The Helpdesk

Airbnb IPO raises even more cash, based on Doordash debut 

Airbnb soars to near $100bn valuation as shares more than double in IPO

The IPO market looks hot as Airbnb and C3.ai raise price targets

Laid-Off Airbnb Employees Lost Mountain of Canceled Stock

• Airbnb has smashed through Wall Street expectations for its IPO, trading at a $100bn valuation after it’s first day on the stock exchange. 
• The company was originally hoping for a $60bn valuation just last week, but analysts marked the company up to $80bn following DoorDash’s massive IPO on Wednesday. 
• Airbnb had a difficult 2020 as the floor dropped out of the tourism industry, but it fared better than most. It’s operational costs plummeted with revenue, as the company owns almost no premises and doesn't have to pay cleaning and maintenance staff across its network. 
• For comparison, Airbnb is valued at over twice the rate of Hilton, which owns actual real estate across the planet. Does this make sense? 
• The sale will add billions to the fortunes of its founders and allow staff to sell up to 15% of their shares after the listing, instead of waiting for the usual lock-up period, creating more millionaires.
• But spare a thought for the ex-Airbnb staff who didn’t get rich last week. Cory Weinberg at The Information reports that the company canceled about $616 million worth of unvested stock awards through the first nine months of the year, the majority of those awards likely belonged to the roughly 1,800 employees Airbnb let go when in April, around 25% of its staff. 

Speaking of staff… 

Uber As A Collective

New York City Drivers Cooperative Aims to Smash Uber’s Exploitative Model

• InTheseTime’s has a story about “a rideshar­ing app that you can feel good about” 
• The service, called Driver’s Co-operative, has been in development for the last year, and is launching in 2021 in New York
• Driver’s Co-op aims to feature all the services and convenience of ride sharing apps Uber and Lyft, without the rider’s guilt. 
• The service will take 15% of fees from the driver, which is 10% less than Uber and Lyft, while organising to pay for petrol and servicing of its drivers cars, something that Uber and Lyft don’t offer. 
• And at the end of 2021, any funds left over from the kitty will be returned to all drivers, as dividends. 
• Ken Lewis, a co-founder of Driver’s Co-op, says “The way the [Uber] mod­el is orga­nized is extrac­tive. It takes out the mon­ey and doesn’t give back much. Imag­ine a com­pa­ny that doesn’t have any prof­its, but has cre­at­ed bil­lion­aires,” Lewis says. ​“That mon­ey comes from drivers.” 
• I’ve been watching this for the last year, and similar community car share services in cities like Austin, Texas. I’d love to see this here. 

Salesforce buying Slack - Another Argument for Antitrust? 

The dark reality behind Slack’s billion-dollar sale to Salesforce

• Last week Slack announced that it would sell itself to tech behemoth Salesforce for a whopping $27.7...
  

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Facebook sued by the FTC

FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

Lawsuits Filed by the FTC and the State Attorneys General Are Revisionist History

Facebook Accused of Breaking Antitrust Laws

• The New York Times reports The Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states have accused Facebook on of buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition
• The lawsuit alleges that Facebook deployed anticompetitive tactics in order to buy or neutralize its rivals and shore up its market dominance, specifically with its purchase of photo-sharing app Instagram and the messaging service WhatsApp.
• The states’ lawsuit quotes an email from CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom warning of the competitive threat Instagram faced if it turned down Facebook. “At some point soon, you’ll need to figure out how you actually want to work with us.”
• They have called for Facebook to sell off WhatsApp and Instagram, and to seek approval for any future acquisitions
• Facebook has responded to the lawsuit, dismissing it as “Revisionist History”
• On their newsroom, they’ve said “The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general today attack two acquisitions that we made: Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. 
• Facebook points out that The FTC conducted an in-depth “Second Request” of the Instagram transaction in 2012 before voting unanimously to clear it.
• “Now, many years later, with seemingly no regard for settled law or the consequences to innovation and investment, the agency is saying it got it wrong and wants a do-over. In addition to being revisionist history, this is simply not how the antitrust laws are supposed to work.”
• Looks like this will be a long, protracted legal fight 
• “I had "Facebook sued for Antitrust" on my 2020 Bingo Card, although admittedly I also had it on my 2019 and 2018 Bingo card as well,” says Tess’ old boss. 
• Facebook is the second big tech company to face a major legal challenge this year after the US Justice Department sued Google in October, accusing the tech company of abusing its position to maintain an illegal monopoly over search and search advertising.

