Journals

Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal: Meta plans to shut down CrowdTangle in August 2024 and replace it with Meta Content Library, available to academic and nonprofit researchers, not news outlets  —  CrowdTangle, a source for embarrassing articles about Facebook… Read More »Meta plans to shut down CrowdTangle in August 2024 and replace it with Meta Content Library, available to academic and nonprofit researchers, not news outlets (Jeff Horwitz/Wall Street Journal)

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg: Amazon says “a tiny fraction” of sellers paid for ads for products users couldn’t buy and pledges a fix; Amazon offered a $15K refund to a seller seeking $300K  —  The company has pledged to reimburse… Read More »Amazon says “a tiny fraction” of sellers paid for ads for products users couldn’t buy and pledges a fix; Amazon offered a $15K refund to a seller seeking $300K (Spencer Soper/Bloomberg)

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post: TikTok-funded Oxford Economics study of 1K US SMBs and 7.5K users: in 2023, TikTok drove $14.7B in SMB revenue, added $24.2B to US GDP, and supported 224K+ jobs  —  TikTok contributed $24.2 billion to U.S.… Read More »TikTok-funded Oxford Economics study of 1K US SMBs and 7.5K users: in 2023, TikTok drove $14.7B in SMB revenue, added $24.2B to US GDP, and supported 224K+ jobs (Taylor Lorenz/Washington Post)

Bloomberg: Internal TikTok memo: the company is “disappointed” the US House passed the TikTok divestment bill, and plans to lobby the Senate not to pass the legislation  —  TikTok told employees the company isn’t planning to change its approach to… Read More »Internal TikTok memo: the company is “disappointed” the US House passed the TikTok divestment bill, and plans to lobby the Senate not to pass the legislation (Bloomberg)

Kosaku Narioka / Wall Street Journal: Foxconn reports Q4 revenue down 5.7% YoY to ~$59B, as cloud and networking demand falls, net profit up 33% YoY to $1.69B, and expects flat 2024 consumer demand  —  Revenue fell on lackluster demand… Read More »Foxconn reports Q4 revenue down 5.7% YoY to ~$59B, as cloud and networking demand falls, net profit up 33% YoY to $1.69B, and expects flat 2024 consumer demand (Kosaku Narioka/Wall Street Journal)

Russ Crupnick / MusicWatch: US paid music subscribers hit a record 109M in 2023, rising to 136M including SiriusXM and Amazon Prime Music; seven of every 10 US millennials pay to subscribe  —  MusicWatch Annual Music Study points to continued… Read More »US paid music subscribers hit a record 109M in 2023, rising to 136M including SiriusXM and Amazon Prime Music; seven of every 10 US millennials pay to subscribe (Russ Crupnick/MusicWatch)

Damilare Dosunmu / Rest of World: A look at Visa’s and Mastercard’s efforts to stay relevant in Africa, including by funding local startups, as users switch to digital wallets and QR codes  —  From a startup accelerator to funding startups… Read More »A look at Visa’s and Mastercard’s efforts to stay relevant in Africa, including by funding local startups, as users switch to digital wallets and QR codes (Damilare Dosunmu/Rest of World)

Jonathan Haidt / The Atlantic: A look at the costs of a smartphone-based childhood, as Gen Z struggles with poor mental health and lags behind previous generations on many important metrics  —  The environment in which kids grow up today… Read More »A look at the costs of a smartphone-based childhood, as Gen Z struggles with poor mental health and lags behind previous generations on many important metrics (Jonathan Haidt/The Atlantic)

Blake Brittain / Reuters: Filing: Microsoft agrees to settle a patent lawsuit by Caltech, which settled lawsuits with Apple and Broadcom over some of the same Wi-Fi patents in 2023  —  Microsoft (MSFT.O) has agreed to settle a patent infringement… Read More »Filing: Microsoft agrees to settle a patent lawsuit by Caltech, which settled lawsuits with Apple and Broadcom over some of the same Wi-Fi patents in 2023 (Blake Brittain/Reuters)

Wall Street Journal: The fate of TSMC plants in Japan and the US highlights two different approaches toward high-tech investment; TSMC says the two projects should not be compared  —  The fate of two TSMC factories highlights different approaches in… Read More »The fate of TSMC plants in Japan and the US highlights two different approaches toward high-tech investment; TSMC says the two projects should not be compared (Wall Street Journal)