Dozen Worthy Reads đ° (No. 171)
This week : FB's Metaverse play, Fireside, Shopify rolllups, Google RCS, Walmart's AWS play, Ghost kitchens, Facebook's NYU beef, Apple/CSAM, Doximity, Square/AfterPay, Blizzard's storm ...
Hi All,
I hope you all are doing well and welcome to Dozen Worthy Reads. A newsletter where I talk about the most interesting things about tech that I read the past couple of weeks or write about tech happenings. You can sign up here or just read on âŚ
Facebook and the Metaverse
Over the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of discussion on the metaverse. Facebook, Apple, Epic, and even Roblox have been going about pieces for the Metaverse in their own somewhat unique fashion. As Facebook, Epic, and Robox know for certain that they are subservient to the Play or App Stores and theyâre looking for what is next. For the past 5 decades there have been generational movements controlled by pretty much Big Tech. From Mainframes (IBM), to Personal Computers (Windows and Mac to a smaller extent), the web itself (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Apple) and a decade+ ago mobile phones. Each technology built upon capabilities before and hardware was not replaced but rather augmented. Phones never replaced PCâs and PCâs never replaced mainframes. So the big question on everyoneâs mind is how will the Metaverse change the equation and will the Metaverse loosen the grip that mobile phones have on tech? It is quite amorphous, what this would look like and if it truly be a âvirtualâ universe twin of the âreal worldâ but at the end of it Big Tech (and Facebook especially) doesnât want to be left behind.
If youâd like to learn more Mattthew Ballâs Metaverse Primer is a (LONG) but brilliant start. Also read Casey Netwonâs interview with Mark Zuckerberg and Ben Thompsonâs note on Metaverses
My overall sense is that Big Tech will continue to own a major chunk if new companies donât start thinking about/innovating in the space
Fireside is not a âClubhouseâ?
Way back when (wait, it was a year ago) when Clubhouse was the hottest thing since sliced bread (and for me the coldest thing since ice cubes) Mark Cuban decided to work on something âsimilarâ called Fireside. Now Fireside claims that it's creating an entirely new category. Wut? Per Falem Fatomi (Firesideâs CEO) : âAs many of you know the early media speculation miscategorized us as social audio â as many of you have stated we are creating an entirely new categoryâ. Forgive me if I am not hanging by the edge of my seat for this new category! On that note, is Clubhouse dead?
Rollup Companies
Rollupâs are nothing but a fancy word for a company that buys up smaller FBA merchants on Amazon and consolidates them for operational efficiency. This is an interesting play but I think the most successful companies hope to have more firepower against Amazon. Today, this is a fallacy because Amazon has the demand (and that isnât going anywhere). Maybe the micro-efficiencies are enough to sustain these businesses. There have been billions poured into rollup aggregators and now it looks like the next phase of rollups will hit Shopify which is a way more interesting bet since they donât really âownâ the customer in the way that Amazon does.Â
Google RCSÂ
Rich Communication Services is a communication protocol between mobile telephone carriers and between phone and carrier, aiming at replacing SMS messages with a text-message system that is richer, provides phonebook polling, and can transmit in-call multimedia. Google supports RCS on Android devices with its Android SMS app and the reason for that is obvious - iMessage envy and the need to replicate something like that. Now it seems that Google plus the big three US MNOs are all committing to making RCS the default. If that seems like a dumb reason to move from an iOS device to an Android device, then that is accurate!
Walmartâs âAWSâ Play
Amazonâs marketplace business is larger than their 1st party business. Walmart has a market that is lesser known|Â but has been gaining traction and now Walmart is selling its BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup in Store) technology which it developed for use in its own stores. Walmart will now sell this tech to pretty much anyone that wants to use it. Interesting play with Walmart thinking : Maybe I canât get this retailer to sell directly but I can sell them technology and get them to add products to the Walmart Marketplace. Also for anyone using BOPIS to buy from any retailer that is a lost sale for Amazon. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and Walmart is trying to âArm the Rebelâs similar to Shopify!Amazon of course is having their own fun :)Â
Ghost KitchensÂ
Ghost Kitchenâs were originally created to feed the hungry food delivery companies. The premise was to start a new âtake outâ kitchen and use the likes of Uber Eats and DoorDash to deliver. Of course this results in lower costs and higher profits (maybe even enough to cover the 30% take rates that food delivery companies have). Ghost Kitchens need a cook .. or three but no servers, tables, fine cutlery, or anything! Now Ghost Kitchens are looking at creating their own food delivery apps, starting with Reef. Heard of them? Nope? Yeah me either and that is their key problem. Raising awareness by spending on Facebook Adâs and opening localized kitchens may not be that brilliant a strategy but weâll see. Or maybe this is the Dominos play in 10-20 years?
