Jan
02

14 data predictions for enterprise growth in 2023

A 20-month-old startup in India founded by a group of banking veterans that has built a mobile-first credit card and is improving the experience users have with credit cards has secured $10 million in a new financing round.

Pune-based FPL Technologies’ $10 million Series A financing round was funded by Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India and Hummingbird Ventures, Anurag Sinha, co-founder and chief executive of the startup, said in an interview with TechCrunch.

We wrote about FPL Technologies last year when the startup had closed a $4.5 million Seed financing round. At the time, the startup had developed an app called OneScore that was helping people find and understand their credit score.

At the time, Sinha had said that FPL Technologies was working on a credit card. In June this year, the startup launched its credit card, called OneCard.

More than 5,000 people across the country are currently using this metal-made credit card, which has been certified by Visa and a number of security firms, and over 75,000 people are on a waiting list to get it.

Banking veterans Vibhav Hathi, Anurag Sinha, and Rupesh Kumar co-founded FPL Technologies last year

Its app, OneScore, has amassed over 2 million users. Scores of firms in India offer users with the ability to find their credit score at no charge. But in return, they sell their customers’ info to other parties, which sets off a chain of events that ends up these users getting more than a dozen calls each month from firms — usually their middlemen partners — that offer credit cards and loans.

OneScore does not share its users’ data with anyone. Why it chooses not to do that explains what this startup is attempting to achieve: Make customers’ experience with their credit card more delightful — a concept that is almost unheard of for most credit card holders in India.

The startup has built a technology stack that makes common sense features such as transparency on transactions, the due date to pay the credit card bill, and rewards more easily accessible.

“Their powerful, proprietary in-house tech-stack will define the future of digital consumer credit in India and this conviction has led to Sequoia India increasing its commitment in FPL,” said Shailesh Lakhani, Managing Director at Sequoia Capital India, in a statement.

The OneCard also does not charge customers any joining fee or annual fee. It allows customers to control the rewards they wish to avail. For instance, if your spendings largely entails purchasing gadgets and ordering coffee online, you can set your OneCard to get 5X rewards on those two categories.

These categories are controlled by the customers and can be changed by switching a toggle on the mobile app. The app also lets users quickly lock their card, disable online or offline transactions with a few taps, and supports contact-less payment — a feature that has gained more popularity amid the global pandemic. Speaking of which, Sinha said customers’ spendings are nearly back to the pre-coronavirus days.

FPL Technologies plans to use the fresh capital to bring its credit card to more users, said Sinha, and also expand its product offerings.

One product that he is exploring is making it possible for users to track all their subscriptions. Once that is live, the startup will work on creating bundles for some of these services that helps users save money. He is hopeful that several companies, looking to aggressively expand into India, will be interested in it.

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Aug
17

Bitcoin is back near its record high

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday. Sign up here to get this email in your inbox every morning.

Oracle has reportedly entered the race to buy TikTok's US operations, competing with rival Microsoft for the viral app as Trump's deadline looms. The Financial Times reported Oracle has been working with US investors, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, who own a stake in TikTok already.Epic Games has filed a temporary restraining order against Apple with the intention of getting "Fortnite" back on Apple's App Store. If granted by a judge, the restraining order would legally stop Apple from "removing, de-listing, refusing to list or otherwise making unavailable the app 'Fortnite,' including any update thereof."A British school student threatened to sue the UK government over an algorithm that was used to determine final grades after national exams were cancelled due to the pandemic. The algorithm has been widely criticized for hurting bright students at disadvantaged schools, costing them life-changing places at top colleges.Facebook 'actively promotes' Holocaust denial content to certain users, a new study has found. Facebook's search algorithm was found to "actively promote" Holocaust denial content to users who had previously interacted with similar content.  Amazon is considering buying a minority stake in Rackspace in a deal that would strengthen the ties between the two firms, sources say. Rackspace helps companies migrate their data to Amazon Web Services, and the investment would strengthen the ties between the two companies.An open letter from Google warning that new Australian regulation would damage YouTube and Google Search in the country contains "misinformation," according to the country's competition watchdog. The draft regulation would force Facebook and Google to pay news publishers for their content.Europe's hot challenger banks Monzo, Starling Bank, and Revolut all posted ballooning losses for 2019, raising questions about their long-term viability. The additional challenge of COVID-19 may make the prospect of profitability even more remote, even after the trio have raised a collective $1.9 billion from investors.Quibi CEO Meg Whitman will speak at the Democratic National Convention Monday night, the DNC announced. Whitman previously ran for governor of California as a Republican and she is one of several current and former Republicans who oppose Trump billed to speak at the DNC.Russian billionaire and former Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is quietly backing a virtual reality startup trying to rival Facebook with a multiplayer world. The former Brooklyn Nets owner said he expected "explosive growth" in the virtual reality market over the next decade.A college student made a fake blog post using an AI text generator and it was upvoted to the top of Hacker News by people who thought it was real. University of California, Berkeley student Liam Porr created several blog posts using OpenAI's GPT-3 text generator and several people subscribed to his account, believing he wrote the posts himself.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

Original author: Shona Ghosh

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Dec
29

How you can create a strong AI talent development strategy

Enterprise software giant Oracle has entered the race to acquire some of TikTok's operations from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Oracle has been involved in preliminary discussions with several current US-based TikTok investors, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, to purchase the app's US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand operations, according to the report.

Oracle and TikTok both declined to comment and ByteDance could not immediately be reached.

President Donald Trump has sought to force the sale of TikTok to an American company, citing national security concerns. Trump has claimed that the Chinese government could pressure ByteDance to use the app to spy on Americans or censor political content it finds offensive.

Trump has issued two executive orders in recent weeks, one that could ban US companies from doing business with TikTok and another that seeks to unwind ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly, the precursor to TikTok.

Microsoft has been the leading contender in acquisition talks so far, having held discussions to buy TikTok's operations in those same countries, but interest from Oracle would give TikTok an alternative and potentially some leverage in negotiating a deal.

TikTok, which has more than 2.3 billion downloads worldwide, has recently been valued between $30 billion and $50 billion. 

Oracle's executives also have close ties to Trump. Founder Larry Ellison is one of the few tech executives who have openly backed Trump, and hosted a fundraiser for the president at his home in Southern California in February. CEO Safra Catz also served on Trump's transition team.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

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Aug
17

What 21 famous companies' archaic websites looked like when they launched

President Trump's attack on TikTok has highlighted the extensive, but not-well-understood powers the president has to regulate or block foreign investment in the US.The president's order came as a result of a process initiated by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or CFIUS, a group of cabinet officials and presidential advisors empowered to review deals for national security concerns.The committee can force companies to modify deals or recommend that the president block them.CFIUS has broad authority, all of which can be seen in the TikTok deal — it can review deals involving any company that engages in interstate commerce in the US, no matter where they're actually based.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Trump's order that China's Bytedance unload its TikTok business in the US has put a spotlight on a government committee with remarkably broad powers to regulate corporate acquisitions — even when none of the businesses involved are American companies.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or CFIUS, the multi-agency group that recommended Trump's TikTok order, is a 45-year-old panel comprised of cabinet-level officials and presidential advisors authorized to vet foreign investment in the US for national security concerns. 

For years, CFIUS was primarily focused on deals with clear relevance to traditional national security, such as companies involved in weapons production or industries important to military readiness. 

But the committee has taken an increasingly broad view of national security over the years and recent changes to the laws underlying CFIUS have broadened its power further. And with the "tech cold war" between China and the US escalating, CFIUS is now flexing its muscles in ways that may seem surprising to many in Silicon Valley.

"I feel that a lot of businesses are not understanding this," said Doreen Edelman, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler and the chair of the law firm's global trade and policy group.

The TikTok situation provides a case in point.

Many past press reports have erroneously suggested that Musical.ly — the lip-synching app that would become TikTok after getting acquired by China's ByteDance in 2017 — was an American company. Under that assumption, CFIUS's involvement, even years after the deal closed, might not seem overly surprising.

But in reality, Musical.ly was not a US company. Although it had a small office in California and was popular with US teens, but it was headquartered in Shanghai.  So Trump is ordering, following a CFIUS review, the undoing of a merger between 2 two Chinese internet companies.

What makes a business American?

The reason he can do that is because in the eyes of CFIUS, Musical.ly actually was a US company.