So long Melbourne’s flying taxis, we barely knew ye

• Uber has sold off its aviation division to start-up called Joby, just days after offloading its self-driving car business
• It’s looking unlikely Uber will deliver on its promise to launch a fleet of 1000 commercial flying taxis in Melbourne from 2023.  
• Last year Uber said Melbourne would be one of three cities to pilot Uber Air. 
• Cara Waters from the SMH reports “A spokesperson for Joby, said the startup was still on track to launch flying taxis in 2023 but could not say whether Melbourne would be involved.” 
• Peter, as a Melbournian are you disappointed? 

Twitch, YouTube and PornHub try and minimise the harm they induce

• Anthony Agius points to three different services cleaning up their act today in his latest newsletter, The Sizzle 
• Game streaming service Twitch will "ban lewd or repeated comments about anyone's physical appearance and expressly prohibit the sending of unsolicited links to nudity" and "prohibit streamers from displaying the Confederate battle flag and...
  

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Reactions to Media Bargaining Code: 

Tech sector urges media, tech giants to shake hands 

'Value of journalism recognised', says Michael Miller

Nine opposes concessions for Google, Facebook

• After what feels like a decade of talking about this, yesterday treasurer Josh Frydenberg tabled the Media Bargaining code in Federal parliament
• Reactions from the media were mixed - some thought the legislation was a giant step forward, others a missed opportunity 
• News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller:
• “It recognises the value of journalism, and it puts a framework in place to formalise how digital platforms and media companies should work together,” he said.
• “It’s important to have as many Australian voices heard as possible. And in a practical sense, this legislation will give us the ability to cover more topics in more regions­, with the confidence that the journalism that we are publishing is also going to reach the right people.”
• Nine doesn’t like it. A spokesperson said the concessions given to Facebook and Google further entrench their monopoly power and the imbalance in media and tech regulation.
• Yolanda Redrup at The Fin interviewed industry heavyweights from tech and media for their takes
• Tech industry veteran Paul Bassat called the code “bad policy”, but hoped it would see an end to the war of words between media and big tech: 
• "It makes sense for both sides to sit down and work out something everyone can live with," he said. "In a perfect world you end up with a logic, rational outcome everyone can live with."

AFP powers delayed 

AFP's new hacking powers referred to committee 

Online account takeover powers sent to PJCIS for review 

• Staying with the government, and the new powers proposed for the AFP, giving federal police the ability to take over online accounts of Australians, has thankfully been delayed 
• The bill has been referred to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security for further scrutiny. 
• This means we won't see another tech bill rushed through before Christmas 

Apple Announced AirPods Max

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/12/apple-introduces-airpods-max-the-magic-of-airpods-in-a-stunning-over-ear-design/

• Apple had yet another hardware announcement to make in 2020, unveiling the AirPods Max overnight
• The over-ear headphones are $549 US, which is a jaw dropping $900 dollarydoos. 
• At that price, these better be amazing. The current industry leading noise cancelling headphones are the Sony WH-1000XM4 - which can be bought for 400 dollarydoos 
• Despite the price, Mark Gurman notes the shipping time has...
  

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Welcome to the first where we deep dive into a topic. First up, our monitor buying guide!

