Month: October 2020

Enlarge / Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. (credit: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

Sixty Coinbase employees have accepted a buyout offer after CEO Brian Armstrong announced a controversial new policy curbing political activism inside the company. Armstrong disclosed the figure in a Thursday email to employees.

Armstrong announced the new policy last week after a summer when many technology companies faced pressure from their employees to become more outspoken on issues of social justice.

"While I think these efforts are well-intentioned, they have the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division," Armstrong wrote in a September 27 blog post. "We've seen what internal strife at companies like Google and Facebook can do to productivity. I believe most employees don't want to work in these divisive environments."

Enlarge / Operators are standing by! (credit: QVC)

A fresh report from Bloomberg details Google's new plan to squeeze even more revenue out of YouTube, which is already a $15 billion-a-year business. Google apparently wants to turn YouTube into a shopping destination, where viewers can watch things like product unboxings, makeup, or cooking videos and immediately buy featured products directly through YouTube.

The report says YouTube is currently "testing these features with a limited number of video channels" and "[t]he goal is to convert YouTube's bounty of videos into a vast catalog of items that viewers can peruse, click on, and buy directly." The company is asking creators to tag items featured in videos through a new piece of software that can be used for analytics and purchasing. Apparently, YouTube has been testing shopping features for a while now. Bloomberg's report says, "Late last year, YouTube began testing a similar Shopify integration for creators who can list as many as 12 items for sale on a digital carousel below their videos, according to the company." Shopify is a turnkey online store provider.

For now, this is all a test, but Bloomberg got a YouTube spokesperson to confirm that the company is looking into e-commerce options for the site. Google CEO Sundar Pichai actually pitched the idea of YouTube Shopping on the company's Q1 2020 earnings, saying, "When you think about things like unboxing and product reviews, those are a natural home for transactions as well. I earlier mentioned about all the work we are doing now on commerce. All of that, I'm looking forward to those integrations coming into YouTube and working better as well."

Enlarge / This demonstration of Microsoft's Project xCloud as played with a Razer Kishi controller, attached to a standard Android smartphone, could be a hint of what's to come to iOS devices in 2021. (credit: Microsoft)

Project xCloud, the Microsoft game-streaming service that comes packed as a bonus in certain Xbox Game Pass subscription plans, may finally have a path to working on Apple's range of iOS devices—well after a public row between the tech giants that put the possibility into question.

The news comes from a report by Business Insider, which claimed that an internal Microsoft meeting on Wednesday included a vote of confidence from Xbox chief Phil Spencer. "We absolutely will end up on iOS," Spencer reportedly said about getting its streamed Project xCloud game content onto iOS devices in "2021."

Progressive policies

Previously, Apple shot down existing versions of both Project xCloud (which has since been rolled into the "Xbox Game Pass" app) and Google Stadia as iOS apps. Their public statements hinged on "reviewing" the games included in the subscription against App Store guidelines, though the issue could also stem from in-app purchases within both Xbox and Stadia's offerings. Eventually, Apple offered a revised stance on such apps, but this onerous "approval for every separate game" proposal comes with its own headaches, as opposed to a clear path toward a simple subscription service (as you'll find in popular iOS media apps like Netflix and Amazon Video).

Enlarge / AT&T's logo at its corporate headquarters on March 13, 2020 in Dallas, Texas. (credit: Getty Images | Ronald Martinez )

AT&T is planning thousands of layoffs at HBO, Warner Bros., and other parts of WarnerMedia as part of a plan to cut costs by up to 20 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

WarnerMedia is what used to be called Time Warner Inc. before AT&T purchased the entertainment company in 2018. Layoffs and cost cuts are nothing new at AT&T in general, including at  WarnerMedia. But WarnerMedia has taken a particularly big hit since the pandemic began. AT&T laid off about 600 people from WarnerMedia in August, a prelude to the new cuts revealed yesterday. The Journal wrote:

AT&T's WarnerMedia is restructuring its workforce as it seeks to reduce costs by as much as 20 percent as the coronavirus pandemic drains income from movie tickets, cable subscriptions and television ads, according to people familiar with the matter.

The overhaul, which is expected to begin in the coming weeks, would result in thousands of layoffs across Warner Bros. studios and TV channels like HBO, TBS and TNT, the people said.

WarnerMedia told the Journal that it has been significantly impacted by the pandemic and plans to reorganize to focus on growth opportunities. "We are in the midst of that process and it will involve increased investments in priority areas and, unfortunately, reductions in others," WarnerMedia said. WarnerMedia had nearly 30,000 employees earlier this year.

Enlarge / Chinese President Xi Jinping learns about the progress on a COVID-19 vaccine during his visit to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing on March 2, 2020. (credit: Getty | Xinhua News Agency)

China has now signed on to a massive, global alliance to develop and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine—putting the United States’ absence from the pact into yet sharper relief.

With its late entry announced Friday, China joins around 170 other countries in the pact, called the COVAX Facility. The effort is being spearheaded by the World Health Organization and co-led along with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

COVAX is designed to pool resources to help develop a vaccine and bring it to market globally. Once at that point, the alliance will help ensure all participating countries have access to whichever vaccine candidate(s) prove successful, regardless of where it was developed. It will also provide financial assistance to lower-income countries to access the vaccine. So far, at least 77 high-income countries (including China) have signed on, as well as 92 low- and middle-income countries.