Snap CEO Evan Spiegel finally admitted that the Snap app is confusing for some people, so it’s being significantly redesigned to make it easier to use. Snap famously had to include a how-to-use-Snapchat manual in its February IPO filing. Maybe the makeover will lift the top and bottom lines: Snap stock dropped more than 18 percent yesterday after the company delivered its third straight disappointing quarterly earnings report, including a $40 million writedown on its failed experiment with video-recording Spectacles. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Recode Daily: After a third consecutive earnings miss, Evan Spiegel says he’ll make Snapchat easier to use
Plus, Uber gets some new rules of the road, supersized tweets are here to stay, and inside Trump’s election-night war room.
studioEAST / Getty Images
Democrats won the Virginia governor’s race and several notable elections across the country. Conventional wisdom: Voters came out to cast ballots against Donald Trump. [Mike Allen / Axios]
New rules of the road at Uber: At an all-hands meeting yesterday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced new “cultural norms” for the company after seeking input from employees. Here’s the list, which boils down to: “We do the right thing. Period.” [Kara Swisher / Recode]
The New York Times fired star lawyer David Boies and his firm after the New Yorker revealed that Boies had helped Harvey Weinstein spy on women who accused him of harassment, and on journalists who reported on the story. [Michael Calderone / Politico]
Those supersized tweets are here to stay. Twitter has been testing 280-character tweets since September, and it is now rolling out the capability globally. The company claims that giving more people room to tweet results in more engagement. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been subpoenaed to testify to Congress about the company’s 2013 security breach. Mayer’s representatives initially declined to make her available to appear before the powerful Senate Commerce Committee. July’s record-breaking Equifax exploit will also be discussed at the hearing. [Tony Romm / Recode]
We’re starting to see the perils for startups that accept foreign cash. Controversies surrounding Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal are the most recent cautionary tale for U.S. startups gravitating toward the easy, few-strings-attached cash that comes by the bucketload from overseas and increasingly funds the excesses of Silicon Valley. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]
Some of the biggest media moguls have looked around and decided that it’s time to sell. And if 21st Century Fox owner Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and Scripps CEO Ken Lowe want to get out, who would want to get in? [Peter Kafka / Recode]
Top stories from Recode
It’s limited to an experiment in Phoenix, but this move marks the beginnings of Waymo’s driverless future.
It’s not a startup, but it’s SoftBank that will capture much of the bankers’ attention next week
The key to in-home commerce is more trust, not more tech.
“The surprise and the indignation is misplaced, and it’s not effective,” Tur said on the latest Recode Decode.
This is cool
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
See More:
