Category: startup news

Breaking News: Oracle Partners With TikTok

While the hype has been all about Microsoft purchasing TikTok, TikTok rejected Microsoft's bid just this past Sunday and agreed to partner with Trump supporter company Oracle. IG didn't want to be left out either.

Instagram launched Reels to compete with the short-form video platform's signature format. Reels provides the same features of TikTok but built directly into the Instagram Camera - and without the scandal of getting sued for harvesting data from children under 13.

Reels has the editing tools like a timer, countdown clock, and camera effects. This includes the library of licensed music as well as user-recorded audio tracks.

An upcoming article will dive into Reels, for now let's talk about Oracle partnering with TikTok and the US government's stance.

Regarding the sale of TikTok, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC:

“From our standpoint, we’ll need to make sure that the code is, one, secure, Americans’ data is secure, that the phones are secure and we’ll be looking to have discussions with Oracle over the next few days with our technical teams.”

The data and security issues would be key to the federal government’s review & is crucial to determining whether or not to ban TikTok from America completely.

President Trump issued an executive order in August 2020 demanding that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to destroy all data connected to the app’s U.S. users, and then “certify in writing” to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States “that such destruction of data is complete.”

TikTok has also sued the Trump administration over one of the orders, calling it "heavily politicized." China isn't happy with mergers between US companies and Chinese companies in tech either.

Last month China revised rules that regulate the sale of certain kinds of tech to foreign buyers. The updated list includes data processing, speech and text recognition — the kind of tech that used by TikTok.

While those notices did not call out TikTok or ByteDance directly, experts point out that this rule change would likely require ByteDance to get government permission before it could sell TikTok to a foreign company. Enter Oracle from stage left.

TikTok now agreeing to partner with Oracle raises eyebrows, Microsoft is face-planting...but who is Oracle exactly?

The Oracle Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Redwood Shores, California. The company sells database software and technology, cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products—particularly its own brands of database management systems. In 2019, Oracle was the second-largest software company by revenue and market capitalization.

Larry Ellison is the executive chairman and CTO of Oracle and a big Trump supporter, did that play into TikTok's decision to choose Oracle in the bidding war, as a "trusted technological partner"?

What does that even mean? No one is answering that question, Oracle & Tiktok remain silent on what their partnership actually is. Oracle's owner has ties with the president which makes things even weirder.

Larry Ellison is one of the tech industry's most well-known Trump supporters. In February 2020, he hosted a fundraising event for the president that made some of Oracle's workers to stage a walkout in protest. That wasn't the only thing Oracle has done that was called into question.

Larry Ellison Credit: Wikipedia

Oracle has had it's fair share of controversy. Trashgate is one that caught the headlines when Oracle hired an East Coast detective agency to investigate groups that supported rival Microsoft Corporation during its antitrust trial.

The investigation revealed Oracle made a $1,200 offer to janitors at the Association for Competitive Technology to look through Microsoft's trash.

And in 2011 Oracle was under investigation by the US Department of Justice, the SEC and the FBI for bribery in West and Central Africa.

West African countries such as Cote d'Ivoire are economically vulnerable and create a vortex of social pressure for anyone doing business there.

Under conditions of weak local enforcement and weak internal controls, companies can equally be pressured to succumb to bribing which is normal there.

What's more concerning is how fragile Oracle's own security is especially given the context of Trump's executive order and TikTok's current law suits against them for stealing data and selling it to private buyers.

In 2002, Oracle Corporation marketed many of its products using the slogan "Can't break it, can't break in", or "Unbreakable."

Yet, two weeks after its introduction, David Litchfield, Alexander Kornbrust, Cesar Cerrudo and others demonstrated a whole suite of successful attacks against Oracle products.

Where does that leave TikTok if their 'technology partner' is known for having weak security?

Chinese State-Owned media on Monday pointedly reported that ByteDance wouldn't sell TikTok's US operations to Microsoft or Oracle.

State broadcaster CGTN also commented ByteDance won't "give the source code" to any US buyers. Another question is how can Tiktok or rivals continue to be profitable?

Let's talk market viability, ByteDance stated the AI-powered algorithm behind TikTok -- arguably the app's greatest asset -- isn't going to be part of the deal, according to the South China Morning Post.

That begs the question as well, does Tiktok have a lock on their type of social media?

Does Instagram Reels have a chance to fill in the vacuum here?

With Oracle's purchase of TikTok my next big question is how janky will the transition be and will it interrupt the market power TikTok has commandeered so far to make rival companies, like Instagram with their billion size user base, have a chance with Reels?

Reels provides all the trappings of TikTok, built directly into the Instagram camera but doesn't have the same AI.

I think the success of Reels depends also on the marketability of being able to get discovered using it versus the hashtag battle ground of being seen if you aren't already a big time influencer.

Have you used Reels yet? I'm going to try it out this week. What are your thoughts about the 'partnership' between Oracle and TikTok?

. . .

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Mapping the Future With Drone-Powered Reforestation

While the incredible developments in Cellular Architecture are paving the way for the future of biotech, another company is tackling deforestation on a whole new level.

Dendra, formerly known as Biocarbon Engineering, has developed a system of drones that replant trees. They received 2.5 million in funding with some promising projects on the way.

But first, let's examine why cutting down millions of trees everyday is worth investigating solutions to. What are the real effects of clear cutting forests?