Under the laws undergirding CFIUS, any individual, group, or organization that is "engaged in interstate commerce in the US" is considered to be a US business. So an entity could have only a small office in the US or — at least in theory — could have no physical presence at all and still be considered a US company as long as it engaged in interstate transactions.

Not only did Musical.ly have a US office in Santa Monica, Calif,  it obviously was engaged in interstate commerce — its video sharing services had millions of US customers. Those factors were enough to place it under CFIUS's jurisdiction.

Once a deal falls within CFIUS's jurisdiction, the committee a lot of power. It can rubber stamp a transaction, demand that the parties make changes to address its concerns, or recommend that the president block the deal. And it can do so pretty much any time it wants, no matter how long after the fact.

In the case of Musical.ly, the committee didn't start investigating the acquisition until last fall, some two years after the parties announced it. CFIUS has full authority to retroactively review deals, particularly those it didn't scrutinize in the first place, such as the ByteDance-Musical.ly deal. 

When ByteDance announced the acquisition, the companies had no obligation under the rules in place at the time to notify CFIUS of the deal, which is the precursor to any formal review. The flip side of that freedom to ignore CFIUS was that the committee could at any time — months, years, potentially even more than a decade later — decide that the deal had a bearing on national security and undertake a review of it. There's no statute of limitations on CFIUS's retrospective review power. It can even go back and review or force modifications to deals to which it's previously given a green light, legal experts told Business Insider.

OK, but so how did a deal involving a video-sharing service popular with teens fall under the rubric of "national security?"

In years past, security issues that would be reviewed by CFIUS were fairly narrowly construed, dealing primarily with things like weapons production, military equipment or facilities. 

However, what constitutes "national security" has always been left open for each administration to define. Over the years, the definition has gradually widened to include infrastructure such as ports and, increasingly, deals that might threaten economic security, rather than military security.

More pertinently for the ByteDance-Musical.ly acquisition, Congress updated the laws underlying CFIUS in 2018 to spell out three types of deals that would now be considered to have obvious national security implications and would be subject to mandatory review by the committee. Those deals are ones in which foreign entities are investing in or acquiring one of three things — critical infrastructure; critical technologies, including cutting-edge software and hardware; or the personal data of 1 million or more US citizens. By acquiring Musical.ly, ByteDance got access to just that — the personal data of millions of Americans. 

And as a result, the deal is a national security concern.

Business Insider reporter Max Jungreis contributed to this story.

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

Original author: Troy Wolverton

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Jul
29

Authory wants to help journalists raise their voices

An asteroid the size of a car flew within about 1,830 miles of Earth this weekend — closer than any known space rock has ever come without crashing into the planet.A NASA-funded program detected the asteroid, called 2020 QG, six hours after its close approach.If the asteroid had hit Earth, it probably would have exploded in the atmosphere in an airburst too high up to do any damage on the ground.But the near miss highlights a major blind spot in Earth's programs to search for dangerous asteroids.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A car-sized asteroid flew within about 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) of Earth on Sunday.

That's a remarkably close shave — the closest ever recorded, in fact, according to asteroid trackers and a catalog compiled by Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy. 

Because of its size, the space rock likely wouldn't have posed any danger to people on the ground had it struck our planet. But the close call is worrisome nonetheless, since astronomers had no idea the asteroid existed until after it passed by.

"The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun," Paul Chodas, the director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, told Business Insider. "We didn't see it coming."

Instead, the Palomar Observatory in California first detected the space rock about six hours after it flew by Earth.

Chodas confirmed the record-breaking nature of the event: "Yesterday's close approach is closest on record, if you discount a few known asteroids that have actually impacted our planet," he said.

NASA knows about only a fraction of near-Earth objects (NEOs) like this one. Many do not cross any telescope's line of sight, and several potentially dangerous asteroids have snuck up on scientists in recent years. If the wrong one slipped through the gaps in our NEO-surveillance systems, it could kill tens of thousands of people. 

2020 QG flew over the Southern Hemisphere

This recent near-Earth asteroid was initially called ZTF0DxQ but is now formally known to astronomers as 2020 QG. Business Insider first learned about it from Tony Dunn, the creator of the website orbitsimulator.com.

"Newly-discovered asteroid ZTF0DxQ passed less than 1/4 Earth diameter yesterday, making it the closest-known flyby that didn't hit our planet," Dunn tweeted on Monday. He shared the animation below, republished here with permission.

The sped-up simulation shows the approximate orbital path of 2020 QG as it careened by at a speed of about 7.7 miles per second (12.4 kilometers per second) or about 27,600 mph.

Early observations suggest the space rock flew over the Southern Hemisphere just after 4 a.m. Universal Time (midnight ET) on Sunday.

The animation above shows 2020 QG flying over the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. However, the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center calculated a slightly different trajectory. The group's rendering (shown at the beginning of this story), suggests the asteroid flew over the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles east of Australia.

Not dangerous, but definitely not welcome

As far as space rocks go, 2020 QG wasn't too dangerous.

Telescope observations suggest the object is between 6 feet (2 meters) and 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide — somewhere between the size of a small car and an extended-cab pickup truck. But even if it was on the largest end of that spectrum and made of dense iron (most asteroids are rocky), only small pieces of such an asteroid may have reached the ground, according to the "Impact Earth" simulator from Purdue University and Imperial College London.

Such an asteroid would have exploded in the atmosphere, creating a brilliant fireball and unleashing an airburst equivalent to detonating a couple dozen kilotons of TNT. That's about the same as one of the atomic bombs the US dropped on Japan in 1945. But the airburst would have happened about 2 or 3 miles above the ground, so it wouldn't have sounded any louder than heavy traffic to people on the ground.

This doesn't make the asteroid's discovery much less unnerving, though — it does not take a huge space rock to create a big problem.

A simulation of a 66-foot-wide (20-meter-wide) asteroid burning up in Earth's atmosphere. Darrel Robertson/NASA Ames

Take, for example, the roughly 66-foot-wide (20-meter) asteroid that exploded without warning over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013. That space rock created a superbolide event, unleashing an airburst equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT — about 30 Hiroshima nuclear bombs' worth of energy. The explosion, which began about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above Earth, triggered a blast wave that shattered windows in six Russian cities and injured about 1,500 people.

And in July 2019, a 427-foot (130-meter) asteroid called 2019 OK passed within 45,000 miles (72,400 kilometers) of our planet, or less than 20% of the distance between Earth and the moon. Astronomers detected that rock less than a week before its closest approach, leading one scientist to tell The Washington Post that the asteroid essentially appeared "out of nowhere."

In an unlikely direct hit to a city, such a wayward space rock might kill tens of thousands of people.

NASA is actively scanning the skies for such threats, as Congress has required it to do since 2005. However, the agency is mandated to detect only 90% of "city killer" space rocks larger than about 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter.

In May 2019, NASA said it had found less than half of the estimated 25,000 objects of that size or larger. And of course, that doesn't count smaller rocks such as the Chelyabinsk and 2019 OK asteroids.

Objects that come from the direction of the sun, meanwhile — like 2020 QG — are notoriously difficult to spot.

"There's not much we can do about detecting inbound asteroids coming from the sunward direction, as asteroids are detected using optical telescopes only (like ZTF), and we can only search for them in the night sky," Chodas said. "The idea is that we discover them on one of their prior passages by our planet, and then make predictions years and decades in advance to see whether they have any possibility of impacting."

NASA has a plan to address these gaps in its asteroid-hunting program. The agency is in the early stages of developing a space telescope that could detect asteroids and comets coming from the sun's direction. NASA's 2020 budget allotted nearly $36 million for that telescope, called the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission. If funding continues, it could launch as early as 2025.

This story has been updated with new information.

Original author: Dave Mosher and Morgan McFall-Johnsen

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Jan
05

Aska A5 is a flying electric car that can take off vertically

What early-stage startup founder wouldn’t love to have a crystal ball? Especially now with a pandemic wreaking economic uncertainty across industries in every corner of the world.

We don’t have mystical powers, but we do have the next best thing, and it’s available exclusively to early-stage founders exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley at Disrupt 2020. Sign up today for our interactive webinar, COVID-19’s Impact on the Startup World, scheduled for August 19th at 1pm PT/ 4pm ET.