Our too-long-didnt-listen recommendation - buy the best dell you can afford: 

Dell Utrasharp 27

https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-ultrasharp-27-monitor-u2719d/apd/210-aqwy/monitors-monitor-accessories

$634

Dell Utrasharp 27 with USB-C Hub 

https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-ultrasharp-27-usb-c-hub-monitor-u2721de/apd/210-awhy/monitors-monitor-accessories

$748

UltraSharp 27 4K USB-C Monitor

https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/ultrasharp-27-4k-usb-c-monitor-u2720q/apd/210-auzu/monitors-monitor-accessories

$920

_______

Peter’s monitor: 

https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/accessories/apd/210-ATTT

Dell 32 Curved Gaming Monitor

$899 

Anthony’s Monitor: 

Xiaomi Mi 34" Curved Gaming Monitor

https://www.mi-store.com.au/xiaomi-mi-curved-gaming-monitor-34

$599

Marc’s Monitor

Apple Pro XDR

https://www.apple.com/au/pro-display-xdr/

$8499

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Dating apps getting a little safer 

Tinder makes it easier to report bad actors using 'unmatch' to hide from victims

• Tinder is making it easier to report bad actors on the dating app 
• The move follows criticism highlighted by ABC Hack and Four Corners, that showed sexual predators on the service would unmatch their victims, making them hard to find. 
• Now, when a users are “unmatched”, both retain a history of the chat in case one side wishes to report 
• Bumble introduced a similar feature last month for its users. Bumbles feature includes a massive “report” button, whereas Tinder simply links to an FAQ about reporting users.  

Meanwhile, Ina Fried at Axios is reporting that Tinder’s parent company, Match, is working with RAINN, a leading anti-sexual violence organisation in the US, to fully audit it’s dating apps, in an attempt to prevent sexual assault on its platforms. 

Match apps include: Tinder, Hinge, and Plenty of Fish.

Match to audit sexual assault prevention efforts 

Uber exits self driving cars

Uber Gives Up on the Self-Driving Dream

• Uber seems to be exiting the self driving car race 
• Uber was one of the first companies to embrace self driving cars, throwing a tonne of money behind the project, and hiring some of the best names in the business
• Uber was keen on the technology, as the hefty meatsack behind the driver’s wheel was always Uber’s biggest expense 
• But the company had a fraught history with the technology. In 2018 the company was found to have stolen tech from competitor Waymo 
• Anthony Levandowski, the head of Uber Self Drive, was sentenced to 18 months prison for his role in the scandal 
• Also in 2018, an Uber car hit and killed a pedestrian during a trial run 
• Company Aurora will be purchasing the tech at a bargain basement price
• Developing self-driving vehicles is taking longer and is more expensive than the tech optimists predicted. 

In inevitable but still exciting news… 

Apple Preps Next Mac Chips With Aim to Outclass Top-End PCs

• Over at Bloomberg, Apple reporting wunderkin Mark Gurman writes that Apple is readying the next batch of Apple Silicon powered macs 
• He reports: “Apple has planned for the release as early as the spring and later in the fall. And that the chips are destined to be placed across upgraded versions of the MacBook Pro, both entry-level and high-end iMac desktops, and later a new Mac Pro workstation”
• Spring and fall are US times of course, and on schedule to what I would be expecting
• The current M1 chip has a mobile-centric design built around four high-performance processing cores to accelerate tasks like video editing and four power-saving cores that can handle less intensive jobs like web browsing. 
• For its next generation chip targeting MacBook Pro and iMac models, Apple is working on designs with as many as 16 power cores and four efficiency cores
• Apple normally has an education focussed event around late March, this would be the perfect time to introduce iMacs, and if the same chip is expected in both iMacs and Macbook Pros - as we saw the same M1 across three product lines - then i...
  

