The indictment of 13 Russians for interfering with the Presidential election has intensified the pressure put on Facebook, which uncovered about three-thousand Russian-linked ads on its platforms before and after November 2016. Cheddar Senior Reporter, Alex Heath, breaks down the the latest developments.
Facebook's Vice President for ads, Rob Goldman, tweeted about Russia's disinformation effort. President Trump then cited him. Facebook did not intend for Goldman’s tweets to be quoted by Trump. They thought the tweets would only be seen by a contextually-aware audience of techies and media types who follow Goldman.
Heath believes that the tweeting from Goldman and other execs is part of a carefully orchestrated PR campaign by Facebook to make itself appear more transparent and relate-able through engaged spokespeople on Twitter.
The day the retail giant announced plans to acquire the online pharmacy company PillPack, competing retail pharmacy companies took a significant blow. Eight companies, including CVS and Rite Aid, dropped $17.5 billion in market cap in just one day.
The ride-sharing company announced plans to begin testing autonomous-vehicle operations, despite a fatal crash involving an Uber driverless car in Arizona back in March. “There are about 30,000 people that die in automotive crashes every single year and there is an expectation that this is a technology that could substantially reduce that number,” says Ben Fox Rubin, CNET News senior reporter.
The crowdfunding platform announced plans to help teams raise money in a more collaborative way. "We realized that market was under served," GoFundMe CMO Raquel Rozas tells Cheddar.
The scooter start-up reported on Thursday that it has raised $300 million. This is Bird's third round of funding this year, valuing the company at an estimated $2 billion. "We've never seen something grow so quickly with such high engagement," Dana Settle, founding partner, tells Cheddar.
A new California data privacy bill will require companies that store personal information to disclose what types of data they collect. The law also gives users the opportunity to opt out. "There's a certain point where this has maybe gone too far," Dave White, a former national counterterrorism center officer, tells Cheddar about companies collecting data.
After Bitcoin took some significant blows in the market, some investors wonder how low it could go. "$5,000 was my most optimistic downward target and my most pessimistic downward target is $1,300," says blockchain and Bitcoin consultant Tone Vays.
The cryptocurrency is seeing weakening demand, which is putting pressure on prices. “We’ve slipped back in terms of people that accept it, so the transactional network is smaller today than it was a year ago,” says Paul Johnson, senior adviser at blockchain consulting firm Harbor Peak. “We’ve got this speculative demand that’s gone away because FOMO’s gone.”
The consumer banking company, which has been testing and refining its Finn app in St. Louis since October, decided to expand its scope nationally. But the platform faces some tough competition, including Goldman Sach's Marcus and even Amazon.
Snap is reportedly looking to get into gaming, a move that other platforms will likely copy because users are starting to "socialize in these games," says Chris Merwin, esports analyst at Goldman Sachs.
More than a third of GoDaddy's 18 million users are from outside the U.S., a number that will continue to rise, says Wagner. The platform is also adding new services to help it expand beyond hosting websites. "Our goal over the next five years is to really be the place where ideas start, grow, and thrive online."