What does the future of work look like? In what ways will startups need to adapt, and how can they course-correct both during and after COVID-19? These are some of the challenging topics our expert panel will address, and they’ll take questions from the viewing audience, too.

Which brilliant minds will offer their perspective, tips and advice? None other than Nicola Corzine, executive director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurship Center and Cameron Stanfill, a VC analyst at PitchBook. Jon Shieber, a TechCrunch Editor who covers venture capital and private equity investments will moderate the conversation. It’s an interactive webinar, folks, so don’t be shy — bring your questions, comments and ideas to the table.

If you haven’t purchased a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package, go grab yours now. You’ll be able to attend this webinar and the next one, too (more on that in a minute). But here’s the most important part — you’ll showcase your tech, talent and products to thousands of Disrupt attendees from around the world. Boost your brand recognition, and connect with potential customers, partners, investors, media and other influencers across the startup ecosystem. You never know who you’ll meet exhibiting in the Alley or where a chance connection might lead.

“Exhibiting in Startup Alley gave our company and technology invaluable exposure to potential customers and partners that we would not have met otherwise. A company that does 15 billion in annual sales thinks our tech is a fit for their ecosystem, and we’re excited to continue building that relationship.” — Joel Neidig, founder of SIMBA Chain.

Now that you’re all set with your Digital Startup Alley exhibitor pass, circle August 26 on your calendar for the final webinar we scheduled for exhibitors’ edification.

August 26 — Fundraising and Hiring Best Practices

Moderated by TC’s Natasha Mascarenhas, panelists Sarah Kunst (Cleo Capital) and Brett Berson (First Round Capital) discuss two essential topics for startup success. Securing funding may feel like the hardest part of growing a startup, but hiring the right people ain’t no walk in the park either. You need to get a handle on both areas, and these folks can help you do just that.

Exhibitors, sign up for the August 19 webinar, COVID-19’s Impact on the Startup World. And to the rest of the early-stage startup founders out there — don’t miss your chance to be an exhibitor at Disrupt 2020 — buy a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package today.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

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Dec
30

4 strategies for enabling a culture of workforce flexibility

Hi! Welcome to the Insider Advertising daily for August 18. I'm Lauren Johnson, a senior advertising reporter at Business Insider. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Send me feedback or tips at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

First, Business Insider is looking for nominations for the chief marketing officers to watch in 2020. Submit your nominations here by August 24.

Today's news: Spanish-language streaming service Vix vies for OTT ad dollars, Pizza Hut closes up to 300 locations, and influencers' most popular Instagram topics.

Rafael Urbina and Rich Hull. Vix

Spanish-language streaming service Vix explains the challenges of expanding the AVOD market internationally and how it plans to grow revenue 40% in 2020

Read the full story here.

A Pizza Hut location, which is owned by Yum Brands Inc, is pictured ahead of their company results in Pasadena, California, U.S., July 11, 2016. Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Up to 300 Pizza Hut locations are set to close in the aftermath of the chain's largest franchisee filing for bankruptcy

Read the full story here.

Influencer Keiko Lynn Keiko Lynn

The 10 Instagram content topics that have surged most among influencers during the pandemic, from insurance to recipes

Read the full story here.

More stories we're reading:

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! You can reach me in the meantime at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and subscribe to this daily email here.

— Lauren

Original author: Lauren Johnson

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Dec
29

Why next-generation firewalls will be essential to a zero-trust world

In the past few years, Python has become one of the most popular, fastest growing, and best loved programming languages.It has grown quickly because of its ease of use, utility, and open source nature, experts say, as well as because of the boom in artificial intelligence and data science jobs.For example, the popular AI project TensorFlow runs uses Python, as does Facebook's Instagram.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The programming language Python has made learning to code much easier, including for would-be developers without computer science degrees. 

Since it launched in 1991, it has gained popularity among engineers and non-programmers alike, including data scientists, students, and business professionals. Dr. Chuck Severance, a clinical professor at the University of Michigan School of Information who teaches a 10-week Python course on Coursera, calls Python the "Netflix of programming."

It's approachable, widely useful, and extremely popular right now. In just the second week of August, nearly 8,000 people completed his course, and many former students have walked away with new jobs, he says. Python's popularity has grown largely because of the explosion in data science jobs, experts say, which the language is particularly well-suited for. 

Python even surpassed Oracle's Java for the first time in usage and popularity in 2019, according to GitHub, to become the second most-used language after the web programming language JavaScript. A June survey from developer-focused analyst firm RedMonk found the same results. Usage of Python on GitHub projects grew 151% last year.

"Python has been making an ascent," KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, industry analyst at RedMonk, told Business Insider. 

And not only is the language widely used and growing fast, developers love it. According to developer Q&A site Stack Overflow, Python is the third most loved programming language.

Python is a good beginners' language 

Because it's a relatively simple language, Python is increasingly used as to teach students how to program.

"The reason why Python is so popular is it's easy to learn," AnnElizabeth Konkel, economist at Indeed, told Business Insider. "It does not require cloud access and does not require excessive license. There are plenty of resources for people to learn how to download it, how to start learning. Also, it's versatile."

For the first time, Python overtook Java as the most-studied language in 2020, according to a survey from software developer company JetBrains. 30% of respondents have started, or continued, to learn Python, and many beginners and nonprofessional developers are using it, including in fields like medicine and government.

"It's so powerful and easy for beginners at the same time," Anastassiya Sichkarenko, marketing analyst at JetBrains, told Business Insider. "It has a great future."

Peter Wang, cofounder and CTO of the data science platform Anaconda, says that what makes Python special is how it can be used for so many types of tasks.

"The future of Python ties to the future of software development in general," Wang told Business Insider. "It's the future of machine learning. It will be a mainstay. Python will be a significant part of that movement. My hope is that it never loses its accessibility and never loses its roots as a pedigree in teaching language."

Languages that are good for web programming — like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — are not as useful for tasks like crunching or analyzing numbers as Python is. And while languages like Java and C# are well-suited for large teams working on large projects, Python is versatile enough for teams or individual projects. It's an easy language for beginners to start with, but also useful for enterprises. 

Another factor behind its rapid spread among developers is that it's an independent, open source language that's free for anyone to use or download, without a specific company pushing it. As a result, much of its growth has been organic. 

"Python has had a community focus that is unique among massively popular programming languages," Christopher Neugebauer, vice chair at the Python Software Foundation, told Business Insider. "It's not a language designed by a small number of people. It's been made available by collaboration over the Internet."

Today, apps like Instagram run on Python, and just recently, Facebook made one of its Python-based security projects — Pysa — available as open source. And there's a large ecosystem of popular Python projects, including the mathematical computing project NumPy,  the scientific computing project SciPy, and TensorFlow. And a crop of AI and data science companies have emerged based on Python, too. 

Read more: Everything you need to know about TensorFlow, Google's own home-made AI software that's now helping NASA discover planets and beating champions at Go

Adam Smith, founder and CEO of Kite Kite

There's been a surge in jobs that need Python skills

Python is most often used in web development, data science, data analysis, statistics, machine learning, and scientific computing, like analyzing genes.

Data science has grown especially fast in the last five years, says Dmitry Trofimov, project lead for the Datalore project. As jobs like data scientists and data engineers have been growing, Python, too, has boomed. For example, data scientists may use Python to analyze how often people click on ads to better target them to customers.

"Python is definitely not slowing down," Trofimov told Business Insider. "It's accelerating. It's pretty stable and pretty fast, mostly because of data analytics and data science."

According to an Indeed report in November 2019, Python is the third most in demand tech skill and was listed in 18% of job postings.

Stack Overflow has also seen an increase in jobs that require Python. In 2017, there were 500 jobs per month on Stack Overflow that required Python skills.  In 2018, there were about 750 per month. It's now 1000 jobs per month.

Python programmers in the US make an average salary of $120,000, according to Stack Overflow, and $59,000 globally.

Still, as coronavirus pandemic has thrown nearly every industry into disarray, different organizations have seen different impacts on the demand for Python. 

On Indeed, there has been a decline in demand for data science jobs since March, along with other types of software engineering jobs, while companies are prioritizing jobs like IT and systems engineers to help employees working from home. Likewise, HackerRank saw a 27% decline in roles for Python developers during the pandemic.

However, HackerRank did see a 9% growth in demand for data scientists, who frequently use Python.

