WORLD
Meta’s fact-checking reversal lets Mark Zuckerberg drop the charade
The company’s decision to abandon fact-checking lets the CEO walk away from a responsibility he never wanted in the first place
BUSINESS
Will investors get good AI news this week? Don’t bet on
Shareholders in Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Meta want to hear during earning calls that ballooning spending is being offset with new revenue streams. They are likely to be disappointed
BUSINESS
Apple’s tone-deaf iPad ad triggers our darkest AI fears
Crushing human creativity is no way to sell a tablet computer or instill confidence in a tech giant
BUSINESS
Apple needs to move the iPad beyond the toddler stage
The world’s second-most-valuable company, which is introducing new models on Tuesday, should remove its artificial constraints and create a genuinely portable computer
BUSINESS
Apple Antitrust Suit: The US shouldn’t force the company to make a worse iPhone
Apple uses its maniacal control over the user experience on the iPhone to make it a vastly superior smartphone that is more attractive to consumers. But in doing so, it shuts out competitors in a manner that has anticompetitive side effects because of the iPhone’s scale. Attempts to remedy this situation could be painful, unpopular and have a high chance of failure
BUSINESS
Bringing Gemini to iPhones would fix Apple’s and Google’s AI problems
A tie-up that brings Google’s Gemini AI to Apple’s iPhone is a deal that can solve short-term headaches for both companies. Apple devices will get a taste of the cutting-edge AI customers will soon expect as standard and that developers are already demanding. And for Google, its tragicomic tryst with Gemini may be forgotten if iPhone users start taking it seriously
BUSINESS
ByteDance needs to sell TikTok while it can still get top dollar
Even a brief shutdown of TikTok would be cataclysmic to its value. There is strong loyalty toward TikTok from its user base, which runs to 170 million in the US alone. For years, China has blocked American tech companies from having access to its citizens. The US is under no obligation to allow China access to Americans, particularly amid heightened tensions and attendant fears of disinformation and manipulation
BUSINESS
Reddit IPO: Company's biggest risk is its reliance on unpredictable users
Where Reddit differs among its tech peers is in its striking dependence on its user base to keep things operational. Reddit must keep its users satisfied and its efforts to expand its limited (and already unpopular) advertising formats could send users packing. 98% of Reddit’s revenue is made up of advertising income. And of that, 26% came from just 10 ad clients in 2023. Investors will be watching this closely and expect more diversity sooner rather than later
BUSINESS
Amazon deserves to be called out for swindling users
Amazon US announced that Prime Video would no longer be commercial free unless subscribers — even existing ones who had paid for a yearly plan — paid an extra $2.99 a month. The move was part of a mad dash to boost streaming income after years of rampant investment and spiraling blockbuster budgets. You can’t just go stripping away features and expect customers to not speak up just because you need to better balance your books
BUSINESS
Gemini or Bard? Post-ChatGPT, companies grapple with the art of naming AI
Naming any technology is difficult, but AI is doubly so. It has to evoke a sense of the cutting edge, be at once both sophisticated and safe, perhaps even friendly. A good name leaves room for the technology to grow and change without rendering its moniker obsolete or inaccurate. On top of all this, it has to sound cool
BUSINESS
Mark Zuckerberg’s 20-year formula for success has expired
Despite being seen as the big tech “comeback kid” after recovering from 2022’s dwindling share price, Zuckerberg may no longer be able to continue to copy and paste his way out of trouble. The next threat to Meta doesn’t come from easily duplicated up-and-coming social apps but new paradigms in computing altogether
BUSINESS
Apple is holding the final nail for X’s coffin
Apple may act on Elon Musk's invitation to a social media influencer dishing out a mix of chaotic and toxic misinformation and hatred to rejoin Twitter. Apple isn’t the internet, and its first obligation is to its users. X would still be accessible through a mobile browser on the open internet, and Apple has its own free speech right to do as it sees fit
BUSINESS
Google’s and Apple’s walled app stores are still standing — for now
The fees that Apple and Google take from app sales and in-app purchases have long been a significant sticking point that could never last indefinitely as the mobile app market matured. Currently, the fees generate around $200 billion a year for the companies — income they both say is fair compensation for maintaining and running the stores securely
BUSINESS
Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability
Whether board members were justified in seeking to remove Altman isn’t the real issue. What’s truly important is that the board made a decision that was almost instantaneously overturned by the sheer power and popularity of a trailblazing cofounder
BUSINESS
Meet Flip, the startup snatching an opening in ecommerce left by Amazon and TikTok
Buy a product, make a video convincing your friends to buy it, make money, repeat – termed "social commerce" – analysts say this is ecommerce's future and a $100 billion market by 2025. Flip is entering this space amid Amazon missing a compelling social platform and TikTok's limited inroads into shopping
BUSINESS
US Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google isn't going well
Prosecutors have yet to draw a strong enough line between the tech giant’s actions and a direct, measurable harm to the consumer. Google's defence has had the immense benefit of learning from the failings of Microsoft in the anti-trust case on PC software in 1998, especially the importance of minimising digital trails
WORLD
Why Elon Musk is attacking Wikipedia
Musk's Trumpian broadside asking why Wikipedia needed so much money was his latest attack against those disseminating credible information. Unlike X, Wikipedia articles are tightly edited by thousands of mostly volunteer editors. Its guiding principle requires citation for every stated fact ffrom a trusted, verifiable news source with recognised standards
BUSINESS
The moral case for no longer engaging with Elon Musk’s X
There’s money to be made and X’s new incentive structure has turned the site into a hive of so-called engagement farming — posts designed with the sole intent to elicit literally any kind of response: laughter, sadness, fear. Or the best one: hate. Hate is what truly juices the numbers
BUSINESS
US anti-trust regulators aren't wrong about Amazon market dominance
The US FTC says the Amazon algorithm prioritises sellers that store their goods in Amazon warehouses and use Amazon trucks. The fees to do so have increased by an estimated 30% since 2020. Third-party sellers have allegedlt little choice given Amazon’s extreme dominance of e-commerce marketplaces — around 70% in the US
BUSINESS
Sorry, Linda Yaccarino. X is not going to get any better
The CEO’s efforts to win back advertisers to the former Twitter will be continually sabotaged by Elon Musk
BUSINESS
Zuckerberg’s Threads is playing it too safe to beat Musk’s X
Active users on Threads, downloaded some 100 million times initially, has dropped by 60 percent to 70 percent. More troubling for the Meta CEO is that the average time spent daily on Threads has fallen to just 2.5 minutes, against 30 minutes a day for X and around an hour for Instagram
BUSINESS
Just how deep is Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse money pit?
The company has lost $21 billion creating its virtual reality experience since the start of 2022. It’s only a matter of time before investors start demanding answers
BUSINESS
Secretive chatbot developers are making a big mistake
Before we can ponder existential threats of the new technology, Silicon Valley must be forced to disclose more about how their tools are created
BUSINESS
Twitter Rebrand: Elon Musk's X misses the spot in several ways
After losing many users, advertisers, employees and operational stability, the little blue bird, famous internationally, has also been packed off. Even as Musk's quest of ridding the platform of bots has only made the problem worse, comes his idea to turn X into a super app. But tech companies that are bigger and better have given up on this idea
