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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating the 'Nielsen' of cannabis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sign up here for our weekly newsletter Wall Street Insider, a behind-the-scenes look at the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.

Reuters/Mike Blake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Readers,

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

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Voice is primed take off

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

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

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

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

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

--Lucia

Here's what else we're reporting:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gillette's #MeToo ad

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

Pay TV's problems are reshaping the cable business

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

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

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

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

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

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

In tech news:

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

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

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

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

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

The app is a constant companion for the shoe. Nike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click here to watch in your browser.

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

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

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

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

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

An egg, just a humble chicken egg, has cracked Instagram by becoming the most-liked post of all time.

No, we're not yolking.

Posted with the sole intention of snatching Kylie Jenner's Instagram throne, the picture achieved its aim on Monday, surpassing 24 million likes at the time of writing.

Here is the egg, now the most famous in the world:

It's the only post from the account @world_record_egg.

The caption accompanying the image says: "Let's set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this."

Read more: The Japanese billionaire who booked a place on Elon Musk's moon voyage has now posted the most retweeted tweet of all time

The account's bio now reads: "Official world record holders of the most liked picture on Instagram." And, with a question for Instagram, it adds: "Now where's our blue tick?"

@world_record_egg has not so much as beaten, as whisked the previous record for the most liked photo on Instagram. Posted by Kylie Jenner in February last year, it features her daughter Stormi Webster.

Jenner responded by posting a video of her cracking an egg on tarmac, which was recorded some time ago. "Take that little egg," she said.

It's the second time in a matter of days that a social media record has been smashed. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa surpassed a chicken-nugget-loving US teen by posting the most retweeted tweet ever this month.

His post, celebrating Maezawa's clothing company, Zozotown, making 10 billion yen ($92 million) in sales over Christmas, has been retweeted nearly 5.3 million times.

The record was previously held by Carter Wilkerson, a US teen who in 2017 asked Wendy's how many retweets he would need to be awarded a year's supply of free chicken nuggets. He racked up 3.5 million retweets.

NEW YORK — Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods didn't come as much of a surprise to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen.

"We assumed that at some point, Amazon was going to do something in the physical world," McMullen told CNBC anchor Sara Eisen at the National Retail Federation's 2019 Big Show.

He said that his company, which currently has a $22.39 billion market cap, has worked for years under the assumption that the online retail giant would either establish their own grocery business or acquire a retail chain. The latter happened in 2017 when Amazon gobbled up Whole Foods.

According to McMullen, that longstanding prediction propelled Kroger Co. to "accelerate" its ecommerce capabilities over the past several years, even before Amazon's acquisition went through. McMullen singled out his company's 2014 merger with North Carolina-based grocer Harris Teeter as a major step. Harris Teeter was ranked America's sixth favorite grocer in Market Watch's 2018 rankings. Kroger took the 12th spot.

McMullen said that the merger was "driven by what we assumed others would do, not what they actually did."

The CEO added that Kroger was able to "leverage" Harris Teeter's existing technology and tech team in order to "accelerate" its own digital position. In 2018, Kroger Co.'s digital sales were a $5 billion business. And the grocer is predicting that that number could nearly double in 2019.

Read more:Your 'role will be removed': Whole Foods fires workers in 7-minute leaked conference call

But the team-up with Harris Teeter isn't the only move Kroger has made in the battle to gain ground in the ever-shifting retail environment. The grocer has also embarked on tech-centric partnership with Microsoft and Ocado, and even launched a number of pilot stores with Walgreens.

In a move that directly pits Kroger against Amazon's Whole Foods, the grocer is also doubling down on its Simple Truth brand. The organic brand first launched in 2012. Simple Truth products are billed as being free of artificial preservatives, GMOs, and, generally, unnatural ingredients "you can't pronounce."

"It's over a $2 billion brand today, growing in double digits," McMullen said.

Eisen asked McMullen if the Simple Truth was Kroger's solution to Whole Foods. He demurred, but said that "This was our solution to customers telling us that they don't want to have to look at the labels to understand what's in the product. They love it. The quality is outstanding."

In response to Eisen's question about whether Amazon, Walmart, and Kroger would be the three main figures dominating the grocery business 10 years from now, McMullen said that he believed that Kroger would certainly be "one of the players."

