to the manufacturers. The components are assembled, and then the finished product is shipped on to the ultimate client, often a consumer-facing brand.

DuBravac said it's crucial that these manufacturers receive all the elements necessary to assemble a product at the same time, so that production can begin and the company can avoid a buildup of inventory.

Delays of 12 weeks would be "unprecedented" and potentially obvious to everyday consumers, DuBravac said. William Hong/Reuters

But the international outbreak is throwing off that process. In its survey, the IPC found that around 65% of respondents were told by suppliers to expect delays of around three weeks in shipments due to the outbreak. 

When it comes to the impact that the coronavirus will have on their business, 30% of survey participants admitted to being extremely concerned, while 54% said they were somewhat concerned. The survey ran between February 11 and February 16.

Electronics manufacturer representatives quoted within the story expressed concerns about experiencing delayed deliveries, shuttering product lines, and watching suppliers struggle to keep factories in China staffed.

"I believe the worst is yet to come," one anonymous manufacturer told IPC. "The Chinese local government is fully overwhelmed with this process and could take weeks to get flushed out for factory production starting."

And manufacturers' fears don't focus solely on delays stemming directly from reduced-capacity suppliers. DuBravac said that fears of a transportation bottleneck have arisen thanks to the outbreak. Scores of late shipments clogging shipping lines could stand to increase delays, even once factories are back online.

"We're worried that — even after manufacturing returns in China for these components that we use — there'll be further delays because transportation capacity will be maxed out," DuBravac said.

'Unprecedented delays'

Electronics manufacturers have a hand in making all sorts of products, meaning that the coronavirus could have a sweeping impact across industries. Such companies produce everything from electric lawn mowers, in-store control panels, cable boxes, and audio and video devices, and they are crucial to the automotive, aerospace, and medical sectors.

But DuBravac said it's too early to be able to tell exactly what products or companies could stand to get slammed the hardest.

"Because manufacturers have different suppliers, different inventory levels, and end up producing a different mix of products, it's not necessarily easy to identify that, let's say, all electric lawnmowers are going to be in short supply come July," he said. "Chances are some models might be, but they all are built differently by different manufacturers relying on different supply chains and different components."

The manufacturers themselves told the IPC that they believe delays will run longer than suppliers are saying. Over 55% said they anticipated delays of four weeks or fewer, while around 37% said they expected delays to take six weeks or longer. On the transportation side, the IPC report already cited "out of balance" transportation networks, highlighting reduced commercial air travel out of China, US ports brimming with "empty cargo containers," and limited traffic on "seaborne trade routes between China and other countries."

DuBravac said most companies' inventories can likely hold out until Easter. If the outbreak leads to delays of eight to 12 weeks, however, he said the situation would be "unprecedented."

Still, even if "unprecedented delays" come to pass and the situation fails to improve, DuBravac said most people in the United States will observe the issues in "very limited ways" starting around June and July.

'Oh, that's weird'

It's not as if shoppers will be confronted with abandoned electronics stores or aisles, even in DuBravac's worst-case scenario. Many of the manufacturing issues brought about by the coronavirus will be felt more on a behind-the-scenes, industrial basis. Others could result in irritating, but not life-upending, frustrations for customers.

DuBravac gave the instance of a consumer calling to replace a cable box and encountering a "spot shortage" prompted by the delays.

"The rep will say, 'Oh, that's weird. We can't install a new cable box. I'm sorry, I'm not sure why, but we've got a delay for two weeks,'" DuBravac said. "That's the conversation that I think the consumer will end up having."

DuBravac said electronics manufacturers have the opportunity to show off their "resilient" supply chains. Jianan Yu/Reuters

Some manufacturers told IPC that they were rerouting supply chains to avoid areas in China heavily affected by the coronavirus. DuBravac said many manufacturers are keen to establish a "dual-sourced" supply chain regardless of the outbreak, to keep from overly relying on one supplier or region. 

But finding a new supplier can be easier said than done. Manufacturers are somewhat bound by the preferences of client companies, which may direct them to work with specific suppliers. And even if clients are open to new suppliers, oftentimes they will need  time to "requalify" products to be able to work with parts sourced from new suppliers. 

DuBravac said that in some sense, the current crisis proves how dynamic the supply chains of electronics manufacturers are, given that everyday consumers are unlikely to face too many issues buying electronics. He said he spoke to many firms working to problem-solve with clients and suppliers.

"There's conversation about how fragile the supply chain is, but in a study like this you really see how resilient it is — or at least the desire to make it resilient," DuBravac said. "I think that's one of the reasons why the consumer doesn't always feel the effect."

Original author: Áine Cain

The accounting industry is doing a poor job of auditing public companies, according to watchdog groups, a problem that threatens to undermine public confidence in the stock market and could cause a financial crisis. The problems persist in part because few in the know are willing to speak out.There's a reason for that, two former whistleblowers say — those who raise alarms about accounting problems face a personal toll, including to their careers and their family lives.Both Brett Whitaker and Maura Botta say their superiors tried to play down or cover up the errors they found, and each ended up losing his job after he blew the whistle.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

To Brett Whitaker and Mauro Botta the failings of the accounting industry aren't just a matter of alarming statistics or fears about a potential financial crisis.

They're personal.

