This was a wild year for the tech sector, but how did social media companies specifically do? Daniel Ives, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Technology Research at GBH Insights, and Jason Moser, Analyst at The Motley Fool, join The Long and The Short to discuss Snap, Twitter, and Facebook.
Snap went public just 9 months ago and the company has already given investors with three straight disappointing earnings reports. Moser and Ives talk about how the camera company misjudged the demand for Spectacles.
Plus, how Facebook will fare after a year of "fake news" accusations. The platform recently put out new rules against hate groups. Investors are a little nervous after Zuckerberg announced that 2018 would be the year of spending. Expenses are projected to rise 45% to 60% from this year.
Gas prices are driving up demand for electric vehicles, but many potential buyers are having trouble finding them.
Thanks to a perfect storm of consumer demand and supply issues, EVs and hybrids are becoming increasingly hard to come by. Jesse Toprak, Chief Analyst for Autonomy, breaks down the factors contributing to this EV crunch.
The DOJ has endorsed an antitrust bill targeting tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google. The legislation would ban the companies from favoring their own products and services over their competitor's, making it more difficult them to dominate the marketplace. Greg Day, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Georgia, breaks down the bill and its potential impact on anti-competition in the tech sector.
Sony is leveling up its subscription service, PlayStation Plus this week, a combination of its earlier options into a tiered plan offering options to play streaming and mostly older titles instead of day-and-date new games like those offered by rival Microsoft on its Gamepass service. Colette Bennett, a senior reporter at TheStreet and the host of the podcast "Colette & Matt Have Entered the Chat," joined Cheddar News to talk about the backlash from gamers. I would say maybe like it's like a six. I'm happy to see older, stony games and have access to them, but I really would have preferred to be able to stream brand-new games. "Gamers are pretty upset that Sony is kind of repackaging the stuff that's been around more or less for years and trying to make it look new," she said. "You know, the Netflix subscription-like model is so appealing."
The most popular and most valuable cryptocurrency is also the least eco-friendly - data shows that Bitcoin mining generates the same amount of carbon emissions as the entire country of Thailand. According to nonprofit Fair Planet, 96 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions come from Bitcoin mining every year. Now, a consortium of climate activist groups is calling on the Bitcoin industry to cut its energy use by making changes to its software code. Michael Brune, former executive director of the Sierra Club, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