Deforestation has side effects that many are not aware of, and it is a rampant issue today that is degrading the biome we rely on to survive.

It's not good for business when your business is located on a river delta that's getting deforested and your mangrove trees aren't there to break the wind and rain if a hurricane or cyclone hits.

Did you know the Amazon actually puts water into the atmosphere? The rainforests pump something like 20 billion tons of water into the atmosphere daily. This means less forests = more drought.

More drought means more massive migrations from coastal cities into inner urban areas, which means higher rents, less capacity and options for when you want to pick out your new house and a huge strain on basic resources for every city that coastal city refugees flee to.

This may mean increased profits for the real estate sector but everyone else will have to also deal with artificially inflated mortgage rates and scarcity.

Deforestation releases more CO2 than cars which average 14% of all carbon emissions, while deforestation contributes to 15% of carbon emissions. This is because when trees are cut down they release the CO2 they were storing back into the air.

Drought, increased green house gasses, erosion, less protection against cyclones and flooding (trees stop floods from over taking a field) - clearly the cons outweigh the pros.

But there is some nice innovation in drone technology that will help remedy the loss of trees.Let's dive into what Dendra is doing with drones and deforestation.

The Dendra system uses satellite and drone-collected data to find out the best location to plant a tree. The planting drones then fire a biodegradable seedpod into the ground with pressurized air at each predetermined spots.

The speed these are fired is around 120 seedpods per minute. The seedpods are filled with a germinated seed, nutrients, and other vital components.

These penetrate the ground, and, activated by moisture, will grow into healthy trees.

What kind of numbers are we talking about for the amount of trees that can be planted?

Two drone pilots, piloting 10 drones can plant 400,000 trees per day. If this was expanded to 400 teams then planting 10 billion trees each year would be feasible.

There is more than one company out there making waves in this field, Droneseed is another one also using Drone tech to 10X tree planting abilities.

Flash Forest as Newsweek reports, is also using drones to replant forests and combat the increased carbon in our atmosphere due to deforestation. Their drones shoot vessels into the dirt.

Each vessel contains three germinated seeds as well as other species which support the area, a fungus called mycorrhizae which helps plants to develop, fertilizers, and other "secret" ingredients.

Are you an Angel Investor? Perhaps you may want to invest in one of these companies on the cutting edge of reforestation. Here's Flash Forest's kickstarter page.

What other promising companies helping with deforestation have you heard of?

. . .

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Cellular Architecture Might Just Save the Planet

As medical tech is rapidly advancing (re: Microbots blog), the world desperately needs businesses to step up and solve the energy crisis, global warming, deforestation and water problems.

Fortunately, in our rapidly advancing world of interconnected geniuses there are solutions coming to some of these planet-wide issues that affect everyone.

Something as simple as a turkey sandwich has a high water cost, but not for all ingredients.

A loaf of bread takes about 240 gallons of water to produce, while one pound of cheese takes about 382 gallons. A simple cheese sandwich adds up to about 56 gallons of water. Add some sliced turkey, and the water footprint jumps to 148 gallons.

Source: https://foodprint.org/issues/the-water-footprint-of-food/

Meat production worldwide, accounts for between 14.5 percent and 18 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions as well.

Additionally, cattle farming is destroying the largest producer of oxygen for the planet, the Amazon rainforest. According to the business section of the Washington Post:

From 2010 to 2017, beef exports climbed 25 percent, to 1.5 million tons, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. To accommodate that growth, cattle ranchers have been pushing their herds into the Amazon, clear-cutting and burning the forest as they go.

You don't have to be a tie dye Woodstock-Whole Foods hippie to crunch the data and see the viability of a business model that relies on depleting oxygen supplies for hamburgers - isn't viable.

Poorly planned resource management strategies mean there will be less hamburgers not more if there isn't a smarter approach to meat production - because when all the land is farmed & water is used up, what then?

The Toll on Biodiversity

The principal drivers of biodiversity loss include habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, pollution and climate change.

Livestock farming isn't by itself 100% detrimental to the environment and biodiversity. In fact, past pastoralism practices helped create high value cultural and natural areas we have today because of the grassland ecosystems that grazing creates.

However, the problem is that many ecosystems created by traditional farming practices have all but disappeared due to increasing agricultural intensification, especially in developed countries.
It comes down to supply and demand. When the demand is greater than the supply, suppliers can be motivated to cut corners or try methods of production that have long lasting damage in peripheral areas.
Hong Kong is the biggest global importer of Brazilian beef products, bringing in about $1.5 billion worth in 2017, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. China is second, at nearly $1 billion, followed by Iran, Egypt and Russia. The United States, which imported $295 million in beef, came in sixth.

The increased demand for meat has resulted in attempts to increase the level of production, where to increase farming outputs, farmers and big corps owning farms have moved livestock out of pastures and into barns so that agricultural areas can be harvested more intensively.

Agricultural intensification has been widely regarded as a driving force of biodiversity loss and whereas traditional farms provided important habitats for biodiversity, many of these important habitats are either declining or have been lost already.

So what's the solution? The whole world has to go vegetarian? Or vegan? While that would solve a ton of problems for reduced water supplies and loss of biodiversity it isn't realistic to expect the entire planet to get on board with changing their diet.

Luckily, there is another way to solve these problems and it begins with a $300,000 dollar burger.