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Google could cut Australians out of upgrades 

• In the ongoing feud between Google and Facebook and the government, the Fin Review reports Google is working on “a secret project to exclude Australians from regular improvements to its search function and other services if the company does not agree with proposed laws to regulate how it deals with news publishers.”
• This would effectively isolate Australia from other global markets that have services such as search, news and discover (a personalised content feed) continually tuned and tweaked for efficiency.
• More sources said Google had been exploring a number of scenarios to assess the effect the code of conduct might have on its products.
• On Tuesday, the Morrison government is expected to take its revised code of conduct proposal to the party room, with an introduction into Parliament most likely on Wednesday.
• 
  

Tech giants win concessions, but 'baseball arbitration' remains

• Also at the Fin, they’re reporting tech companies have won a few concessions from the upcoming bill, which Treasurer Frydenberg is expected to unveil on Tuesday. They include: 
• Facebook and Google will be permitted to count the monetary worth of online readers they deliver news websites, and offset that against the bill they need to pay publishers
• Facebook’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube will both be excluded from the new digital platform rules
• Under the mandatory bargaining code if the parties fail to strike a financial deal, an auction system similar to schemes used by American baseball teams in player pay disputes would be overseen by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
• Nice colour from the SMH which has a quote from an anonymous gov backbencher “The outcome will be that Google and Facebook won't be completely happy with it and the media companies won't be completely happy, but it's something they can all live with.”  

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/how-joe-biden-s-digital-team-beat-trump-by-chasing-a-kinder-gentler-internet-20201207-p56l51.html 

• The post-mortem of the US election campaign continues, with the NYT examining how Joe Biden’s warm fuzzy campaign online held up against the Trump Death Star.  
• Kevin Roose writes, figuring out whether any particular online strategy decisively moved the needle for Biden is probably impossible. But since successful campaigns breed imitators, it's worth looking under the hood of the Biden digital strategy to see what future campaigns might learn from it.
• "The whole Biden campaign ethos was, 'Twitter isn't real life,'" said Flaherty, the digital director for Joe Biden's presidential campaign. "There are risks of running a campaign that is too hyperaware of your own ideological corner."
• As it focused on Facebook, the Biden campaign paid extra attention to "Facebook moms"— women who spend a lot of time sharing cute and uplifting content, 
• The story goes into all the various platforms Biden used, including Youtube, Tiktok, and even Animal Crossing 

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New legislation for Australian Federal Police tabled in parliament 

AFP's 'expansion of authoritarian powers'

Govt urged to avoid TOLA repeat with dark web laws

• Last week, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton introduced the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 into the federal parliament.
• The bill gives the AFP broad new surveillance powers, to take over the online accounts of Australians, and devices at the network level
• Currently, law enforcement can only take control of a person’s account with their consent. These proposed laws would allow the AFP to take over an account without consent, as long as they had a warrant
• While the new laws are designed to target child abuse and terrorism, the new warrants will also apply to Commonwealth crimes including theft, fraud, tax evasion, illegal gambling, forgery and piracy.
• With just four sitting days left, the Law Council of Australia has urged the government not to repeat what it did with the country's encryption-busting laws by similarly trying to rush through new online account takeover powers before Christmas, but the timing cannot be ignored here. 
• And as we’ve reported, both the government encryption laws and mandatory data retention laws have been criticised since their introduction, as being too broad, and accessible by far too many agencies. 

'Ridiculous and dangerous': the hard road to safety in the gig economy

• The SMH has a fantastic, long piece on NSW’s Safework investigation into food delivery services UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog
• NSW Labor, the Greens and peak body Unions NSW have all urged the state government to expand the coverage of the workers' compensation scheme to cover food delivery riders and to boost the enforcement of occupational health and safety rules. 
• Unions NSW general secretary Mark Morey, who has worked with Airtasker to introduce minimum pay rates for workers, says "all work, regardless of the employment definition, should attract a minimum wage, leave loadings, superannuation and injury insurance".
• No one from food delivery companies agreed to answer questions for the article, but it sounds like they are working with the governments
• It's unlikely gig workers will ever be considered employees, but safety standards for the gig economy is clearly needed. 

Celebrities Like Cardi B Could Turn OnlyFans Into a Billion-Dollar Media Company

• Bloomberg has a great story on the rise of Onlyfans - a site that allows users to follow and tip their favourite online personalities for access to content 
• OnlyFans is adding as many as 500,000 users a day and paying out more than $200 million a month to its creators.
• Like so many services on the internet, onlyfans growth was originally fuelled by adult film stars offering private shows 
• More recently celebrities like Cardi B have released content on the platform, but will that be enough to shake its “adult” roots and hit the mainstream? 