"The data that companies are working with right now is unprecedented, and has virtually no correlation to anything most companies have faced," Vivek Ravisankar, cofounder and CEO of HackerRank, told Business Insider. "It's confusing at best, and useless at worst due to the unique circumstances we're facing. This confusion brings an increased need for data scientists, who can parse through increasingly complex data and draw out trends and notable insights that could help companies get a leg up on their competitors."

The firm notes that it's possible this growth may have occurred even without the effects of COVID-19, since data science has been one of the fastest-growing job roles for several years already.

Vivek Ravisankar, CEO and co-founder of HackerRank, shared his top books on coding with Business Insider. HackerRank

Even though the pandemic has put many tech companies under uncertainty, Indeed's Konkel says companies see data science as an investment, and many jobs outside tech — like medical research — require Python skills. 

"If someone was interested in learning Python pre-COVID, I would encourage it," Konkel said. "I wouldn't interpret it as a silver bullet."

The future of Python

In the last nine to twelve months, Stack Overflow has seen an acceleration in the number of questions asked about Python each day, though that rate exploded during the coronavirus pandemic. Starting in the second half of March, questions about Python went from 750 on average per day to between 1100 and 1200 questions. 

Jason Punyon, developer at Stack Overflow, suspects that this is because Python was already popular, but that during the pandemic, people have more time to pick up and toy with the language. 

Python is also a gateway language: It helps people learn about what programming is and become more confident about learning new languages. Because it's possible to pick it up without a computer science degree, Python can help narrow the diversity gap in programming, University of Michigan's Dr. Severance said. 

"If we think about economic justice and who your parents are and what economic status you lived in and where you were born, it's really difficult for a person that did not get born into an ideal situation to find their way into and survive a computer science degree," Severance said, citing how women and minorities have long been underrepresented in the programming field.

There are now more opportunities for people of all ages, races, genders, and economic backgrounds to learn programming through online resources, and he says that Python is "the enabler" for that. Tech does, of course, still have a long way to go, he added. 

"For me, I'm proud that I graduate more people than every computer science department in the whole world," Severance said. "To change the world in a positive way through technology, this is just the beginning."

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Signal at 646.376.6106, Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request.

Original author: Rosalie Chan

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Dec
31

New YouTube policies demonetize more gaming content

Last week, the wildly popular game "Fortnite" got an update on Apple and Android smartphones that allowed players to bypass Apple and Google's digital payment systems. Instead of Apple and Google, the payment went directly to "Fortnite" studio Epic Games.In response, Apple and Google pulled "Fortnite" from their respective digital storefronts and cited the update as a terms of service violation. Epic Games sued both companies shortly thereafter for what it says is anticompetitive behavior.On Monday, the legal saga got more complicated: Epic filed for a temporary restraining order against Apple to keep the company from "removing, de-listing, refusing to list or otherwise making
unavailable the app 'Fortnite,' including any update thereof."Epic says that Apple is threatening to boot it from the Apple Developer Program — a move that Epic says would force it to discontinue iOS and Mac support for Unreal Engine, its popular game development software. That could mean big headaches for the many developers using Unreal Engine on iOS.If approved by a judge, the temporary restraining order could put "Fortnite" back on Apple's smartphone and tablets.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The legal battle between Apple and "Fortnite" maker Epic Games got another wrinkle on Monday: Epic Games filed a temporary restraining order against Apple with the intention of getting "Fortnite" back on Apple's App Store.

If granted by a judge, the restraining order would legally stop Apple from "removing, de-listing, refusing to list or otherwise making unavailable the app 'Fortnite,' including any update thereof." 

In short: It would put "Fortnite" back on the App Store, and stop Apple from blocking updates to the app.

Moreover, the filing revealed the potentially far-wider impact of Apple and Epic's legal fight. Epic will lose access to Apple's Developer Program by August 28th, the company said, if its app doesn't comply with App Store guidelines. This would mean that all of Epic's apps in the iOS App Store would be pulled from listing. Importantly, Epic says, getting booted from the program would also mean it can't access certain Apple technology for developers. 

Beyond "Fortnite," Epic also creates the Unreal Engine software suite – a set of software that's used to create games, including the smartphone versions of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds."

Without access to Apple's developer technology, Epic says that it would be unable to issue updates to the Unreal Engine on iOS or Mac, which would in turn mean that any developer using the software to would be unable to update their own games to support the new versions of iOS and Mac OS coming this year. 

In its filing, Epic and CEO Tim Sweeney indicate that this would cause big problems for Unreal Engine users, who would have to undergo the significant challenge of retooling their games on iOS and Mac, as well as for Epic itself, which would have to discontinue support for Apple's platforms in the software.

"Fortnite" was pulled from Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store late last week following an update issued by Epic that allowed users to bypass Apple and Google's digital payment systems. Instead of buying in-game virtual money ("V-bucks") through Apple or Google, players could buy them directly from Epic – at a 30% discount, no less.

In response, the two main smartphone conglomerates pulled "Fortnite" from their respective digital storefronts. 

Epic Games, anticipating as much, filed suits against each company. Epic also published a parody of Apple's infamous 1984 advertisement, albeit within the "Fortnite" universe:

When reached for comment regarding Monday's filing from Epic Games, an Apple offered the following statement late on Monday night:

"The App Store is designed to be a safe and trusted place for users and a great business opportunity for all developers. Epic has been one of the most successful developers on the App Store, growing into a multibillion dollar business that reaches millions of iOS customers around the world," the statement said. "We very much want to keep the company as part of the Apple Developer Program and their apps on the Store. The problem Epic has created for itself is one that can easily be remedied if they submit an update of their app that reverts it to comply with the guidelines they agreed to and which apply to all developers. We won't make an exception for Epic because we don't think it's right to put their business interests ahead of the guidelines that protect our customers."

Original author: Ben Gilbert

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Dec
29

How Barcelona’s Piccolo Studio is crafting After Us

Google is asking the government to let it test next-generation 6GHz WiFi in dozens of cities across the US, according to filings seen by Business Insider.The company wants to test the new technology in 17 states in total, and several cities within California.6GHz WiFi will be a major upgrade, but don't expect it to arrive in devices for some time to come.Are you a Google insider with more to share? Contact this reporter using encrypted email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or encrypted messaging apps Signal/Telegram (628-228-1836).Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In April, the Federal Communications Commission voted to open up a chunk of spectrum in the 6GHz band that would eventually usher in faster WiFi. 

Unsurprisingly, Google wants in on the action.

The company has requested government approval to test next-generation 6GHz WiFi in dozens of cities, according to Federal Communications Commission filings seen by Business Insider.

In a redacted version of a letter dated last Saturday, Google asks the FCC for "authorization to conduct radio experiments in and near the 6GHz band (5650 MHz - 7125 MHz)."

Google is requesting to test across 17 states in total: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Google wants to test in just one or two cities in each state — except in its home of California, of course, where it's requesting to test in seven cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"Google proposes to conduct experimental propagation testing in the 6GHz band to produce technical information relevant to the utility of these frequencies for providing reliable broadband connections," the company wrote in the request.

A Google spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

When the FCC voted to open up a section of the 6GHz band for unlicensed use, several of the big tech companies were supportive, but some voiced opposition. AT&T said at the time that the ruling opened up risks of interference with the existing infrastructure.

In its test proposal, Google appears to acknowledge some of these fears, promising its work will be conducted "without harmful interference to other authorized users."

6Ghz WiFi would deliver faster speeds by more than doubling the available WiFi frequencies. but don't expect those blazing-fast speeds to arrive in devices for a few months — and maybe even longer for Google, which has asked for 24 months to carry out its testing.

We don't know the exact purpose for Google's testing, but there are several reasons it will be interested. The company is already in the business of internet delivery. It has its own range of Nest home WiFi devices, while Access – a sister company that sits under its parent Alphabet – is focused on delivering ultra-high-speed Fiber internet to people's homes. 

Plus, it has a range of devices such as smartphones and smart speakers that it will obviously want to work without a hitch, not to mention plans for plenty of future devices that could take advantage of the next-generation wireless standard.

Get the latest Google stock price here.

