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	<title type="text">Noah Kulwin | Vox</title>
	<subtitle type="text">Our world has too much noise and too little context. Vox helps you understand what matters.</subtitle>

	<updated>2019-03-06T17:21:56+00:00</updated>

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		<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Instead of selling you TV, Apple wants to build you a TV guide &#124; Recode Daily: August 5, 2016]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/5/12384950/recode-daily-apple-tv-guide" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/5/12384950/recode-daily-apple-tv-guide</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T12:21:56-05:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-05T07:23:46-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[For a long time, Apple has wanted to create its own over-the-top TV service, but those efforts have fizzled out amid fights with TV programmers. Instead, Apple is now working on an effort to create a digital TV guide that would allow users to browse and stream services like Netflix or Hulu without having to [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Apple" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15884897/apple-tv.0.0.1487037721.png?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<div id="read_now"> <p><img width="214" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-read-now.png"></p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">For a long time, Apple has wanted to create its own over-the-top TV service, but those efforts have <a href="http://www.recode.net/2015/12/9/11621326/why-apple-walked-away-from-tv-for-now">fizzled out amid fights with TV programmers</a>. Instead, Apple is now working on an effort to create a digital TV guide that would allow users to browse and stream services like Netflix or Hulu without having to open up those individual apps.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12379572/apple-tv-guide">Peter Kafka | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Amazon has pulled the curtain back on its first Boeing 767 &#8220;Prime Air&#8221; freight plane &mdash; &#8220;Amazon One.&#8221; Though Amazon currently leases planes for shipping stuff, the company is focused on <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-looking-to-license-or-acquire-freight-management-technology-1463585630">taking greater control</a> over its infrastructure, hence building out its own air fleet.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/5/12382052/amazon-prime-air-plane">Dan Frommer | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Hampton Creek, a VC-backed startup that makes vegan mayonnaise, has survived <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-complaints-2015-7">some serious allegations</a> that its operation was unethical and unscientific. But a new report says that there are even more problems: The company has reportedly been buying its own product from store shelves in order to inflate demand.<br> [<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-04/food-startup-ran-undercover-project-to-buy-up-its-own-products">Olivia Zaleski | Bloomberg</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">On the new episode of <strong>Too Embarrassed to Ask</strong>, Lauren Goode and Kara Swisher talk with The Verge&#8217;s Russell Brandom about what would happen if America&#8217;s voting machines got hacked this fall, and other cyber security nightmare scenarios.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/5/12369172/dnc-hack-security-passwords-voting-machines-too-embarrassed-to-ask-podcast">Eric Johnson | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Cloud services company Rackspace, which currently has a market cap of around $3 billion, is talking with private equity firms about a sale. Under pressure from the growing cloud businesses of Amazon, Microsoft and other larger competitors, enterprise tech companies similar to Rackspace (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/business/dealbook/oracle-netsuite-ellison-cloud-computing.html?_r=0">like Netsuite</a>) are putting themselves on the market.<br> [<a href="http://www.wsj.com/article_email/rackspace-hosting-nears-sale-to-private-equity-firm-1470342568-lMyQjAxMTE2MTAxNDEwODQ2Wj">Dana Cimilluca, David Benoit and Dana Mattioli | The Wall Street Journal</a>]</p> </div><div id="top_stories"> <p><img width="549" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-top-stories.png"></p> <div>Amazon</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12377596/beloved-silicon-valley-entrepreneur-blake-krikorian-has-died">Beloved Silicon Valley entrepreneur Blake Krikorian has died at 48</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kara Swisher</div> <div>The Slingbox founder had been involved with Microsoft, Amazon and dozens of startups.</div> <div>Media</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12359694/viacom-vice-buzzfeed-dauman">Viacom is a mess. Buying something like BuzzFeed could be a way forward.</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Edmund Lee</div> <div>It&rsquo;s the only major media company that hasn&rsquo;t made a big digital acquisition.</div> <div>Google</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12379964/google-alphabet-larry-page-sergey-brin-singapore">For some reason, the reclusive Google founders are in Singapore</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Mark Bergen</div> <div>Found &#8217;em.</div> <div>Startups</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12381144/profitability-vanity-metric-startups">Here&rsquo;s a reminder that profitability is the new vanity metric for startups</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Jason Del Rey</div> <div>Growth who?</div> <div>Health Care</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12376460/johnson-and-johnson-hires-dropbox-executive-deals">Johnson &amp; Johnson hired a Dropbox exec so it can make deals like a tech company</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Noah Kulwin</div> <div>Marc Leibowitz used to run corporate development at the cloud storage startup.</div> </div><div id="this_is_cool"> <img width='254"' src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-this-is-cool.png"><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zDjnDAwmig">Some personal news. Also, &#8220;You Got It&#8221; by Roy Orbison.</a></div> <div>&#8220;You Got It&#8221; is the best song Roy Orbison ever made, and the second chorus is an emotional zenith comparable only to psychedelic drugs and beating a speeding ticket. On to something else: Today is the last day that I (Noah Kulwin) will be writing the Recode Daily newsletter. It&#8217;s actually my last day at Recode. Starting later this month, I&#8217;m going to be the technology editor at Vice News. The newsletter will be in the capable hands of my colleague John Murrell starting next week. It&#8217;s been a blast.</div> </div>
<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Johnson &#038; Johnson hired a Dropbox exec so it can make deals like a tech company]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12376460/johnson-and-johnson-hires-dropbox-executive-deals" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12376460/johnson-and-johnson-hires-dropbox-executive-deals</id>
			<updated>2016-08-04T12:59:18-04:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-04T12:57:19-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Health Care" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Policy" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[When we sat down in January with Sandi Peterson, group worldwide chairman at Johnson &#38; Johnson, she said that J&#38;J was all about inking deals and partnerships with tech companies. Now, the health care and consumer goods conglomerate has found its guy to make those deals: Ex-Dropbox Corporate Development Chief Marc Leibowitz. His title at [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="Johnson &amp; Johnson’s new tech business development guy, Marc Leibowitz | Johnson &amp; Johnson" data-portal-copyright="Johnson &amp; Johnson" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6889063/Leibowitz%2520headshot%25202.JPG?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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	Johnson &amp; Johnson’s new tech business development guy, Marc Leibowitz | Johnson &amp; Johnson	</figcaption>
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<p>When <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/1/14/11588812/theranos-obamacare-and-robots-doing-surgery-talking-with-johnson">we sat down in January with Sandi Peterson</a>, group worldwide chairman at Johnson &amp; Johnson, she said that J&amp;J was all about inking deals and partnerships with tech companies.</p>