Both tried to raise the alarm about accounting problems at public companies. Both say their warnings were ignored. Worse, both lost their jobs, and Botta's been going through a contentious years-long court battle to try to vindicate himself.

Their experiences as whistleblowers are prime examples of why few in the industry speak up about its problems — and why the industry's failings persist, they say.

"Insiders certainly are very familiar [with] how the system works, but nobody talks," Botta told Business Insider in a recent interview.

The accounting industry is putting the economy at risk

Botta, previously an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PwC, and Whitaker, the former director of tax reporting at Mattel, last month joined with a collection of watchdog groups to urge the House Financial Services Committee to hold a hearing on the accounting industry.

The coalition was following up on research from the Project On Government Oversight, or POGO, that indicated the four largest accounting firms are doing a sub-par job of auditing public companies and that the industry's quasi-governmental overseer was doing a poor job of watching over them. POGO's research found that in 20% to 50% of cases, the Big Four's audits of public company's financial statements had critical flaws that should have invalidated them, meaning that investors shouldn't have relied on the accounting firm's assertion that the statements were accurate and free of errors or fraud.

POGO also found that while the accounting industry's overseer, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, had discovered 808 cases of bad audits done by the Big Four firms since it was formed in 2003, it had only brought 18 enforcement actions against them and had only assessed them a small fraction of the potential fines it could have hit them with.

The accuracy and veracity of financial statements is crucial to the functioning of public markets. Investors determine how much they will pay for companies' stock based in large part on what's in those statements, including the companies' sales, earnings, and cash flow. Lack of trust in financial statements can lead to sharp sell-offs in individual companies' stocks and financial calamity for those companies. If the accounting problems are wide enough in scale, they can lead to financial crises, such as the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s.

Both Botta and Whitaker have seen accounting problems up close

Botta and Whitaker say they know about the accounting industry's shortcomings first-hand. Starting in 2012, while he was working out of PwC's San Jose office, Botta says the firm signed off on the financial statements and audits at three different Silicon Valley tech companies despite his warnings that those documents contained critical errors or shortcomings. In an official whistleblower complaint he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Botta reported hearing from his colleagues about accounting problems at other companies PwC audited and about conflicts of interest between the auditor and its clients.

Mauro Botta said he saw numerous accounting problems at tech companies while working as an accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in its San Jose office. Mauro Botta Meanwhile, Whitaker told The Wall Street Journal last fall he discovered an accounting error at Mattel in early 2018 that should have led it to immediately restate its earnings. Instead, company finance officials, in cahoots with their PwC auditors, allegedly covered up the error. Mattel later was forced to restate its earnings anyway after another, anonymous whistleblower alerted company management to the error and sparked an official investigation.

PwC has largely denied Botta's allegations and is fighting a lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial in November, that he filed against it. The firm declined to comment on Whitaker's allegations that its auditors helped cover up the error he found. Mattel also declined to comment on Whitaker's charges.

Both Botta and Whitaker said they suffered from speaking out. Botta said he was repeatedly pressured by his colleagues and superiors to not raise a fuss about the accounting problems he found, according to his whistleblower complaint and the lawsuit he filed against PwC.

The firm removed him from the auditing teams for both of the companies at which he found accounting problems, he said in his complaint. Eventually it fired him. But even after that, PwC told his next employer that he was incompetent and should be removed from the project he was working on, according to his lawsuit.

"I escalated these [accounting] issues internally, and PwC, in my view, retaliated," Botta said.

PwC told Business Insider it fired him for "misconduct."

For Whitaker, what happened at Mattel was "personal"

Whitaker had a similarly difficult time after alerting Mattel to the accounting error there. After his superiors, in conjunction with PwC, allegedly decided to cover up the error instead of reporting it, he felt he had no choice but to resign from what he considered his dream job. The whole experience strained his marriage and his relationship with his child, he told Business Insider. Others on his team experienced similar strains or worse, he said.

Such consequences provide ample disincentives for people not to speak up about accounting problems, he said.

"I have a lot of good friends and colleagues that were there with me that are still biting their tongue and for a valid reason — because they don't want to lose their job. They can't lose their job," he said. "They can't go home and take that with them, to the extent that they can avoid it."

In fact a big part of the reason why he signed the letter to the Financial Services Committee and told his story to The Journal was because he wanted to call attention to the personal toll the accounting failures can take both on those who blow the whistle and those who don't.

"To me," he added, "that's really my motivation. It's a personal story. It's not an investor story to me."

Got a tip about accounting issues? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Troy Wolverton

A cartoonist once drew an illustration depicting Microsoft's organizational chart as warring factions. 

Take a look and you'll see three separate gangs: one blue, one green, one yellow. The gangs are assembled in pyramid-shaped hierarchies, with one leader at the top, two or three deputies at the next level, and so on.

A hand sticks out from each pyramid, pointing a gun directly at one of the others. It's clear. This is war.

And then Satya Nadella became CEO.

Nadella described the era of warring gangs in his 2017 memoir-manifesto, "Hit Refresh:" "Innovation was being replaced by bureaucracy. Teamwork was being replaced by internal politics. We were falling behind."

That particular cartoon – drawn in 2011 by a Google employee named Manu Cornet, no less – made changing Microsoft's culture Nadella's No. 1 goal as CEO.

