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Let’s talk first about video backgrounds. I liked Sundar Pichai’s the best by far. It was all smooth-credenza sleek, with a few for-show books and that funky chevron-patterned modern artwork on the wall. Jeff Bezos’s book case was nice. Mark Zuckerberg’s boring backdrop explained a man hellbent on domination, not a design aesthetic. Tim Cook’s almost equally boring choice was shocking only because Apple is easily more design-focused than Google, Amazon, or Facebook.
Oh, wait, you came here for analysis about the hearing, not its imagery.
I get that. Little surprised. I actually thought it was a good day for democracy, if not cordiality. Congressional investigators have shown they can dig up dirt on the behemoths that likely will be grist for more focused examiners at the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, and in Brussels. But if mergers are to be undone or giants are to be punished for abusing their concentrated power, then Congress will need to write new antitrust laws. (I’d vote for them passing comprehensive immigration reform and universal health care first.) The president’s hollow, shallow, and meaningless threat to deal with Big Tech through an executive order can easily be ignored.
Why a good day for democracy? Because in the United States, no company is above the law, and no CEO is too rich or powerful to be condescended to by the people’s representatives. Some are better informed than others, of course. But that’s broadly true for the country too. It is a rare day when Pichai, Bezos, Zuckerberg, or Cook are summarily cut off before they’ve had a chance to finish speaking. My preference would be for civility, but rough treatment is probably a good thing for these guys from time to time.
So what was accomplished? The American people—and anyone with an Internet connection—got to see for themselves why elected officials believe Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple abuse their power. (And those companies got in their constitutionally guaranteed PR talking points about the good they do for humanity.)
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A reader who’s a real killjoy but who also is right emailed to ask if we would correct Aaron’s clever subject line the other day, “The Zoom where it happens,” referring to Wednesday’s hearings. In fact, the witnesses appeared via Cisco’s Webex platform, not Zoom. [I’ll switch to: Everyone knows it’s Webex–Aaron]
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Speaking of corrections, Lo Toney, the new Brainstorm Tech outside co-chair, graciously informs me I’m neither the first person, nor, he assumes, the last, to incorrectly write the name of his investment firm, Plexo Capital. I wrote “Plaxo,” which is the name of an early online-address book company that Comcast bought and ultimately shut down. Sorry, Lo.
Adam Lashinsky
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
Baseline. The middle of a hearing being watched by every tech reporter in the country is a good time to release not-great news. Snap used the opportunity to release its first-ever diversity report. The company's employees are just 16% women, including 7% of the tech team leadership. Black and Latino workers make up 4.1% and 6.8% of the workforce.
Anybody might have found it but his whisper came to me. NASA successfully launched the Perseverance rover on its journey to Mars. The rover and its helicopter drone, dubbed Ingenuity, are slated to arrive at the red planet on Feb. 18, 2021. Seventh-grader Alexander Mather, who won the contest to name the rover, and 11th-grader Vaneeza Rupani, who named the helicopter, were on site for the launch.
Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak. Former Uber self-driving boss Anthony Levandowski could find himself in the pokey for a spell. After Levandowski pleaded guilty to stealing information from his previous employer, Alphabet's Waymo, prosecutors on Wednesday asked for a 27-month prison sentence plus restitution of $756,500. Levandowski's lawyers countered with 12 months of home confinement and a $95,000 fine.
Busting outta here. On Wall Street, the tech earnings news was almost as busy as the headlines from Capitol Hill. Qualcomm's revenue was unchanged from a year ago at $4.9 billion (after excluding a huge one-time payment from Apple last year), but the mobile chipmaker also announced a patent agreement with Huawei, which should enhance future revenue. Qualcomm's stock price, previously up just 5% in 2020, jumped 11% in pre-market trading on Thursday. At PayPal, the volume of payments on the company's platforms jumped 29% to $222 billion, the highest ever, and revenue increased 22% to $5.3 billion. Shares of PayPal, already up 71% in 2020, rose 3% in pre-market trading. And tax software developer Vertex raised $400 million in an initial public offering and its shares closed 29% higher on Wednesday.
Wonders never cease. I know Robert included a link yesterday, but QUIBI GOT 10 EMMY NOMINATIONS, which is more than ESPN, Showtime, National Geographic, CNN, TBS, Bravo, Nickelodeon, or USA. Let no one ever say again that Kberg has lost his mojo, at least with Hollywood's Emmy voters. Speaking of struggling streaming services, ViacomCBS says it's going to add a ton more shows to its CBS All Access service and change its name next year. I know Quibi is taken, but how about LonBi, for "long bites"?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Arguably no city on Earth has embraced futurism and new technology as deeply as Singapore. Writer and Singapore native Jerrine Tan explores the dark side of this strategy that favors growth over preservation in an essay for Wired.
Last year, Singapore opened the snaking Lornie Road Highway. Erecting its eight lanes required clearing vast forested areas as well as the Bukit Brown cemetery, which housed thousands of grave sites of early migrants, and possibly the bodies of victims of the Japanese Occupation. It had been placed on the World Monuments Watch list, and the United Nations special rapporteur for cultural rights had demanded it be preserved, to no avail. The old National Library, which served as an aid station for the British during the Japanese invasion, was also demolished to make way for a tunnel that would save commuters five minutes. Visiting home last December, I found that a beloved park near where I grew up had been butchered—one side of the hill carved open, the lily pond full of fish filled in. New expressway, I was told. As a foreigner, Gibson intimated that the absence of the past in Singapore incited psychic pain. As a citizen, watching a resolute obliteration of the past in progress, I am haunted by gaping fish.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Can a seltzer-making company build a better device to help COVID patients breathe? SodaStream thinks so By Beth Kowitt
Expectations are low for Apple’s quarterly report By Aaron Pressman
Apple and Samsung have topped the smartphone market for 9 years. Now there’s a new leader By Eamon Barrett
‘An absolute necessity:’ Why this expert says China desperately needs a digital currency By Veta Chan
To recharge America’s job market, build a green electric grid By Saul Griffith and Alex Laskey
Joe Biden wants to end the era of big companies paying nothing in taxes By Rey Mashayekhi
Is gender diversity good for business? Another study makes the case By Claire Zillman and Emma Hinchliffe
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
If you have never read Ray Bradbury's classic sci-fi story "A Sound of Thunder," you have surely witnessed its influence. In the story (spoiler alert), a person travels to the distant past and accidentally kills a butterfly, which then significantly alters events in the present time. The so-called butterfly effect has been a staple of the genre ever since. But scientists using an IBM quantum computer to simulate time travel say there is no butterfly effect. Damaged quantum bits sent to the past return unharmed. Okay, I'm ready to go dinosaur hunting.
Aaron Pressman