Source: Dw.com

Stem Cell Grown Meat Offers Hope

Cultured stem cell grown meat on the other hand uses 99% less land, and 82 to 96 % less water, as well as producing 78-96% less greenhouse gasses.

The first lab grown hamburger patty cost $300,000 dollars to make. It was made in a Dutch lab at Maastricht University. The material was made from stem cells extracted from a cow's neck. By contrast, now Aleph Farms' small piece of steak costs $50 to produce.

Cellular agriculture is a brand new industry and there are a lot of opportunities for start ups to gain a foot hold here and make it big, just like there is in autonomous surgeon robots of microscopic size in the biotech field.

The Promising New Field Of Cellular Agriculture

San Francisco, California–based Memphis Meats has beef, duck, and chicken under development—with investment from (conventional) meat giant Tyson Foods. JUST, also based in San Francisco, has a chicken product based on cells originally isolated from the feather of a chicken (named Ian).

In 2018, the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association in Washington, D.C., petitioned USDA to restrict the use of the words “beef” & “meat” on product labels to only products taken from animals who “have been born, raised, and harvested in the traditional manner.”

So there is bound to be contention from rivaling industries of traditional farming. The dairy and meat industry are heavily subsidized by the FDA with powerful lobbyists backed by millions of dollars.

Just how will this come to a head when stem cell grown meat becomes a major threat to the meat market? Will big farms stock go down?

Will they try a smear campaign or bribe politicians like the auto industrial complex did for the electric car (before Elon Musk wiped the floor with the more aesthetic-driven Tesla)?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially amidst the new covid-altered world. But there is also one more thing to consider:

Just what is the USDA’s responsibilities when it comes to lab-grown meat? That isn't clear at all here's why:

In order to inspect the lab grown meat, the USDA will need people they don't have right now, with higher qualifications in the type of science needed to even understand what they are regulating.

As of right now, the proposal to have USDA regulate cellular agriculture doesn’t have unanimous support, even in the agriculture subcommittee that advanced the bill to the full Appropriations Committee.

From Sciencemag.com:

Representative Rosa DeLauro (D–CT) argued that the decision is premature. “Presently, I don’t believe we know enough about the strengths and weaknesses of this type of food production,” she says. “We should allow experts to weigh in before taking on this major policy implication.” In March, DeLauro wrote to the U.S. Government Accountability Office to request a review of the regulatory framework for cellular agriculture.

What is clear is that this is one of the new industries that has risen to the call for helping us regulate resource management better so that many can enjoy eating meat without depleting our supplies.

In addition to saving animals from whole sale slaughter in the billions every year, stem cell grown cultured meat requires less energy, takes up less land, and releases less methane and other greenhouse gases than traditional meat production does.

Would you eat a lab grown hamburger?

. . .

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Microbots: The Future of Biotech

Credit: Newsweek

Entrepreneurs are at it again with an incredible new development: The Soft Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR). It's a robot that sutures soft tissue with built in dexterity and AI learning abilities.

Just the size of a small vitamin capsule, a robotic cylinder is hooked onto the end of a catheter. It's inserted at the base of the heart and using a motorized drive system this microbot cruises to a patient's leaking heart valve.

The robotic cylinder moves along side the ventricular wall, locating the damaged valve near the top of the ventricle using both touch sensors and vision.

After that the microbot gets into position by the leaking valve while a surgeon launches the minuscule stopper from this tiny robot which stops the leak.

If Elon Musk wants to take us to Mars, we'll need innovative solutions like robotic surgeons for the journey through space in case of injuries.

Right now there is more of a proliferation of cobots - robots that work with surgeons instead of replace them - but eventually much of these operations will be done by autonomous robots that work faster and learn quicker than humans.

Entrepreneurs aren't the only ones who see the huge potential of the microbot industry; Google's parent company Alphabet partnered with Johnson & Johnson to create surgical robots.

This partnership is called Verb Surgical, and their robotic surgeons hit the market this year with the goal to democratize surgery.

One of the side affects of mass production, when larger companies get involved, is the price is driven down making this one day a quite affordable procedure cheaper than the insanely expensive hospital bills Americans have to pay for routine medical work.

Bionaut's Microscopic Robot Surgeon

Ever heard of Bionaut? I haven't either yet this Israeli startup is making waves right now in the bio tech world. Their robot is nearly microscopic in size and speeds through tissue at 60 centimeters per hour.

Credit: https://www.bionautlabs.com

Bionaut's microbot is precise and uses magnetic fields to guide its path through the body. It's remote controlled to deliver cancer treating drugs at the precise location cancerous cells spring up.

This offers a huge advantage to traditional system-wide treatment of chemotherapy which kills off so much of healthy immune system defenses, because the robotic surgeon targets only where the cancer pops up.

Credit: https://www.bionautlabs.com/

While my stance on self-driving cars won't change (we deserve our own autonomy for where we go and when, giving this up is tantamount to a civil liberty - altho public transit or having it an option for Lyft or Uber is great) it does seem like a great idea to automate surgery when possible.

According to the scientific journal Nature, mistakes by clinicians lead to more than 200,000 US deaths each year. I've had my experience with doctors making mistakes in hospitals too.

Luckily not with any surgeries, still it's a powerful argument for supervised microbot surgeries to be in our future some day.

A 10 Year Plan

Autonomous surgery would also help rural areas that also suffer from food deserts and lack of access to surgeons.

Realistically, it's going to take another 10 years to get to the point of full autonomy because where robots fail and humans are more efficient is when something unexpected happens.

Whether a blood vessel is located in a place it wasn't supposed to be, or a new reaction during surgery happens, robots can't adapt yet as well as human surgeons who have more contextual knowledge and experience.

The DaVinci surgical system has already been using robotic arms to assist with minimally invasive surgeries with 3D high definition views of the surgical area since 1995.

Being able to stack new tools onto an existing system like the DaVinci one, will make the transition smoother, since it's already a stable platform with over a decade of proven results.

Would you trust a robot surgeon to operate on you?

. . .

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The Next Big Break in the Internet of Things

Credit: Wikipedia

AI is huge right now, it's at the forefront of redefining business and how we live our lives. Last blog's article on Direct Mail still holds true for it being a great marketing technique with little competition but let's fast forward.

It's January 2028 and you're walking in downtown New York City, the vaccine has been released and life has returned to normal. You hail an autonomous Lyft car, driven by robots and GPS sensors and step in.

As you head towards the pizza place you're meeting your friend for lunch at, he's a fellow startup founder, you realize you forgot your blazer.

It's cold in New York City right now plus you like dressing up when you go out. Shortly after realizing you forgot your blazer you find a leather jacket online you really like.

The leather comes from stem cell grown fabric, so no animal cruelty was involved and no rain forest was cut down to provide grazing fields for the cows that in 2020 would have been killed and skinned for your leather jack.

Super.

You add the leather jacket to your shopping cart and redirect your thoughts towards the meeting with your fellow business owner friend.

The clothing store's AI connects with your iPhone, Samsung or Android's AI and reroutes the autonomous self driving Lyft car.

You now arrive at the clothing store, pulling up right in front of the front doors. You get out and go to a terminal like an ATM but bigger just to the left of the front doors.

Opening an app on your phone you hold the screen facing scanners on a digital display and check in. Within 2 minutes a sales rep comes out with your new leather jacket.

It fits perfectly as the store has an online profile for you with all your sizes 3D body scanned with a Wii sensor from your phone. Your shoes also have weight sensors that adjust as you gain or lose weight.

There was no line at the store and the cost of the jacket was automatically deducted from your bank account as soon as the sales rep handed it to you, because sensors tracked the process from online to storefront coordinated with your payment profile with the store and Lyft.

Additionally, running on an automation, the store's marketing department already knows this is your first purchase and by the time you get home from lunch there's a coupon QR code emailed to you for 20% off your next purchase.

The store's inventory automatically updates, as there are also sensors built into the clothes rack your jacket hun on and sends an order fulfillment email based on existing supply and demand for this product.

Back up inventory is already on the way from the warehouse as this jacket has been trending this year.

The Internet of Things

As much as that may sound futuristic, it isn't that far off from where we are right now due to advances in AI and the increased prevalence and efficiency of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Smart toasters, smart NEST Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats (who once tried to recruit me to work for them) and fitness collars for dogs are just a few examples of IoTs

If you're not familiar, here's Wired's explanation of what the Internet of Things is and does:

"In the broadest sense, the term IoT encompasses everything connected to the internet, but it is increasingly being used to define objects that "talk" to each other. "Simply, the Internet of Things is made up of devices – from simple sensors to smartphones and wearables – connected together," Matthew Evans, the IoT program head at techUK, says."

"By combining these connected devices with automated systems, it is possible to "gather information, analyse it and create an action" to help someone with a particular task, or learn from a process. In reality, this ranges from smart mirrors to beacons in shops and beyond."

Smart Checkouts

The vast majority of people are not aware of some of the newest tech that has arrived and automatic checkouts have already been created.

January 2018 Amazon released the first Amazon Go store in Seattle, Washington. In 2019, they released 7 more stores and plan for 3,000 Go stores by 2021.

Credit: Wikipedia

So how does it work? Essentially, you walk in, get what you want and are automatically charged for it - no cashier, no self-check out of scanning things yourself. Just stroll in, grab what you need and peace out.

From the Wiki on Amazon Go:

The Amazon Go app for iOS and Android links to their Amazon account and is the primary method of paying for items at the store, alongside cash at certain locations. The app is required to enter the store, which has turnstiles that scan a QR code generated on the app.

The app allows users to add others to their Amazon account, so a family's purchases can be charged to the same bill. The ceiling of the store has multiple cameras and store shelves have weight sensors, to detect which item(s) a customer took.

Credit: Wikipedia

If a customer takes an item off the shelf, it will be added to the customer's virtual cart. Similarly, if a customer places an item back on the shelf, it is removed from the customer's virtual cart.

What Are the Implications of Automated Checkout?

Retailers will save billions on employee wages they have to shell out, as well as benefits, training managers and more.

There will be less space needed without cashier stations as well so that adds to store's real estate to stock more products in the same amount of space. But Business.org reports a few drawbacks.

At the same time, if a UPC doesn't scan correctly or an item isn't provided that was there last week or you just can't find something - customer service will take a hit.

There may be a way to jerry rig the system to increase theft as well through burner phones or if a thief stole your phone and you didn't have a screen lock on it.

The lack of one-on-one interaction is probably the biggest loss in my opinion. I enjoy interacting with cashiers, waitresses, baristas and more - it's a good way to break the covid cabin fever now and even in normal times humanizes the buying process and adds some social spark to the day.

What do you think?

. . .

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Congress Challenges Big Tech Monopolies

Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer

Wednesday, July 29th, the 4 companies that make up Big Tech, Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook faced off with Congress on allegations that their business's monopolistic practices stifle competition unfairly, breaking antitrust laws.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Apple’s Tim Cook testified (remotely) on the anti-competitive behavior of their companies.

The House Judiciary Committee began this investigation over a year ago and collected over 1.3 million documents about these business practices.

This marks the 1st time that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is 181 BILLION dollars, has ever faced Congress.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL PRINCE/FORBES COLLECTION

Big Tech CEOs appeared virtually before Congress for 5 hours facing relentless criticism of their business practices. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos' opening statement was:

“Just like the world needs small companies, it also needs large ones,”

The Committee Chairman Rep. David Cicilline likened the CEOs to kings and said Congress wasn’t going to bow down to them.

Graeme Jennings | Credit: AP

‘Your ability to dictate terms, call the shots, upend entire sectors, inspire FEAR resemble the powers of a private government. Our founders would not bow before a king, nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”

Then the lawmakers cited details on the executives emails and internal documents they’d acquired, and pressuring Big Tech CEOs to explain how they got their market dollars.

Amazon’s antitrust investigation was considered less in depth as questions asked of Google and Facebook but there were some pointed questions asked.

These included how Amazon treats and handles 3rd party sellers on its website to whether or not the company properly regulates knock offs and counterfeit products.

Credit: Bloomberg

Rep. Hank Johnson asked:

“Why isn’t Amazon responsible for keeping all counterfeit products off of its platform?”

Jeff Bezos replied:

“We do a lot to prevent counterfeiting. We have uh, a team of more than a thousand people that does this.”

Lawmakers cited a Wall Street Journal report from April this year that stated Amazon.com Inc. employees have used data about independent sellers on Amazon to develop competing products, at odds with their own stated policies.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked:

“Does Amazon ever access and use 3rd party seller data when making business decisions? And a yes or no will suffice sir.”

Amazon CEO Bezos replied:

“I can’t answer that question ‘yes’ or ‘no’ what I can tell you is we have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private label business but I can’t guarantee you that that policy hasn’t been violated.”

Which essentially means, yes, Amazon has data mined independent sellers’ data to compete against them but, will assign blame later to a scape goat. Maybe a few contract employees will get fired.

When your company gets big, it's good to remember why we do this, so humanity doesn't get lost just crunching numbers.

What do consumers in America actually feel about Big Tech’s dominance of the market?

72% of U.S. adults believe big tech companies have too much “power and influence” in politics, per a Pew Research survey conducted in June, while an Accountable Tech/GQR Research poll in July found 85% of respondents believe they have too much power in general. [Source: Forbes]

Google was playing for higher stakes because of how advanced the anti trust investigation is against them. The other 3 companies aren’t facing as serious of a monopoly charge as Google is facing.

It’s highly likely there will be a new law suit filed against Google in the coming months.

Congress asked questions relevant to their ongoing investigation against Google. One of which was how often does Google tailor search results to keep people on Google instead objective data, and info other websites provide?

Committee chairman Rep. David Cicilline asked:

“Did Google ever use its surveillance over web traffic to identify competitive threats?”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded:

“Congressman, just like other businesses, we try to understand trends from uh you know data we can see.We use it to improve products for our users,”

Almost the entire rest of Google’s time at the hearing was defending itself against charges that its search results don’t favor republicans.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook didn’t get as many questions.

Most of the questions Apple got related to the App Store, and whether when a consumer is searching for apps if the search results favor apps Apple engineers over competitor apps.

Rep. Hank Johnson asked:

“Does Apple not treat all app developers equally?”

Cook replied,

“Sir we treat every developer the same. We have open uhhhh and transparent rules. It’s a rigorous process. Because we care so deeply about privacy, security and quality, we do look at every app before it goes on…”

Cook said that Apple acts fairly, pointing to the diversity of apps on the app store, as well as the benefits to consumers in having a wide selection instead of just Apple-made apps.

Facebook’s CEO Zuckerberg got many questions on misinformation and perceived political bias on the many social media companies they own.

Zuck replied:

“We do not want to become the arbiters of truth. I think that would be a bad position for us to be in.”

Speaking to the charges of monopolizing social media sectors, there were questions about social media companies Facebook has bought such as Instagram.

Ant-trust investigations into this exposed internal Facebook emails Mark Zuckerberg sent around the time of these acquisitions.

Rep. Joe Neguse said:

“Facebook also tried to buy other competitive startups…in fact you did tell one of Facebook’s senior engineers in 2012 that you can quote:

‘Likely just buy any competitive startup but it will be a while before we can buy Google.’

Do you recall writing that email?”

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg replied:

“Uh Congressman, I don’t specifically but it sounds like a joke.”

Zuckerberg pointed out that his acquisition of Instagram was approved at the time by regulators.

A key takeaway is that Congress did their research this time to actually understand more of how these Big Tech companies work and had better questions.

Top down view shows that these companies will continue to be under the microscope from both sides of the aisle.

The House antitrust subcommittee is going to release a report in the aftermath of this hearing with recommendations on changes to antitrust laws - in regards to Big Tech’s monopoly.

Federal Trade Commission investigations in the states are going to use some of the information revealed in this hearing to further their cases.

What's concerning is that if Google is filtering results from your Google searches to reveal less than the truth - this manipulates your perception of reality.

If Google search results only cater to their advertisers and things that support their platform - this is literally creating life choices for billions of people who view the same data as objective.

It wouldn't be an issue if there was a real space for other search engines to compete, but Bing is dead, Duck Duck Go is used by only a small minority and Yahoo search is a joke.

With Google being used by everybody...this is where being a monopoly causes issues:

How do you think antitrust laws should change in regards to Big Tech?

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Tesla’s Stock is Up – Elon Exceeds Expectations

Credit: Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California in March 2019. Photo: Frederick J. Brown/AFP, via Getty Images

The Tesla cars are like certain bands, either you love them or you hate them. Investors have been casting a dubious eye wondering how Elon Musk's car company will fair give COVID.

Tesla delivered a total of 90,650 vehicles during Q2 of 2020. This is an astounding 2,250 more than in the first quarter of the 2020. 82,272 Tesla cars were produced April to June this year, which is down from Q1 because of C19 holdbacks.

“While our main factory in Fremont was shut down for much of the quarter, we have successfully ramped production back to prior levels,” Tesla wrote during their Q2 announcement.

Credit: https://electrek.co/2020/07/02/tesla-announces-q2-deliveries-90650-electric-cars-beating-expectations/

Tesla Stock Rises

Audi just reported a more than 30% drop in deliveries in Q2, so Tesla is definitely ahead of the curve. Tesla’s market valuation is just over $224 billion (as of the date this blog is published).

Tesla has also passed the market caps of Dow components Coca-Cola (KO), Disney (DIS), Cisco (CSCO), Merck (MRK) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).

Tesla was predicted by CNBC analysts to deliver only around 70K and well over shot low expectations. As a result, Tesla's stock is rising. TSLA is up $100 (9%) trading at $1220 pre-market value (as of July 2nd, 2020).

Elon Musks's electric car company is showing great headline numbers for an auto industry struggling to make profits on new car sales due to the pandemic. Some of this is attributed to Tesla entering China as a manufacturer, when prior, Musk had only sold Teslas there.

The Secret to Tesla's Success

Tesla shares are on a bull run now even in spite of the economic downturn the world is facing, and this is largely possible because Musk understood how to dominate a niche market.

It wasn't just about going green, but targeting a market of buyers who wanted to go green without losing the class and style this level of luxury vehicles offer.

Just like Tuesday's blog reported that there is something beyond the surface at play, with how the Facebook algorithm prioritizes content, Elon Musk didn't just sell an electric car. He sold a lifestyle.

There are many lessons other automobile manufacturers and startups can learn from analyzing the rise of Tesla's success. Clearly cheap gas prices right now don't offer an incentive to buy electric cars.

Many sustainable energy companies that provided wind and solar options never survived, and this was largely because their marketing strategy depending on everyone just realizing going green is the right thing to do.

Elon Musk focused on dominating a single niche of wealthy-ish suburbanites who wanted to support renewable energy but not sacrifice aesthetics in the process. And his strategy is succeeding.

How can you use this strategy in your business? What sub niches exist with your main target audience that have potential for new products to serve their interests?
. . .

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Twitter Censors Trump’s Attempt to Incite Violence

Credit: dole777

My last blog discussed how entrepreneurs to go from good to great and today we're going to dive into tech news as Trump faces off a battle with Twitter and free speech.

Twitter has started labeling questionable tweets the president has made with a little “i” and a warning.
Due to the shut downs implemented by national & local governments, responding to COVID19, many states are considering mail-in voting ballots as the most viable option to avoid long lines and crowds.

Trump tweeted that mail-in voting would lead to voting fraud and stated sensationally, that:

“Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.”

Twitter responded with a warning that implied this was all fiction:

When interviewed by media sources like TechCrunch, Twitter stated Trumps tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”

But the intrigue doesn’t stop there. A few days later after the fact-checking label Twitter labeled another one of Trump’s tweets with a “Public Interest Notice.” This label states that he broke Twitter’s rules about promoting violence on the platform.

Trump reposted this on Facebook and Instagram before Twitter came down on his post for glorifying violence.

CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, while defending Facebook’s policy to not fact-check politicians has stated there are limitations to what is allowed on Facebook.

“Even for politicians we don't allow content that incites violence or risks imminent harm — and of course we don't allow voter suppression,”

- Mark Zuckerberg

Trump threatening to send in the national guard was in reference to the situation in Minneapolis where there are tons of riots in response to a white police officer killing a black man who posed no threat to the police.

The man’s name was George Floyd. A shop keeper had called the cops because he suspected Floyd was using counterfeit money.

Floyd was being led away, peacefully in hand cuffs, but moments later the police had him on the ground. George Floyd was filmed dying with a cop's knee on his neck as he begged for mercy saying,

"I can't breath!"
"I'm about to die."

Floyd died, without cause, or justifiable reason for being killed. It is thought to be a racially motivated killing by the police as there has been a history of police killing blacks without just cause in in Minneapolis and America as a whole (just like Eric Garner died in New York for selling loose cigarettes).

The public's response to the blatant killing, on camera, of Floyd, without cause, by the Minneapolis PD is rioting in multiple cities and states.

Trump said, in response to the protesters of Floyd's death:

“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,”

This statement being an outright threat of violence and murder against American citizens, unhappy with the way George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police.