"As a 24-year veteran of Microsoft, a consummate insider, the caricature really bothered me. But what upset me more was that our own people just accepted it," Nadella wrote. "When I was named Microsoft's third CEO in February 2014, I told employees that renewing our company's culture would be my highest priority."

Since becoming CEO, Nadella has been credited with a grand reinvention of Microsoft, exemplified by its market value exceeding $1 trillion, one of just a handful in history to hit that mark. When Nadella first took over, its market value was around $300 billion. The company has shifted from a has-been to a cloud powerhouse.

One of the keys to this transformation is a psychological concept that's become a mantra at Nadella's Microsoft: growth mindset.

Original author: Business Insider

Notable pets, like Jiff Pom and Doug the Pug, have become celebrities and well-known stars through content their owners post on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.However, pets have significantly shorter life spans than everyday influencers, which raises a unique issue about what owners do with these accounts after their pets' deaths.Owners who spoke with Business Insider had a variety of responses: Some continue to post photos for the fans, others bring in another animal to carry on the account, and others leave the accounts untouched as a way to honor their pets' legacies.Several owners shared how having a internet-famous pet has made the grieving process a drawn-out experience, and how some are still able to earn money even after their pets' deaths.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Cyber Monday is one of the biggest days each year for online retailers, including for the brand centered around a four-pound cat named Lil Bub.

Instead of spending the weekend before the online shopping holiday recovering from Thanksgiving dinner, Lil Bub's owner Mike Bridavsky was busy making sure his website was ready for the onslaught of traffic expected Monday. He prepared for thousands to flock to the Lil Bub online store to snatch up t-shirts, socks, and pillows bearing the cat's recognizable appearance: her small stature due to feline dwarfism, her lack of teeth, and her tongue permanently hanging out of her mouth. But he couldn't have anticipated what else his weekend had in store.

Lil Bub died that Sunday, just over 3 months ago, leaving behind a slew of adoring fans to grieve. In her 8 years of life, Lil Bub accrued millions of social media followers, served as the face for numerous animal welfare causes, and became a widely recognizable and beloved face across the internet. 

"Bub had a complete lack of self awareness, this ability to overcome all the obstacles she's felt," Bridavsky told Business Insider. "She wasn't just a famous Instagram cat ... She engineered herself to look this way so she could catch people's attention and they could learn about her."

Lil Bub turned into an established social media influencer in much less time than it takes many of her human counterparts. Pets like Grumpy Cat and Boo have become not just household names, but full-blown celebrities. These pets have shown that influencers don't have to be human to get fans to line up for hours for meet-and-greets, or earn thousands of dollars a year from ads and sponsorships. 

However, these pets' significantly shorter lifespans raise a whole set of questions about what comes after. After internet pets pass, their owners still remain. Not only are they left with a slew of social media accounts bearing the name of their pets, but also with a loyal following that, in my cases, have turned to these animals as a bright spot during the grayest of days.

"Everyone loves pets. They don't say offensive things on Twitter and they don't get in trouble. They're just adorable and perfect," Loni Edwards, the CEO of pet influencer management firm The Dog Agency, told Business Insider. "Being able to touch so many people regardless of where they live or their age ... that's such a unique type of content creator."

Several owners of famous pets spoke with Business Insider about their struggles and experiences handling the online presences of their animals after they died. While some have preserved these accounts as an homage to their pets, others have continued to share photos of their animals from the massive backlog of content they've acquired. There are still others who have continued their pets' legacies by getting another who can substitute for — not replace — the original on social media.

The key point many owners factored into their decision-making has been the impact their actions have on their pets' followings and fans. Even though some owners stumbled accidentally into the world of influencing, they have nevertheless taken to heart the often significant role their pets played in the lives of their fans.

"You're a lucky man to have had this magical creature in your life, and we were especially lucky that you shared her with all of us," an Instagram user commented on a recent photo of Lil Bub. "Her magic will never be forgotten."

Original author: Paige Leskin

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has helped transform the company into a trillion-dollar cloud powerhouse.Part of that effort included cultivating new talent, even as much of Microsoft's old guard departed for greener pastures.Business Insider compiled a list of 13 of the most significant executive departures since Nadella took over as CEO – and what those executives are doing now. Business Insider has been exploring the cultural change led by Nadella within Microsoft since he became CEO in February 2014.Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

An analysis of the most high-profile Microsoft executive departures under CEO Satya Nadella helps shed light on how the company's transformation into a trillion-dollar cloud powerhouse has taken shape.

Business Insider has been exploring the cultural change led by Nadella within Microsoft since he became CEO in February 2014.

Under Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft teams were warring factions and the company's leaders promoted a "star culture" that valued the smartest person in the room. Nadella has tried to make Microsoft more collaborative, both internally and with the company's competitors – and part of that effort included cultivating new talent, even as much of Microsoft's old guard departed for greener pastures.

Some of executive shifts started immediately. Less than a month after Nadella became CEO, he announced two executive departures and made it clear he expected an "'all in' commitment as we embark on the next chapter for the company" from Microsoft senior leaders. Others took time, and unfolded throughout reorganizations.

Here are 13 of the most significant executive departures since Nadella took over as CEO – and what those executives are doing now:

Original author: Ashley Stewart

Panera just launched an unlimited-coffee subscription that costs $9 per month, or about $108 annually.I usually drink the free coffee at my office, but my editor asked me to try out Panera for a week to test the subscription.I really wanted to love this service, but the coffee just wasn't good, and the service was chaotic. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When my editor asked how I'd feel about getting free coffee for a month, I said I'd love it. I spent the next week testing Panera's coffee subscription.

