Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 04/28 – Twitter’s Last Ever Earnings Report?

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

Twitter reports earnings, for maybe the last time, publicly. Meta’s earnings weren’t THAT bad but that’s mostly because the set the table for it. Apple faces antitrust charges in the EU as soon as next week. Another country adopts bitcoin as currency. And would you like a dedicated metaverse room in your next house? Sponsors: Ortto.com Composer.trade/ride Links: Twitter reports user bump, revenue miss for Q1, days after accepting Musk’s takeover bid (CNBC) Twitter miscounted its daily users for three years straight (The Verge) Meta's Bleak Q1; Spotify's Netflix Moment (The Information) Apple to face fresh antitrust charges in Brussels (FT) Google may now remove search results that dox you (The Verge) Bitcoin becomes official currency in Central African Republic (BBCNews) NSA Re-awards Secret $10 Billion Contract to Amazon (NextGov) How the pandemic is changing home design (Axios) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Thursday, April 28th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today. Twitter reports earnings for maybe the last time publicly. Meta's earnings weren't that bad, but mostly because the table was set for it. Apple faces antitrust charges in the EU as soon as next week. Another country adopts Bitcoin as currency. And would you like a dedicated Metaverse room in your next house? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Will this be Twitter's last earnings call ever? Maybe we'll have another one. one or maybe two depending on the deal time frame, but I would imagine we'll never have one with any meaning again. Twitter this morning reported Q1 revenue of $1.2 billion, which was up 16% year

over year, but was below estimates. And $513 million in net income. Monetizable daily active users, Twitter's favorite metric reached $229 million. So it was not the disaster that people were expecting as an explanation for why Twitter's board jumped at Elon's bid, but also clearly no sign of some miraculous business turnaround anytime soon either. Things extrapolating from these numbers were just going to continue pretty much as they have been. Oh, but the old Twitter, the Twitter we've always known and always kind of loved, I guess, was always capable of weird stuff like this. The company also said it overstated daily active users from Q1 of 2019 to Q4 of 2021 by up to 1.9 million users per quarter because it counted multiple accounts owned by the same user. Quote,

The error was due to Twitter inadvertently counting multiple accounts as active when they were all tied to a single user, even if they weren't all in use. This is somehow not the first time Twitter has done this. In 2017, Twitter also realized it had been overstating its user figures by about 1 to 2 million users for three years. The repeat mistake was revealed today in Twitter's earnings release for the first quarter of 2022. The updated figures aren't exactly a game changer. Twitter now has 229 million daily users, which is still up more than 10 million, even from last quarter's inflated number. But they are one final embarrassing slip-up for Twitter as the company wrangles a deal to be taken private, at which point it will no longer have to share these figures publicly.

Because of the pending sale, Twitter says it will stop providing guidance on its performance and is, quote, withdrawing all previously provided goals and outlook, end quote. Some Twitter employees publicly expressed concern about Elon Musk's potential takeover prior to the agreement, and Musk has only managed to validate their fears in the past few days as he continues to tweet critically about the company's decisions. In particular, his criticism of Twitter policy leader, VJ Gaddy, has led to harassment from other users of the site. Twitter was supposed to discuss today's earnings release on a call with investors, but canceled the event, quote, in light of the pending transaction. Should the deal close, today's numbers would be one of the last public

earnings releases from the company, end quote. Meta's shares are up 15% this morning after their earnings saw Q1 revenue of $27.9 billion up 7% year over year. net income of $7.5 billion, which was down 21% year over year. Its family of apps daily active user number came in at $2.87 billion up 6% year over year. Even Facebook's daily active users grew 1.6% quarter over quarter to $1.96 billion in Q1 versus a $1.94 billion estimate, which was a return to growth after Facebook's first ever queue over queue user decline in Q4, 2021. So call it a comeback? Maybe don't call it a comeback.

quoting the information. Score one for meta platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, for accurately predicting how bad its first quarter performance was going to be. The social media giant this afternoon reported what by any standards were dismal results with revenue up just 7%. What's more, meta-projected growth would be even weaker in the second quarter. For a company that increased revenue 20% in the fourth quarter, this is quite a come down. Admittedly, things could have been worse. When meta first flagged the growth slowdown in early February, which it blamed variously on Apple, the economy, and by implication TikTok, it projected that revenue could rise as little as 3%. Also, Meta's profit per share didn't decline as much as analysts expected, which may explain

meta's shares rising 19% in after-hours trading. Then again, traders may just be sick of selling tech stocks. Pinterest shares rose 10% in after-hours trading, even though its first quarter report revealed that North American users continued to flee that company's social media site as though it's a COVID-19 super spreader event. And to be clear, There was nothing in the overall tone of meta executives' commentary that should have changed anyone's outlook about the company. They didn't mince words about the bleak state of the ad market, unlike, say, Alphabet. The Ukraine war hurt advertising demand both in Europe and elsewhere.

