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Didi Reshuffles Amid Domestic Pressure

By Yunan Zhang · Jan 14, 2019 10:01am PST
Didi Chuxing is restructuring for the second time in a year, placing new emphasis on safety and user experience to jump-start domestic growth in its ride-hailing business.The management changes, which include a new chief safety officer and a new chief customer officer, come after two passengers were killed in separate incidents in China last... Didi Chuxing is restructuring for the second time in a year, placing new emphasis on safety and...
Viacom CEO Bob Bakish. Photo by Bloomberg
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Viacom Looks to Buy Ad-Supported Streaming Service

By Jessica Toonkel and Tom Dotan · Jan 11, 2019 12:52pm PST
Nearly every major media company in recent years has launched video streaming services that cost viewers a few dollars a month and don't carry ads, looking to compete with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Viacom, owner of MTV and Nickelodeon, wants to expand in a different part of the market—free, ad-supported streaming video.Viacom in... Nearly every major media company in recent years has launched video streaming services that cost...
An Amazon game controller. Photo by Bloomberg
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Amazon Developing Game Streaming Service

By Jessica Toonkel and Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 10, 2019 10:48am PST · 5 comments
Amazon is developing a service for streaming videogames over the internet, joining Microsoft, Google and other companies that are building similar offerings in what could be an important new battleground in online entertainment, two people briefed on the plans said.  Streaming services represent a potentially significant shift in the... Amazon is developing a service for streaming videogames over the internet, joining Microsoft,...
Go-Jek motorcycle taxi drivers and passengers travel through traffic in Jakarta. Photo: Bloomberg
Go-Jek to Buy Stake in JD.com’s Indonesian E-Commerce Business
By Juro Osawa · Jan 8, 2019 7:00am PST
Go-Jek motorcycle taxi drivers and passengers travel through traffic in Jakarta. Photo: Bloomberg
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Go-Jek to Buy Stake in JD.com’s Indonesian E-Commerce Business

By Juro Osawa · Jan 8, 2019 7:00am PST
Chinese online retail giant JD.com is trying to expand its business in Indonesia by deepening its alliance with local startup Go-Jek. Go-Jek, whose app offers ride-hailing, food delivery and other services, plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in JD.com’s Indonesian e-commerce joint venture, a person familiar with the matter... Chinese online retail giant JD.com is trying to expand its business in Indonesia by deepening its...
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Bloomberg
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What We Learned From Uber’s Confidential 2018 Offering Documents

By Amir Efrati · Jan 7, 2019 7:01am PST
Confidential documents provided by Uber to potential creditors and bond investors in March and October of 2018 provide insights into how the company will tell its story to public market investors ahead of its IPO this year.While the detailed financial projections look rosy (see related article here), there are both good and bad signals... Confidential documents provided by Uber to potential creditors and bond investors in March and...
Customers picking up prescriptions at a pharmacy in Yichang, central China's Hubei province, in 2014. Photo by AP
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How Hillhouse Hopes to Build China’s CVS

By Yunan Zhang · Dec 24, 2018 10:01am PST
Hillhouse Capital Group, one of China’s most prominent investment firms and an early backer of Chinese tech giants such as Tencent and Meituan, has lately tried to buy up pet care firms, hospitals and shoe stores. Now it is targeting pharmacies.In the past year, Hillhouse has invested $1 billion in more than 40 retail pharmacy chains,... Hillhouse Capital Group, one of China’s most prominent investment firms and an early backer...
A Waymo autonomous vehicle in Chandler, Ariz., in July. Photo by Bloomberg
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Troubled Waymo Worker Shows Human Problems Continue

By Amir Efrati · Dec 20, 2018 10:03am PST · 2 comments
When Waymo tests its self-driving car prototypes on public roads, teams of workers sit inside control rooms remotely monitoring their every move. Some of these workers—Waymo calls them “guardian angels”—are ready to push buttons that bring vehicles to a halt when safety concerns arise.For five months in 2018 though, Waymo... When Waymo tests its self-driving car prototypes on public roads, teams of workers sit inside...
Neil Shen. Photo by AP
How Sequoia’s Neil Shen Built a China Powerhouse
By Juro Osawa · Dec 20, 2018 7:01am PST · 1 comment
Neil Shen. Photo by AP
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How Sequoia’s Neil Shen Built a China Powerhouse

By Juro Osawa · Dec 20, 2018 7:01am PST · 1 comment
In 2004, the two senior partners at Sequoia Capital, Michael Moritz and Doug Leone, were looking for new long-term opportunities outside the U.S., and they zeroed in on China as the first target.“Back then, a lot of people were flying in, doing deals and flying out. We knew that was the wrong model,” Mr. Leone said in an interview.... In 2004, the two senior partners at Sequoia Capital, Michael Moritz and Doug Leone, were looking...
Mike Sullivan
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At Ring’s R&D Team, Security Gaps and Rookie Engineers

By Matt Drange and Reed Albergotti · Dec 19, 2018 7:01am PST · 5 comments
Jamie Siminoff had flown to frigid Kiev, Ukraine, to give a pep talk to the roughly 30 people who worked there for his fast-growing video doorbell startup, Ring. It was December 2016, and the Santa Monica, Calif., company had recently opened a satellite office in Ukraine to develop products that would use artificial intelligence and motion... Jamie Siminoff had flown to frigid Kiev, Ukraine, to give a pep talk to the roughly 30 people who...
Lyric manages high-end rentals for short stays in Chicago, above, and a dozen other cities. Photo: Shutterstock
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Airbnb in Talks to Lead Property Startup’s $75 Million Fundraising

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 18, 2018 2:15pm PST · 1 comment
Airbnb is expected to lead a group of investors that would put about $75 million into Lyric, a startup that turns new apartment buildings into hotel-like properties for business travelers, people familiar with the matter said. The anticipated investment would be one of Airbnb’s most significant bets on professionally managed rentals.Lyric... Airbnb is expected to lead a group of investors that would put about $75 million into Lyric, a...
An Amazon wind farm in Fowler Ridge, Ind. Photo by Bloomberg
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AWS Renewable Energy Efforts Hit Speed Bumps

By Priya Anand · Dec 14, 2018 7:01am PST · 2 comments
Last month at an event in Las Vegas, Nat Sahlstrom, a director for Amazon’s cloud computing unit, told an audience that electrical power is “the lifeblood of the modern data center,” reminding the crowd that the unit—known as Amazon Web Services—had pledged four years earlier to one day rely solely on renewable... Last month at an event in Las Vegas, Nat Sahlstrom, a director for Amazon’s cloud computing...
Juniper CEO Rami Rahim, center, at the New York Stock Exchange last month. Photo by Bloomberg
AWS’ Shift to Homegrown Networking Equipment Raises Questions for Juniper
By Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 13, 2018 12:33pm PST · 1 comment
Juniper CEO Rami Rahim, center, at the New York Stock Exchange last month. Photo by Bloomberg
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AWS’ Shift to Homegrown Networking Equipment Raises Questions for Juniper

By Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 13, 2018 12:33pm PST · 1 comment
Juniper Networks, which makes high-end devices that route traffic around the internet, looked to be making headway in a key growth market a few years ago when it started selling its routers to Amazon Web Services. AWS is the biggest of the public cloud providers that handle an increasing share of big companies’ computing work.But hopes... Juniper Networks, which makes high-end devices that route traffic around the internet, looked to...
Photo by Bloomberg
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Facebook to Cut Funding for Some News Shows on Watch

By Jessica Toonkel, Tom Dotan and Beejoli Shah · Dec 13, 2018 7:02am PST
Six months after Facebook launched a slate of original news shows from outlets like CNN, ABC News and BuzzFeed, the company has told news executives it is likely to reduce its funding for individual shows, as it refines its programming strategy for the effort. Facebook’s overall spending on news content for its Watch service—$90... Six months after Facebook launched a slate of original news shows from outlets like CNN, ABC News...
A view of an Apple wireless chip inside the company's AirPods at a 2016 event. Photo by Bloomberg
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Apple Developing Modem as Chip Efforts Expand

By Aaron Tilley · Dec 12, 2018 7:01am PST · 6 comments
For some time, Apple has been serious about building more wireless components for its own devices, putting its own Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips into the latest Apple Watches and AirPod earbuds.Now Apple has provided the clearest evidence yet that it is working on one of the most complicated and expensive hardware ingredients in its devices: a... For some time, Apple has been serious about building more wireless components for its own...
Huawei ads in Beijing. Photo by Bloomberg
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Huawei’s Deep Ties to U.S. Researchers Face Backlash

By Juro Osawa and Matt Drange · Dec 11, 2018 12:44pm PST
Professor Song-Chun Zhu of UCLA is one of the world’s leading authorities on computer vision. He has won numerous grants, including from the Pentagon—and more recently from Huawei Technologies. Now, Mr. Zhu, who has already received one-third of the $450,000 Huawei grant, says he doesn’t want to accept the rest because of the... Professor Song-Chun Zhu of UCLA is one of the world’s leading authorities on computer...
A still image taken from an ABC TV station, showing the self-driving car that hit a pedestrian in Tempe, Ariz., last March. Photo by AP
The Uber Whistleblower’s Email
By Amir Efrati · Dec 10, 2018 4:00pm PST
A still image taken from an ABC TV station, showing the self-driving car that hit a pedestrian in Tempe, Ariz., last March. Photo by AP
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The Uber Whistleblower’s Email

By Amir Efrati · Dec 10, 2018 4:00pm PST
Below is Robbie Miller’s March 13 email to Eric Meyhofer, Jon Thomason and several others, including two in-house lawyers. Below is Robbie Miller’s March 13 email to Eric Meyhofer, Jon Thomason and several others,...
An Uber self-driving car being tested in Arizona in February. Photo by AP
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How an Uber Whistleblower Tried to Stop Self-Driving Car Disaster

By Amir Efrati · Dec 10, 2018 4:00pm PST · 5 comments
Five days before an Uber self-driving car prototype killed a pedestrian in Arizona last March, a manager in Uber’s autonomous vehicle unit warned the group’s top executives that the software powering the company’s prototype robotaxis was dangerous. He also warned that the human back-up drivers in the vehicles weren’t... Five days before an Uber self-driving car prototype killed a pedestrian in Arizona last March, a...
Mark Zuckerberg, Brad Smith and Bill Gates. Photos AP; Bloomberg
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To Rebuild Trust, Facebook’s Zuckerberg Looked to Microsoft

By Nick Wingfield · Dec 10, 2018 7:02am PST · 1 comment
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants advice, he occasionally turns to a kindred figure: Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist. Recently, Mr. Gates suggested to Mr. Zuckerberg that Facebook consider hiring someone with a profile like that of Brad Smith, the president and chief legal officer at Microsoft, a lawyer... When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants advice, he occasionally turns to a kindred figure: Bill...
Lime scooters parked in South Bend, Ind. Photo: AP
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Scooter Firm Chases Funding to Staunch Losses

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 9, 2018 9:05pm PST · 5 comments
Investors in Lime were surprised this spring that the startup already had spent much of the $70 million it had raised only a few months earlier. The company was trying to shift quickly from running a bike-share business to one focused on electric scooters, and needed to buy thousands of the vehicles, according to people familiar with the matter.... Investors in Lime were surprised this spring that the startup already had spent much of the $70...
Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf at an event in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday. Photo by Bloomberg
Qualcomm Lays Off 269 Employees, Mostly in Data Center Business
By Aaron Tilley · Dec 7, 2018 11:31am PST · 1 comment
Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf at an event in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday. Photo by Bloomberg
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Qualcomm Lays Off 269 Employees, Mostly in Data Center Business

By Aaron Tilley · Dec 7, 2018 11:31am PST · 1 comment
Qualcomm is laying off 269 employees at its offices in Raleigh, N.C. and San Diego, mostly in its faltering data center unit, according to documents reviewed by The Information. Only around 50 employees remain in the data center unit, down from nearly 1,000 employees earlier this year, said one person with knowledge of the situation.The layoffs... Qualcomm is laying off 269 employees at its offices in Raleigh, N.C. and San Diego, mostly in its...