The subscription provides "unlimited" hot coffee, iced coffee, or hot tea at all Panera restaurants for a monthly fee of $9, or about $108 annually. Note that this means free refills in-store, or a coffee every two hours. Panera is rolling it out nationwide over the next week to members of its MyPanera loyalty program. A regular Panera coffee costs $2.49 in New York City, so the savings come around the fourth cup of coffee.

Panera tested this subscription model in three states before its nationwide debut.

"We are the first brand to do it, and we're super excited about that," Panera CEO Niren Chaudhary previously told Business Insider. "We feel that this is a terrific way to get consumers more interested in not only in our coffee platform but also for them to get exposed to the strength of the food that we have in our cafes, particularly around breakfast."

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

Authorities across China have been using new hi-tech surveillance methods to monitor citizens in an attempt to stem the coronavirus outbreak.They include flying drones to make sure people are wearing masks, facial-recognition cameras, and making people download software to track their location.This kind of surveillance is already present in Xinjiang, the homeland of the Uighurs, where China operates an invasive, 21st-century police state.Experts told Business Insider that this mass data collection could stay the norm even after the coronavirus becomes less of a public-health threat.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

China has dramatically ramped up its data-collection efforts in its efforts to stem its coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 80,000 people in the country alone.

In pursuit of this, authorities have rolled out a slew of new tactics to monitor and track potential cases.

The Chinese government has long been criticized for its invasive use of technology, and the coronavirus outbreak has appeared to strengthen its case for harvesting more data — a situation experts fear could become permanent.

The methods include:

After bearing the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak, China appears to be undergoing a turnaround, in which people are getting better faster than they fall sick.

However, experts fear that this mass data collection could continue after the coronavirus is less of a public-health threat, and becomes a permanent addition to the Communist Party surveillance's state.

(It's worth noting that these technologies have so far been implemented piecemeal in some regions, and it's too early to tell whether they actually helped China stem an outbreak.)

But this kind of surveillance state already exists in in one part of China: Xinjiang, a northwestern Chinese region home to the oppressed Uighur population.

Residents walk through a security checkpoint as President Xi Jinping's portrait looms in Hotan, Xinjiang, in November 2017. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

The Chinese state sees Islam — the religion of most Uighurs — as a threat, and conflating it with religious extremism. China has in the past few years effectively set up a police state in their homeland.

Almost a million Uighurs have been detained in prison-like re-education camps over alleged infractions as minor as going to other countries, growing a beard, and owning computer files in the Uighur language. (Many of these so-called crimes were laid out recently in a series of leaked documents called the Karakax List.)

Authorities there have installed almost a million facial-recognition cameras to record crimes, and even anticipate them.

They have forced people to download smartphone apps that spy on what they're sharing with their friends, and have posted QR codes outside Uighurs' homes so that officials tracking them can download information quickly on who is inside.

(It also uses analog measures to monitor Uighurs, which includes having Communist Party officials sleep in the same house as Uighur families who have relatives in re-education camps.)

Uighur security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in November 2017. Associated Press

Though this sort of surveillance is part of the norm in Xinjiang, in the rest of China it is not. Many citizens are getting their first taste of what living under China's police state is like during this coronavirus outbreak.

"In terms of the actual technologies that are being used, they're using the same ones in Xinjiang," said Darren Byler, a technology expert specializing in Xinjiang.

Chinese authorities had long been plugging hardware and software into people's phones to flag sensitive keywords — "but now it's going beyond looking for things related to religion and looking for things related to travel, and looking at people's social network and connections to Wuhan," Byler told Business Insider.

Referring to the Alibaba health app, New York Times reporter Paul Mozur tweeted: "The color codes, checkpoints, and phone searches all smack of policies carried out in Xinjiang. People in China's east aren't used to it."

Maya Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Business Insider: "The use of these systems is taking place without privacy law or surveillance law that effectively protects people's privacy rights, to allow them to challenge such designation or the imposition of quarantine."

"However, I would also point out some obvious differences — people elsewhere in China still can post about their situation online, can still complain to families and friends about their suffering, whereas in Xinjiang people have much, much less power."

A checkpoint in Hotan, where citizens are required to scan their faces and IDs before accessing various parts of the city and region. T. Wang / VICE News Tonight An employee of the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, China, monitoring thermal scanners on January 21, 2020. Reuters

Experts now say that this surveillance could become the norm even after the coronavirus threat weakens.

"Once you have the tools in place, you'd probably continue to use them, and you can expand them and use them for other purposes," Byler told Business Insider.

"From the US context, the PATRIOT Act, Homeland Security, and countering violent extremist programs that the US put in place initially after 9/11 were focused on Muslim Americans, but have now been radically expanded to look at asylum seekers of all types, like people coming across the southern border into the US."

"Once these systems are in place, once things are built, once they're designed — you can't put them back in the box, and once political leaders see the utility of them and see that they can extend their power, extend their control, then of course they will continue to use them and use them in new ways," he said.

Chinese companies like Watrix have been researching gait recognition as a way to monitor people. Here, an employee tests out the technology in Beijing. AP

Wang added that the Chinese Communist Party had long conducted mass surveillance, and that it has been expanding those measures as the country became more prosperous.

