Two ads have sparked controversial headlines this month: Peloton's holiday campaign and a same-sex marriage ad from wedding brand Zola that was pulled and then reinstated by the Hallmark Channel.Both ads were created by Mekanism, an independent agency based in San Francisco.Mekanism started in 2000 as a spinoff of a production company launched by director Tommy Means. It later made its name creating viral videos and social media campaigns and has aggressively sought industry awards in recent years.Mekanism said it makes $40 million to $50 million in annual revenue, has recorded average growth rates of around 20% in recent years, and employs about 175 people across four US offices.A spokesperson said the agency has responded to the scrutiny by "moving forward."Click here for more BI Prime stories.

It's rare to see two completely unrelated ad campaigns — much less two efforts by the same agency — stir up contentious debate on social media in a month.

Mekanism, a San Francisco agency, was behind both ads: Peloton's widely-mocked holiday campaign and an ad for wedding website Zola featuring a same-sex couple that the Hallmark Channel stopped airing due to pressure from a conservative activist group, then reversed its decision after criticism from celebrities and politicians.

Mekanism wouldn't comment on the ads. Peloton told Business Insider that Mekanism remains its primary agency. A Zola spokesperson said, "We had nothing but a wonderful collaboration with Mekanism and look forward to continuing to work with them."

A tiny production company matures into a bigger industry player

Though its clients include Ben & Jerry's, Under Armour, and MillerCoors, Mekanism isn't a traditional big-name ad agency. Asked how Mekanism has responded to the unexpected attention, the spokesperson said, "We keep moving forward."

A source at the agency said Mekanism prohibited staff from talking to the press amid the intense media scrutiny of recent weeks.

At least one employee recently found humor in the situation.

 

Tommy Means founded Mekanism out of Complete Pandemonium, a production company he launched in the late 1990s. Years before the iPhone and the rise of digital, Means saw the industry's future online.

Creative and production had been separate disciplines, but in recent years, more creative agencies have begun launching their own production divisions to grow their revenue, as production can be more lucrative. 

Mekanism built a reputation on social and viral videos

Mekanism started as a production company executing social media and web-heavy campaigns developed by other agencies like McCann, BBH, and Venables Bell & Partners. As its growth sped up, it began to work more directly with clients including Frito-Lay, PepsiCo, Nike, MillerCoors and, eventually, Peloton and Zola.

In many ways, Mekanism was an earlier version of VaynerMedia. Both companies focused on social media and influencer marketing and positioned themselves as digitally focused independents battling the big holding companies. Mekanism, however, lacks the sometimes-polarizing personality of chief hype man Gary Vaynerchuk.

Mekanism made its name via some of the web's earliest sponsored viral videos, most prominently a 2005 series called "The True Adventures of Chad" that promoted Sega's Super Monkey Ball Deluxe title via the story of a gaming fanatic who lives in a literal bubble. The campaign won awards at several industry events, including Cannes Lions and The One Show.

The agency expanded to New York, Chicago, and Seattle, and launching a media-buying practice in 2018. The spokesperson said Mekanism is "fully committed to the independent agency model."

Mekanism looks to score top awards while staying independent

Mekanism's spokesperson said it has grown an average of around 20% over the past five years, and that its revenues this year will be $40 million to $50 million. It employs about 175 people.

Though Mekanism's profile is not as high as that of other independent agencies like Wieden and Kennedy, it has more aggressively sought industry plaudits in recent years. For example, "The New Normal," an ad for cannabis distributor MedMen helmed by film and music video director Spike Jonze, recently won gold at the Clio Awards and ranked among Adweek's top 25 ads of 2019.

The agency hasn't discussed its relationship with Peloton, but has been more forthcoming on Zola.

This week, Mekanism's Twitter account shared a client tweet calling all marriages "equal celebrations of love," and CEO Jason Harris posted a related message on his Instagram account, writing, "Our little ad made big waves."