The policy that this tweet violates is listed in Twitter’s policies, visible to anyone in the public that takes the time to read them:

You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people.”

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) are all private websites, and many forget that they agree to bide by the rules of the website by using it.

Trump has been at war with tech companies for years, and it looks like for the first time, we are seeing the policies being universally enforced even against the president.

I think what’s hard to define in an issue like this, is the fact that free speech is guaranteed as part of the first amendment in the constitution but not in every environment.

Free speech is limited if you’re trying to:

Incite violence
Falsify statements of fact
Promote harm to children
Violate intellectual property rights
Talk sh*% at work or school

Basically it’s like, you can have free speech in public but if you’re at school you have to follow their rules. If you’re at work your free speech rights don’t include jumping on a table and inciting a riot.

The same applies with personal property - if you’re trespassing your free speech rights don’t supersede other rights.

The gray area is while Twitter, IG, FB and other social media sites own the digital real estate of their private websites & make following their policies a requirement to use their websites - there are billions
of people on their websites.

You have in essence entire countries all on a single website, so the public’s perception of what they can or can’t say is like, “I have a RIGHT to say ANYTHING I want online,” without considering, this isn’t a school. It isn’t a plaza where peaceful assembly is allowed.

It’s (in the case of Facebook) one man’s website you are a guest on.

It’s a hard pill to swallow, and there are many upset and indignant Facebook users whose content violated the community standards or advertising policies but feel owed and entitled to be allowed to break the rules, as if a private website has to guarantee their rules of use, terms of service if you will, are broken at anyone’s random impulse.

Similar to being a guest at someone’s house, upsetting the home owner by being disrespectful, being asked to leave, but refusing to, stating, “I have a RIGHT to be here,” when, technically, you don’t unless you own the house.

When you are on IG, Twitter or Facebook you are a guest at their house, and to stay there, you need to follow the rules of the house or be kicked out.

However we are in new territory just due to the sheer massive amount of people on these platforms and the ability of social media sites to influence elections, get hacked by Russians and have bots on Twitter manipulate people into chaos and socially engineer political opinions.

These types of hacks and social manipulation affect the world at large. They can lead to real physical harm and changes in society that aren’t beneficial.

Would Trump have been elected if there was no Facebook?

How would life be different, politically? Would Bernie Sanders or Hilary be president instead?

We don't live in that reality so it's impossible to say. But it gives context as to why social media companies are under scrutiny for what they allow on their platforms and what they don't.

Trump’s response to being somewhat censored (Twitter left the tweet up just made people have to click through a warning to see it) is to try to use his executive powers to limit the legal protections social media companies have.

However, many legal experts have stated they doubt this executive order would have any real effect on the tech giants.

Trump’s vindictive executive order targets the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 of the legislation gives a wide range of immunity to websites who moderate their own platforms.

It’s been called "the 26 words that created the internet."

Facebook and Google replied to the executive order saying that if passed, it poses a real harm to the internet and digital economy.

"Undermining Section 230 in this way would hurt America's economy and its global leadership on internet freedom,”

said Google spokeswoman Riva Sciuto.

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said that by putting the liability of what anyone says on their platform, back on Facebook and other social media companies, this would only lead to censoring billions of people. The idea is that it’s practically impossible to never offend anyone all the time.

Twitter responded to the proposed executive order by tweeting:

"#Section230 protects American innovation and freedom of expression, and it's underpinned by democratic values."

Twitter also tweeted:

"Attempts to unilaterally erode it threaten the future of online speech and Internet freedoms."

. . .
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COVID Economic Recovery Solutions – Treat Employees Right

Credit: Husna Miskandar

The economy's crashed, hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost and now as society begins to rebuild and open up again it's time to rethink how jobs are structured.

Recently, when moving 4 filing cabinets out of my living room, in order to build an at-home library I spoke with the manager at U-Haul. There were 7 people waiting, with an average wait time of 40 minutes just to check in a rented truck or U-Haul van.

When I asked the manager, a man named Christopher, if it was possible to hire one or two other employees to help manage the customer load he replied,

"I can't get people to work here. They all want to stay home and collect unemployment benefits due to COVID."

I was shocked that the economy is hurting not just because of COVID fear making local governments close down brick & mortar shops but also due to people not wanting to come to work to mooch off of unemployment.

Credit: https://writingboots.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55283a630883401bb0953519e970d-pi

This hurts retailers but also local cities and their economies because when and if local businesses reopen, if they are understaffed, with long lines, it's just going to push consumers to order on Amazon instead of shop there.

Obviously some businesses like U-Haul you can't order online..though drones are doing some amazing things these days.

Low Quality Jobs = Low Quality Work

Aside from the rather unique moocher situation with some staying home to college a paycheck and not working remote but living on tax-dollar funded government benefits...

- There is a lot to be said about flipping burgers or working a register or answering phones and being treated poorly by management.

The Trickle-Down Effect of Incompetence

When the number one concern of employers is not investing in employees to create a high quality work environment, but how can we cut costs, outsource labor to 3rd world countries, lower the hiring wage, reduce worker hours and spread them out over more employees and reduce benefits - well is that motivating people to do a good job?

The question answers itself. If an employee is given a half-ass training (because the manager is also underpaid and under trained), and they are disrespected and made to feel like:

"You are easily replaced so appreciate this shitty job,"

Then it's the trickle down effect of incompetence.