"You can still see how major events like the [2008 Beijing] Olympics and Shanghai Expo provided opportunities for the Chinese police to implement more intrusive security measures and more funding for surveillance and social control," she told Business Insider.

"Some of these measures then later became more permanent features of Chinese policing. I suspect some of the measures surrounding the coronavirus outbreak will continue to be implemented even after it is over."

A man walks past a poster simulating facial-recognition software at a security exhibition in Beijing in October 2018. Thomas Peter/Reuters

The Communist Party likely has good reason to want to exert more control over its populace.

The outbreak has sparked the anger of numerous citizens over an apparent government cover-up in the early stages of the outbreak, with many calling for democracy and freedom of speech.

Last Sunday, the government rolled out a new internet law to ban all negative content, with definitions so vague that it could easily include news of the virus and criticism of the official response.

"Under President Xi, we've seen increasingly tightened censorship over time both on the internet, and over the press," Wang told Business Insider. "I expect this trend to continue."

A person goes fishing in protective clothing in Wuhan on February 25, 2020. Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

South Korea, the worst-infected country outside China, has also faced criticism for its use of technology during the outbreak.

Authorities there have been sending citizens "emergency guidance texts" describing newly-diagnosed patients, unexpectedly revealing their location history and other personal information.

Russian officials in Moscow are also using facial-recognition technology to catch those escaping quarantine and raiding the homes of possible carriers, Reuters reported.

That's not to say all the new technology being deployed during the coronavirus is inherently sinister, or could have sinister purposes.

Major Chinese tech firms are investing heavily in the research of new vaccines, with Alibaba developing algorithms to quickly analyze CT scans for signs of the coronavirus. Baidu, a search engine, is offering some of its services to epidemiology labs to aid their research, according to CNBC.

"It's hard to see anything negative about that, being able to diagnose disease more quickly and with more accuracy," Byler said, referring to Alibaba's CT-scan technology.

A medical worker helps a patient with a CT scan at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University during the coronavirus outbreak on February 2, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS

"It's the population-management tools — the ones that are coercive and that are doing unauthorized or nonconsensual surveillance — that I think are really problematic and really should be abolished in almost every case."

Whether or not coronavirus-surveillance tools turn into long-term human-management programs remains unclear.

But, given the Communist Party's historical obsession with population control, it could well become a the reality.

Original author: Alexandra Ma

Elon Musk has posted three Bernie Sanders-related memes since mid-February.The first meme came the night after Sanders won the New Hampshire primaries and Musk's preferred candidate, Andrew Yang, dropped out.Musk has not openly endorsed Sanders and the memes give little insight into whether he supports the Vermont senator.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is, apart from a successful entrepreneur, a high-profile Twitter user and meme lover. A study of his recent meme activity on Twitter suggests a growing interest in Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Musk originally endorsed Andrew Yang for the Democratic candidate nomination. Yang has dropped out of the Democratic race, with just Sanders and Joe Biden remaining.

Musk been busily posting Bernie Sanders memes since Yang's departure.

None of these memes are reliable indicators of Musk's political leanings, and he has made no official statements endorsing any candidates since Yang dropped out. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone however, Musk's current girlfriend and electro-music star Grimes (née Claire Boucher) said she sees similarities between Musk and Sanders.

"When I look at the aims of my boyfriend and I look at the aims of Bernie, like, their end goals are very similar. Fix environmental problems, reduce suffering," she said — although she admitted that Musk's status as a billionaire complicates the comparison.

Musk's Bernie memes may stem simply from the fact that Sanders features in many popular memes.

Here's a look at what he's been posting:

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Nextup Comedy co-founder and CEO, Daniel Berg Nextup Comedy

NextUp was founded in 2016 by the comedy-loving quartet Daniel Berg, Sarah Henley, Kenny Cavey and Stuart Snaith. 

Their startup was born out of an earlier passion project: a YouTube channel documenting the UK comedy scene, featuring standup sets and interviews with a range of up-and-coming acts. 

But the team noticed three key problems: fans often couldn't attend their favorite comics' sets, comedians were reluctant to put their lovingly-crafted sets online, and what was available on TV didn't reflect the diversity of the underground scene. 

They set up their first office in a derelict building in southeast London, where cofounder and CEO Daniel Berg once arrived to find a pigeon had left its mark on his keyboard.

"That was a bit of a low moment," he told Business Insider.

Since then, the startup has been backed a string of angel investors, found a new office, and is currently seeking backers for its Series A fundraising round. 

In its own words, NextUp seeks to right these wrongs by offering fans an easy way to access a broader range of standup comedy, while offering comedians a financial incentive to share their work online and reach a larger audience. 

The firm charges subscribers either a monthly or annual fee, the proceeds from which are then split down the middle. Half goes to NextUp, while the other half is divided up among acts on its platform, based on the number of views they have received. 

Berg, who has previously won a BAFTA for his writing work on Cartoon Network series The Amazing World of Gumball, said he thought of NextUp as a "digital comedy club". 

"The annual fees are obviously a more reliable revenue stream for us, so we want to make it feel like a society that you would be happy to pay once-a-year for," he said. 

"We try to give our customers as many benefits as we can, so discounts to live comedy gigs, 'fireside chats', that kind of thing... There's also a voting tool on the site so they can tell us what acts they'd like us to try and get on the platform." 