Original author: Patrick Coffee

New filings from Netflix show why the global streaming giant could soon face a difficult decision about whether to look for other revenue streams on top of selling subscriptions.Netflix generates the most revenue per average monthly paying subscriber — about $13 — in the US and Canada, where it is most established and growth is slowing.It makes significantly less per user in regions like Asia-Pacific, which is viewed as a major opportunity for future growth.Some Wall Street firms, including Needham, have said Netflix should introduce a cheaper tier in the US that's supported by advertising to continue growing this lucrative subscriber base and offset the lower revenue per user in other regions. Needham downgraded Netflix last week because the company has repeatedly said it would not sell ads.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Netflix may not want to sell advertising, but a new filing shows why the global streaming giant could soon face a difficult decision about whether to look for other revenue streams on top of selling subscriptions.

The company generates the most revenue per average paying subscriber in the US and Canada, where it is most established and growth is slowing, Netflix said in a filing on Monday. Its average monthly revenue per paying streaming membership is $13.08 in the region.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

But Netflix grew the most this year in regions like Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, where it makes $9.29 and $10.40 per average monthly paying subscriber, respectively:

US and Canada: 67,114 paid subscribers as of September 30, up 7% from a year earlierEurope, the Middle East, and Africa: 47,355 paid subscribers, up 40%Latin America: 29,380 paid subscribers, up 22%Asia-Pacific: 14,485 paid subscribers, up 53%

In one region, Asia-Pacific, Netflix's average monthly revenue per paying streaming membership was flat from last year. In 2019, the company introduced mobile-only plans in markets like India and Malaysia that cost less than its basic tier, which could be why its revenue per customer didn't grow. It also experimented in India with three-, six-, and 12-month subscriptions that offer discounts, Reuters reported.

With most of Netflix's future growth expected to come from outside the US and Canada, the company may need to figure out how to make more off the members in those regions — or offset the lower revenue those users bring in with more subscribers in the US and Canada — to keep spending $15 billion per year on content.

Netflix is facing more competition in the US from new platforms like Disney Plus and soon-to-launch services like HBO Max, which may make it harder to sign up subscribers in 2020 and beyond.

Some analysts have said advertising could be the answer. Needham analysts projected that Netflix would risk more churn, or cancellations, in the US in 2020 if it didn't introduce an ad-supported tier that costs between $5 to $7 per month, in line with what competitors like Disney Plus and CBS All Access charge.

Needham downgraded Netflix last week because the company has consistently said it would not introduce advertising. The Wall Street firm's view is that Netflix needs advertising to offset the cost of a cheaper plan, in part because it's burning though cash and taking on debt to fund its original programming. 

"Since NFLX's balance sheet cannot withstand larger cash losses (our view), we think that a new $5 to $7/month pricing tier, subsidized with ads, is the best answer for Netflix," Needham analysts wrote in a December 10 note.

The note said the lower price point could persuade users who are borrowing passwords to pay for Netflix directly, make the platform more affordable for lower-income customers, help convert people to Netflix's standard $13 per month plan that allows users to stream from two devices at a time, and give Netflix the option to raise prices by increasing ad loads instead of raising subscription fees.

Analysts at Nomura's Instinet also estimated that Netflix could bring in more than $1 billion in revenue from advertising in 2021 if it were to introduce an ad-supported tier akin to Spotify's free offering by 2020. 

There are other revenue streams Netflix could consider if it didn't want to introduce overt advertising on its platform, which it said goes against its brand ethos of commercial-free viewing.
 
Netflix's work with brands on product placement, integrations, consumer products, and other tie-ins to its flagship properties, like "Stranger Things," could become new sources of revenue. The company said it was not trying to make money off of these deals, but some analysts think that could change over time.

"There's a lot of money in that area that they could easily tap without going into straight, traditional types of advertising," Jim Nail of Forrester previously told Business Insider. "With product placement, I'm expecting that to become a significant part of their business."