<p>Now, the health care and consumer goods conglomerate has found its guy to make those deals: Ex-Dropbox Corporate Development Chief <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/xoogler">Marc Leibowitz</a>. His title at J&amp;J will be head of &ldquo;Health Technology Strategy and Business Development.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Leibowitz has been in Silicon Valley awhile. He started a company in the dot-com era that you haven&rsquo;t heard of, and then joined Google as employee #801. He spent some time at StumbleUpon and has worked at Dropbox for the last three years.</p>

<p>In an interview with <strong>Recode</strong>, Leibowitz and Peterson expanded a bit on what they plan to do next.</p>

<p>&ldquo;This is about recognizing we&rsquo;re not gonna do everything ourselves,&rdquo; Peterson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve made really great progress [in Silicon Valley], but what was obvious to all of us was that we needed a big leader who comes out of the technology world.&rdquo;</p>

<p>The &ldquo;really great progress&rdquo; to which Peterson refers includes a couple significant deals. There&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/johnson-johnson-google-name-ceo-for-surgical-robot-venture-1449756000">the joint venture with Google</a> to work on robot-assisted surgical tools and <a href="http://www.jnj.com/news/all/Johnson-Johnson-and-IBM-Announce-Plans-to-Collaborate-on-Advanced-Solutions-Designed-to-Transform-Healthcare-Delivery">a deal struck with IBM&rsquo;s Watson unit</a> last year. More recently, J&amp;J announced a big partnership with HP Inc. (the hardware-focused half of HP) to work on <a href="https://3dprint.com/134950/johnson-johnson-collaboration-hp/">applying 3-D printing technology to health care</a>.</p>

<p>Leibowitz and Peterson declined to say more about what&rsquo;s in the pipeline for Johnson &amp; Johnson but stressed that the company has the legal and operational know-how to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and the health care world.</p>

<p>&ldquo;J&amp;J has unrivaled regulatory and operational expertise. Very few companies in the world have that sort of reach and scale,&rdquo; Leibowitz said.</p>

<p>When asked about recent high-profile tech failures in health care &mdash;&nbsp;like the downfall of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-regulator-bans-theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-from-operating-labs-for-two-years-1467956064">the blood-testing startup Theranos</a> &mdash;&nbsp;Leibowitz paused for a moment before answering.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I am still learning my way through the organization, but what strikes me about health care is that to be successful you need to be really mindful of all the regulatory aspects.&rdquo;</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Why Walmart and Jet.com definitely belong together &#124; Recode Daily: August 4, 2016]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12373574/recode-daily-walmart-jet-belong-together" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12373574/recode-daily-walmart-jet-belong-together</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T12:18:28-05:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-04T07:01:23-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Last year Diapers.com founder Marc Lore launched Jet.com with big plans to take on Amazon. But now the Wall Street Journal says Jet is talking with Walmart about a $3 billion acquisition. This makes too much sense not to happen: Walmart could use Jet&#8217;s talent and pricing prowess, and Jet needs a buyer with deep [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="Marc Lore (bottom left) and some of the Jet.com team in 2015 | Shin Woong-jae / The Washington Post via Getty" data-portal-copyright="Shin Woong-jae / The Washington Post via Getty" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15884220/GettyImages-471902564.0.0.1487037721.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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	Marc Lore (bottom left) and some of the Jet.com team in 2015 | Shin Woong-jae / The Washington Post via Getty	</figcaption>
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<div id="read_now"> <p><img width="214" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-read-now.png"></p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Last year Diapers.com founder Marc Lore launched Jet.com with big plans to take on Amazon. But now <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-in-talks-to-buy-web-retailer-jet-com-1470237311">the Wall Street Journal says</a> Jet is talking with Walmart about a $3 billion acquisition. This makes too much sense not to happen: Walmart could use Jet&#8217;s talent and pricing prowess, and Jet needs a buyer with deep pockets.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12368608/why-walmart-acquire-jet-com">Jason Del Rey | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Tesla had a busy second quarter: It <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12340444/tesla-solarcity-acquisition">acquired SolarCity</a>, handled a PR crisis after a fatal car crash <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/6/12111674/tesla-fortune-autopilot-dispute">involved Tesla&#8217;s self-driving technology</a> and <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/26/12285930/tesla-mobileye-self-driving-cars">cut ties with a major supplier</a>. In its earnings report yesterday, the company missed expectations by a bit, but said it expects to meet its 2016 shipment goals, so its stock didn&#8217;t really move much. <br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12370824/tesla-q2-earnings-production">Johana Bhuiyan | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">On the heels of <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12342080/didi-uber-acquisition-ridehail-alliance">Didi Chuxing&#8217;s and Uber&#8217;s truce</a> in China, Singaporean ride-hailing startup Grab is preparing to raise another $1 billion from a group of investors that includes Didi and SoftBank. Southeast Asia is a big growth market for Uber, and Uber&#8217;s relationship with Didi is getting even more complex.<br> [<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-rival-grab-set-to-raise-1-billion-1470212430?mod=LS1">Newley Purnell, Juro Osawa and Rick Carew | The Wall Street Journal</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">On the new <strong>Recode Media</strong> podcast, Peter Kafka chats with Genius co-founders Ilan Zechory and Tom Lehman about why their startup no longer deserves the bro-y rep it had earlier on, and why visual &#8220;annotation&#8221; is a worthwhile business bet.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12364392/genius-founders-tom-lehman-ilan-zechory-annotation-podcast">Eric Johnson | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Twitter and its stock <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/26/12287888/twitter-q2-earnings-new-users-revenue">have continued to eat dirt</a> since Jack Dorsey took over as CEO last year, but Dorsey&#8217;s other company, Square, is doing just fine. The company reported better-than-expected earnings yesterday, and its stock shot up more than 15 percent.<br> [<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/square-posts-41-climb-in-revenue-as-it-narrows-loss-1470258332">Ezequiel Minaya | The Wall Street Journal</a>]</p> </div><div id="top_stories"> <p><img width="549" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-top-stories.png"></p> <div>Media</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12366680/time-warner-hulu--580-million">Time Warner is buying 10 percent of Hulu for around $600 million, and will join Hulu&rsquo;s new pay TV service</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Peter Kafka</div> <div>This TV package is different from the rest.</div> <div>Socialhttp://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12369224/donald-trump-hand-size-prank-capitol-hill</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12371206/usa-basketball-facebook-livestream-viewers-nba-tv">USA Basketball&rsquo;s Facebook broadcast viewership proves TV still reigns (for now)</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kurt Wagner</div> <div>The NBA streams drew seven million views over nine games.</div> <div>Politics</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12369224/donald-trump-hand-size-prank-capitol-hill">Spotted in a Capitol Hill office bathroom: Donald Trump hand size prank taped to the wall</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Noah Kulwin</div> <div>A photo from inside the men&rsquo;s room.</div> <div>Mobile</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12369318/blackberry-hardware-software-subscription-android">BlackBerry is setting the stage for life after it quits making BlackBerrys</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Ina Fried</div> <div>BlackBerry hopes Android owners will pay 99 cents per month to use its software on their devices.</div> <div>Media</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12366628/ripple-buys-hoodline-local-news">Local news is still hard, so local news service Ripple is buying local news service Hoodline</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Peter Kafka</div> <div>Lots of people want local news. Paying for it is a different question.</div> </div><div id="this_is_cool"> <img width='254"' src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-this-is-cool.png"><div><a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/suicide-squads-secret-drama-rushed-916693">The inside story of why &#8216;Suicide Squad&#8217; sucks</a></div> <div>The Hollywood Reporter&#8217;s Kim Masters says that studio executive meddling, an inexperienced director, organization-wide anxiety and a bunch of other bits of Warner Bros. palace intrigue are what made &#8220;Suicide Squad&#8221; such a flop. It hasn&#8217;t even opened yet and critics are roasting it; for a particularly fun evisceration, try <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/suicide-squad-review">Richard Lawson&#8217;s at Vanity Fair</a>.</div> </div>
<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Spotted in a Capitol Hill office bathroom: Donald Trump hand size prank taped to the wall]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/3/12369224/donald-trump-hand-size-prank-capitol-hill" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/3/12369224/donald-trump-hand-size-prank-capitol-hill</id>
			<updated>2016-08-03T14:00:11-04:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-03T14:00:10-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Business &amp; Finance" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Money" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is currently waging war against the leadership of the Republican Party, is an unpopular guy on Capitol Hill. Democratic politicians hate him. Republican politicians hate him, even though their voters made him the party&#8217;s standard-bearer. But how much do they hate him? Enough that someone working in the Rayburn [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Alex Wong / Getty" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6884167/585207954.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is currently waging war against the leadership of the Republican Party, is an unpopular guy on Capitol Hill.</p>