The team hopes they can tap into the demonstrable demand for standup specials online. (Netflix reportedly paid Dave Chappelle $60 million for three sets.)

"Just think, we've got the Edinburgh Festival just up the road, the biggest arts festival in Europe," Berg said.

"Every year, hundreds of comedians descend on this little town, win dozens of awards, and then their sets are never to be seen again. 

"In terms of taking a national cultural event and documenting it for everyone to see, we'd love to do for Edinburgh what the BBC has done Glastonbury." 

Original author: Martin Coulter

A University of Southern California study has found that vapers exhibit similar chemical modifications to people who smoke cigarettes – modifications commonly found in nearly all types of human cancer.In an email sent to BI, the study's lead researcher, Ahmad Besaratinia, said the study "demonstrates, for the first time, biologically important molecular changes in blood cells of vapers, similarly to smokers."Experts told BI that research into the physiological effects of vaping is often hindered by the fact that many vapers have a history of smoking.Though the USC study seems to have avoided this hindrance, the fact many vapers are ex-smokers may make research into vaping's physiological impact challenging.6.1% of British vapers in the period January 2019 to September 2019 had never smoked, according to UK government research, while a 2018 study found that 15% of US adult vapers had never smoked.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A University of Southern California study published in February found vapers exhibit similar DNA changes to people who smoke cigarettes – modifications commonly found in nearly all types of cancer.

The study examined the blood of a group of people, controlled for age, gender, and race, who were split equally into three categories. These were people who only vape; people who only smoke; and a control group of people who neither vape nor smoke.

The study also said the specific chemical alterations found – known as "epigenetic changes" – can cause genes to malfunction, and are commonly found in nearly all types of human cancer.

In an email sent to Business Insider, the study's lead researcher, Ahmad Besaratinia, said the research "demonstrates, for the first time, biologically important molecular changes in blood cells of vapers, similarly to smokers."

If the study's findings are corroborated elsewhere, it could seriously damage a vaping industry already facing severe criticism and regulatory action.

But experts told Business Insider that widespread corroboration of the study's findings may prove tricky for one simple reason. This is the fact many vapers are ex-smokers.

The USC study doesn't appear to be hampered in this way. Berasantinia said most vapers in the study were never smokers, and the few who had a brief history of smoking had their last cigarette, on average, 3.5 years prior to participating in the study. But the experts said vaping research is often held back by many vapers' history of traditional smoking.

As such, it's often hard to prove health issues found in vapers are actually caused by their vaping.

Barnaby Page, an analyst at vaping-focused market research firm ECigIntelligence, said: "The majority of vapers are ex-smokers, smoking can induce changes in DNA methylation that last long after the person has quit smoking. This is a pretty common problem in research on vaping."

Page's point was reiterated by Alan Boobis, an emeritus professor of toxicology at Imperial College London, who said it's "almost always an uncertainty in studies in vapers, that the effects were caused by their history of smoking."

"There is good evidence to show that vapers tend to be more dependent – i.e., smoke more heavily, which is the reason why they have not stopped smoking without support," added Lion Shahab, an associate professor in health psychology at UCL.

These claims seem borne out by the stats. Just 6.1% of British vapers in the period January 2019 to September 2019 had never smoked, according to UK government research, while a 2018 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine academic journal found that just 15% of US adult vapers had never smoked.

Yet – where vaping was once viewed as a fairly benign alternative to smoking – this issue with much vaping research hasn't held back regulators from taking stringent anti-vaping measures.

Major e-cigarette maker Juul and its vaping industry peers must submit applications to the FDA by May 12 that make the case for their to stay on the market.

It's a seminal moment for both the FDA and e-cigarette companies, especially Juul, which values itself at $20 billion but has an official valuation of more like $12 billion.

In 2017, the FDA launched an undercover crackdown on Juul sales to minors, which it said was the "largest coordinated enforcement effort" in agency history. As part of these efforts, it issued more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers for illegally selling Juuls and other e-cigarette products to minors.

Original author: Charlie Wood

Apple and Netflix have become the latest big-name tech companies to pull out of this year's SXSW event in Austin, Texas.They join the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Twitter, who have all dropped out of the annual tech and media hoop-la this week.On Wednesday, Austin public health officials insisted that canceling event – which is scheduled to take place from March 13 to March 22 – wouldn't be necessary.If SXSW is canceled, it would join Mobile World Congress and Google's I/O developer conference among the major annual tech events axed because of coronavirus worries.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple and Netflix have reportedly become the latest big-name tech companies to pull out of this year's SXSW because of coronavirus concerns.

According to Bloomberg, Apple said Wednesday it wouldn't be attending SXSW, while a Netflix representative also told the publication it'd be pulling out of the event.

Apple had been scheduled to premiere new content for its Apple TV Plus streaming service at the event in Austin, Texas. This included the original documentary, "Beastie Boys Story" and the animated musical series "Central Park."

Meanwhile, Netflix was set to screen films iincluding "L.A. Originals" and run a panel with Kenya Barris and Rashida Jones on their upcoming sitcom series "Black Excellence."

The duo joins the likes of Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter, who have all dropped out of SXSW in the past week.

In February, SXSW organizers said the event would go ahead despite "a handful" of cancellations, but the spate of big names to since withdraw has cast doubt on that claim.