Original author: Ashley Rodriguez

Analysts at Cowen called Amazon one of its "best ideas for 2020," in a note published on Tuesday.They are predicting Amazon's stock to jump 36% next year, a huge bounce back from this year's roughly 18% increase, which would be the smallest gain since 2016.The report underscores how Wall Street analysts remain bullish on Amazon despite concerns of the company's slowing growth and deepening spend.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Amazon's stock has seen relatively modest growth this year, but analysts at the financial services firm Cowen remain upbeat about its performance next year.

In a report published Tuesday, Cowen analysts called Amazon one of the investing firm's "best ideas for 2020," predicting a 36% gain in stock price for the full year. That would be a huge bounce back for Amazon, whose shares have appreciated just about 18% this year — the smallest gain since 2016 and below the 27% jump in the broader S&P 500.

"We expect strong continued revenue growth in 2020 coupled with margin expansion," Cowen analyst John Blackledge wrote.

The report shows Wall Street analysts' continuing faith in Amazon despite concerns of the company's slowing growth and deepening spend. Out of the 49 analysts that have a rating on Amazon, 47 recommend buying its stock, with no one giving it a "sell" rating, according to FactSet. In its most recent quarter, Amazon's stock dropped as much as 9% after giving dismal revenue guidance for the holiday shopping season and shrinking profitability that fell below street estimates.

Here's why Cowen is bullish on Amazon's stock:

Strong revenue growth: Cowen expects Amazon's revenue to show strong growth in 2020, led by its e-commerce, advertising, and AWS cloud segments. Amazon's online retail revenue is reaccelerating, while advertising and AWS sales continue to show robust growth (although slower than in previous years).Undervalued stock: Cowen believes Amazon's stock is undervalued, based on its enterprise value multiple. The 14.5X multiple is on the lower side of the past 5 years' range, meaning there's more upside potential.Further Prime growth: Cowen says Amazon's Prime membership is an "under appreciated" part of its business. Amazon currently has at least 69 million Prime households in the US, which is a 13% increase from the year-ago period and a much larger growth rate than the year before, according to Cowen's data. It also marks the third straight quarter of member acceleration, correlating with the launch of one-day delivery earlier this year, it said.Advertising business: Cowen estimates Amazon's advertising revenue to total $17.6 billion in 2020, up 36% year-over-year, and to reach $46.6 billion by 2025. Advertising, alongside the AWS cloud unit, is hugely profitable, and Cowen expects the two segments to account for over 90% of Amazon's total operating income in 2020.Slowing spend: Cowen expects Amazon's investments in one-day delivery and AWS cloud to slow next year, resulting in bigger margins for the company. Amazon said it's on pace to spend over $3 billion in faster delivery this year, but that should ease by the second quarter of next year, Cowen predicted. Also, AWS will likely slow its spend in sales and marketing next year, it said.Risks: There are still risk factors. Cowen pointed to AWS's revenue slowdown, which dipped below 40% growth rate for two straight quarters, and higher investment spend than expected as two main risks. Also, there's the regulatory risk around antitrust and Amazon's various business practices, it said.

Original author: Eugene Kim

Voice typing has been around in some form or another since the late 1990s. But for many years, it was rudimentary at best, getting words and sounds wrong all the time.

Today, of course, that same voice recognition technology has massively improved, and is used in our lives every day. Assistants like Siri and Alexa use it to answer our questions, control our devices, and even send text messages for us.

Yet, many people don't seem to realize how useful voice-to-text can be for writing. 

Google Docs' voice typing tool can be an immensely useful feature, great for outlining, taking notes, jotting down ideas, and more.

Here's how to turn on voice typing and use it in Google Docs.

How to use your voice to type in Google Docs

1. Open Google Docs on your computer. Make sure that you have a microphone either built into the computer or attached and enabled.

2. In the toolbar at the top-left of the page, under the title of your document, click "Tools."

3. In the drop down menu, click "Voice Typing."

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+S on a PC or Command+Shift+S on a Mac to access this feature.

Original author: Melanie Weir

Many apps will use your personal data — including your phone contacts or location — to help improve your experience using the app itself. 

