People are spending less time on Facebook, according to the company's latest earnings report. On average, users are spending 50 million hours less on the platform, a drop of about 5%. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg says this is intentional. In a statement, Zuckerberg said the company intentionally featured fewer viral videos to "make sure people's time is well spent." The social media company also reported increased ad revenue.
Twitter doubles the number of users who interacted with Russian-linked trolls. The social company now says 1.4 million users in the U.S. engaged with these accounts, more than double what the company originally reported. Twitter is sending out notifications to users who liked, retweeted, replied to, or quoted a Russia-backed account.
And eBay is parting ways with longtime partner PayPal in favor of Dutch payment processing company Adyen. Consumers will still have the option to check out using PayPal but will now be redirected towards an external site. This is an attempt by the company to take more control of sales on its platform. PayPal and eBay used to be part of the same company but parted ways in 2015.
Plus, we bring you a full hour on the Business of Sports heading into Super Bowl weekend. President of the San Francisco 49ers Al Guido discusses how the NFL is trying to turn around declining viewership. He also talks about the team's thoughts on Colin Kaepernick and protests within the NFL. Guido says he's inspired by the work Kaepernick has done and wants to turn these protests into progress.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