At a press conference Wednesday, Austin public health officials insisted that canceling the event – which is scheduled to take place from March 13 to March 22 – wouldn't be necessary, and it would still go ahead.

SXSW – short for 'South by Southwest' – is an annual conglomeration of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences.

If it is canceled, it would join Mobile World Congress and Google's I/O developer conference among the major annual tech events axed because of coronavirus worries.

Business Insider has approached Apple, Netflix and SXSW for comment.

Original author: Charlie Wood

New research shows Chinese companies offering surveillance technologies— including two firms on a US trade blacklist — will exhibit at a major US security trade fair later this month.Hikvision and Dahua were placed on the entity list by the Department of Commerce in 2019 because of their involvement in the persecution of the Uighur people in Xinjiang.Also attending the fair will be two companies with close ties to Huawei. Huawei has been blacklisted by the US since May 2019 over worries about alleged ties to China's government.The number of Chinese companies exhibiting would have been much higher had it not been for the novel coronavirus outbreak, which forced numerous planned exhibitors to pull out of the conference.Researcher Sam Woodhams says the companies' presence at the trade fair suggests recent US efforts to sanction Chinese tech firms have fallen short.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Chinese surveillance companies blacklisted by the US are openly touting their technologies to the American and international market, despite criticism for human rights abuses and alleged snooping.

A new report from security researcher Samuel Woodhams at Top10VPN reveals that several Chinese companies, including two currently on the US Department of Commerce's official trade blacklist and two more with close links to Huawei, are due to exhibit at a major US trade show later in March.

American companies are forbidden from doing business with blacklisted companies unless they have a special license from the government. 

The International Security Conference & Exposition (ISC) West is due to take place on March 17 to 20 in Las Vegas and claims to be hosting over 1,000 exhibitors and brands.

Hikvision and Dahua have been implicated in Uighur oppression in China

Exhibiting at the event are the American subsidiaries of Hikvision and Dahua. The two firms are Chinese video surveillance giants which were placed on the Department of Commerce's entity list in 2019 for alleged involvement in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China. The Chinese government has pursued a campaign of imprisonment and persecution against the predominantly Muslim Uighur minority.

Woodhams' research found that not only is Dahua scheduled to appear at the trade fair, it has hired the biggest stands available. According to a press release on ISC's website, Dahua will be touting a "Wi-Fi enabled video doorbell, floodlight camera, and mini camera."

Hikvision meanwhile will be selling a camera with "thermal imaging-based fire detection, temperature monitoring, [and] cigarette smoking detection."

China's persecution of the Uighurs has led to protests like this one from November 2018 in Turkey. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

The companies' presence at ISC raises questions about how effective the US ban really is, and how it applies to US subsidiaries of Chinese companies.

Woodhams told Business Insider: "That several companies with problematic human rights records will be free to promote their invasive technologies to US security professionals raises significant concerns about creeping surveillance across the US and attests to the lack of human rights safeguards in the security industry more broadly.

"Further, the number of Chinese companies and their American subsidiaries that continue to feature in US security trade fairs suggests that recent efforts to decouple the American and Chinese technology sectors have had limited success."

In the case of Dahua, the company seemed to revel in the Commerce Department's sanction. Per video surveillance researchers IPVM, Dahua's VP Zhu Jiangming told the press in the week following the blacklisting: "The fact that we are under the US control list shows that we indeed have a strong technological capability."

Neither Dahua nor Hikvision responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Industry and Security (the sub-section of the Commerce Department that deals with the entity list) told Business Insider that participants at a trade conference would have to comply with the export restrictions imposed on companies on the list.

The spokesman didn't give further clarification, but this suggests blacklisted companies are free to advertise their wares in the US as long as they don't strike deals with American businesses without the proper approvals.

A Hikvision surveillance camera is seen on the Drum Tower in downtown Beijing. Reuters

Anthropology researcher and Uighur expert Darren Byler told Business Insider Dahua and Hikvision played a pivotal role in China's crackdown on the country's minority Uighur population.

Both were paid hundreds of millions of dollars by China to build video surveillance systems, he said — Hikvision has been awarded at least $293 million in government contracts, while Dahua has received over $900 million.

"Hikvision and Dahua are two of the key technology firms responsible for the surveillance systems that have been built in Xinjiang," he said. "These systems produce a web of face and voice recognition-enabled surveillance cameras, face-recognition checkpoints at jurisdictional boundaries, license plate recognition technologies, command centers, data storage centers, data interface platforms, portable data assessment tools, and rapid response capacity building."

Two firms with close connections to Huawei are exhibiting

Also present at the event will be two companies with close ties to phone and equipment maker Huawei, the most high-profile Chinese company to be placed on the entity list by the Trump administration.

The US and Huawei have been engaged in a fierce political dogfight for more than a year, and the Trump administration has been heavily lobbying allies to freeze out Huawei's 5G equipment from national networks on the grounds the company spies for the Chinese government. Huawei has consistently denied the allegations.

Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

The first of the Huawei-linked companies is wireless tech company Quectel. Quectel has been an official partner of Huawei's since at least 2017, but more recently in February 2020 the two companies announced a partnership along with several other companies to "launch 5G industrial modules."