More than...

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No-kill, lab-grown meat to go on sale for first time

• The Guardian is reporting that cultured meat, produced in bioreactors without the slaughter of an animal, has been approved to go on sale in Singapore
• This is the first time “lab grown meat” has been approved for sale anywhere in the world.
• The “chicken bites”, produced by the US company Eat Just, have passed a safety review by the Singapore Food Agency 
• The approval could open the door to a future when all meat is produced without the killing of livestock, the company said.
• Discussion: would you eat lab meat? 
• One of the major reasons to go vegan is the massive carbon footprint of meat, this reduces that as well
• And we've seen slaughterhouses the main point of covid transmission 

Covid killed Cinemas? 

Warner Bros. will release all of its new 2021 movies simultaneously on HBO Max

• WarnerMedia will be releasing every one of its movies in 2021 simultaneously on HBO Max.
• The movies will only stream on HBO Max for one month before leaving the platform for a period of time. 
• This helps keep “the release window” deal cinemas have had for decades in place. The movies will be exclusive to HBO Max during the window, then will come to all streaming services after the standard gap 
• The plan is to run this experiment for one year, with movies like Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad and Matrix 4
• HBO Max users will not have to pay anything about the standard $15 per month to access these movies 
• Disney experimented with streaming blockbusters with Mulan earlier in the year, but charged $20 on top of the standard Disney+ sub. 
• Discussion: Are cinemas dead? Have you been to a cinema post covid? 

Apple open for small business 

Apple opens enrollment for new App Store Small Business Program with 15% commission

• Apple has opened its small business program for App Store developers earning less than a million a year in sales 
• Developers can sign up now. 
• The sign up process is straight forward through Itunes Connect, and examines your 2020 sales, and if eligible, you will be moved to the new pay scale for 2021 

Casey Newton has a nice history lesson on Slack 

How Microsoft crushed Slack

• Casey says the company was doomed the moment Microsoft released Teams, and bundled it in with 365
• Casey notes the open letter Slack posted in the New York Times back in 2016, welcoming Microsoft to workplace chat
• For those that don't recognise the hubris, Apple wrote a similar welcome to IBM back in the eighties, welcoming them to Personal Computers.  
• When Teams was introduced, I was running Slack amongst my team at an old job. We eventually moved to teams, even though I hated the UI, because it was easier to get management buy in. 
• There’s not much more to say here other than it’s a great weekend read

And sticking with Casey Newton, we’re ending the week talking about his tweet on Spotify Wrapped 

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Tis the season for end of year wraps - and first cab off the rank is Apple and Google, awarding best of apps, music and podcasts: 

Apple releases its 'Best of 2020' App Store winners and most downloaded apps of the year

Google Play's Best of 2020 Awards highlight the stressful year it's been

• In its press release, Apple said “apps are a reflection of culture. And this year, they reflected people’s focus on self-care and mental health, remote work and learning, staying connected with family and friends, interactive and social gaming, and more.”
• For Apple, home workout app Wakeout! won iPhone App of the Year and Zoom got the top iPad app 
• Google’s best app was Loona, a relaxation and sleep app. 
• Unlike other sleep or meditation apps where users close their eyes and drift off, Loóna is intended to help people wind down while still on their phones.
• Users of the app spend on average 34mins a day playing with the pretty colours and images, and the app has a massive conversion rate of over 50% from free to paying customers, so it must be doing something right. 
• Both platforms awarded Genshin Impact as game of the year 

In podcasting News.. 