<p>Democratic politicians hate him. Republican politicians hate him, even though their voters made him the party&rsquo;s standard-bearer.</p>

<p>But how much do they hate him?</p>

<p>Enough that someone working in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington taped a printout of the Hollywood Reporter&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-small-are-trumps-hands-916593">new Donald Trump hand size comparison gimmick</a> to a bathroom mirror.</p>

<p>The point of needling Trump about his hand size is that <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/10/graydon-carter-donald-trump">he is said to be very sensitive about the subject</a>. People have been making fun of his reportedly below-average hand size for more than two decades now.</p>

<p>A source inside a Rayburn men&rsquo;s restroom, who sent us the photo below, told <strong>Recode</strong> that &ldquo;a legislative staffer in our office had larger hands and she&#8217;s 5&rsquo;3&rdquo;.&rdquo;</p>
<img src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6884013/mirror%2520hand.jpeg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" alt="The Hollywood Reporter’s Donald Trump hand size comparison sheet" title="The Hollywood Reporter’s Donald Trump hand size comparison sheet" data-has-syndication-rights="1" data-caption="The Hollywood Reporter’s Donald Trump hand size comparison sheet, taped to a men’s room mirror." data-portal-copyright="" />
<p>If you have any other embarrassing or funny photos around Capitol Hill, please send them to me at noah@recode.net.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Lyft is making a lot of money, but will it be enough to find a buyer? &#124; Recode Daily: August 3, 2016]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/3/12366342/recode-daily-lyft-makes-money-but-enough-for-buyer" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/3/12366342/recode-daily-lyft-makes-money-but-enough-for-buyer</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T11:48:32-05:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-03T08:12:33-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[A leaked Lyft investor letter obtained by Recode shows that the company set a record of 13.9 million rides last month, and that its number of unsubsidized rides (11 million) is trending upward. That&#8217;s some good news for Lyft, which needs a buyer of some sort if it wants to hold on against the recently [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Lyft" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15878288/lyft_presskit_02.0.0.1487037721.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<div id="read_now"> <p><img width="214" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-read-now.png"></p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">A leaked Lyft investor letter obtained by <strong>Recode</strong> shows that the company set a record of 13.9 million rides last month, and that its number of unsubsidized rides (11 million) is trending upward. That&#8217;s some good news for Lyft, which needs a buyer of some sort if it wants to hold on against the <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12342080/didi-uber-acquisition-ridehail-alliance">recently forged Uber-Didi behemoth</a>.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12364756/lyft-leaked-investor-letter-july-record">Johana Bhuiyan | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Time Warner is investing $580 million for a 10 percent stake in Hulu, joining Comcast, 21st Century Fox and Disney. Unlike its other partners, Time Warner won&#8217;t put its programming in the existing version of Hulu, which shows repeats of recently aired shows. Instead, it will license its stuff for a new pay TV service Hulu wants to launch next year.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12366680/time-warner-hulu--580-million">Peter Kafka | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Instagram has a new feature called Stories, and it&#8217;s the same exact thing as Snapchat stories. Though Facebook has tried cloning Snapchat before, <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12364596/instagram-stories-snapchat">this time it might actually stick</a>: Instagram&#8217;s advantage is that you can see the stories of all the people you know on Instagram, instead of going through Snapchat&#8217;s wonky phonebook following process.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12343218/instagram-copy-snapchat-stories-feature-sharing">Kurt Wagner | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Tesla is releasing its quarterly report today, and investors are keen to hear Elon Musk talk more about <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/20/12243702/elon-musk-master-plan-solarcity-tesla">his &#8220;master plan&#8221;</a> for Tesla, which <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12340444/tesla-solarcity-acquisition">now includes SolarCity</a>. One big potential hurdle: Tesla will probably end up needing a partner with a ride-hailing or ride-sharing network in order to allow Tesla owners to rent out their cars to other people.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/3/12356900/tesla-elon-musk-shared-self-driving-cars-uber-lyft">Johana Bhuiyan | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">HP CEO and well-known business community Republican Meg Whitman is crossing party lines to endorse Hillary Clinton for president. In an interview, she called Donald Trump a &#8220;dishonest demagogue.&#8221; The endorsement is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/30/heres-the-growing-list-of-big-name-republicans-supporting-hillary-clinton/">the result of months of work</a> by the Clinton camp to flip prominent Republican leaders against Trump.<br> [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/us/politics/meg-whitman-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0">Jonathan Martin | The New York Times</a>]</p> </div><div id="top_stories"> <p><img width="549" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-top-stories.png"></p> <div>Commerce</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12305934/birchbox-15-million-funding-inside-round">Birchbox&rsquo;s investors are giving the startup a $15 million lifeline</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Jason Del Rey</div> <div>It&rsquo;s cold out there for unprofitable startups.