Original author: Hugh Langley

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  52 Hits
Jan
05

Sony unveils Project Leonardo, a new controller for accessible gaming

Tesla registered 24% fewer cars in China during July than it did in June, a state-backed group said.The slump comes as the world's largest market makes a rebound from pandemic-induced lows. China is increasingly important to Tesla's success, but competitors are slowly beginning to encroach. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla registrations in China decreased 24% between June and July, a state-backed industry group said, as China's auto market stages a comeback from pandemic-induced lows. 

As first reported by Bloomberg on Monday, China Automotive Information Net said Tesla registered 11,456 cars built in the country in July. Tesla, like most of its competitors, does not break out monthly figures. 

The news follows a separate report from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, which last week showed passenger-car sales staging an 8.5% rebound in July compared to last year. The group said overall sales, which include commercial vehicles and trucks, were up 16.4% after a dramatic plunge earlier this year amid the pandemic.

Between June and July 2020, when Tesla had its 24% drop, numbers from the China Passenger Car Association showed a dip in overall vehicle sales as well. 

China is widely seen as the linchpin for Tesla's continued growth. The country accounted for 23% of Tesla's overall revenues in the second quarter, according to regulatory filings — the highest share ever. But competition is heating up.

Nio — already called the "Tesla of China" by some industry watchers — last week reported quarterly financials that topped Wall Street's expectation while tripling vehicles sold compared to the same period of 2019. To be sure, however, the company's deliveries of 3,533 in July are still far overshadowed by Tesla's numbers, which topped 90,000 in the second quarter.

Like Tesla, Nio's stock has also seen massive gains this year, with shares up more than 250% since January 1.

"We continue to believe EV demand in China is starting to accelerate in July/August with Tesla competing with a number of domestic and international competitors for market share," Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush with a remarkably bullish outlook on Tesla, told clients Monday. "We believe Tesla thus far in 3Q has seen strong demand in Europe and China with the US market remaining softer."

Original author: Graham Rapier

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Jan
05

Sony shows racing footage from Gran Turismo movie coming in August — and GT is coming to PSVR 2

Attentive is a buzzy New York ad tech startup.But it might never have been born if investor Scott Friend, a partner with Bain Capital Ventures, hadn't told founder and CEO Brian Long that his original idea for the company was mediocre.Friend and Long had met and grew to trust one another when Friend invested in Long's previous startup, TapCommerce, which sold to Twitter for $100 million in 2014.Long had VCs pounding down his door offering excellent terms for his second idea, he told Business Insider. He had the product built and a big customer.But Friend convinced him that his idea wouldn't pan out in the long run, Friend told us.Because Long trusted Friend, he listened and Attentive was born: a company that makes a mobile messaging app used by over 3,000 brands and organizations, including Coach, Sephora.Here's how their friendship helped turn Attentive into a company that might "go on forever."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Attentive is a New York startup with pedigreed founders and fast success that ad tech VCs are watching.

Attentive offers a mobile messaging app used by over 3,000 brands and organizations, including Coach, Sephora, and Urban Outfitters. Founded in 2016, it has raised a total of $163 million from firms like Bain, IVP, and Sequoia, including an oversubscribed $110 million round that closed in April, raised while the economy was melting down from the pandemic.

But such success might not have happened if Bain Capital's Scott Friend hadn't told Attentive CEO Brian Long that Long's original idea for Attentive was mediocre. This even though Long had already launched a product and signed a big customer.

Friend and Long forged a friendship back in 2013, when Long was running his previous startup TapCommerce and Friend became an investor and board member. 

Long and the TapCommerce team were rising stars, Friend thought at the time.

"They were firing on all cylinders," Friend told Business Insider. At the first board meeting, Friend recalled, the startup's revenue projections were actually higher than what they had originally pitched. It didn't take long for Friend to develop a "fundamental trust" in Long, 

Soon after, in 2014, TapCommerce sold to Twitter in 2014 for $100 million.

With that kind of track record, when Long set out for his second venture, he had lots of VC suitors knocking on his door, Friend said.

Long acknowledged that other investors were offering bigger, more tempting term sheets, but he selected Friend because they had already built up a lot of trust with one another.

"The analogy to it being marriage is a good one," Long said of the relationship between founder and VC, "but I actually think that it's more than a marriage. There's no way to really end your relationship with an investor."

While Friend was game to invest in Long's company again, he was underwhelmed with it. 

"The category they were experimenting in with mobile workforce management was a robust category," Friend said. The founders "could've raised money for that, for sure."

But Friend had previously met with over half a dozen other startups working in the area and felt that the idea would not lead to an attractive exit. The VC thought this even though Attentive had already obtained the Holy Grail for startups: traction.

"They had built something," Friend explained. "They were getting early trials." The startup even scored a multi-year contract with a major public company. 

Still, Friend advised the co-founders to switch gears. 

Despite the early signs of success, Long said he wasn't "feeling great about" the startup's direction either.

When he heard Friend's advice, he, to the surprise of the customer, pulled out of the contract and "pivoted into what became Attentive," he said.

"Relative to what they're doing now," Friend said, their first idea "would've been a disaster."

Scott friend led Bain's investment in TapCommerce in 2014 and the firm's investment in Attentive in 2017. Bain Capital Ventures

Far too often, Long explained, founders are too nervous to seek out candid feedback about their products.

"You get a lot of false signals when you meet a friend of a friend," Long said, referring to the types of people entrepreneurs often lean on at first to seek advice. Usually "they're just being polite."

Another major challenge is that many VCs, especially when funding seed and Series A rounds, prioritize founders' previous successes rather than the actual products they've pitched.

Long's track record with TapCommerce meant that he could have raised funds for just about any idea he had, including mobile workforce management, but that doesn't mean his new company would have automatically turned into "the large-scale, high-growth business" that Attentive has become today, Friend said.

Now, "Attentive may be in the rare situation where the company goes on forever," Friend said, hinting that an IPO might be on the horizon. 

Original author: Alex Torres

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Dec
29

What is data science? The applications and approaches

The market research firm Canalys named Google Cloud the leading cloud in the retail industry. That's notable, given that rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are seen to dominate the overall cloud computing industry.Under CEO Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud has placed its focus on appealing directly to six specific industries, including retail — a strategy that includes hiring sales and marketing staff dedicated to that purpose. Canalys says that in Google Cloud's ability to offer advertising and search services to retailers alongside its core cloud offering makes it stand out from Microsoft, and those same customers like that it doesn't compete in e-commerce the way that Amazon does.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

One of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's key strategies to take on the dominant Amazon Web Services and Microsoft has been to focus on selling directly to certain, specific industries. Now, a new report from market research Canalys shows this initiative has borne fruit, as Google Cloud is named the leading cloud in the retail sector.

Analysts say that this is thanks to Google Cloud's abilities to offer advertising and search services alongside its core cloud platform, its industry-specific focus, and that it's not seen as a competitor in e-commerce, the way that leading cloud platform Amazon Web Services is. 

Google Cloud already has some major retail customer wins under its belt. Earlier this month, Google Cloud announced an expanded multi-year partnership with Best Buy to provide infrastructure and analytics services to help with retail strategy and customize shopping experiences. Google Cloud also counts retailers Costco and Target as customers. 

Still, Google Cloud is far behind AWS and Microsoft when it comes to cloud market share in the United States, with Alibaba also a strong contender on the global stage.

Retail is one of the six industries targeted by Kurian's strategy, with the others being financial services, health care, manufacturing, media and entertainment, and the public sector. As part of this master plan,  Google Cloud has hired salespeople aggressively, as well as forged partnerships to win over customers in each sector.

As part of the initiative, Google Cloud now has a sales team entirely focused on retail customers, while also building specific products like Google Cloud for Retail, designed to help retailers with hosting, inventory management, search, and product recommendation. It also offers AI-powered search engine optimization services, a boon to sellers.

The coronavirus pandemic has likely only accelerated Google's appeal to retailers, many of whom were forced to double down on e-commerce as physical retail stores closed or reduced their capacity in the name of public health. That means using a platform like Google Cloud to modernize and go online.

Read more: Here's how Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are making their big pushes to win over customers in niche markets like retail and finance

"Especially during this pandemic, people need to move their online experience along," Canalys research analyst Blake Murray told Business Insider. "Google is in a great place to do that, They are leaders using artificial intelligence and machine learning. I think it gives them an edge in that way."

Google Cloud isn't the only cloud company going after the retail sector: Amazon Web Services has made its own play for the space.