"It's such a big industry," he said. "Fortunately people will always eat. It's a $1.5 trillion industry, so I think there's plenty of room for a lot of players."

Baidu has just announced China's first open source edge computing platform - reflecting the country's growing open source community.

Baidu, a cloud company and search giant sometimes known as the "Google of China," unveiled OpenEdge at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday.

"Edge computing is becoming more commonplace due to the rise of IoT devices," Zun Wang, a Baidu spokesperson, told Business Insider. "It brings different kinds of compute power, especially for AI processing, to the edges of your network, allowing close proximity of your data source with the cloud."

Edge computing means that the processing power is shifted away from the cloud and towards the "edge" — which is to say closer to the users who are using it. For example, edge devices might be gadgets people use each day, such as PCs, smartphones and tablets, or Internet of Things gadgetry like wearables and smart home appliances.

With OpenEdge, developers can build their own edge computing systems and deploy them on various devices and hardware. This platform include features that allow users program devices to collect data, send messages to each other, and generally "learn" from user behavior.

Previously, Baidu has led other open source projects like Apollo, its autonomous driving platform, and PaddlePaddle, an artificial intelligence framework. It also offers cloud services that are based on open source software created by other companies.

However, this is Baidu's first open source initiative in edge computing, and the first coming out of China. Baidu hopes open sourcing this will improve the development of edge computing globally. It's generally believed in the industry that developments in artificial intelligence, coupled with the rising demand for smart gadgets, self-driving cars, and industrial robotics, mean that edge computing will be the next big thing after cloud computing.

Read more:One of the biggest trends in tech over the last decade has been the shift to cloud computing — and we're seeing the first signs of what might be next

"The explosive growth of IoT devices and rapid adoption of AI is fueling great demand for edge computing," Watson Yin, Baidu Vice President and GM of Baidu Cloud, said in a statement. "And by providing an open source platform, we have also greatly simplified the process for developers to create their own edge computing applications."

More recently, Baidu has been focusing on artificial intelligence and cloud computing. OpenEdge was originally designed as a part of Baidu Intelligent Edge, a commercial software product that works with Baidu Cloud, and will include functions to manage different edge computing applications.

"We wanted to let developers build their own edge computing system as well as contribute functions and edge apps to the existing platform," said Wang, the Baidu spokesperson.

McFly, an agriculture technology company, has used Baidu's software in drones to collect data about crops that helps it lower pesticide use. This is just one possible application of edge computing.

Similarly, Microsoft Azure also has an open source edge computing project, and offers edge computing services to developers. Amazon Web Services also offers edge computing services, but the underlying software is not available as open source.

Currently, China is seeing its slowest growth in decades, but despite the economic slowdown, analysts predict Baidu's annual revenue increased by 20% in 2018.

For many years, quantum computers have been within only the confines of the research lab.

On Tuesday, though, IBM unveiled the IBM Q System One, billed as the first-ever quantum computer designed for businesses to put to their own use — though the company is clear that this is only the first step toward a broader revolution.

Quantum computing is considered one of the most promising early-stage technologies out there today. That's because quantum computers can process exponentially more data and have the potential to completely transform entire industries. For example, they could streamline aerospace and military systems, calculate risk factors to make better investments, or, perhaps, find a cure for cancer and other diseases.

"Data will be the world's most valuable natural resource," IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the IBM Q System One was unveiled.

Don't expect to install one in your office any time soon, though. While the computer is open to paying customers, developers will access its power from the comfort of their own homes or offices via the IBM Cloud. IBM Q System One. IBM

Average computers store data in binary, as either zeroes or ones — strings of ones and zeroes represent numbers or letters. However, quantum computers are much more powerful. That's because they store data using "qubits," which have a special property that allows zeroes and ones to exist simultaneously. This seemingly small thing gives quantum computers the ability to do exponentially more calculations at once, making them powerful enough for incredibly complicated tasks like drug discovery, intensive data analysis, and even creating unbreakable codes.

Enclosed in a 9-foot-tall, 9-foot-wide glass case that forms an air-tight environment, this sleek computer is IBM's first effort to bring quantum computing to businesses. The casing is important: Qubits lose their quantum-computing properties outside of very specific conditions. A quantum computer has to be kept well below freezing in an environment that is mostly free of vibration and electromagnetic radiation.

IBM's new system aims to address this challenge with an integrated quantum computer that solves all of that on behalf of its customers — hence the casing, which keeps everything in shipshape. However, this relative fragility is why you won't be installing an IBM Q System One in your own office — while it's definitely a major step forward, it's far away from being something you can order and have delivered.

"The IBM Q System One is a major step forward in the commercialization of quantum computing," Arvind Krishna, IBM's senior vice president of hybrid cloud and director of research, said in a statement. "This new system is critical in expanding quantum computing beyond the walls of the research lab as we work to develop practical quantum applications for business and science."

Read more: Here's why we should be really excited about quantum computers

Later this year, IBM will also open its first IBM Q Quantum Computation Center for commercial customers in Poughkeepsie, New York. At this lab, clients can use IBM's cloud-based quantum computing systems, as well as other high-performance computing systems.

IBM isn't the only company that's been working on quantum computing, as the technology is still far from ready for mass deployment.

Google is researching how to make quantum computers more stable and better able to find and fix errors, and it has also created and tested qubit processors as it pursues the technology. Microsoft is working on creating hybrid quantum computers, which combine the new technology with more conventional processors. Intel, too, has been working on quantum computing chips.

Facebook's brutal 2018 was accompanied by a wave of executive departures.

As the Silicon Valley tech giant grappled with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its role spreading hate speech that fueled genocide in Myanmar, several longtime senior leaders at the company headed for the exit.

Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, vice president of partnerships Dan Rose, WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum, and policy and communications boss Elliot Schrage are just some of the execs that have announced their departures over the last year.

As the new year kicks off, Facebook's turbulence shows no signs of abating, so Business Insider asked current and former employees a question: Who might be next to go?

Flight risk is an important issue at tech companies like Facebook whose fortunes can hinge on the talent of product visionaries and engineers, and the degree to which Facebook can retain its top talent will influence its ability to navigate its current crisis.

To be clear, this is informed speculation and guesswork: The sources we surveyed don't have inside knowledge of any confirmed but unannounced coming departures. But with Facebook under pressure to get its house in order, and with some executives no doubt scanning the horizon for less turbulent jobs, the names listed provide a guide to some of the company's leaders who insiders are watching attentively.

After being provided with the list of names, Facebook spokesperson Anthony Harrison provided the following statement: "This story is based on complete speculation. None of the people you mentioned to us are planning to leave Facebook."

A robotic sex toy had its innovation award revoked at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, prompting accusations of sexism.

The Osé hands-free personal massager is the first product made by Lora DiCarlo, a company that describes itself as "a woman-run start-up" that is "determined to change the face of pleasure products."

In an open letter, Lora DiCarlo's CEO, Lora Haddock, said the company submitted the Osé for the CES Innovation Awards — judged by the tech show's organizer, the Consumer Technology Association — and won, but the victory was short-lived.

"My team rejoiced and celebrated," she wrote. "A month later our excitement and preparations were cut short when we were unexpectedly informed that the administrators at CES and CTA were rescinding our award and subsequently that we would not be allowed to showcase Osé, or even exhibit at CES 2019."

Read more: Apple trolled Google with a massive billboard at the world's biggest tech show, which it's not even attending

In a statement to Business Insider, the CTA said:

"The product referenced does not fit into any of our existing product categories and should not have been accepted for the Innovation Awards Program. CES does not have a category for sex toys. CTA had communicated this position to Lora DiCarlo nearly two months ago and we have apologized to them for our mistake."

The product originally won in the robotics-and-drones category, and the organization did not explain in its statement why Lora DiCarlo was stopped from exhibiting at CES.

In her open letter, Haddock said that the CTA kept changing its story and that it initially told Lora DiCarlo the Osé had been disqualified on moral grounds, citing this rule:

"Entries deemed by CTA in their sole discretion to be immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA's image will be disqualified. CTA reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any entry at any time which, in CTA's opinion, endangers the safety or well being of any person, or fails to comply with these Official Rules."

Haddock accused CES of sexism, saying gadgets geared toward men's sexuality had become a fixture on the showroom floor.

"A literal sex doll for men launched on the floor at CES in 2018 and a VR porn company exhibits there every year, allowing men to watch pornography in public as consumers walk by," she wrote. CES 2018 also featured robotic strippers with CCTV cameras for heads.