</div> <div>Drones</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12362744/alphabet-project-wing-drone-delivery">Drones from Google&rsquo;s Alphabet will take flight soon. But can they outmatch Amazon?</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Mark Bergen</div> <div>There&rsquo;s a difference in focus: Package delivery versus managing low-altitude airspace.</div> <div>Media</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12359350/josh-topolsky-talks-about-the-outline">Vox Media veteran Josh Topolsky explains what digital media companies get wrong, and what his new publication plans to get right</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Noah Kulwin</div> <div>The Outline will launch sometime this fall.</div> <div>Google</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12363964/alphabet-google-two-billion-bond">Alphabet now has $2 billion more in cash to spend on &#8230; something</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Mark Bergen</div> <div>Money is cheap; moonshots aren&rsquo;t.</div> <div>Media</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12353016/nfl-snapchat-deal-discover-channel-live-stories">The NFL will get a Snapchat Discover channel as part of a new two-year deal</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kurt Wagner</div> <div>Every NFL game this season will have a Live Story on Snapchat.</div> </div><div id="this_is_cool"> <img width='254"' src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-this-is-cool.png"><div><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/08/cindy_sheehan_on_how_the_democrats_are_using_khizr_and_ghazala_khan.html">What we can learn about the Trump-Khan debacle from Cindy Sheehan</a></div> <div>In the Bush years, Cindy Sheehan was a big deal. Soccer-mom-turned-antiwar-activist after the death of her son in Iraq, Sheehan was a thorn in the side of the Bush administration for years. Brendan James interviewed her for Slate, and she cautions the Khans against getting too close with Democrats: &#8220;I still had some kind of illusion that they really cared about these issues the same way I did, but they really only cared about power.&#8221;</div> </div>
<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Airbnb’s co-founder is creating an in-house design studio to promote stuff like this trippy house in Japan]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12361178/airbnb-co-founder-in-house-design-studio" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12361178/airbnb-co-founder-in-house-design-studio</id>
			<updated>2016-08-02T16:55:55-04:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-02T16:47:28-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Airbnb" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Big Tech" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Airbnb has reached a $30 billion valuation on the strength of its short-term home rental platform, which makes a lot of money. The next step for Airbnb, however, will involve making money on the stuff its customers do while they travel:&#160;shopping, checking out museums and so on. The company plans to roll out something substantial [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="The interior of a Samara project in Japan, the Yoshino Cedar House. | Airbnb" data-portal-copyright="Airbnb" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6879985/samara_yoshino_airbnb_7.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
	<figcaption>
	The interior of a Samara project in Japan, the Yoshino Cedar House. | Airbnb	</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Airbnb has <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/6/28/12053502/airbnb-new-funding-round-30-billlion">reached a $30 billion valuation</a> on the strength of its short-term home rental platform, which makes a lot of money.</p>

<p>The next step for Airbnb, however, will involve making money on the stuff its customers do while they travel:&nbsp;shopping, checking out museums and so on. The company <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-17/airbnb-plans-to-offer-add-on-travel-services-this-year">plans to roll out something substantial</a> in this area later this year.</p>

<p>But for now, Airbnb will tinker. And part of the tinkering is a new in-house design and engineering studio called Samara, led by Airbnb co-founder and Chief Product Officer Joe Gebbia.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Samara will give us even more experimental space to apply what we&rsquo;ve learned over the last eight years and pioneer services for connection, commerce, and social change within and around the expanding Airbnb community,&rdquo; Gebbia said in a press release.</p>

<p>For a more concrete example of the lofty stuff that Gebbia is talking about, you can go and book the Yoshino Cedar House (courtesy of Airbnb) &mdash;&nbsp;a trippy-looking cedar wood house located in <a href="http://www.designboom.com/architecture/airbnb-go-hasegawa-kenya-hara-house-vision-2016-yoshino-sugi-no-le-cedar-house-06-15-2016/">a culturally significant rural Japanese village</a>. According to the release, money earned from Airbnbers &ldquo;will be used to strengthen the cultural legacy and future of the area, which has struggled as younger generations migrate away from rural towns.&rdquo;</p>

<p>While it&rsquo;s possible, if not likely, that Samara&rsquo;s experimentation doesn&rsquo;t result in many new features or services for most users, that&rsquo;s not necessarily the point. The idea is that Airbnb is laying the groundwork for becoming an all-in-one travel service, and giving customers as little reason as possible to book their travel stuff elsewhere.</p>

<p>Another example: Earlier this year, Airbnb <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/4/19/11586260/airbnb-guidebook-city-guide-commerce">released city &ldquo;guidebooks,&rdquo;</a> hipstery little helpers for tourists in places like Paris or Rome.</p>