CFO, Dave Wenner said that's in line with Snap's commentary last week. And while Meta trimmed its plans for a big ramp up in investment this year, thanks to the revenue pressures it faces, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made it clear he is still managing the company with a focus on the far-off future. as in 2030. That's admirable. We need companies making long-term investments, but there's no doubt about it. Meta is a bet on a vision that could take years to materialize if it ever does, end quote. Yes, meta's Reality Labs division, which is responsible for all that Metaverse building, posted a $2.96 billion loss in Q1, up from a $1.8 billion loss in Q4 on revenue of just $695 million, and says Reality Labs now has 17,000 employees. One other little factoid from the earnings call, meta says reels take up about 20% or more of the time that people spend on Instagram and said that video overall makes up 50% of the time that users spend on Facebook.

Putting this on your radar, sources say the European Union will file antitrust charges against Apple next week for allegedly blocking third parties from using NFC for Apple Pay, quoting the Financial Times. The $2.5 trillion company would receive heavy fines worth up to $10. 10% of global turnover if the charges are upheld. Investigators led by the Block's powerful competition commissioner Margith Vestager will accuse Apple of unfairly blocking groups such as PayPal and leading banks from accessing its mobile wallet system. The case, which was opened in 2020, is one of many investigations opened in Brussels against Apple, which had not faced antitrust charges from the EU before last year. In two other cases, investigators are probing whether Apple is harming competition in the books and music streaming services with its app store. The charges expected

to be announced next week relate to the NFC or near-field communication technology that allows a user to pay by tapping their phone on payments terminals. That personal device is linked to debit or credit cards through a mobile wallet. Under the current system, Apple must approve third parties to process payments through its mobile system, saying it would breach the security and privacy of its users if it did not, end quote. Google now accepts request. to remove search results that include a user's contact info, like physical addresses, phone numbers, and emails, and login credentials. Quoting the verge. According to a blog post, Google's giving people the new options because, quote, the internet is always evolving, and its search engine giving

out your phone number or home address can be both jarring and dangerous. Here's a list of what kinds of info Google may remove confidential government identification numbers like U.S. Social Security numbers, Argentine single tax identification numbers, bank account numbers, etc., credit card numbers, images of handwritten signatures, images of ID docs, highly personal, restricted and official records like medical records, personal contact info, including physical addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, confidential login credentials, and according to a support page, Google will also remove things like non-consensual, explicit, or intimate personal images, pornographic deepfakes, or photoshops featuring your likeness, or links to sites with,

quote, exploitative removal practices, end quote. Making a request involves, giving Google a list of URLs that link to the personal information as well as the search pages that surface those links. After you submit a request, Google will evaluate it. Its FAQ says it tries to quote, preserve information access if the content is determined to be of public interest, as in the case of content that's quote newsworthy, professionally relevant, or that came from a government. If Google does decide that the links should be removed, it says they'll either not show up for any search query or that they won't be surfaced for searches that include your name. Google seems to be applying a relatively high bar for what counts as personally identifying information, which makes

it a bit different from the systems it had to implement in places like the EU to comply with so-called right-to-be-forgotten rules. Those laws let people request that links they deem unflattering or irrelevant be taken down, which isn't the case here. The rules Google added today only covered links to very sensitive info, end quote. Central African Republic lawmakers have voted unanimously to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, the second country to use Bitcoin as official currency after El Salvador. Because, you know, that's gone swimmingly, right? Quoting the BBC. CAR is one of the world's poorest countries, but is rich in diamonds, gold, and uranium. It has been racked by conflict for decades and is a close Russian ally with mercenaries

