Please invest responsibly

Quote of the Day

Please invest responsibly"

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reminded investors of the risks associated with crypto. Yes, the price of Bitcoin is capable of moving lower.

Market Snapshot

  • The U.S. economy added 228,000 jobs in November (est: 200,000), while wages remained muted.
  • The pound briefly hit a six-month high against the euro as the Brexit process kicked off.
  • JPMorgan and Citi will not immediately clear Bitcoin futures trades.
  • On Friday, Gold experienced its largest drop since May 5th.



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YouTube Pulls The Plug on Creators

Imagine for a second you’re a professional YouTuber. You make videos for a living, and you’ve gotten really, really good at it.

So good, in fact, that tens of thousands of people subscribe to your channel every day—and hundred of thousands of people, maybe even millions, will watch your latest video.

Okay, now imagine YouTube pulls the cord

Suddenly, you’re no longer being paid for your work, and you have no idea what you did wrong. On top of it, YouTube gives no explanation other than linking to an arbitrary set of “Terms & Conditions.”

That’s exactly what’s happened to several creators, leaving them out of work or forcing them to switch platforms.

“Who’s to blame for this madness?”

Turns out, the answer is complicated…

Back in March, big brands like PepsiCo and Walmart began pulling their ads from YouTube after a WSJ report revealed they were placed alongside racist and homophobic videos.

YouTube responded by developing an algorithm to demonetize (aka, strip ads from) these inappropriate videos, which it hoped would give advertisers the confidence to return.

Last week, YouTube took things a step further by pledging to hire 10,000 human moderators to address inappropriate content

Has the algorithm been effective?

Not really. And that’s the problem.

While many inappropriate videos have been demonetized and, in some cases, removed, plenty of other ones—most notably, videos exploiting children—have not (or only recently were).

And then there’s a whole other issue: videos that shouldn’t get flagged are getting flagged…which is depriving creators of as much as 80% of their monthly income…and YouTube isn’t telling them why.

So to answer the “who is to blame?” question...

It starts with the users who poisoned the well with hate speech and disgusting behavior. No question. But let’s not let YouTube off the hook here…

Has it been given the unenviable task of moderating 400+ hours of video every second? Yes. Should we cut them some slack due to the sheer impossibility of that job? Perhaps.

But at the end of the day, transparency and consistency are key. You need a set of rules. Otherwise, the creators won’t know how to play the game—and soon enough, they’ll just publish on Twitch, instead.

Uber Shares a Ride With ComfortDelGro

Uber has agreed to sell a majority stake in its Singapore-based business to the country’s largest taxi operator, ComfortDelGro, for $218 million.

The deal, which would create a $474 million joint venture, is sure to stiffen competition between Uber and local rival Grab, which is backed by SoftBank.

In fact, one could argue this deal catapults Uber into the lead—Grab is estimated to have 10,000 licensed drivers in Singapore, while Comfort has a fleet of 15,000…and Uber now has exclusive access to them.

And just think how things have changed in the transportation business.

When ordering a car on your phone first became a thing, taxi companies were irate, and to no one’s surprise, they considered Uber to be the enemy.

Now? They’re friends who are, at least in Comfort’s case, more than willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to get an invite to the party.

“Hey Siri. Please Buy Shazam for $400 Million”

Tim Cook put his mic to the music, and Siri likes what she hears.

Apple is reportedly dipping into its $270 billion cash pile to buy Shazam, the London-based sound identification app, for ~$400 million. In 2002, Shazam initially launched as “2580,” a music-only SMS recognition service.

Ever since, Shazam has become the go-to audio assistant, attracting more than 1 billion downloads and 100 million monthly users, as well as offering a number of related services from movies to TV ads.

But, as the age of apps has taught us, lots of users ≠ lots of money.

Shazam posted a $5.3 million loss in 2016 (following a $21.9 million loss in 2015), prompting a deal, if reached, will cut the service’s value by 60% from a $1.02 billion post-money valuation in 2015.

Which is why the folks at Apple must be all smiles.

They get to snag Shazam from Snap (Spiegs was also interested in a deal) at a hefty discount, while attracting users to Apple Music and away from heated competition like (soon-to-be-public) Spotify.

Not to mention the cost savings. Shazam brings in the majority of its revenue from Apple on “referral fees” by sending paying users to iTunes.

What Else Is Happening…

  • Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive has returned to day-to-day management after focusing on the design of the “Spaceship” campus the last two years.
  • Beyond Meat, a plant-based burger maker, has secured $55 million in funding to triple the size of its production capacity.
  • Voya is in talks to sell $50 billion of retirement-income annuities to PE shop Apollo Global Management.
  • Coinbase has claimed the throne as No. 1 iPhone app in the U.S.

Economic Calendar

  • Monday     Earnings: No Events
  •                     Economic Events: JOLTS

  • Tuesday    Earnings: No Events
  •                   Economic Events: No Events

  • Wednesday    Earnings: Pier 1 Imports, Progressive
  •                         Economic Events: FOMC Meeting Announcement

  • Thursday   Earnings: Costco, Oracle
  •                    Economic Events: Jobless Claims

  • Friday       Earnings: No Events
  •                  Economic Events: Baker-Hughes Rig Count

An Exclusive Interview With Etsy COO Linda Kozlowski

This is part one of a six-interview special on the gig economy, where we highlight industry leaders helping to shape the “future of work” around the globe. Morning Brew’s co-founder, Alex Lieberman, had to opportunity to sit down with Linda Kozlowski of Etsy.

I’ll be honest. I knew next to nothing about Etsy.

I’m pretty sure my sister bought a vintage Michigan crew neck at some point and I had a friend who worked there in FP&A. That’s it.

But after scrolling through designer dog tuxes and Game of Thrones music boxes (obviously in Hodor’s voice) for two hours straight, I knew there was something unique about the platform. And as Linda put it...“It’s really specific to us that we want to own special. We can help you find something special and we can help you find it from an actual human being.”

And to her point, there’s a whole lot of special when you think about Etsy’s community of almost 2 million creative entrepreneurs and 31.7 million active buyers (like my sister).

We ended up chatting for 45 minutes in the company’s Brooklyn HQ, a 200,000 sq. ft. treehouse-style space littered with pooches and paper mache.

Linda explained how her previous leadership roles at Evernote (COO) and Alibaba.com (Head of Global Marketing) prepped her for success at Etsy, and how her core values of creativity, globalism, and impact were taught very early in her life.

The Breakroom

Question of the Day

The DogHound book company is shipping a load of books to a library in Minnesota. If each student takes 4 books from the load, there will be 20 books left. If 3 students don't take books, and all the other students take 5 books each, then there won't be any books left. How many books are in the load?

(Answer located at the bottom of newsletter)

Business Trivia

Who is the best selling author of all time?

Stephen King, Agatha Christie, William Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling

(Answer located at the bottom of newsletter)

Stat of the Day

12—Number of people Facebook has hired specifically to erase spam and hateful messages from Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page.

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Breakroom Answers

Question of the Day: 160 (Explanation)

Business Trivia: William Shakespeare

 

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I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

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