<p>The goal?</p>

<p>Getting customers to plan their trips on Airbnb instead of some place like Lonely Planet or TripAdvisor.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Vox Media veteran Josh Topolsky explains what digital media companies get wrong, and what his new publication plans to get right]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12359350/josh-topolsky-talks-about-the-outline" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12359350/josh-topolsky-talks-about-the-outline</id>
			<updated>2016-08-02T18:06:37-04:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-02T16:42:31-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Business &amp; Finance" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Money" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[If you were regularly reading about gadgets and technology in the mid-to-late 2000s, you were likely reading Engadget. And if you still read about technology and culture, you probably read Recode sister site and Vox Media property The Verge. Josh Topolsky is the editor who helped get both of those places going. A little over [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="Josh Topolsky speaking at the Webby Awards in 2014 | Bryan Bedder / Getty" data-portal-copyright="Bryan Bedder / Getty" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6879691/492349597.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
	<figcaption>
	Josh Topolsky speaking at the Webby Awards in 2014 | Bryan Bedder / Getty	</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If you were regularly reading about gadgets and technology in the mid-to-late 2000s, you were likely reading Engadget. And if you still read about technology and culture, you probably read <strong>Recode </strong>sister site and Vox Media property The Verge.</p>

<p>Josh Topolsky is the editor who helped get both of those places going. A little over a year ago, he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/business/media/joshua-topolsky-web-chief-bloomberg-leaving.html">left a senior job at Bloomberg amid some drama</a> with Mike Bloomberg himself. And this week, Topolsky is announcing his new thing: A news publication called The Outline.</p>

<p><strong>Recode</strong> <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/1/13/11588756/the-verge-co-founder-josh-topolsky-is-raising-money-to-launch-a-media">previously reported</a> that this project was in the works, but now we have details, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/joshua-topolsky-former-verge-editor-raises-funding-for-digital-media-venture-1470045600">courtesy of the Wall Street Journal</a>.</p>

<p>Topolsky got $5 million in funding from a group of investors that includes RRE Ventures, &nbsp;Advancit Capital, Boat Rocker Ventures and Nextview Ventures. The primary coverage areas will be news, culture and &ldquo;the future.&rdquo;</p>

<p>He&rsquo;s hired a bunch of people who used to work at places like Vox Media, Vice and BuzzFeed, and he says that the publication will formally launch sometime this fall.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter alignnone"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">People you should follow NOW <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronmedwards?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@aaronmedwards</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ivarvong?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ivarvong</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/adrjeffries?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@adrjeffries</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/johlag?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@johlag</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hale_a?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hale_a</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JordanOplinger?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JordanOplinger</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/billyd?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@billyd</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/leahfinnegan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@leahfinnegan</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/eliasrothblatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@eliasrothblatt</a></p>&mdash; The Outline (@outline) <a href="https://twitter.com/outline/status/760055024944877569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
</div></figure>
<p>Topolsky thinks that most digital media companies are doing most things wrong, and that they are (his words) &ldquo;fucking crazy&rdquo; for putting so many of their content eggs in social media baskets. He even<a href="https://medium.com/@joshuatopolsky/your-media-business-will-not-be-saved-1b0716b5010c#.ivvdjhe92"> wrote a whole Medium essay</a> about it back in April.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s worth pointing out that Vox Media (<strong>Recode&rsquo;s </strong>parent company, where Topolsky was an early executive), is <em>very</em> focused on audience growth, with a strong emphasis on social media. And furthermore, Mike Bloomberg once openly questioned <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/business/media/joshua-topolsky-web-chief-bloomberg-leaving.html">the wisdom of even having a website</a> in Topolsky&rsquo;s presence, which became part of a larger disagreement between the two.</p>

<p>But The Outline is where Topolsky is going to test his theory of new media: That you can run an audience-capped media business without sacrificing editorial taste. And that you can even make enough money that you can return a chunk of it to your investors.</p>

<p>Here&rsquo;s a condensed and lightly edited version of his interview with <strong>Recode </strong>at RRE&rsquo;s New York office.:</p>

<p><strong>Noah Kulwin: So first, congratulations. You have a new thing.</strong></p>

<p>Josh Topolsky: Thank you! I have a new thing.</p>

<p><strong>How would you describe The Outline for somebody who doesn&rsquo;t know your background, or doesn&rsquo;t necessarily know shit about media?</strong></p>

<p>That&rsquo;s an interesting question. For a layperson?</p>

<p><strong>Yes, for a layperson. For the listeners at home.</strong></p>

<p>I&rsquo;ve actually struggled &hellip; I struggled with The Verge as well. I remember this was a big point of contention: What&rsquo;s the <em>easy</em> way to describe the thing? I think that often the best and most interesting things are actually really hard to describe.</p>

<p>We had a lot of, at The Verge, a lot of consternation from our audience because they wanted us to be a tech site. And we wanted to be something much more complex: This idea in 2011, which was very novel, of technology-culture &mdash;&nbsp;this world that was impacted by, but not necessarily directly a part of, technology. That&rsquo;s a long-winded way of saying that this is a problem I&rsquo;ve had my whole life.</p>

<p>We&rsquo;re &hellip; I&rsquo;m loathe to use the word publication because I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s right. Are you gonna use this verbatim?</p>

<p><strong>I was hoping to transcribe it and condense it a bit.</strong></p>

<p>Okay. What I&rsquo;d say is that we&rsquo;re a publication focused on telling a story of the way the world is now, and the way the world will be for a modern reader.</p>

<p>And I think that in the way that for generations like in the &lsquo;90s, Wired was one of those publications, and in the &lsquo;60s and &lsquo;70s I think Rolling Stone was one of those publications. What we&rsquo;re doing is trying to talk about the way the world works in a way that you don&rsquo;t see normally every day.</p>

<p><strong>You told the Journal that you were thinking between 10 million to 15 million uniques a month as a good sweet spot. That such a number would allow you to build a serious ads business, but that simultaneously you wouldn&rsquo;t be chasing scale. </strong></p>

<p><strong>Last month, Gawker.com </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/johnjcook/status/760117749423235073"><strong>got 14.7 million uniques</strong></a><strong>. They are absolutely a publisher that&rsquo;s catering to scale. What makes your version of 10 million to 15 million not scale?</strong></p>

<p>A couple things. First off, 10 million to 15 million would be &ldquo;wow, what a great thing to hit in a couple years.&rdquo; In my experience, to use The Verge as an example, where I felt The Verge was most powerful and most interesting was when we had an audience of about 10 million to 15 million people. It was a big enough audience that we were reaching a lot of people and very influential, but it wasn&rsquo;t so big that it felt like we didn&rsquo;t know who the people were.</p>