The second is SIP telecoms company Fanvil Technology, which announced a partnership to give its products "full interoperability" with Huawei services in 2014.

The list of Huawei-linked companies would have been higher, Woodhams reports, but the majority of Chinese companies originally slated to appear at ISC pulled out due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Neither Quectel nor Fanvil responded to requests for comment from Business Insider. The conference organizer, Reed Exhibitions, was not immediately available for comment.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

As coronavirus cases continue to rise around the world, experts predict that the economic impact of the disease — in the best-case scenario — may lead to $2.4 trillion loss of global GDP. 

The coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed nearly 3,300 people and infected more than 95,000. The virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 81 other countries.

Over 150 cases have been reported in the US, including 11 deaths across two states. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak an international public health emergency and warned that the window of opportunity to contain it is narrowing.

On Tuesday, WHO said the global death rate for the novel coronavirus based on the latest figures is 3.4% — higher than earlier figures of about 2%. The World Health Organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the new coronavirus "is a unique virus with unique characteristics."

While much is still unknown about the virus, a group of Australian experts have estimated that the virus may have severe consequences on the global GDP. 

Australian researchers have mapped out the potential economic impact of the virus 

South Korean soldiers in protective gear sanitize, a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea, March 4, 2020. Reuters

New modeling from The Australian National University (ANU) looks at seven scenarios of how the current outbreak may impact the world's wealth, ranging from low-severity to high-severity. 

Four of the seven scenarios in the paper examine the impact of Covid-19 spreading to other countries outside of China, ranging from low to high severity. A seventh scenario examines a global impact where a mild pandemic occurs each year indefinitely.  

But even in the low-severity model — or best-case scenario — ANU researchers estimate a global GDP loss of $2.4 trillion, with an estimated death toll of 15 million. They modeled their estimates on the Hong Kong flu pandemic, an outbreak in 1968-1969 that is estimated to have killed about one million people. 

In the high-severity model — modeled after the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 17 to 50 million globally from 1918 to 1920  — the global GDP loss could be as high as $9 trillion. In that model, the death toll is estimated to hit over 68 million. 

"Our scenarios show that even a contained outbreak could significantly impact the global economy in the short run," said Professor Warwick McKibbin, a professor of economics at ANU and one of the paper's authors. 

"Even in the best-case scenario of a low-severity impact, the economic fallout is going to be enormous and countries need to work together to limit the potential damage as much as possible," he added. 

The research aims to help policymakers best to respond to the economic impact of COVID-19 as the disease continues to spread. 

"There needs to be vastly more investment in public health and development, especially in the poorest countries," McKibbin said. "It is too late to attempt to close borders once the disease has taken hold in many other countries and a global pandemic has started."

The death toll is still evolving 

Medical staff with protective clothing work inside a ward specialised in receiving any person who may have been infected with coronavirus, at the Rajiv Ghandhi Government General hospital in Chennai, India, January 29, 2020. P. Ravikumar/Reuters

A patient's risk of dying from COVID-19 varies based on several factors, including where they are treated, their age, and any preexisting health conditions.

A study conducted last month from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the virus most seriously affected older people with preexisting health problems. The data suggests a person's chances of dying from the disease increase with age.

Notably, the research showed that patients ages 10 to 19 had the same chance of dying from COVID-19 as patients in their 20s and 30s, but the disease appeared to be much more fatal in people ages 50 and over. 

About 80% of COVID-19 cases are mild, the research showed, and experts think many mild cases haven't been reported because some people aren't going to the doctor or hospitals for treatment. 

Aria Bendix contributed reporting. 

Original author: Rosie Perper

Tesla Model 3 owners in China are angry after finding out the company quietly downgraded the chip inside their cars' computer to an older generation of hardware, Nikkei Asian Review reports.The discovery was made after some customers noticed a mismatch between the part number printed on a sticker inside the car and the Model 3's information sheet.Tesla apologized for the confusion and said supply chain problems caused by the coronavirus meant it was shipping units with the old chip.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla owners in China noticed a surreptitious change to their Model 3 vehicles last week.

The electric carmaker quietly started selling Model 3s with an old version of its control chips due to supply chain problems caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Nikkei Asian Review reports.

Tesla didn't alert new buyers to the chip downgrade, and it only came to light after owners spotted the part number printed on stickers attached to the control unit inside the car didn't match up with the Model 3's information sheet. The new chip is meant to be 21 times faster than the old one, according to a Tesla WeChat post unearthed by Nikkei.

"We are deeply sorry for the confusion we have caused to some Tesla owners," the company said in a statement on Chinese social media platform Weibo. It said it hadn't meant to mislead customers, and that the chip swap made "almost no difference" to driver experience or safety. Tesla also said it would provide free hardware upgrades to customers once production picks back up.

Tesla was forced to temporarily shut down its new Shanghai factory on January 29 for ten days.

After the Nikkei article went live, Elon Musk tweeted saying the customers who had complained hadn't ordered Full Self-Driving (FSD). "Perhaps they weren't aware that the computer is upgraded for free if the FSD option is ordered even after delivery," he added.

Tesla's FSD feature generally adds $8,000 to the cost of a Model 3. As Nikkei noted, this statement seems to contradict Tesla's statement that it will upgrade the chip for any customers affected for free — not just the ones who have ordered their cars with FSD. Business Insider has asked Tesla for clarification.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton