Tale of Two Gig Economy Stars: The Information’s Tech Briefing

Greetings!

You could call it a tale of two stars of the gig economy, Instacart and Uber. Earlier this week, Amir revealed that Instacart’s sales in April were up 450% compared with December and that the grocery delivery firm would turn its first profit this month, thanks to the pandemic.

Today, Amir scored another scoop: that Uber is discussing laying off 20% of its employees, or 5,400 people, in response to the sharp drop in its ride-hailing business caused by the outbreak. The stories summed up just how much fortunes have diverged for the two companies in the past couple of months.