On the other hand, if employers approached training employees as an investment, with professional development included to help employees not only gain competence but additional skill sets to make them more of an asset to the company and their growth opportunities - this changes the ripple effect in workforce management.

Investing in both higher wages and professional training, with work culture more evolved than mashing buttons to get minimum wage then employees will find their own reasons for working harder to do better.

This creates a better quality product or service for the end user that the company serves, which then increases customer retention, loyalty and lifetime value.

Brand loyalty is something that shouldn't just be customer-centric. Brand loyalty cultivated in both the customers and the employees, when increased also increases profits and productivity.

Strikes at Whole Foods and Amazon

If decision makers at the CEO level can't read the room or doubt the logic in the above paragraphs just look at the strikes by Whole Foods workers and Amazon employees who continued to toil on in unsafe working conditions.

When you aren't given a lot benefits-wise, as a bargaining chip from your employer, you don't have a lot to lose if you get fired for striking.

This loses time, money, convenience, customer satisfaction scores drop and just as employees leave for a job that pays $1-3 dollars more an hour so will customers when there are delays due to poor work ethics and project management skills by hiring managers and those who structure employee business models.

Businesses Have to Adapt to Survive COVID19

Instead of making excuses about how an existing system can't change, employers should wake up and smell the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee: with the lack of foot traffic now is the perfect time to retool the business model

Sam's Club, Costco and HEB grocery store have all taken the lead here and raised wages for their employees as well as invested in their safety.

As mentioned in management philosophy blogs, research has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that when intrinsically motivated individuals apply their efforts to a task they are 10 times more productive and successful than people who are only money-motivated.

This means it isn't just about the money - don't treat your employees like dirt anymore and they will reciprocate. So few jobs actually invest any sincere time in building new skill sets in their employees but every time a company does this, the employee becomes an unofficial brand ambassador.

Feeling respected and appreciated is the cornerstone for every social interaction that's successful, from family, to relationships, to friends to business both B2C and B2B.

Creating this feeling in employees with concrete specific investments in improving their abilities, you now have a spokesperson for how great your company is. Many of these employees are like micro influencers with their own social networks sometimes rather large.

More employee loyalty creates more profits because you get better work done, word of mouth organically spreads to their friends, families, and facebook and twitter accounts without a single ad dollar needing to be spent.

In a large company multiply this by 100 or 1000 - it's pretty damn clear it's stupid to treat employees as disposable to-go containers or warm bodies to fill a space when there is a much higher return from professional development in the workspace.

Where We Go from Here Matters

Ecommerce is booming, many jobs and even schools may utilize more remote work than in person attendance now. Businesses will have to adapt to a post-COVID world in order to survive. This means the old guard has to change.

Instead of hyper focusing on reducing labor cost - putting some real thinking and research behind it to create a 2020 strategy that involves treating and paying employees better, will only benefit everyone better and rebuild the economy. Mic drop.

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

Facebook Buys Giphy Sparking Anti-trust Investigations

Recently Facebook purchased Giphy for $400 million dollars, and while the two companies had been in talks about this prior to the COVID19 crisis, it may have played a role in speeding up Facebook's new acquisition.

Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in 2014. Considering all of these acquisitions, according to Axios, Facebook buying Giphy has the risk of sparking anti-trust scrutiny by regulators and state lawmakers for antitrust violations.

Can FB Use GIPHY to Spy on the Competition?

With Facebook's problems with privacy (eg SDK bug, Cambridge), it's possible competitor platforms that use GIPHY like Twitter, may not want to use GIPHY due to potential data collection efforts. FB can see emerging trends if a GIF starts trending & reverse engineer it for Facebook owned sites.

What this would look like is if say a GIF happened to be popular on Twitter, Facebook could simply remake this GIF, commission a few graphic designers and customize it for Facebook owned platforms like IG and WhatsApp.

Facebook has already been under fire for duplicating many features from Snapchat so it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Privacy Apps Like Signal May Ban GIPHY

This new merger also raises the question that if apps like Signal, whose main USP is that they are private will continue to allow use of Giphy. Many people are starting to see the value of their privacy amidst the hoards of data mining and cookie thieving going on.

Per The Verge, the Giphy API can be proxied to hide user information, so realistically, Facebook wouldn't have access to individual user stats. But, who knows, with technology for data mining continuing to evolve every year.

If the privacy of Signal is compromised by using Giphy, then it seems likely Giphy would not be very compatible with Signal and other privacy-centered apps.

Congress Aiming for Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act

Congress wants to pass a Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act that would impose a moratorium on large mergers until the FTC decides the we're not dealing with covid-related economic downturns.

The Act, introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY- 14) states:

"The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic triggered an economic crisis that has hit small businesses especially hard, making them potential targets of large corporations seeking to increase their power through predatory mergers.

Reports suggest that private equity is planning to jump at the cheap opportunities; big tech has moved to snatch up struggling start-ups; and Rite Aid is looking to scoop up smaller pharmacies and PBMs.

Although antitrust agencies are tasked with defending open and fair markets by stopping anti-competitive mergers, their inability to aggressively take on concentration before the crisis began has further limited the federal government’s ability to respond effectively to the pandemic."

The Plot Thickens

It's clear that this new acquisition is multilayered affecting privacy, the economy, the free market, legislation, anti-trust laws and a society struggling with the effects of COVID19.

What are your thoughts on Facebook buying Giphy?

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]