By Reporter based in New YorkPublished September 22, 2019In its pursuit of being “the Everything Store,” Amazon has been known to copy popular items and for cheaper.Allbirds now appears to be the latest target. Billing them as “the world’s most comfortable shoes,” Allbirds creates environmentally friendly footwear that has been unofficially recognized as part of the Silicon Valley tech worker and entrepreneur uniform. The five-year-old direct-to-consumer shoe startup has been , and doesn’t sell its goods on Amazon.Now the Amazon-brand have a striking resemblance to Allbirds’ popular shoe,...…By Reporter based in New YorkPublished September 22, 2019In its pursuit of being “the Everything Store,” Amazon has been known to copy popular items and for cheaper.Allbirds now appears to be the latest target. Billing them as “the world’s most comfortable shoes,” Allbirds creates environmentally friendly footwear that has been unofficially recognized as part of the Silicon Valley tech worker and entrepreneur uniform. The five-year-old direct-to-consumer shoe startup has been , and doesn’t sell its goods on Amazon.Now the Amazon-brand have a striking resemblance to Allbirds’ popular shoe,...WW…

By Reporter based in New YorkPublished November 17, 2020As Airbnb plans to make its stock market debut, the effects of the pandemic on its business are coming into focus.In its , the home-rental giant revealed that it has issued more than $1 billion in refunds during the pandemic, under its policy for extenuating circumstances.“While this helped our guests, it created problems for our hosts—half of whom depend on their Airbnb income to pay their rent or mortgage,” the filing notes. (According to the San Francisco-based company, more than 55% of Airbnb hosts are women, and the average annual...…By Reporter based in New YorkPublished November 17, 2020As Airbnb plans to make its stock market debut, the effects of the pandemic on its business are coming into focus.In its , the home-rental giant revealed that it has issued more than $1 billion in refunds during the pandemic, under its policy for extenuating circumstances.“While this helped our guests, it created problems for our hosts—half of whom depend on their Airbnb income to pay their rent or mortgage,” the filing notes. (According to the San Francisco-based company, more than 55% of Airbnb hosts are women, and the average annual...WW…

By Reporter based in New YorkPublished November 6, 2020Who’s winning election week in the United States? Uber.First, on Nov. 3, voters in California agreed to exempt gig companies from a new state labor law that . And now the company’s market capitalization has reached $78 billion, surpassing the $75 billion valuation when the company went public in May 2019, according to PitchBook data.Shares of the ride-hailing giant are currently up 7% to $45.11 a share, topping the company’s initial public offering price of $45.Though you still would have been better off in the S&P 500 index if...…By Reporter based in New YorkPublished November 6, 2020Who’s winning election week in the United States? Uber.First, on Nov. 3, voters in California agreed to exempt gig companies from a new state labor law that . And now the company’s market capitalization has reached $78 billion, surpassing the $75 billion valuation when the company went public in May 2019, according to PitchBook data.Shares of the ride-hailing giant are currently up 7% to $45.11 a share, topping the company’s initial public offering price of $45.Though you still would have been better off in the S&P 500 index if...WW…

By Reporter based in New YorkPublished September 23, 2020As Uber and Lyft continue to battle with regulators over the employment status of drivers, they’re going directly to California voters with a costly campaign to keep front-line workers classified as independent contractors.Gig companies Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart have together spent at least to back Proposition 22. The ballot measure would essentially exempt rideshare and delivery workers from the California labor law known as , which went into effect this year and makes it harder for companies to classify workers as...…By Reporter based in New YorkPublished September 23, 2020As Uber and Lyft continue to battle with regulators over the employment status of drivers, they’re going directly to California voters with a costly campaign to keep front-line workers classified as independent contractors.Gig companies Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart have together spent at least to back Proposition 22. The ballot measure would essentially exempt rideshare and delivery workers from the California labor law known as , which went into effect this year and makes it harder for companies to classify workers as...WW…

Welcome to , FiveThirtyEight’s weekly feature on the latest policy developments in Washington and beyond. Want to get TrumpBeat in your inbox each week? Sign up for our . Comments, criticism or suggestions for future columns? or drop a note in the comments.President Trump and other Republicans have that one reason they have to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is that the : Healthy people are set up by the law, driving up costs and leading yet more people to drop insurance — a so-called “.” Many health insurance experts, however, have argued that those , and they recently got...…Welcome to , FiveThirtyEight’s weekly feature on the latest policy developments in Washington and beyond. Want to get TrumpBeat in your inbox each week? Sign up for our . Comments, criticism or suggestions for future columns? or drop a note in the comments.President Trump and other Republicans have that one reason they have to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is that the : Healthy people are set up by the law, driving up costs and leading yet more people to drop insurance — a so-called “.” Many health insurance experts, however, have argued that those , and they recently got...WW…