Photo: Actor Tye Sheridan, from left, with filmmaker Zach Wechter and Quibi chief product officer Tom Conrad during a keynote at CES in January. Photo by BloombergJeffrey Katzenberg’s video streaming service Quibi is shutting down, said a person familiar with the situation, bringing down the curtain on the short-form video streaming service just six months after it launched.The closure is a stunning end to Katzenberg’s hopes of creating a new category of video entertainment, short programs of a few minutes in length that could be watched on the go. Katzenberg, a former Disney executive...…Photo: Actor Tye Sheridan, from left, with filmmaker Zach Wechter and Quibi chief product officer Tom Conrad during a keynote at CES in January. Photo by BloombergJeffrey Katzenberg’s video streaming service Quibi is shutting down, said a person familiar with the situation, bringing down the curtain on the short-form video streaming service just six months after it launched.The closure is a stunning end to Katzenberg’s hopes of creating a new category of video entertainment, short programs of a few minutes in length that could be watched on the go. Katzenberg, a former Disney executive...WW…

Startups to WatchPhoto: Top, l-r: Tyler Bosmeny, Dan Carroll and Rafael Garica of Clever; Amanda DoAmaral of Fiveable; Matthew Gross of Newsela. Bottom: Primer's Ryan Delk and Maksim Stepanenko; Encantos' Nuria Santamaría, Steven Wolfe Pereira, Susie Jaramillo and Carlos Hoyos; Guild Education's Rachel Carlson.Startups in educational technology, a growing sector often overlooked in the past, are now finding themselves near the front of the class. More than 60% of U.S. public school students in grades K-12 started the school year remotely, according to data service Burbio. These at-home...…Startups to WatchPhoto: Top, l-r: Tyler Bosmeny, Dan Carroll and Rafael Garica of Clever; Amanda DoAmaral of Fiveable; Matthew Gross of Newsela. Bottom: Primer's Ryan Delk and Maksim Stepanenko; Encantos' Nuria Santamaría, Steven Wolfe Pereira, Susie Jaramillo and Carlos Hoyos; Guild Education's Rachel Carlson.Startups in educational technology, a growing sector often overlooked in the past, are now finding themselves near the front of the class. More than 60% of U.S. public school students in grades K-12 started the school year remotely, according to data service Burbio. These at-home...WW…

Photo: Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (l-r). Photo: BloombergWhen the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter testify Wednesday before a Senate committee on how they control content on their services, they will argue against rolling back Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields internet companies from lawsuits over user-generated posts. That’s where their agreements may end.Much as with their diverse approaches to handling problematic posts involving everything from hate speech to unfounded political...…Photo: Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (l-r). Photo: BloombergWhen the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter testify Wednesday before a Senate committee on how they control content on their services, they will argue against rolling back Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields internet companies from lawsuits over user-generated posts. That’s where their agreements may end.Much as with their diverse approaches to handling problematic posts involving everything from hate speech to unfounded political...WW…

Photo: Brex co-CEO Henrique Dubugras, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and Splunk CEO Doug Merritt. Photos: BloombergSplunk, Dropbox and Brex followed similar formulas as they grew from small startups to established companies. To attract employees and customers, each set up elaborate San Francisco offices and plastered billboards for its services around the city. Dropbox three years ago leased a giant new office building on the city’s eastern edge. Fintech firm Brex even opened its own cafe in a neighborhood popular with venture capitalists.Now, all three companies embody a new trend: Their chief...…Photo: Brex co-CEO Henrique Dubugras, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and Splunk CEO Doug Merritt. Photos: BloombergSplunk, Dropbox and Brex followed similar formulas as they grew from small startups to established companies. To attract employees and customers, each set up elaborate San Francisco offices and plastered billboards for its services around the city. Dropbox three years ago leased a giant new office building on the city’s eastern edge. Fintech firm Brex even opened its own cafe in a neighborhood popular with venture capitalists.Now, all three companies embody a new trend: Their chief...WW…

Photo: The east gate of the Old City in Kashgar, Xinjiang autonomous region, China. Photo by Bloomberg.Apple’s App Store has been distributing more than a dozen apps created by a Chinese organization sanctioned by the U.S. for human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, The Information has learned.The apps, which provide news, offer information about government services and help small businesses manage orders for e-commerce, ride hailing and home repairs, were created by various units of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a paramilitary...…Photo: The east gate of the Old City in Kashgar, Xinjiang autonomous region, China. Photo by Bloomberg.Apple’s App Store has been distributing more than a dozen apps created by a Chinese organization sanctioned by the U.S. for human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, The Information has learned.The apps, which provide news, offer information about government services and help small businesses manage orders for e-commerce, ride hailing and home repairs, were created by various units of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a paramilitary...WW…

Bec Martínez-Cristillo was hours into her search for an eight-character access code.She’d scrolled through Reddit threads. She’d sorted through hundreds of TikTok and Instagram comments. She’d even considered buying a code on Depop, Gen Z’s favorite resale app, where they were priced from $5 to $100. Then, late last week, Martínez-Cristillo finally found it—a free code to Shuffles, the new collage app from PinterestCreated by Pinterest’s in-house incubator, TwoTwenty, Shuffles has become one of the most coveted apps on the internet since quietly launching this month as a closed...…Bec Martínez-Cristillo was hours into her search for an eight-character access code.She’d scrolled through Reddit threads. She’d sorted through hundreds of TikTok and Instagram comments. She’d even considered buying a code on Depop, Gen Z’s favorite resale app, where they were priced from $5 to $100. Then, late last week, Martínez-Cristillo finally found it—a free code to Shuffles, the new collage app from PinterestCreated by Pinterest’s in-house incubator, TwoTwenty, Shuffles has become one of the most coveted apps on the internet since quietly launching this month as a closed...WW…

Two years ago, Dmitry Shapiro and Sean Thielen were so optimistic about the booming creator economy that they pivoted their startup to a new product: a simple tool called Koji that lets influencers more easily link to their online tip jars, merch and other services in their social media bios. Sure, there were already dozens of other startups offering a similar type of product, but that didn’t stop the two men from raising $20 million for their company, GoMeta.Now Shapiro and Thielen want out of the creator economy.The link-in-bio business—Koji took a cut of transactions that occur through...…Two years ago, Dmitry Shapiro and Sean Thielen were so optimistic about the booming creator economy that they pivoted their startup to a new product: a simple tool called Koji that lets influencers more easily link to their online tip jars, merch and other services in their social media bios. Sure, there were already dozens of other startups offering a similar type of product, but that didn’t stop the two men from raising $20 million for their company, GoMeta.Now Shapiro and Thielen want out of the creator economy.The link-in-bio business—Koji took a cut of transactions that occur through...WW…

Photo: Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk.Nearly six months ago, Shopify promised staffers it would raise everyone’s salary, hoping to keep people from jumping ship as their share-based along with the company’s stock price. Instead, after a hastily assembled performance review process, the e-commerce software giant decided to give only a select number of employees a pay raise.It also decided to quietly cut about 50 workers in June, a person familiar with the matter told The Information, which became a prelude to broader layoffs at Shopify undertaken in July. The switch reflects just how much...…Photo: Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk.Nearly six months ago, Shopify promised staffers it would raise everyone’s salary, hoping to keep people from jumping ship as their share-based along with the company’s stock price. Instead, after a hastily assembled performance review process, the e-commerce software giant decided to give only a select number of employees a pay raise.It also decided to quietly cut about 50 workers in June, a person familiar with the matter told The Information, which became a prelude to broader layoffs at Shopify undertaken in July. The switch reflects just how much...WW…

It’s often said that politics in San Francisco is like a knife fight in a phone booth: up close, slashing and surprisingly vicious. But there’s a reason for the hand-to-hand combat. The small city—with a mere 875,000 residents, fewer than in Columbus, Ohio—is massively important to Democrats nationally, having produced the current vice president of the U.S., the speaker of the House, the party’s second most senior Senator, and the governor of California.But recently, that phone booth metaphor has pointed to another reality: While the political knife fight has raged on, the phone...…It’s often said that politics in San Francisco is like a knife fight in a phone booth: up close, slashing and surprisingly vicious. But there’s a reason for the hand-to-hand combat. The small city—with a mere 875,000 residents, fewer than in Columbus, Ohio—is massively important to Democrats nationally, having produced the current vice president of the U.S., the speaker of the House, the party’s second most senior Senator, and the governor of California.But recently, that phone booth metaphor has pointed to another reality: While the political knife fight has raged on, the phone...WW…

Austin’s startup scene is getting a jolt of new capital, this time from a wave of investors transplanted from Silicon Valley.Since March, Sapphire Ventures, Draper Associates, 8VC and Breyer Capital have either opened an Austin office, hired a local partner or are considering an outpost there. Austin’s lack of a state income tax, plus its lower cost of living, is attracting venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and a push toward remote work has spurred them to rethink where they live. Local venture firms are also expanding. Third Craft, a new firm backed by former Heinz CEO William...…Austin’s startup scene is getting a jolt of new capital, this time from a wave of investors transplanted from Silicon Valley.Since March, Sapphire Ventures, Draper Associates, 8VC and Breyer Capital have either opened an Austin office, hired a local partner or are considering an outpost there. Austin’s lack of a state income tax, plus its lower cost of living, is attracting venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and a push toward remote work has spurred them to rethink where they live. Local venture firms are also expanding. Third Craft, a new firm backed by former Heinz CEO William...WW…