• Amazon in Talks to Buy Podcast Maker Wondery - WSJ
• We previously reported on rumours that Apple was looking to buy podcast content creator Wondery
• The new word on the street is that Amazon is looking to purchase the company, possibly to lock in its shows like Dr Death and Dirty John to its own podcast directory 
• Amazon was late to podcasting, it opened a podcast directory just a few months ago
• Spotify shares dropped the day Amazon’s directory went live, showing how much the market values podcasts
• Podcasts are seen to benefit streaming music services in two ways:
• One - they keep users in your ecosystem longer
• Two - podcasts are generally free to stream, theres no royalties to pay 
• Meanwhile, 
• Spotify says a million-plus Anchor podcasts will help it dominate podcasting
• Spotify’s $100 million-plus Anchor acquisition is seemingly paying off.
• Spotify purchased Anchor, a simple podcast creation platform, in 2019
• The streaming company says 70% of podcasts listened to on Spotify are produced with Anchor 

Thanks to listener Simon who contacted me on Twitter to our next story, Microsoft listened to our podcast and has changed it’s Productivity Score program 

Our commitment to privacy in Microsoft Productivity Score

• Microsoft has bowed to pressure and is dramatically changing the productivity score details available to employers
• Microsoft Are removing employee data from the product. 
• During the preview, Microsoft added a feature that showed user data of all employee names over a 28-day period. 
• In response to feedback over the last week, they’re removing that feature entirely. 
• Going forward, the communications, meetings, content collaboration, teamwork, and mobility measures in...
  

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Salesforce buys Slack in a $27.7B megadeal

• As predicted last week, the Customer Relations Software giant Salesforce has acquired Slack, the workplace communications tool. (A$37.5 billion)
• This follows years of Slack rejecting offers from Microsoft and Google, who both showed interest in the company 
• Microsoft went on to build Teams, a slack competitor, in house - and has since grown it into somewhat of a Zoom competitor as well. Google has instead incorporated Slack into its Google Workspace tools. 
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said ““This is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world,”
• Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield “we share a vision of reduced complexity, increased power and flexibility... Personally, I believe this is the most strategic combination in the history of software, and I can’t wait to get going,”
• So while everyone is putting a positive spin on things, it does seem Slack has hit the ceiling for organic growth, and that made Butterfield, who has been reluctant to sell his baby, come to the table. 
• What does this mean for the free tier of Slack? Will we see communities move to Discord? And is Slack + Salesforce really a competitor to Office 365? 

NBN Co opens instant quote generator for user-pays fibre upgrades

• NBN Co has soft-launched the instant quote generator for its user-pays upgrade program Technology Choice.
• The quote generator is now free, allowing users to see how much it would cost to upgrade their home or business to Fibre to the Premise 
• Until now, simply asking NBNCo for a quote cost $350, and that was before any upgrades
• So if you’re wondering why your twitter feed is filled with nerds quoting upgrades today, this is why. 
• Don’t expect upgrades to be cheap - I’ve seen anything from $2 to $20k for a Fibre upgrade (my place is $8,500)
• Average upgrades for residential homes seem to be around the five to seven thousand mark - depending on the current infrastructure in your area
• NBN Co is hoping that impatient customers will pay their own way to fibre rather than wait what could be years for a free upgrade.
• Is this something NBNCo really expects people to use, or is this more a PR move to say “see, this is how much fibre costs, and this is why we didn't roll it out?” 

The Nerds have logged on to COVIDSafe’s github 

• As promised, the government has posted the code to its new COVIDsafe app to Github, the popular code sharing website
• Github allows anyone to mark issues they find within the code, and ask for clarification from the developers. 
• iOS Developers have been quick to post concerns on the apps performance under a thread that is in our show notes. 
• If you read the thread, you can see the person posting as the developer is answering concerns with the same scorecard matrix we’ve seen in the media over the last few days 
• Unfortunately, the developers in this thread are not happy with this matrix, and many have compiled the code themselves and ran their own testing - one finding that “Two iPhones, side by side, do not share tokens when both devices are locked or the app is in the background” 
• Developers are asking the COVIDsafe team to share their own testing, and testing procedures. 
• The COVIDSafe team has yet to respond to these requests,...
  

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