AWS was originally designed for Amazon's internal use, meaning it has a notable e-commerce pedigree, as well as a partner program focused on retail. Nike and Disney are both big AWS customers. However, on the other hand, many of the retailers that AWS is going after are also competitors on some level, which could turn them away. 

"Due to this competitive aspect, many major retailers have opted to work with other cloud service providers," Murray said. 

Microsoft, meanwhile, has a huge, decades-old partner-network with over 2,000 retail-specific applications, Murray notes. 

However, Murray says, Google's strong position in search and advertising makes it appealing to retailers, as well as its charm offensive in the sector. Google Cloud gives customers more customizable contracts and service "in a way that's arguably better off than Microsoft is," Murray says.

Murray says that ultimately, Google Cloud's momentum with retailers is a sign that the company has a real shot at catching up with its rivals, but that it's far from a sure thing.

"They can work with huge retailers," Murray said. "They have customized solutions and support teams ready to go. It's a big question over time. Can Google catch up to Microsoft and AWS? I think the answer is 'yes,' but it really depends on how they utilize their strategy and how well it works out in the long term, not just in retail but all the other verticals."

Do you work at Google Cloud? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Signal at 646.376.6106, Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request. 

Original author: Rosalie Chan

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Jan
02

My 13 favorite AI stories of 2022 | The AI Beat

San Francisco housing inventory has risen 96% year-over-year, meaning there are nearly twice as many homes listed for sale as there were this time last year, per a Zillow report.The statistic is just one of the latest in a growing pile of evidence that the pandemic and a rise in remote work are allowing residents to leave for more affordable places.San Francisco is just one of the major cities across the country is at the center of a debate around the post-coronavirus future of urban areas.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Nearly twice as many homes are for sale in San Francisco as residents continue to leave one of the most expensive cities in the country amid a pandemic-driven exodus.

According to a Zillow report published last week, housing inventory is up 96% from this time last year, and listing prices have also dropped by 5%. Though you'll still spot San Francisco's infamously high price tags on online housing sites — Zillow lists the city's median home value at about $1.45 million.

The report points out that other metro areas are not seeing the flood of new listings that San Francisco is experiencing — inventory in and around cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, and Boston is either steady or dropping.

The Zillow report is just the latest data point in a growing consensus that more people are leaving San Francisco during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reports of residents leaving the city are nothing new and predate the COVID-19 pandemic — soaring housing prices, a high cost of living, and other factors have been cited as key drivers to people exiting the city in recent years. But the "urban flight" from the city has been accelerated as some of the city's most attractive amenities — like museums, indoor restaurants, and bars — remain shuttered and as the rise of remote work has allowed workers in tech and other sectors to move to places with cheaper costs of living. 

Tech workers are a major part of the region's talent pool, and industry giants like Facebook and Google have announced that their workforces will be working from home well into 2021.

Moving companies in the San Francisco Bay Area have seen a surge in business in recent months, as Business Insider's Rob Price reported. And many in Silicon Valley have escaped to surrounding areas, like the affluent wine country to the north, where wealthy homebuyers have reportedly fled dense San Francisco to snatch up hillside homes.

Since the onset of the pandemic, a debate has ensued on whether or not people will want to live in major US metro areas in the short and long term. 

Original author: Katie Canales

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Jan
02

2023 could be the year for large language models

Jeff Bezos appears to have grown his Southern California real estate portfolio once again.Back in February, Bezos became the new owner of the Warner estate, a sprawling compound in Beverly Hills, California, that he purchased for $165 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The estate features a 13,600-square-foot mansion, two guesthouses, a pool, and a tennis court. Now, both Variety and Daily Mail report that Bezos is the new owner of an adjacent house, which he is said to have purchased for $10 million. The three bedroom, five bathroom house is directly next door to the Warner estate and shares a hedge with the compound. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jeff Bezos appears to be compiling a massive Beverly Hills compound. 

Back in February, the Amazon CEO purchased the Warner estate, a piece of Hollywood history belonging to billionaire David Geffen. The $165 million sale broke a record for the most expensive home sale in California state history. 

Now, Bezos appears to have made another purchase, this time right next door: a $10 million home that shares a hedge line with the Warner estate. According to property records viewed by both Variety and Daily Mail, Bezos is the new owner of the 1930s-era home on a side street in Beverly Hills' Benedict Canyon neighborhood. 

A spokesperson for Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the sale. 

While there are few photos of the estate and the adjacent home, Los Angeles County has plenty of aerial views of the property that give us our best look yet at Bezos' rumored purchases. 

Original author: Avery Hartmans

  57 Hits
Jan
02

What’s in store for cybersecurity in 2023

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Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell driving to the basket against a trio of Milwaukee Bucks' players during a game earlier this season. Associated Press The 2019-20 NBA season officially resumed on July 30 with 22 teams quarantined at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.The 2020 NBA Playoffs began on August 17 after the Portland Trail Blazers claimed the final playoff spot with a win over the Memphis Grizzlies in a decisive play-in game.The NBA has scheduled four playoff games every day during the first round with broadcasts on ESPN, TNT, ABC and NBA TV.

The NBA Playoffs are now underway in Orlando, Florida with four back-to-back games scheduled each day during the first round of the playoffs. The NBA will air every playoff game on TNT, ESPN, ABC, and NBA TV, with each series scheduled to play every other day.

The coronavirus pandemic brought the NBA to a sudden halt on March 11 when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. At the time, teams were more than 60 games into the 82-game season and preparing for the playoffs.

Four months later, hundreds of NBA players, coaches, and staff have quarantined themselves at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, for the NBA Restart, giving 22 of the league's 30 teams an opportunity to complete the season and win the 2020 NBA Finals.

Now the number of teams has been whittled down to 16 after a series of games that concluded the NBA regular season and decided the final playoff seeds. The Portland Trail Blazers earned the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference after defeating the Memphis Grizzlies in a decisive play-in game. Blazers guard Damian Lillard was voted the most valuable player of the restart period after averaging 37.6 points through eight games to lead his team to the playoffs.

As of August 12, the NBA reported that none of the 342 players in the NBA Restart "bubble" had tested positive for coronavirus. However, ongoing family concerns, injuries, and logistical issues could lead to some players leaving the quarantined site. As teams are eliminated from the playoffs, the remaining players will be able to welcome their families to the Orlando bubble.

How to watch the NBA Playoffs starting August 17

The NBA has posted schedule information for the first round playoffs series through August 30, though times are subject to change as teams are eliminated. The 2020 NBA playoffs will still use a best of seven format, so teams need to win four games to advance to the next round.

Games will be broadcast on ESPN, ABC, TNT, and NBA TV. If you subscribe to these channels through your cable provider you can stream the games on your phone or PC. If you're not an NBA TV cable subscriber, you can pay $20 for NBA TV streaming for the rest of the season, or $5.99 for a single game.

Otherwise, you can use a live TV streaming service like Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV, and YouTube TV to watch every NBA playoff game. Of those options, AT&T TV Choice and YouTube TV both include access to ESPN, ABC, TNT, and NBA TV. Each service costs $64.99 a month.

Meanwhile, Hulu + Live TV includes access to ESPN, ABC, and TNT for $54.99 a month. With that said, Hulu + Live does not offer NBA TV. Finally, Sling TV Orange with the Sports Extra add-on offers access to ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV for $40 a month. ABC, however, is not included with Sling TV. ESPN+ doesn't provide access to the live NBA games so you'll need to opt for a service that streams the cable channel directly.

The NBA Finals will begin on September 30

Kawhi Leonard celebrates in Toronto after winning last year's NBA Finals. Associated Press

The NBA Finals are scheduled to begin on September 30, and the last possible date for Game 7 of the NBA Finals is October 13, 2020. The NBA will update schedule and network information as the playoffs progress.

 

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Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Original author: Kevin Webb

  46 Hits
Jan
05

Acer launches Nitro and Swift gaming laptops with AMD Ryzen 7000 processors

TikTok has transformed the music industry in recent months as tracks that go viral on the app have taken over the Billboard 100 and Spotify Viral 50 charts.Business Insider spoke with Corey Sheridan, TikTok's head of music-content operations for North America, and Isabel Quinteros, its senior manager of music partnerships and artist relations, to learn more about how the company works with artists, record labels, and users to shape the music experience on the app."Music is part of the DNA of the product itself," Sheridan said. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

TikTok has captured the full attention of the music industry.