<p><strong>In translating that into a business, what are some of the ways you&rsquo;d augment that? We&rsquo;ve talked about how you want to bake a non-advertising-dependent business strategy into the company from the beginning, and not approaching it like &ldquo;we&rsquo;re gonna get big, and then we&rsquo;ll figure out monetization.&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p>It&rsquo;s interesting, because I think five million is actually pretty big. If we arrive at five million at the end of 18 months, I think that&rsquo;s massive. That&rsquo;s a lot of people. I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll have five million people who&rsquo;ve accidentally found us on Facebook; I think we&rsquo;ll have five million people who want to see what we&rsquo;re doing.</p>

<p>Beyond digital advertising revenue, which is obviously a big part of what we&rsquo;re doing and something I&rsquo;ll talk about a lot because I think there&rsquo;s a huge opportunity there, I&rsquo;m interested in exploring what you can do with that audience.</p>

<p><strong>At some places (like Recode), this means events.</strong></p>

<p>I think events are one way to do it &hellip; it&rsquo;s one part of it. There are some interesting opportunities around physical goods. When you have a brand, and the brand is strong enough, and people really care about it and are passionate about it, there are things you can do for the audience that you otherwise couldn&rsquo;t.</p>

<p><strong>I think that&rsquo;s kind of similar to what the Wirecutter is doing, or some of the earlier tech blogs that &#8230;</strong></p>

<p>This is not a tech blog.</p>

<p><strong>I meant it in a tastemaking sense. Like not that this is a tech blog, but that I see a pattern in previous things you&rsquo;ve worked on and something that I see now with this.</strong></p>

<p>You can tell people about wonderful things that exist beyond the realm of what you do, and then you can also sort of make stuff beyond the realm of what you traditionally do.</p>

<p>Monocle has this incredible quality &mdash;&nbsp;they&rsquo;re moving at a much slower pace than I would ever be interested in, but they release books about travel, the home, books about industry. I&rsquo;m not saying we&rsquo;d do the exact same thing, but what I think is interesting is that ostensibly they are just a monthly magazine, but they&rsquo;ve created this universe of products.</p>

<p><strong>It sounds like you&rsquo;re opening up the possibility of reaching and monetizing audiences, and doing everything but platforms [Facebook, Snapchat, etc.].</strong></p>

<p>I think one thing <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/joshua-topolsky-former-verge-editor-raises-funding-for-digital-media-venture-1470045600">the Wall Street Journal article</a> got wrong is that social is not a big part of [The Outline], that platforms are not a big part of it. To me, everything is a tool to be wielded. If you&rsquo;re building something that&rsquo;s meaningful, I&rsquo;m interested in the stories about our world right now that are part of a news cycle.</p>

<p>I don&rsquo;t want to tell stories that are a 1,000 page novel. This is a specific kind of thing &hellip; it&rsquo;s not about saying &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to do social because I want to focus on a website,&rdquo; or I&rsquo;m just gonna do &ldquo;plays&rdquo; and we&rsquo;re not gonna do other kinds of events. It&rsquo;s about asking what is right for the audience, and what is right for the brand. Where can you reach somebody, and where is it meaningful for them and meaningful for you?</p>

<p>But to be like, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re <em>not</em> doing social&rdquo; or &ldquo;we&rsquo;re <em>only</em> doing social&rdquo; &mdash;&nbsp;that&rsquo;s fucking crazy to me.</p>

<p><strong>Correction:  </strong>In discussing audience size, the original version of this post incorrectly referred to &ldquo;10 million to 15 million page views.&rdquo; The numbers actually refer to unique visitors. The text has been corrected.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[So what does the Uber-Didi deal actually mean? &#124; Recode Daily: August 2, 2016]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12349528/recode-daily-what-does-uber-didi-actually-mean" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12349528/recode-daily-what-does-uber-didi-actually-mean</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T11:47:23-05:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-02T07:37:18-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[So what does the blockbuster Uber-Didi China deal mean for everyone else? For one thing, it means Didi now has more money invested in Uber than it does in its &#8220;global ride-hailing alliance&#8221; partners like Lyft, Ola and Grab, which could throw the partnership into jeopardy. For non-Chinese tech companies, the truce is a sign [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<figure>