"Clearly CTA has no issue allowing explicit male sexuality and pleasure to be ostentatiously on display," Haddock wrote. "Other sex toys have exhibited at CES and some have even won awards, but apparently there is something different, something threatening about Osé, a product created by women to empower women."

She also said the notion that the sex toy did not fit into the category it was entered in was "even more insulting and frankly ridiculous."

She said the Osé was developed in partnership with Oregon State University's robotics lab, adding that the Osé "is the subject of eight pending patents and counting for robotics, biomimicry, and engineering feats."

"Osé clearly fits the Robotics and Drone category — and CTA's own expert judges agree," she said.

CES and Lora DiCarlo did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

European startup CEOs representing billions of dollars in value are lobbying lawmakers across the bloc to consider reforms to the rules governing employee stock options, so they can attract better talent and compete with Silicon Valley.

Around 500 chief executives from startups such as Stripe, TransferWise, Clue, Supercell, and BlaBlaCar have signed an open letter, which is being sent to European policymakers this week.

There are a further 200 signatories from the wider tech ecosystem, such as venture capital investors. Collectively the 500 startups are worth billions of dollars, and the top 12 alone are worth $35 billion.

The letter, coordinated by European investor Index Ventures, argues that Europe's "days of living in Silicon Valley's shadow are over" but said the dearth of talent available to startups threatened the bloc's tech growth.

They wrote that the policies governing stock options are "archaic" and "ineffective."

Read more: British tech startups are increasingly gloomy as Brexit approaches, and it's already hurting their ability to hire talent

Stock options are a popular way for startups to compete for the top talent against bigger, richer companies. While startups can't always offer salaries to compete with the likes of Google or Facebook, they can offer stock options. This gives employees the option of buying shares in the startup at a particular price. If the share price booms, that can mean big financial rewards for employees.

But the letter's authors wrote that Europe's policies on stock options vary widely from country to country, putting the bloc at a disadvantage. Some countries have more punitive tax regimes, while others have limits on the size of startups that can benefit from stock option tax breaks.

The authors wrote: "Some [policies] are so punishing that they put our startups at a major disadvantage to their peers in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with whom we're competing for the best designers, developers, product managers, and more."

They warned that Europe could see a "brain drain" of its best and brightest talent, and a slowing of growth.

Jean-Charles Samuelian, CEO and cofounder of French health startup Alan, told Business Insider that US and Chinese startups do so well thanks to the talent they can attract.

"We need to win as a European company, and a stock option plan is one of the best ways to do that. As of today, there is lots of complexity country to country. If you are a foreigner, it's not clear how you will be treated tax-wise," he said.

Alan has around 15 employees from the US, Samuelian said, where there's much greater flexibility around stock options.

"We need a European approach on the topic," he added. "We want to build massive European companies, so a unified system would inform the way we hire, we can build the companies in every part of Europe."

Apple has reportedly recruited a prominent Facebook critic to its security team, in an apparent bid to differentiate itself from other major tech firms on privacy.

According to the Financial Times, Apple has hired Sandy Parakilas, the former Facebook employee who blew the whistle on its privacy practices during the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018.

Parakilas was an operations manager for Facebook between 2011 and 2012. He spoke publicly last year about how covert data harvesting by third-party developers was routine, just as Facebook was under scrutiny for failing to police developer use of its platform.

He also gave evidence to the UK and EU parliaments hearing about the scandal. He told Business Insider at the time: "I have no intention of stopping until the company is doing all it needs to do to protect our elections."

Read more: 'I'm pretty sure Mark and Sheryl do not appreciate what I'm doing': Meet the whistleblower waging war on Facebook

Parakilas, according to the FT report, will now work at Apple's privacy team as a product manager. Specifically, he'll be part of the team that ensures new Apple products protect people's privacy and don't collect unnecessary amounts of data.

The hire would be Apple thumbing its nose at Facebook and Google, given both firms rely on collecting user data for their ad businesses. Chief executive Tim Cook has leaned into the narrative that Apple stands alone in Silicon Valley as the one company that fights for its users' security and privacy. From that position, he has taken shots at Facebook and Google's wider business models.