Record labels, artists, and music marketers are well aware of the app's ability to drive song streams and album purchases (a marketer recently told Rolling Stone that a TikTok ban would be a "s---show" for the industry).

And as TikTok has become an essential promotional tool for labels and artists alike, the company's music operations and artist- and label-relations employees have become industry tastemakers. The team has a series of levers it can pull to promote tracks on TikTok that end up topping the Billboard 100 and Spotify Viral 50 charts.

These "promo levers" include adding songs to playlists in the "Sounds" section of the app (where all users go to create videos), promoting artists or tracks in a banner carousel unit that lives at the top of that page and applying keywords on the back end to optimize song discoverability in the app's search interface. TikTok also works with digital service providers like Apple Music to curate playlists off-platform.

The company takes into consideration the priorities of record labels and artists — many of whom are doing influencer marketing or ad campaigns on TikTok — when deciding which songs to promote.

"We have dedicated points of contact for all of the labels, and we work very closely with them to understand what their priorities are," Corey Sheridan, TikTok's head of music-content operations for North America, told Business Insider. "If they have an influencer campaign working on a specific single, or on the artist side, if we understand that the artist has their own content strategy rollout, that's definitely a very strong signal."

The company also closely watches patterns in its users' videos to identify new songs that are gaining popularity and could benefit from more in-app exposure.

"One of the things that's so unique about TikTok, and this is no secret, is that hits that are born and driven from TikTok often aren't focus tracks," Sheridan said. "It's what's resonating with the community that ultimately drives virality."

Such was the case for Megan Thee Stallion's 2020 single "Savage," which took off on TikTok, despite its label 300 Entertainment's initial plans to promote another track on her album, "Captain Hook."

"The focus track that they really wanted to push was 'Captain Hook,' and they had all of these creative ideas of how they wanted to roll it out," said Isabel Quinteros, TikTok's senior manager of music partnerships and artist relations.

"My advice to them was, 'Hey let's just give it a minute. Let's take a beat. Let's see what our community is really gravitating towards, and then let's pull our levers against that particular track,' which in fact came to be 'Savage,'" she added.

Onboarding new artists to TikTok when their songs begin to 'bubble'

Similar to third-party influencer marketers, TikTok's music team looks at video-engagement metrics like comments, shares, likes, and views to understand which songs are becoming popular among its users. The company will often identify that an artist is surging on TikTok before the artist is aware.

"When we see something that is bubbling up, part of my team's scope of work is making sure that we're reaching out to these artists, giving them support in the app, and ensuring that they're onboarded properly," Quinteros said. "Some of them don't even really know that they're trending in the app until after we reach out to them, which is an interesting dynamic."

While Quinteros said she's worked with stars like Jason Derulo who have fully embraced TikTok as a promotional tool, her team also encounters artists who are hesitant to join the app because of preconceived notions about what it means to be a TikToker.

"There's always that question of like, 'Hey, TikTok is cool, but I don't really want to dance. It's just not my thing.' And so there's a lot of educational best practices that come into play," Quinteros said. "Ultimately the goal is for them to have fun with the app and be able to connect with fans and be creative and that's kind of what guides the work that we do."

For a full breakdown of how the TikTok music team and other industry players are using the app to transform popular music in 2020, read this story:

And for more stories on how record labels, artists, and marketers are taking advantage of music trends on TikTok, check out these other Business Insider posts:

Original author: Dan Whateley

  52 Hits
Jan
05

Sony Playstation VR will launch with at least 30 titles

Apple's iOS 14 update introduces a new accessibility feature called "Back Tap.""Back Tap" makes it possible to execute certain actions on your phone, like taking a screenshot or launching a shortcut, just by tapping on the back of your device two or three times.iOS 14 officially launches in the fall, but you can try it early by installing the public beta.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When Apple introduced its iOS 14 update in June, it spent much of its presentation highlighting updates coming to the home screen and apps like Safari, Messages, and Siri. But iOS 14 is also full of new accessibility-oriented features, among the most interesting being a new capability that lets you perform actions by simply tapping the back of your iPhone.

Although it's meant for those who may face challenges using their iPhone because of physical or motor impairments, the new "Back Tap" feature can be useful for anyone looking for a quicker way to take a screenshot or launch an app.

The software update will be launching for iPhones in the fall, but you can try an early version of the update by installing the public beta via Apple's website. In addition to features like Back Tap, iOS 14 brings broader, sweeping changes to the iPhone like the ability to add widgets to the home screen and a new App Library that automatically organizes and sorts your apps.

When iOS 14 launches, Back Tap will work on the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Here's how to use it. 

Original author: Lisa Eadicicco

  47 Hits
Jan
05

Sony Honda Mobility Afeela car will debut in 2026 with Qualcomm tech

The Trump administration's moves to throttle TikTok are serving as a kind of wake-up call for the venture and startup communities about the risk of doing business with foreign companies and investors. The administration's attack on TikTok is rooted in two longstanding authorities that it has been using more aggressively to scrutinize foreign investment, particularly in tech firms.Both authorities give presidents and their aides wide discretion to act in the interests of national security, a concept that they are free to define for themselves and increasingly has been considered to encompass economic issues.Venture investors say the moves add to the risks of dealing with foreign buyers and investors and may make them wary of doing so.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Trump administration's crackdown on TikTok has served as a kind of wake-up call for Silicon Valley about the risks of working with foreign investors and companies.

On Friday, the president issued an executive order telling TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to undo the merger that led to the app's expansion into the US and around the world. The order followed one from last week that would effectively ban the video-sharing app in the US. And those actions came in the wake of threats by the administration to force a sale of TikTok's US and other operations and essentially undo a years-old acquisition that paved the way for its expansion into the country.

Together, the moves show the increasingly skeptical view the US government is taking of foreign investment — particularly from China — into technology and internet companies. They also illustrate the president's far-reaching powers to block or unwind such deals, even years after the fact, or throttle foreign-owned companies seeking to do business in the US.

"I don't feel that enough of the venture companies and the [private equity] backed companies in tech and data understand that this ... could be a real issue," said Doreen Edelman, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler and the chair of the law firm's global trade and policy group.

The president is using his emergency powers to attack TikTok

The president's moves against TikTok have been undergirded by two primary sources of power — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which itself has its foundation in a series of laws and executive orders. Both IEEPA and CFIUS allow the president to take steps to protect national security.

IEEPA allows the president to restrict or bar US individuals or companies from doing business with a foreign entity after declaring a national emergency related to an "unusual and extraordinary threat" from a foreign actor. The law has been used primarily to put in place sanctions, such as those President Jimmy Carter slapped on Iran after the hostage crisis in that country, which started in 1979, and those that Trump put on foreign actors who interfered in US elections.

Trump's executive order last week was based on his authority under IEEPA. The president, who had already declared in May last year that the acquisition of certain technologies and services represented a national emergency, said TikTok amounted to one part of that threat. In his order, he declared that in 45 days, any transactions between US individuals or entities and TikTok would be prohibited.

The president has extremely broad powers under IEEPA, and companies or people targeted by it have little way to defend themselves in court against it, said Amy Deen Westbrook, a professor of international and commercial law at Washburn University School of Law.

"We're talking about a national security determination by the executive, which is almost unreviewable," Westbrook said.

Trump's cabinet and aides have also been scrutinizing TikTok

CFIUS, meanwhile, is an interagency group composed of presidential cabinet members and advisers, including the secretaries of Treasury, State, and Defense. The committee has the power to review transactions involving foreign actors purchasing or investing in US companies or real estate. It can approve such deals, force the parties involved to modify the deals to address national security concerns, or recommend to the president that the deals be blocked.

It was the president's authority under CFIUS that he used Friday to order the unwinding of ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly, which led to TikTok becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

In the past, the parties involved in foreign investments or acquisitions weren't required to notify CFIUS. But under a 2018 update to the laws underlying the committee, such parties now have an obligation to alert it to certain deals, most notably those involving companies that take part in the production of particular technologies or infrastructure or collect sensitive data on 1 million or more US individuals.

Some of CFIUS's authorities are extremely broad. It can review and force changes to deals long after they were finalized by the parties involved, if it was never notified about them when they happened. That retrospective power can extend back to deals that are years, even decades, old.

"There's no time limit," Edelman said. "Anytime in the future, the government can decide this is a national security issue and come after the transaction and require a divestiture."

