Fortune Global Forum, our marquee conference, kicked off on Tuesday. We had a number of tech execs share thoughts about everything from global travel and supply chains to digital transformation and cryptocurrency.
Some highlights: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said people are extending their trips abroad for longer periods of time. “I think the days of people getting on a plane to go to Europe for just three, four, five days is probably going to diminish, and people are going to realize that it’s a better deal to travel longer,” he said.
Even as people start seeing one another again, there’s no dislodging digital interaction as the new normal. Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins said workers now “expect” more informal and frequent communication from management via teleconferencing. Meanwhile, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said virtual roadshows for initial public offerings have replaced the traditional in-person song-and-dance, condensing that part of process to days instead of weeks. “It was all done over videoconferencing and it was much more efficient,” she said.
But too much digital contact can be a bother, as Accenture CEO Julie Sweet noted. She offered a tip: Use the “delayed send” feature on email so people don’t feel like they have to check their inboxes at all hours. Otherwise, you’re encouraging burnout.
Other execs think there’s no replacing physical interaction. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said that although his company weathered the pandemic thanks to its mobile app, which kept people ordering lattes for pick-up at its stores, he’s very ready for “the great human reconnection,” especially at its coffee shops. Revathi Advaithi, CEO of Flex, the electronics maker, said worldwide manufacturing disruptions caused by COVID-19 revealed that “people don’t want to be reliant on global supply chains,” and instead will look to build more operations locally.
I interviewed Michael Saylor, CEO of the analytics software-turned-Bitcoin-investing firm Microstrategy. He told me he’s celebrating El Salvador’s recent decision to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. “I can’t see it as anything other than a cause to rejoice,” he said. The new law gives “property rights to everybody in El Salvador that are beyond the interference of the government, or a bank, and so I think it’s a good thing.”
“It’s an instrument of economic empowerment and to the extent that it spreads everywhere in the world, that makes the world a better place,” Saylor said. (Just this week Saylor announced that Microstrategy is raising $500 million in junk bonds to buy thousands of more Bitcoin, adding to its existing 92,000-strong stash.)
Later today I’m interviewing Cristina Junquiera, cofounder and CEO in Brazil for Nubank, one of the world’s largest digital banks. On Tuesday, the famously tech-reticent Berkshire Hathaway said it plunked down $500 million as an investment in Nubank as part of a $750 million extension to an earlier $400 million funding round. Nubank’s new private valuation is $30 billion. I’ll be asking her all about it.
Robert Hackett
Twitter: @rhhackett
robert.hackett@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
Devil-may-carrier. Last year, Google got hit with a few antitrust lawsuits; now it's got another on its hands. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed suit asking a court to classify Google as a public utility. If Google becomes regulated as a "common carrier," like phone, gas and electric companies, it will prohibit the company from favoring its own services through its search engine. "This lawsuit has no basis in fact or law and we'll defend ourselves against it in court," Google said in a statement.
Scrapped. President Joe Biden issued an executive order that sweeps away his predecessor's bans on Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat. Instead, the new directive charges the Commerce Secretary with assessing the riskiness of foreign apps that could threaten national security. The earlier orders, signed by Trump, had been tied up in court challenges. (Relatedly, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo made an appearance at the Fortune Global Forum yesterday.)
More like Slowly. We have some more information about yesterday's widespread Internet outage. The blackout was caused by a buggy update to a customer configuration setting at Fastly, a tech company that is supposed to help websites load quicker. The firm put out a report that explains what went wrong, and the company basically promises to do better next time. I talked about this story and much else on a Cheddar news show this morning.
The savior? As mentioned above, El Salvador, the smallest Central American country, has voted to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. This basically means people will be able to pay their taxes in Bitcoin. It also means that exchanging Bitcoin for other currencies will not incur capital gains tax, as it does in the U.S. The new status does not mean that businesses must accept Bitcoin as payment for goods and services, however.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
RIP good times... The so-called Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy is coming to an end, warns the New York Times. Tech startups, formerly flush with venture capital, are starting to cut back on the discounts and perks they used to shower on users. The change comes as these businesses set their sights on profitability over high-growth, money-losing customer acquisition.
For years, these subsidies allowed us to live Balenciaga lifestyles on Banana Republic budgets. Collectively, we took millions of cheap Uber and Lyft rides, shuttling ourselves around like bourgeois royalty while splitting the bill with those companies’ investors. We plunged MoviePass into bankruptcy by taking advantage of its $9.95-a-month, all-you-can-watch movie ticket deal, and took so many subsidized spin classes that ClassPass was forced to cancel its $99-a-month unlimited plan. We filled graveyards with the carcasses of food delivery start-ups — Maple, Sprig, SpoonRocket, Munchery — just by accepting their offers of underpriced gourmet meals.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
A crypto company goes up against Ethereum by Lucinda Shen
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: Expect longer trips after COVID-19 by Jonathan Vanian
Biden’s plan will stop Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk from avoiding billions in taxes by Steve Wamhoff
SurveyMonkey changes its name as it expands beyond surveys by Jonathan Vanian
Vaccine passports are here—so why are there still so many travel restrictions? by Grady McGregor
Wisdom from Day One of the Fortune Global Forum by Alan Murray
Can A.I. help investors find the next hot technology? By Jeremy Kahn
Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.
BEFORE YOU GO
Apparently, hackers were able to compromise Colonial Pipeline by getting their hands on a single password. The company was using a legacy "virtual private network," or VPN, that "did not have multifactor authentication in place," reports Reuters, covering remarks Colonial CEO Jason Blount made to the Senate on Tuesday. Multifactor authentication—which requires people to enter a second code beyond a password, usually via a text message or an app, to access digital accounts—is an essential and basic cybersecurity defense that everyone should employ.
Eat your vegetables, people!
Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.