"We're not going to traffic in your personal life," Cook said in a March 2018 MSNBC interview. "Privacy to us is a human right. It's a civil liberty." Later in the year, he used a speech to attack rivals that hoard "industrial" quantities of data.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly so angered by these comments that he ordered employees to switch from iPhone to Android phones.

Parakilas is not simply a Facebook-employee-turned-critic either. He was previously chief strategy officer for the Center for Humane Technology, a collective of concerned tech insiders who are trying to raise the alarm about issues such as tech addiction and election interference. Hiring Parakilas sends a signal that Apple is taking these problems seriously.

Parakilas did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but an automated email confirms that he is no longer full-time at the Center of Humane Tech as of this month.

Business Insider has contacted Apple for comment.

Hours after Jeff Bezos announced he and his wife, MacKenzie, were divorcing, the tabloid press was buzzing with stories about the Amazon CEO's new romance.

According to TMZ, the National Enquirer, and the New York's Post's Page Six, among others, Bezos is dating the former TV news anchor Lauren Sanchez.

The Enquirer said it had trailed Bezos and Sanchez for some time, and on Thursday it published images of the pair together. In one photo on the Enquirer's front page, the duo appear to be holding hands.

Sanchez, who has been in the public eye for much of her career, seems to lead a pretty cool life. Here are six fast facts about the TV star turned pilot:

1. She had a long career as a reporter and news anchor

Sanchez started her journalistic career as an intern on the Los Angeles station Channel 13 while on scholarship at the University of Southern California, according to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

She went on to be a host at various news channels, becoming a longtime coanchor on Fox 11's "Good Day LA," and appeared as a host and correspondent on "Extra."

2. She's a licensed plane and helicopter pilot

Sanchez learned how to fly while working as a news anchor, and she started flying planes in 2011 before going on to get her helicopter pilot's license in 2016.

Her interest in aviation seems to have been sparked at an early age, as her father was a flight instructor and mechanic who rebuilt planes.

"I was always in the hangar growing up but knew nothing about flying," she told The Hollywood Reporter.

3. She founded her own aerial filming company

Sanchez founded Black Ops Aviation in 2016, a "female owned and operated" aerial filming company, which has shot footage for Amazon, Netflix, and Fox, among others.

You can watch the company's demo reel here:

Sanchez also lent her aerial-filming knowledge to Christopher Nolan as a consultant on "Dunkirk."

4. She's played a news anchor in a bunch of movies and TV shows

As well as being an anchor in real life, Sanchez has starred as a news anchor in movies including "Fight Club," "The Day After Tomorrow," and "The Fantastic Four," according to IMDB.

5. She used to host a dancing reality show, 'So You Think You Can Dance'

Sanchez was a host on the first series of Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," but she reportedly left the show after the first season to have her second child.

6. While she is still married to a Hollywood agent, Patrick Whitesell, the pair are reportedly separated

Whitesell is co-CEO of the Hollywood agency WME, and his clients include Matt Damon, Christian Bale, and Hugh Jackman. Whitesell and Sanchez married in 2005, and sources told the New York Post that they separated in the fall.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reportedly has a new romance in his life: former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez.

On Wednesday, the billionaire exec and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, announced they were divorcing, saying in a joint statement: "We want to make people aware of a development in our lives. As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends."

The New York Post and the National Enquirer both reported that Jeff Bezos, 54, is romantically involved with 49-year-old Sanchez, a former "Good Day LA" news anchor with Fox who also works as a helicopter pilot and entrepreneur.

The TV host is still married to Patrick Whitesell, the co-CEO of prominent Hollywood talent agency WME. Whitesell counts Matt Damon, Christian Bale, and Hugh Jackman among his clients. According to the New York Post, Sanchez and Whitesell separated in the fall. It's after this that Bezos reportedly "became closer" with Sanchez. Sanchez has three children — two from her marriage to Whitesell and one from a previous relationship.

The National Enquirer said it conducted a four-month investigation into Bezos and Sanchez's alleged affair, and suggested that it was its impending report — due to be published in full later this week — that sparked the announcement from Bezos.

"During a blockbuster four-month investigation, The ENQUIRER tracked Bezos, who turns 55 on Jan. 12, and secret lover Sanchez across five states and 40,000 miles, tailed them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates and 'quality time' in hidden love nests," the National Enquirer wrote in a story teasing its upcoming investigation.