<img alt="" data-caption="Uber CEO Travis Kalanick onstage with Kara Swisher at the Code conference | Asa Mathat" data-portal-copyright="Asa Mathat" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15878074/code-20140528-123441-4763.0.0.1487037721.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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	Uber CEO Travis Kalanick onstage with Kara Swisher at the Code conference | Asa Mathat	</figcaption>
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<div id="read_now"> <p><img width="214" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-read-now.png"></p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">So what does the blockbuster Uber-Didi China deal mean for everyone else? For one thing, it means Didi now has more money invested in Uber than it does in its <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/6/1/11820682/lyft-grab-antiuber-alliance-crossbooking-southeastasia-us-uber">&#8220;global ride-hailing alliance&#8221; partners</a> like Lyft, Ola and Grab, which could throw the partnership into jeopardy. For non-Chinese tech companies, the truce is a sign of the perils of entering China, and may guide them <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12344784/uber-china-surrender-india">to put more resources toward India</a>.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12342080/didi-uber-acquisition-ridehail-alliance">Johana Bhuiyan | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Salesforce acquired productivity software startup Quip; an SEC filing says Salesforce paid $582 million, but TechCrunch pegs the total cost of the deal at $750 million. Salesforce CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-really-likes-quip-ceo-bret-taylor-2016-8">Marc Benioff told Business Insider</a> that the deal was largely done to nab Quip CEO Bret Taylor, an ex-Facebook executive who was <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/5/12101066/bret-taylor-twitter-board">recently added to Twitter&#8217;s board</a>.<br> [<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/01/salesforce-buys-word-processing-app-quip-for-750m/">Ingrid Lunden | TechCrunch</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Twitter comms chief Natalie Kerris, who crossed over to the social media service from Apple less than a year ago, is out. Twitter&#8217;s low share price and continuing growth struggles has industry watchers (<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/6/13/11920542/linkedin-acquisition-twitter-sale-likely">like <strong>Recode</strong></a>) wondering loudly when the company is going to sell.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12347928/twitter-natalie-kerris-communications-executive-leaving">Kurt Wagner | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Big banks and traditional financial services companies are continuing to invest serious resources in instant payments and other kinds of consumer services. What they&#8217;re currently trying to figure out is how to lure customers away from competitors like Paypal-owned Venmo, and analysts think they have the upper hand.<br> [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/business/dealbook/banks-mobile-payment-wells-fargo.html?_r=0">Michael Corkery and Nathaniel Popper | The New York Times</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Last football season, daily fantasy sports services DraftKings and FanDuel <a href="http://www.recode.net/2015/9/18/11618706/those-draftkings-and-fanduel-ads-youre-already-sick-of-are-keeping">spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising</a>. After an expensive year of dealing with regulators over whether or not they qualify as gambling operations, the companies have significantly scaled back their marketing plans for this year. <br> [<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/fantasy-sports-rivals-slice-ad-spending-1470052800">Alexandra Berzon | The Wall Street Journal</a>]</p> </div><div id="top_stories"> <p><img width="549" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-top-stories.png"></p> <div>Google</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12340386/verily-alphabet-google-gsk-bioelectronics">Google&#8217;s Alphabet is part of a $700 million effort to cure disease without meds</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Mark Bergen</div> <div>Verily and pharma giant GSK will pour the money into &#8220;bioelectronics.&#8221;</div> <div>Transportation</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12341922/peter-thiel-right-about-uber-didi">The Uber-Didi deal is straight out of Peter Thiel&#8217;s playbook</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Noah Kulwin</div> <div>Here&rsquo;s what the Gawker destroyer said in 2014.</div> <div>Voices</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/2/12286976/broadband-communications-complications-problems-rio-olympics-sms">Medaling in messaging: The communications complications facing the Rio Olympics</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>David Viger</div> <div>Every victory tweet, every uploaded photo of a weeping competitor strains the city&rsquo;s already infamously weak mobile infrastructure just a little bit more.</div> <div>Commerce</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12339564/westfield-labs-rga-startup-accelerator-incubator">A giant shopping mall company is turning to 10 startups to breathe new life into retail</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Jason Del Rey</div> <div>Westfield Corporation and R/GA launch a three-month startup accelerator today.</div> <div>Podcasts</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12339366/yahoo-verizon-aol-deal-explained-podcast">Yahoo&rsquo;s $4.8 billion sale to Verizon, explained</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kara Swisher</div> <div>Longtime activist investor Eric Jackson talks with <strong>Recode&#8217;s</strong> Kara Swisher on the latest <strong>Recode Decode</strong>.</div> <div>Mobile</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12345292/juha-alakarhu-microsoft-nokia">Microsoft&rsquo;s phone camera expert is headed back to Nokia to work on virtual reality</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Ina Fried</div> <div>Juha Alakarhu helped develop Nokia&rsquo;s 41-megapixel PureView camera technology.</div> </div><div id="this_is_cool"> <img width='254"' src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-this-is-cool.png"><div><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/memories-of-trumps-wedding">Memories of Trump&#8217;s Wedding</a></div> <div>From Joseph O&#8217;Neill in the New Yorker, who was in attendance for Melania and Donald Trump&#8217;s 2005 wedding: &#8220;We all headed off to the reception. Here was Simon Cowell, waving at the roaring, cordoned-off crowd of real people gathered on South Ocean Boulevard; over there, by the swimming pool, was Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal; and hither and thither went Barbara Walters. I don&rsquo;t recall seeing Senator Clinton and her husband, but they were definitely in the house. Paul Anka and Billy Joel I for sure laid eyes on.&#8221;</div> </div>
<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[The Uber-Didi deal is straight out of Peter Thiel&#8217;s playbook]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/1/12341922/peter-thiel-right-about-uber-didi" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/1/12341922/peter-thiel-right-about-uber-didi</id>
			<updated>2016-08-01T13:13:37-04:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-01T12:36:01-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Big Tech" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Policy" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Transportation" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Uber" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The big story in tech this morning is that Uber and its Chinese rival Didi Chuxing are officially calling a truce, and Uber is selling its Chinese subsidiary to Didi. Both companies lost billions of dollars on subsidizing rides on ultimately futile efforts to outflank one another, and what was previously a market dominated by [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="Peter Thiel speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention | Joe Raedle / Getty" data-portal-copyright="Joe Raedle / Getty" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6872023/578544740.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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	Peter Thiel speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention | Joe Raedle / Getty	</figcaption>
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<p>The big story in tech this morning is that Uber and its Chinese rival Didi Chuxing <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12339990/uber-and-didi-call-truce-in-china-with-35-billion-deal">are officially calling a truce</a>, and Uber is selling its Chinese subsidiary to Didi.</p>

<p>Both companies lost billions of dollars on subsidizing rides on ultimately futile efforts to outflank one another, and what was previously a market dominated by two companies (a duopoly) is now a monopoly.</p>

<p>Though chatter about this kind of deal <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-20/uber-investors-said-to-push-for-didi-truce-in-costly-china-fight">began surfacing in recent weeks</a>, one guy had the right idea about it long before anyone else: Billionaire investor, <a href="http://www.inc.com/jeff-bercovici/peter-thiel-young-blood.html">vampire-like life-extension enthusiast</a>, Trump delegate and <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/5/25/11779910/peter-thiel-gawker-hulk-hogan-interview">Gawker destroyer</a> Peter Thiel.</p>

<p>In <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536">a September 2014 op-ed</a> for the Wall Street Journal, Thiel basically argued that any smart entrepreneur really wants to create a monopoly;&nbsp;the article was titled &ldquo;Competition Is for Losers,&rdquo; and it was drawn from his book of startup wisdom, &ldquo;Zero to One.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Here&rsquo;s his case, in his own words:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-none is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>Americans mythologize competition and credit it with saving us from socialist bread lines. Actually, capitalism and competition are opposites. Capitalism is premised on the accumulation of capital, but under perfect competition, all profits get competed away. The lesson for entrepreneurs is clear: If you want to create and capture lasting value, don&#8217;t build an undifferentiated commodity business.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To put it in terms of Uber and Didi, Thiel is saying that all their &ldquo;profits&rdquo; were being eroded by their expensive war of ride subsidies and new driver incentives. And because <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/6/1/11834048/uber-3-5-billion-saudi-arabian-sovereign-wealth-fund">both Uber</a> and <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/6/15/11950338/didi-uber-investment-funding-debt">Didi Chuxing</a> have raised seemingly endless amounts of money, this fight in China could have gone on for a long time, and it would have been a while before either of them saw an actual &ldquo;profit&rdquo; in the Chinese market.</p>