Facebook is no exception to this, and uses your information to influence ads, tags in posts, and more. However, it's perfectly reasonable to not want Facebook or other apps to use your information in such a way — especially your location. 

Here's how to disable location sharing with Facebook on an Android device. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $899.99 at Best Buy)

How to turn off your location on Facebook for Android

1. Open the Facebook app on your Android device and sign in if prompted.

2. Tap on the button that resembles three horizontal lines, located on the top left of the screen, to open the navigation menu.

3. Tap on "Settings & Privacy." A drop-down menu will appear. Tap "Settings" on the drop-down menu.

Click on Settings & Privacy, and then Settings. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

4. In the Settings menu, scroll until you find the sub header "Location" and tap it.

5. Tap "Location Access."

6. On the next screen, there will be two main points of interest: "Location Services" and "Background Location." If you just want to turn off your Background Location, but not all of your Location Services, simply tap the blue slider next to "Background Location" so that it turns white and gray.

Turn off either or both location sharing options. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

7. If you want to turn off your location for all of Facebook's app settings, tap on "Location Services" to open Facebook's app info screen.

8. Scroll down until you find "Permissions," then tap it.

9. Tap the green slider next to "Location" so that it turns white and gray.

Slide the Location option so it is no longer green. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

Your location should now be fully disabled for your Facebook account.

 

Original author: Chrissy Montelli

It's easy to accidentally close a tab in Safari on your Mac. 

But fear not: You can also reopen your closed tabs very easily in Safari. 

Here are two ways you can do this.

Check out the products mentioned in this article: 

MacBook Pro (From $1,299.99 at Best Buy)

How to reopen a closed tab on a Mac in Safari using keyboard shortcuts

You can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + T to reopen your last closed tab. This works no matter what you have open in your browser.

You can also reopen a closed tab with the keyboard shortcut Command + Z. This makes the last closed tab reappear in the same spot where it last was among your open tabs. 

A caveat about Command + Z, however: This can also undo your last action in a document or spreadsheet. If you use this command while you're in a Google doc, for instance, it will undo the last edit you made and not reopen a tab in your browser. Click into a regular web page before you use the Command + Z option. If you mistakenly click on Command + Z in a doc, Command + Y will redo your last edit.

How to reopen a closed tab on a Mac in Safari using menu options

Some people prefer menu navigation over keyboard shortcuts. It's easy to access the command to reopen the last tab from the Safari menu.

1. For this example, we started with two tabs open.

2. After closing one tab, click on History in the Safari menu at the top of your screen (not the top of the browser window).

Original author: Laura McCamy

Original author: Ben Gilbert

Snapchat is a popular app that allows you to share pictures and short video clips with friends. Because it's designed to be used often like any other social media app, it keeps you logged in, even when the app is closed.

That said, it's easy to log out of Snapchat. This includes the actual iPhone and Android app, as well as the desktop website that lets you download your snapcode, purchase geofilters, and change your password.

Logging out of one device doesn't log you out of the other.

Here's how to log out of Snapchat, both on your phone and on the computer.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $899.99 at Best Buy)

How to log out of Snapchat using the mobile app

1. Open the Snapchat app on your iPhone or Android phone.

2. Tap the icon in the top-left corner. If you've recently posted a story, it will be an image of what's on your story. If you have a Bitmoji connected, it'll be your Bitmoji. If you don't have either of those, it'll just be a generic icon of a person.

Open your profile page. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

3. Tap the Settings icon in the top-right corner. It looks like a gear.

Open your Settings menu. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

4. In the Settings list, scroll all the way down to the bottom and tap "Log Out."

"Log Out" will be the last option. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

5. A dialog box will pop up asking if you're sure you want to log out. Tap the "Log Out" button.

How to log out of Snapchat on your computer

1. On the Account Management homepage of Snapchat's desktop site, click on the three bars in the top-right corner of the screen.

Original author: Melanie Weir

3D printing has the ability to turn the manufacturing and healthcare worlds on their heads.Companies pioneering 3D printing in medicine say that it saves significant time and money compared to traditional ways of making life-changing devices.For example, Colorado-based Toughware Prosthetics, which has been creating affordable and accessible prosthetics for amputees for almost two decades, partnered with 3D-printing company Markforged to speed up the process for building prosthetics and decreased costs significantly.Minneapolis-headquartered Protolabs also recently partnered with MedStar Health to develop a 3D-printed gravity feed syringe holder that can alleviate some of the work of nurses.This article is part of our ongoing series on Better Capitalism.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Proponents of 3D printing say that it's a game changer. The technology has revolutionized industries as diverse as toy makers, tool manufacturers, and even food producers. Now, its latest frontier could likely be healthcare.

In contrast to traditional 'subtractive manufacturing' techniques — where an object is made by removing parts from a piece of raw material (think carving a wooden object or forging metal by pouring it into a mold) — 3D printing consists of manufacturers incrementally adding material layer by layer.   

Here's how two companies are leveraging this process to substantially improve upon current healthcare methods.  

Bradley Veatch, the president and CEO of Colorado-based Toughware Prosthetics, has been creating affordable and accessible prosthetics for amputees for almost two decades. While technology enabled him to engineer high-functioning prosthetics, he ran into the same problem over and over again. "I had this device that was so expensive that there were probably 10 people in the United States that could afford the thing," Veatch said.

Wearing Toughware Prosthetics' 3D-printed devices. Markforged

According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization and World Bank, more than one billion people — that's 15% of the world's population — experience some form of disability, with one-fifth experiencing significant disabilities. Veatch's experiences taught him that this population needs more durable and accessible options. He moved into creating prosthetics for people in developing countries who rely heavily on physical activity in their daily lives.

Since 2017, Veatch has partnered with Massachusetts firm Markforged, which makes metal and carbon fibre 3D printers. He bought his first 3D printer to overcome the issue of individually manufacturing complex parts, which would often take up to six weeks. 

"I'm actually able to get a lot more done in a much more concentrated timeframe. I can produce an engineering design print and then begin running tests, sometimes even the same day. I can print what I need, when I need it, and continue with my iterative design process," he said.

3D printing keeps costs down for Toughware. One prototype bracket — part of the initial design for a piece which holds two objects together — was going to cost Veatch $65 to be machined out of aluminum, but cost only a few dollars when printed using his carbon fiber 3D printer.

"It was strong and just what I was looking for in the application — and it only took five hours to print," he explained.

In July of 2019, Minneapolis-headquartered Protolabs started partnering with neonatal intensive care unit nurses and biomedical engineers at MedStar Health to develop a 3D-printed gravity feed syringe holder to use at each incubator station caring for a premature baby.

Blueprint for Protolabs' syringe holder for MedStar Health. Protolabs

"Depending on the number of newborns, and how often they feed, nurses can spend hours each day holding a syringe above an incubator while milk or liquid formula drains into the baby via a stomach tube," said Protolabs' spokesperson Rachel Hunt.

After speaking with the experts who care for neonatal babies every day, the Protolabs team offered 3D-printing guidance. From there, the biomedical engineers were able to quickly vet and test their ideas within days, allowing them to quickly pivot or expand on solutions. 

The final product. Protolabs

For this project, the end result was a compact device that can hold four different sizes of syringes. Each syringe holder was rapidly manufactured and returned to the hospital within the week. In terms of medical design, Hunt said that this is only the beginning.  

"Designers needing answers they can only get by having parts in hand can have them within a day. From a clinical standpoint, patient specific, customized devices benefit from the low volume production and complex geometries that 3D printing is able to manufacture," she added.

As for the future, Protolabs is looking to pioneer readily accessible lightweight parts for aerospace, complex geometries for patient-specific medical devices, and automotive parts printed as one assembly.

The 3D-printed device in action. Protolabs

There have been concerns that 3D printing could be used by bad actors, such as a person printing their own gun to get around licensing restrictions. But this generation of emerging tech companies is aiming to show that 3D printing is a force that can be used for good in solving some of society's greatest challenges — particularly when it comes to the care of our most vulnerable.

Original author: Elle Hardy

The PlayStation 4 is not only a gaming console, but it also offers a social feature allowing you to communicate with your online friends through text chat. 

While a controller is not as convenient to use when texting like a touchscreen or even a keyboard, Sony has programmed the DualShock 4 controller to function somewhat like a mouse and keyboard or touchscreen, allowing users to copy and paste their text into a text box. 

You can also connect a keyboard and mouse to your PS4 to help you type more smoothly. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

PlayStation 4 (From $299.99 at Best Buy)

DualShock 4 Wireless Controller (From $64.99 at Best Buy)

HORI Programmable KeyPad and Mouse Controller (From $136.54 at Amazon)

How to copy and paste on a PS4

1. Boot up your PS4 gaming console. 

2. Open up something on the console that uses text, then place the cursor at the start of the text you want to copy, and then press the Options button (...) on the text box under the Space bar.

Original author: Taylor Lyles

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Original author: Lisa Eadicicco

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Original author: Business Insider

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Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

Twitter decided to outright ban political ads. 

"This isn't about free expression," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said on Twitter, where he announced the ad policy change. "This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today's democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It's worth stepping back in order to address."

Some politicians praised the move, including former Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — but President Trump's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, asserted that the move was, "yet another attempt to silence conservatives."

If Facebook were to ban political ads, it would run into another issue — one that Twitter is almost certain to face: deciding what is and isn't "political" speech.

Zuckerberg highlighted as much during his speech at Georgetown.

"Even if we wanted to ban political ads, it's not clear where we'd draw the line," he said. "There are many more ads about issues than there are directly about elections. Would we ban all ads about healthcare or immigration or women's empowerment? If we banned candidates' ads but not these, would that really make sense to give everyone else a voice in political debates except the candidates themselves?"

It's a reasonable point — if Facebook were to ban "political" ads, it would have to spend a lot of time defining what is and isn't political speech. And then it would come under fire for policing free speech.

"There are issues any way you cut this," Zuckerberg said, "and when it's not absolutely clear what to do, I believe we should err on the side of greater expression."

Original author: Ben Gilbert

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Original author: Travis Clark

Nuro is developing autonomous delivery vehicles and the software that powers them.The company's goal is to one day make deliveries free for consumers by removing human drivers from the equation.Lower costs would mean the company could fund operations exclusively through fees charged to sellers, Nuro cofounder and president Dave Ferguson said in an interview with Business Insider.The company has so far delivered groceries and pizzas to customers of Kroger and Domino's in limited trials, and will partner with Walmart for grocery deliveries.Ferguson envisions Nuro's delivery service expanding beyond food into areas like peer-to-peer transactions, similar to those conducted on Craigslist.Sign up for Business Insider's transportation newsletter, Shifting Gears, to get more stories like this in your inbox.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As computer-driven cars that can travel anywhere seem more like science-fiction than a near-term reality, autonomous-driving technology may have the most immediate impact in applications that don't involve giving people rides, like freight transport, and, in the case of the startup Nuro, deliveries.

Founded in 2016 by two former employees of Alphabet's self-driving car program (now called Waymo), Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, Nuro is developing autonomous delivery vehicles and the software that powers them. Nuro has so far delivered groceries and pizzas to customers of Kroger and Domino's in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Houston, respectively.

On Tuesday, the company announced it will partner with Walmart for grocery deliveries in Houston as well.

Nuro's goal is to one day make deliveries free for consumers by removing human drivers from the equation. Lower costs would mean the company could fund operations exclusively through fees charged to sellers, Ferguson said in an interview with Business Insider.

SoftBank has invested almost $1 billion in Nuro

The delivery market represents an enormous opportunity for companies that can survive, or avoid, the low-margin, incentive-heavy battles being waged by the likes of Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. Ferguson has cited two statistics that illustrate the scope of this opportunity: Americans take 220 billion personal vehicle trips each year, over 40% of which involve shopping or running errands.

"It's an unbelievable amount of time and effort that we're spending in our cars driving around to go shopping," he said. "We think we can just do a much, much better job with a service that could do that for you."

At least one major investor appears to agree. Nuro has raised just over $1 billion so far, according to Pitchbook, $940 million of which came from SoftBank, which has also invested in rivals like DoorDash and Uber.

Nuro faces fewer technological challenges than Waymo or Tesla

Part of Nuro's potential lies in the fact that it will not have to master some of the thornier challenges faced by the developers of autonomous vehicles designed to carry passengers. Those companies, like Waymo, Tesla, and the General Motors-backed company, Cruise, have to make sure their vehicles give passengers a safe and comfortable ride.

"If you're driving people around, your vehicle has to be super safe so that it's not running into anything. But it also has to be a very smooth ride for the passengers as well," Ferguson said. "It's the combination of those two, the safety and comfort, that makes it fundamentally so, so hard," to develop the necessary technology.

Nuro doesn't have to worry about comfort, so long as the cargo in its vehicles arrives undamaged. That means the company can potentially ramp up its delivery service more quickly than companies developing autonomous ride-hailing services, Ferguson said. Its grocery delivery trial with Kroger, launched in December 2018, was the first unmanned vehicle service of any kind, according to Ferguson. (Waymo and May Mobility, which debuted autonomous-vehicle services earlier that year, placed safety drivers behind the wheel.)

But there are some concerns specific to Nuro's business model — like how customers will feel about interacting with a driverless vehicle, rather than having a delivery person come to their door, and how drivers will respond to Nuro's vehicles, which are about half the width of a car and have a maximum speed of 25 mph. Ferguson said neither was an issue during the Kroger trial. He credited Uber and Lyft with increasing the comfort customers have with app-based curbside interactions, and said Nuro tries to keep its vehicles on roads with speed limits near 25 mph.

Nuro could one day compete with Craigslist

But there was at least one problem with the first version of Nuro's vehicle, called the R1: The bottom part of its doors didn't open high enough. Users, including a reporter from The New York Times, would often bump their head on the door, Ferguson said, but Nuro has addressed that issue with the second version of its delivery vehicle, the R2, which it will roll out on public roads early next year.

Ferguson envisions Nuro's delivery service expanding beyond food into areas like peer-to-peer transactions, similar to those conducted on Craigslist. Nuro's vehicles could eliminate many of the inconveniences involved in buying something on the website, like having to exchange contact information with the seller, coordinate a pick-up time, and drive to and from the seller's home.

"The friction associated with transactions is typically higher than the value that you're getting" on Craigslist, Ferguson said.

With Nuro, you could theoretically complete that transaction without ever knowing who's selling the item or where it's located.

"Being able to give that time back to everyone across the country so that they can spend it on what they would most like to do instead of being in vehicles, we think that that's a pretty significant contribution," Ferguson said.

Original author: Mark Matousek

Tesla currently operates a car factory in the San Francisco Bay Area and two "Gigafactories," near Reno, Nevada, and one in Buffalo, New York, (the latter handles solar panels, the former is manufacturing batteries in partnership with Panasonic). 

Tesla intends to open a fully operational new Gigafactory in Shanghai, China, next year, with a Gigafactory near Berlin to follow.

The proposed Berlin factory could build up to 500,000 vehicles annually, making it a pretty serious operation.

Here's a closer look at Tesla facilities, as well as some notable plants operated by other automakers:

Original author: Matthew DeBord

Pete Buttigieg is having a fundraiser hosted for him by a group of extremely wealthy Silicon Valley families, according to a host list obtained by Recode.Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is listed as a co-host, as are family members of Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and Sheryl Sandberg.Buttigieg has come under fire from rival Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren for his ties to big tech.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Pete Buttigieg is having a fundraiser thrown for him by a who's-who of wealthy Silicon Valley families.

Recode obtained a host list circulated to prospective donors for an exclusive event, slated for Monday morning in Palo Alto. The list is littered with the family members of prominent Silicon Valley execs, including:

Nicole Shanahan, wife of Google cofounder Sergey Brin.Wendy Schmidt, wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.Michelle Sandberg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's sister.

Also hosting the event is Netflix cofounder and CEO Reed Hastings. A spokesperson for Buttigieg told Recode in a statement: "We are proud to have the support of more than 700,000 grassroots donors across the country who are helping power this campaign. The only thing people are promised at an event with Pete is that he will use that money to beat Donald Trump."

Recode pegged the estimated net worth of the Hastings, Schmidt, Sandberg, and Brin families at roughly $80 billion.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Getty

Family members fundraising for Buttigieg do not paint a complete picture of how Silicon Valley heavyweights like Brin, Schmidt, and Sandberg support candidates. CNBC reported in April that a data science software and consulting backed by Eric Schmidt had been advising Joe Biden.

Buttigieg has been sharply criticised by fellow Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren for his ties to big tech. "When a candidate brags about how beholden he feels to a group of wealthy investors, our democracy is in serious trouble," Warren said during a speech on Thursday. Warren herself has raised over $173,000 from tech company employees.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Amazon Web Services has the largest share of the public cloud market.However, Microsoft is catching up — not only in market share, but also by beating AWS to win the crucial $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract with the Pentagon.We talked to 13 executives at companies that partner with these cloud platforms for their take on the rivalry between the two, and whether Microsoft can win.The verdict: Amazon's lead will be hard, but not impossible, to beat, they say. Even if Microsoft doesn't topple AWS, they say, there's still a bright future for it in a market that doesn't necessarily want only one cloud to win.Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

Amazon has the top spot when it comes to cloud market share, but Microsoft is presenting more of a threat than ever.

Amazon Web Services essentially invented the modern cloud computing market in the mid-'00s, and dominates it to this day. According to estimates from Gartner, AWS has 47.8% market share, with its position reinforced by new products in databases, AI, and other fields.

But Microsoft, the runner-up, is catching up, with its arsenal of long-time enterprise customers. Already, analysts say that AWS — which has historically prided itself on paying attention to customers, not competitors — is showing rare signs of becoming more reactive to Microsoft's big moves.

Underscoring the mounting competition was Microsoft's big surprise win of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, a $10 billion deal to move the Department of Defense's sensitive information onto the cloud. Amazon is currently challenging Microsoft's win, and AWS CEO Andy Jassy has said the company feels the decision was "not adjudicated fairly" because of political interference.

Even technologically, Amazon appears to be chasing Microsoft in other areas: At its annual re:Invent conference this month, AWS announced that its Outposts product is now available — representing Amazon's big push into hybrid cloud, a market in which Microsoft has long established itself. Likewise, AWS announced Amazon Braket, a new quantum computing service that helps it keep pace with similar efforts from Microsoft and Google.

Amid all of this, Amazon has only recently eased up on long-standing rules that actually prevent partners from mentioning terms like "multi-cloud," which imply that there are other options out there than AWS.

With all this at play, we asked 13 executives at AWS partner companies about whether Microsoft has a chance of beating Amazon for the top cloud spot.

Original author: Rosalie Chan

Sony and Microsoft are working on the next versions of the PlayStation and the Xbox: The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, respectively.Both new consoles are expected to arrive in the the 2020 holiday shopping season.Despite both consoles being months from launch, we know a surprising amount of confirmed information about the new consoles thanks to Sony and Microsoft.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's true: By this time next year, a new PlayStation and a new Xbox will have launched.

For those of you keeping score at home, that's the fifth PlayStation and fourth Xbox generation. As such, Sony's next PlayStation is called PlayStation 5. Microsoft's next Xbox's name is a bit less straightforward — it's called Xbox Series X.

Though neither has gotten the full showcase treatment just yet, both Sony and Microsoft have detailed the consoles with a surprising amount of specificity. As such, we've broken down the similarities and differences below — here's how the two consoles stack up:

Original author: Ben Gilbert