Bezos has an estimated net worth of about $137 billion, and news of his impending divorce has sparked fevered speculation as to what it will mean for his fortune. It's not clear whether Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos signed a prenuptial agreement or formed another arrangement regarding what would happen if they split. The couple have been married for 25 years, and have four children.

An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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In recent years, no treatments were even available for the rare, devastating disease known as spinal muscular atrophy.

Now, in a matter of months, an experimental one-time therapy designed to address the disease's underlying genetic cause could treat the disorder. First though, someone has to pay for its potential multimillion-dollar pricetag.

A new effort is underway in Massachusetts to figure out how to do that. The idea is to let health insurers pay for the treatment over several years. If it succeeds, organizers hope that it could prove to be a viable model for the entire US.

Novartis's AveXis unit, which makes the gene therapy, Zolgensma, and has suggested a price tag of up to $5 million could be appropriate, is in talks to participate. Business Insider is the first to report both the plan and interest from Novartis's AveXis.

Americans have long paid for big-ticket items like houses and cars in a similar manner. But the plan — if it is finalized — would mark one of the first such approaches for a medicine. And Novartis would only receive each of its payment if the treatment is effective.

Paying for drugs on an installment plan

"Think of it as installment plan that's then tied to how well the therapy works. This would be a car loan but you've still got to see if the car is going to work," Mark Trusheim, strategic director of the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation's NEWDIGS program, told Business Insider.

NEWDIGS brings organizations together to discuss how the US health system will be able to pay for costly cures, and the Massachusetts initiative came out of that, Trusheim said.

That work has become increasingly important as more gene therapies are likely to become available in coming years for different diseases, according to experts interviewed for this story. Gene therapies are typically administered in a single treatment and can have very high price tags compared to other types of pharmaceuticals. That could impose massive costs and challenges for an unprepared health system

Read more: From the gene therapy that spurred a $9 billion acquisition to a CBD medication for rare types of childhood epilepsy, here are the 12 promising drugs to watch in 2019

Doing the unthinkable, at an exceptional price

Gene therapy is a cutting-edge technology with the potential to cure diseases by tinkering with the body's genetic material. Drugmakers have cited the value these new products could bring to patients and the medical system to justify their high prices.

Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare genetic condition that affects muscle movement in children and is the leading genetic cause of mortality in infants.

About 10,000 to 25,000 individuals in the U.S. are thought to have SMA, according to the SMA Foundation. But far fewer individuals would likely be treated with Zolgensma, since it's thought that only newborns would be eligible.

In Massachusetts, only one or two dozen patients are expected each year at most, according to Trusheim. A US approval decision Zolgensma, is expected in May, and Novartis isn't likely to release a precise price tag until then.

An independent group that evaluates drug prices has said the treatment could merit a price of $1.6 million to $5 million, Novartis Pharmaceuticals CEO Paul Hudson told Business Insider this week, noting that the cost of ventilators and another expensive therapy for the rare disease over a five-year period were, in total, comparable.

AveXis plans to explore `creative' ways to get paid for its new treatment

Hudson heads up the business that oversees AveXis's SMA gene therapy. AveXis would not comment specifically about its participation in the Massachusetts program, but said in a statement that gene therapies require new approaches in the US health system.

"Our objective is to ensure patients get access to this therapy, so we can make a meaningful difference in their lives," the AveXis statement said. "We are working closely with payers to ensure we establish appropriate prices reflecting the value of gene therapy and explore creative options for payers, including installment payment options, as well as outcomes-based arrangements."

As the Massachusetts pilot currently stands, the price of Zolgensma would be paid by health insurers in five annual installments, spread out over four years. It is similar to a plan unveiled by biotech Bluebird Bio earlier this week, MIT's Trusheim said.

Read more: A biotech is proposing a plan to pay for its pricey rare-disease treatment the same way you'd buy a TV or dishwasher

The program is starting with the Novartis product, but intends to add other gene therapies over time. Many but not all health insurers in Massachusetts are involved in the discussions, Trusheim said, and others could eventually join. Its organizers hope to launch it by this summer, and they believe they have addressed many of the challenges of this type of approach.