And a decision by CFIUS to approve a deal by sending the parties a "no-action" letter doesn't necessarily mean they're home free. In 2006, the committee gave approval for a transaction in which a company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, would purchase a British one that operated several US ports. Despite CFIUS's approval, Congress objected to the deal and essentially forced the Dubai company to sell the US operations to an American firm.

"Even if you negotiate one of these mitigation agreements with CFIUS, or even if CFIUS gives you the thumbs-up right away, there's no guarantee that that's a permanent approval," Westbrook said.

Another tricky thing about the CFIUS rules is that it takes a very broad look when considering the nationality of parties involved in a transaction. An entity can be considered a US business even if it's based elsewhere and has a minimal presence in this country. The statute underlying the committee defines a US business as simply a person or entity engaged in interstate commerce in this country, no matter where they're based.

On the flip side, an acquirer or investor can come under scrutiny even if that entity is based in the US or a friendly country. The CFIUS process looks at whether such parties are ultimately owned or controlled by foreign actors that may trigger a national security concern.

TikTok got snared by CFIUS's broad powers

TikTok got caught up by both of those CFIUS provisions — the committee's broad definition of nationality and its power to review deals that long since closed — thanks to ByteDance's acquisition in 2017 of a rival video-sharing service, Musical.ly. The app, previously focused on a Chinese audience, became a US and global phenomenon after that deal. ByteDance rebranded Musical.ly, which already had tens of millions of users around the world, as TikTok, combined the app with its own, and used Musical.ly as the basis for TikTok's global expansion.

Both ByteDance and Musical.ly were based in China. At the time of the deal, ByteDance was not required to notify CFIUS about it, and it didn't do so.

But Musical.ly had a US office in Santa Monica, California, and millions of US users. That was enough for CFIUS to have the authority to launch a retroactive review of the deal two years after the parties announced it.

In terms of the size of the presence a company has to have in the US to fall under CFIUS's jurisdiction, "there's no de minimis," Edelman said. "There's no lower threshold."

Another complicating factor: With both CFIUS and IEEPA, "national security" is left largely undefined, the legal experts told Business Insider. That's intentional because it allows the government to adapt to new challenges or policy priorities as times and administrations change.

In years past, national security was usually construed in terms of military or geopolitical threats, rather than economic ones. But that's no longer the case.

"The distinction between economic and national security, or military national security, is fully blurred at this point," Westbrook said.

Venture investors are worried about the risks

The stepped-up use of CFIUS and IEEPA by the Trump administration — and potentially by its successors — poses a distinct risk for the venture and startup industries. The vast majority of startups that don't go out of business are acquired, either by other companies or by private-equity firms.

Foreign buyers play a big role in that market. Nearly 30% of all venture-backed startups acquired last year were bought by foreign companies, according to PitchBook. And of all the money that was spent to buy or acquire those startups, nearly 40% came from foreign investors.

At least some venture investors are worried about the increasing government scrutiny of TikTok and other such deals. The Trump administration has a legitimate concern about China's access to data on American citizens and companies, as well as China's encouragement for the censorship of criticism of companies based there, Duncan Davidson, a general partner at the venture firm Bullpen Capital, said.

But the way the administration has gone about addressing those concerns seems unprincipled and is leading to a lot of uncertainty in the market, he said. Such moves make Duncan less likely to invest in foreign companies or pursue foreign buyers for his startups.

"It seems a little random," he said. "Unpredictability is not good."

Venture investing already entails lots of risk, James Currier, a managing partner at the venture firm NFX, said. Investing in foreign startups adds even more complications — legal, cultural, geopolitical — on top of that, he said.

Venture capitalists invest for the long term. They don't expect a payoff for 10 or more years into the future. They have a lot of experience weighing risks over such time scales. Many successful ones choose to focus solely on their home markets, rather than investing overseas as a way of mitigating such risks, Currier said.

Currier isn't as concerned as Duncan about the influence of Trump's moves against TikTok and other companies on venture investing. But, he said, the aggressive stance the Trump administration has taken toward foreign investment, particularly from China, does compound the problems faced by firms that invest in or seek investment from foreign companies and pushes such firms into largely uncharted territories. Few venture investors have experience navigating trade wars and don't know how such disputes can affect their investments, he said.

"This stuff is not predictable," Currier said. "There's no historical intuition that we as a group have about how these governments might impact the outcome for one of these companies six, seven, eight years from now."

Business Insider reporter Max Jungreis contributed to this story.

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

Original author: Troy Wolverton

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Jan
04

Same As It Ever Was

Lana, a new startup based in Madrid, is looking to be the next big thing in Latin American fintech.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Pablo Muniz, whose last business was backed by one of Spain’s largest financial services institutions, BBVA, Lana is looking to be the all-in-one financial services provider for Latin America’s gig economy workers.

Muniz’s last company, Denizen, was designed to provide expats in foreign and domestic markets with the financial services they would need as they began their new lives in a different country. While the target customer for Lana may not be the same middle to upper-middle-class international traveler that he had previously hoped to serve, the challenges gig economy workers face in Latin America are much the same.

Muniz actually had two revelations from his work at Denizen. The first — he would never try to launch a fintech company in conjunction with a big bank. And the second was that fintechs or neobanks that focus on a very niche segment will be successful — so long as they can find the right niche.

The biggest niche that Muniz saw that was underserved was actually in the gig economy space in Latin America. “I knew several people who worked at gig economy companies and I knew that their businesses were booming and the industry was growing,” he said. “[But] I was concerned about the inequalities.”

Workers in gig economy marketplaces in Latin America often don’t have bank accounts and are paid through the apps on which they list their services in siloed wallets that are exclusive to that particular app. What Lana is hoping to do is become the wallet of wallets for all of the different companies on which laborers list their services. Frequently, drivers will work for Uber or Cabify and deliver food for Rappi. Those workers have wallets for each service.

(Photo by Cris Faga/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Lana wants to unify all of those disparate wallets into a single account that would operate like a payment account. These accounts can be opened at local merchant shops and, once opened, workers will have access to a debit card that they can use at other locations.

The Lana service also has a bill pay feature that it’s rolling out to users, in the first evolution of the product into a marketplace for financial services that would appeal to gig workers, Muniz said.

“We want to become that account in which they receive funds,” he said. “We are still iterating the value proposition to gig economy companies.”

Working with companies like Cabify, and other, undisclosed companies, Lana has plans to roll out in Mexico, Chile, Peru and, eventually, Colombia and Argentina.

Eventually, Lana hopes to move beyond basic banking services like deposits and payments and into credit services. Already hundreds of customers are using the company’s service through the distribution partnership with Cabify, which ran the initial pilot to determine the viability of the company’s offering.

“The idea of creating Lana was initially tested as an internal project at Cabify,” Muniz wrote in an email. “Soon Cabify and some potential investors saw that Lana could have a greater impact as an independent company, being able to serve gig economy workers from any industry and decided to start over a new entrepreneurial project.”

Through those connections with Cabify, Lana was able to bring in other investors like the Silicon Valley-based investment firm Base 10.

“One of the things we’ve been interested in is in inclusion generally and in fintech specifically,” said Adeyemi Ajao, the firm’s co-founder. “We had gotten very close to investing in a couple of fintech companies in Latin America and that is because the opportunity is huge. There are several million people going from unbanked to banked in the region.”

Along with a few other investors, Base 10 put in $12.5 million to finance Lana as it looks to expand. It’s a market that has few real competitors. Nubank, Latin America’s biggest fintech company, is offering credit services across the continent, but most of their end users already have an established financial history.

“Most of their end users are not unbanked,” said Ajao. “With Lana it is truly gig workers… They can start by being a wallet of wallets and then give customers products that help them finance their cars or their scooters.”

The ultimate idea is to get workers paid faster and provide a window into their financial history that can give them more opportunities at other gig economy companies, said Ajao. “The vision would be that someone can plug in their financial information for services. If they’re working for Rappi and have never been an Uber driver and they want to be an Uber driver, Lana can use their financial history with Rappi to offer a loan on a car,” he said.

That financial history is completely inaccessible to a traditional bank, and those established financial services don’t care about the history built in wallets that they can’t control or track. “Today if you’ve been a gig worker and you go to a bank, that’s worth nothing,” said Ajao.

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