Facebook blocks NYU researchers
Facebook has disabled the disable the pages and personal accounts of a group of New York University Ad Observatory researchers studying political ads on the social network, claiming they are scraping data in violation of the companyâs terms of service. Do you want to laugh now or later? Ok so maybe you can just start laughing nowÂ
First off, the way it works is that âwilling users volunteeredâ their information to the Ad Observatory via a  crowd-sourcing tool called NYU Ad Observer. NYU Ad Observer is a simple plug-in Facebook users can add to their web browser that copies ads they see on Facebook and collects them in a public database, while protecting privacy. The privacy part is interesting and possibly the only shred of truth. There was no scraping whatsoever. The privacy excuse? âWe took these actions to stop unauthorized scraping and protect peopleâs privacy in line with our privacy program under the FTC orderâ. The FTC Order and some of you might remember the hefty $5B fine. On the one hand I absolutely sympathize, after all it's not every big tech company that has $5B lying around and can afford it (Uber!). On the other hand Facebook blatantly tried to pass the buck to FTC which responded back with :â Had you honored your commitment to contact us in advance, we would have pointed out that the consent decree does not bar Facebook from creating exceptions for good-faith research in the public interest.Â
Facebook being Facebook!Â
Apple : Privacy or Not?
NOTE : I personally, wholeheartedly support Appleâs effort to detect CSAM on the cloud and notify authorities but the lens I use below is that of a technologist
Apple recently confirmed that it will begin scanning iCloud Photos for child abuse images with a technology called NeuralHash. Before an image is uploaded to iCloud Photos, those hashes are matched on the device against a database of known hashes of child abuse imagery, provided by child protection organizations. NeuralHash uses a cryptographic technique to detect a hash match without revealing what the image is or alerting the user. They are also going to roll out a new communication safety feature in the Messages app. Apple explains that when a child who is in an iCloud Family receives or attempts to send sexually explicit photos, the child will see a warning message. John Gruber has the very best explanation of how it would all work and what the features actually do and why its not necessary to freak out.
Over the weekend Will Cathcart and Alex Stamos wrote interesting threads about this and security and privacy experts created a website, https://appleprivacyletter.com/, to request Apple to halt the rollout. A lot of the comparison points that I think are interesting are how, in the past, the possibility of CSAM existed on non-internet connected desktops; that specific argument misses the fact that now its easier to find similar people and form groups leading to more such exchanges and further abuse!
Of course we now have two camps. Apple touts and sells its privacy narrative and in fact does everything in its control to âprotect privacyâ. In fact they even argue that locking down the App Store helps âprotect usersâ privacy and securityâ. While I commend Apple for taking this step, I do wonder how they are going to stick to the privacy narrative for the app store.
Needless to say Iâd still buy an iPhone!Â
The China massacre continues
I wrote about Xiâs attack on China last week and this week the massacre continues with a potential $1B fine for Meituan, Didi considering giving up data control to Beijing, and Bytedance laying off people. Iâm long China Tech and this is indeed a great time to invest in Chinese ETFs
Doximityâs UGC problemÂ
Controlling UGC on even platforms that we expect to see less of is also a huge problem as Doximity has realized. There are definitely crazy doctors out there!
Squarely Afterpay
Square is spending close to 25% of their market cap ($27B) to buy AfterPay. Prior to this Square has had multiple different business lines that donât seem to interact with merchant products, the Square Cash app (plus crypto trading) and Uh well Tidal Music. Afterpay is definitely a brilliant acquisition which will integrate the Cash App with the merchant product ecosystem resulting in a true flywheel. Users are exposed to AfterPay on a merchantâs site and users download the Cash App. Cash app users recognize AfterPay when shopping on other merchant sites, they already have the cash app and boom - flywheel! I assume Tidal will provide background scores when downloading the app? :)Â
Blizzard and Employee Activism
I suspect weâre going to see more and more employee activism over the next few years! Hereâs a look at Blizzardâs recent ⌠uh well storm
Great reads from around the web
YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan on the algorithm, monetization, and the future for creators
Deal Of The Century: How Michael Dell Turned His Declining PC Business Into A $40 Billion Windfall
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