'We shouldn't let cost get in the way'

One crucial challenge for these types of installment plans is what happens when patients switch health insurers. In this case, the insurers that intend to participate in the Massachusetts pilot have agreed to pick up the remaining payments left on the installment plan.

"If you believe these are likely to be life-changing to the people who need them, then we shouldn't let cost get in the way," Dr. Michael Sherman, chief medical officer of the nonprofit health insurer Harvard Pilgrim, told Business Insider. If the program gets off the ground, Harvard Pilgrim intends to be a part of it, he said.

The planners are still working out other details. For instance, even though the payment structure and performance metrics for the gene therapy would be the same across insurers, each individual health plan would negotiate its own price for Zolgensma.

Insurers will also have to work out with Novartis what happens if a patient moves to another state. That might include continuing to make the payments or potentially making a one-time exit payment.

Another challenge is a legal requirement that the government Medicaid program get the "best price" on a drug. That could complicate this type of installment plan, since a failed treatment in which only one installment is paid could be interpreted as violating that "best price" guarantee.

Read more: Bill Gates warns that nobody is paying attention to gene editing, a new technology that could make inequality even worse

Because spinal muscular atrophy is so rare, health insurers haven't expressed concerns about Zolgensma's price tag specifically, Hudson told Business Insider this week. Instead, they'd like the flexibility to pay in installments if needed, according to Hudson.

"What they're not saying is, 'We're worried about the price.' What they are saying is, 'We may have concerns about staging payments,'" Hudson said.

Additional reporting by Lydia Ramsey

Read more about pharmaceutical innovation:

The CEO of $230 billion pharma giant Novartis explains why he's not scared of buying biotechs at an earlier — and riskier — stage

Big drugmakers are sitting on billions of cash — and top pharma executives are hinting about big M&A to come in 2019

One of the biggest drugmakers in the world thinks it has 26 billion-dollar drugs in the pipeline — here's what they aim to treat

Getting a "B" on a report was a respectable grade to bring home for a lot of kids growing up.

But apparently, the above average mark is not good enough at Facebook, where the company stack ranks employees and terminates those not among the top performers.

Former Facebook employees told Business Insider on Wednesday that receiving two consecutive reviews of "meets most" expectations — which they say is equivalent to a "B" grade — would ultimately result in an employee being fired.

"Everything is quantified, and you're measured against everyone to a number," one former Facebook employee told Business Insider. "If you get 'meets most' expectations two times, then you're going to be canned in a couple of months. A lot of people I know got canned. You got to understand the game of it, but for me, the culture was unsustainable."

The former employees clarified that receiving the "meets most" mark was not grounds for firing alone, rather it put employees on a performance improvement plan (PIP) that ultimately lead to one's termination.

"I've never met anyone that's received two ['meets most' reviews] in a row that has continued on at Facebook," another former employee told us.

Facebook disputes the characterization of its process as stack ranking, a spokesperson told Business Insider. The spokesperson also denied that two consecutive "meets most" reviews result in a performance improvement plan for employees.

On Tuesday, CNBC reported that former Facebook employees blamed the company's stack rank review process for creating a "cult-like" atmosphere where workers felt the need to appear happy in order to win favor with colleagues. The perception and feedback of colleagues is an important piece of Facebook's twice-yearly peer reviews.

"It's a little bit of a popularity contest," one former employee told CNBC. "You can cherry-pick the people who like you — maybe throw in one bad apple to equalize it."

Read more: Former Facebook employees reportedly say the corporate culture is like a cult where you have to be happy all the time

During the review process, once peer feedback is collected employees are ranked and assigned a grade by management. Only a certain percentage of employees can receive each grade, so managers must advocate for their direct reports to receive the highest marks.

According to the CNBC report, grades at Facebook range from "meets some" expectations (which are rare because most people are fired before receiving this grade) to "redefine" (which is the top mark, given to only 5% of employees). The "meets most" mark is considered a lower grade at Facebook and puts future employment at risk, according to the report.

Management guru and former General Electric CEO Jack introduced the stack rank system in the 1980s. Since then, the system has found favor amongst the tech companies — like IBM, Yahoo, and Amazon — but not without its share of controversy.

Microsoft, for instance, used stack-ranking until 2013, when it found the system to hurt innovation and was detrimental to employee morale.