Some have been spending their time between jobs making personal investments and advising on corporate boards. One entertainment executive is raising money for a new venture. And another executive is writing a book. You can read past installments of Free Agents here and here. ByteDance may have built the blockbuster TikTok—the first Chinese-owned app to really threaten Facebook and YouTube—but most of its other international forays in areas like news, work collaboration and social networking have flopped. The Chinese internet giant’s latest attempt to go global, with a music-streaming app designed for overseas markets, is showing some early signs... Didi Prepares to Relaunch Apps Amid Expectations Government Probe Will End Soon Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives. Spotting an under-the-radar startup that could be the next Shopify, Coinbase or Snowflake has never been more difficult: A company doesn’t need to show much business progress to earn a billion-dollar valuation, or higher, from investors these days. Brex employees haven’t had to look hard for reminders of their startup’s ambition to reign supreme over the big corporate card companies: The Wi-Fi network password at one of its former offices used to be “BuyAmex.” But Brex is facing increasingly fierce competition, including from a two-year-old copycat named Ramp that’s catching up fast, according to financial information on both companies reviewed by The Information. Earlier this year I wrote about the idea of investing directly in people versus companies—something my venture capital firm, Slow Ventures, has started doing. Last month, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger declared that winning back Apple’s business was one of his top priorities, a move that would ease the shame of Apple having dropped Intel processors from its Mac line of computers in favor of its own designs. In early May, days after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors the company wanted to be the best platform for millions of digital content creators to make a living, researchers at the company spotlighted a major obstacle for its flagship app. Brace yourselves for more conflict among the software arms merchants in the enterprise. That’s one of the predictions of Mike Volpi, a longtime venture capitalist and tech executive who has become an active investor in the category. Terms · Privacy · Payment Policy · Help & Support · RSS Feed · Tips · Careers Home Newsletters NEW Opinion Briefings About Us Events Video Corporate Sales Airbnb Amazon Amazon Web Services Apple Aptiv ByteDance Coinbase Cruise Didi Chuxing Disney's Media Distribution Group Endeavor European Commission Facebook Google Lyft Microsoft Netflix Opendoor Robinhood Shopify Snap Spotify Stripe Tencent Tesla Twitter Uber ViacomCBS Walmart WarnerMedia Waymo WeWork Big Tech Probe Tracker Creator Economy Database The Information 50 VC Diversity Index Pressed Documentary
INSIDE HUNGARY’S U.S. INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN: “Former Vice President Mike Pence turned up in Hungary last month to speak to a conference on conservative social values hosted by the far-right government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” Ken Vogel and Benjamin Novak write for The New York Times. “Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general, was another recent visitor. Tucker Carlson did his Fox News show from Hungary for a week this summer. The American Conservative Union is planning a version of its CPAC gathering in Budapest early next year.”