from the Wagner group helping fight rebel forces. Lawmakers voted unanimously to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, set a statement from the CAR presidency. The move puts CAR, quote, on the map of the world's boldest and most visionary countries, it said. The internet is needed to use any cryptocurrency, but in 2019, just 4% of people in CAR had access to the web, according to the World Data website. The company currently uses the French-backed CFA Frank as its currency, along with most other former French colonies in Africa. Some see the adoption of Bitcoin as an attempt to undermine the CFA amid a contest for influence over the resource-rich country between Russia and France. The contacts, given the systemic corruption and a Russian partner facing international sanctions,

does encourage suspicion. French analyst Tieri Villalcon told the AFP news agency. In the capital, Bangui, the response was mixed. Economist Jan DeWaro told BBC Afrique, it would make life easier as transactions can be made with smartphones, and it was easy to convert Bitcoin to any other currency. Businessmen will no longer have to walk around with suitcases of CFA francs that will have to be converted into dollars or any other currency to make purchases abroad, he said. He also argued that the CFA was not being used, quote, to benefit Africa. There are growing calls in several countries for the currency to be dropped by those who see it as a relic of the colonial era, enabling France to continue to exercise economic control,

end quote. The NSA says it has re-awarded its $10 billion cloud computing contract codenamed Wild and Stormy to AWS after Microsoft contested an original decision. Quoting NextGov. The contract was first awarded to AWS in July 2021 and subsequently protested by Tech Giant Microsoft, which also competed for the contract. While the government accountability office sided with Microsoft on its protest in October and recommended the NSA re-evaluate proposals from both companies, the NSA ultimately selected AWS again. NSA recently awarded a contract to Amazon Web Services that delivers cloud computing services to support the agency's mission,

an NSA spokesperson told NextGov, this contract is a continuation of NSA's hybrid compute initiative to modernize and address the robust processing and analytical requirements of the agency, end quote. The NSA spokesperson added that, consistent with general accounting office's decision, the agency, quote, re-evaluated the proposals and made a new best-valued decision in selecting AWS. For almost 10 years, the NSA has moved its data, including signals intelligence and other foreign surveillance and intelligence information ingests from multiple repositories around the globe into this internally operated data lake against which analysts from the NSA and other IC agencies can run queries and perform analytics.

The Wild and Stormy contract is part of the NSA's years-long modernization of its hybrid-compute initiative, which aims to move some of NSA's crown jewel intelligence data from internal servers to those operated by a cloud service provider, in this case, AWS, end quote. Finally today, how the pandemic has changed home design. TLDR, it's largely a bunch of changes to make it easier to bring technology, and maybe even the Metaverse, more front and center into our day to day, quoting Axios. Big pre-pandemic trends, open plans with big kitchen islands, aren't going anywhere. My verdict is that people really like open floor plans and they're here to stay, says Nancy K. Keenan, president of Dalen Group

Architecture and Planning, who helped conduct the America at-home study of pandemic-era consumer taste and home design. But overall footprints are getting bigger as builders add on more smaller rooms which may need to function as offices, playrooms, home gyms, or dens, depending on the family. Bathrooms are getting bigger, in part because we use them more often when we're home all day, and every room of the house is more wired. Builders are adding power outlets and USB ports to accommodate the devices essential to working or attending school from home. Homes are becoming more like office space, said Amit Haller, CEO and co-founder of the homebuilding company Veeve. There is the grand opening area with a very large countertop island that allows people to

eat together, end quote. From there, residents can carry their laptops to private rooms as needed. The bedroom is going to be literally like your conference room and your private space, Holler says. Dedicated rooms are popping up for video games, golf simulators, Zoom calls, or relaxation, so-called Zen rooms. Metaverse rooms may be on the horizon, with some designers seeing the need for indoor space where people can wander around in virtual reality, per the Wall Street Journal, end quote. By the way, today I learned from this piece that, quote, the powder room, was originally born from the flu pandemic of 1918,

as were tiled bathrooms, as people replaced draperies and carpets that harbored germs, end quote. Tonight, Twitter space, usual time, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. Sure, we could just do what everyone else is doing and just have a roundtable on Elon Musk and Twitter, but thanks to our illustrious co-hosts, Chris, we're going to have our biggest ever panel.

It's going to be a reunion of the social web.tv crew, operators from the early social web days that tried and marginally succeeded to decentralize the social web. Early internet identity builders who worked on foundational technologies like open ID, Oath, portable contacts, activity streams, and more. Coming back together after nearly 15 years to discuss how things turned out, where they went wrong, and what they think will happen in the next era of Elon's Twitter. Super excited for this. Talk to you then.