<p>The rest of Thiel&rsquo;s argument relates to what would come next for Uber and Didi, now that they each have their own area to dominate (Uber, the U.S. and Europe; Didi, mainly China). He thinks that &ldquo;creative monopolists give customers more choices by adding entirely new categories of abundance to the world.&rdquo;</p>

<p>We already have an idea of what Uber and Didi think their &ldquo;entirely new categories of abundance&rdquo; might be. In fact, Uber&rsquo;s driverless categories of abundance are currently <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/2/24/11588208/uber-is-expanding-its-self-driving-research-operations-in-pittsburgh">cruising around the streets of Pittsburgh</a>.</p>

<p>Of course, the biggest and best (or baddest, in Thiel&rsquo;s libertarian eyes) monopolist of all is the government.</p>

<p>And Uber&rsquo;s long-term goal, according to CEO Travis Kalanick?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-ceo-travis-kalanicks-gridlock-solution-carpools-for-all-1465222383">Taking on mass transit</a>.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Noah Kulwin</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Why Uber teamed up with its main rival in China &#124; Recode Daily: August 1, 2016]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/1/12339684/recode-daily-in-house-google-maps" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2016/8/1/12339684/recode-daily-in-house-google-maps</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T11:40:42-05:00</updated>
			<published>2016-08-01T07:44:44-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Uber is going to stop spending billions in China to compete with Didi Chuxing and will merge its China operations with its chief rival. Uber&#8217;s concession will give it a 20 percent stake in Didi, which is now valued at $35 billion. Even more important: The deal will placate investors worried that China was going [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15876745/GettyImages-159748502.0.1487037721.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<div id="read_now"> <p><img width="214" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-read-now.png"></p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Uber is going to stop spending billions in China to compete with Didi Chuxing and will merge its China operations with its chief rival. Uber&#8217;s concession will give it a 20 percent stake in Didi, which is now valued at $35 billion. Even more important: The deal will placate investors worried that China was going to be a financial black hole for Uber.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12339990/uber-and-didi-call-truce-in-china-with-35-billion-deal">Kara Swisher | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">A post-DNC convention poll conducted by CBS gives Hillary Clinton a 46 percent to 39 percent lead over Donald Trump. CBS had them in a dead heat last week after the RNC convention.<br> [<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/campaign-2016-did-hillary-clinton-get-a-post-convention-bump/">Sarah Dutton | CBS</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Tesla and Elon Musk are going ahead with their plan to buy SolarCity, the Musk-backed solar company. The all-stock deal, first proposed in June, values SolarCity at $2.6 billion.<br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12340444/tesla-solarcity-acquisition">Johana Bhuiyan | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">On the new episode of <strong>Recode Decode,</strong> Kara Swisher talks Yahoo-Verizon with activist investor Eric Jackson, who has long been bearish on Marissa Mayer&#8217;s tenure at Yahoo. Together, the two talk about what went wrong at the one-time giant, and why the company&#8217;s story may not yet be over. <br> [<a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/1/12339366/yahoo-verizon-aol-deal-explained-podcast">Eric Johnson | Recode</a>]</p> <p><img width="9" alt="." src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/bullet.png">Joshua Topolsky, co-founder of Vox Media site The Verge, has raised $5 million to launch <a href="https://www.theoutline.com/">The Outline</a>, a new digital media publication. Topolsky&#8217;s backers include RRE Ventures, which has also invested in BuzzFeed and Business Insider.<br> [<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/joshua-topolsky-former-verge-editor-raises-funding-for-digital-media-venture-1470045600">Mike Shields | The Wall Street Journal</a>]</p> </div><div id="top_stories"> <p><img width="549" src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-top-stories.png"></p> <div>Yahoo</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/31/12282384/aol-verizon-visit-yahoo-hard-integration">The Tim and Marni Show hits Yahoo HQ as the real work begins on what will be a &#8220;thorny&#8221; integration with AOL</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kara Swisher</div> <div>AOL has also had some of the same integration struggles within Verizon.</div> <div>Capital Gains</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/31/12337982/capital-gains-mobile-gaming-kid-robots">Mobile gaming, robots for kids and former Apple execs landed cash for startups</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Noah Kulwin</div> <div>Plus, a lending startup gears up for an IPO.</div> <div>Politics</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/31/12335238/voting-machines-next-target-russian-hacking-security">Are voting machines the next target of Russian hacking? One security expert thinks so.</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kara Swisher</div> <div>And sorry, Silicon Valley, internet voting isn&rsquo;t the solution.</div> <div>Politics</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/30/12333590/trump-slain-muslim-american-soldier-mother-youtube">Hey Donald, you can find the Gold Star mother of the slain Muslim-American soldier speaking on YouTube</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kara Swisher</div> <div>Also, there is a search engine called Google and you can use it to discover facts and other stuff!</div> <div>Politics</div> <div><a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/30/12331724/russian-hacking-wider-spread-hitting-clinton-campaign-computers">As though this election weren&#8217;t weird enough, Russian hackers also hit the Clinton campaign computers</a></div> <div> <span>By </span>Kara Swisher</div> <div>Meddling in the presidential campaign appears to be the aim of the cyber attack.</div> </div><div id="this_is_cool"> <img width='254"' src="http://info.recode.net/rs/850-HFN-366/images/title-header-this-is-cool.png"><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yAx2uCoHs">&#8220;Black (starring Norah Jones)&#8221; &mdash; Danger Mouse &amp; Daniele Luppi</a></div> <div>DJ Danger Mouse and composer Daniele Luppi teamed up in 2011 to make a soundtrack for a Western movie that doesn&#8217;t exist. The album that resulted is called &#8220;Rome,&#8221; and it&#8217;s very good. Expansive and melodic, but sufficiently low-key that you can play it and still get work done. &#8220;Black&#8221; is probably the best individual track on the album.</div> </div>
<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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