Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 11/01 - The Google Employee Walkout

Episode Date: November 1, 2018

Google employees stage a walk-out protest around the globe, Vox swallows Recode, the new devices this week continue Apple’s push to increase ASP, and maybe it’s subscriptions that are eating the world. Stories from: @rustybrick, @benlovejoy Tweets: @lizthegrey, @ingridlunden Links: Google walkout: Pictures of Google workers leaving their desks in protest over sexual misconduct (Business Insider) Recode Tech and Media Website to Be Folded Into Vox.com (WSJ) New MacBook Air threatens both MacBook and MacBook Pro with Function Keys (Apple Insider) Opinion: The 2018 MacBook Air is the iPhone X’s ASP strategy all over again (9to5Mac) Apple's new T2 security chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone (TechCrunch) WhatsApp found a place to show you ads (The Verge) Google My Business Adds Setting For Google Assistant Calls Over Duplex (Search Engine Roundtable) Spotify is just $6.8 million away from profitability (Engadget) Liftoff: Mobile users are embracing subscription app economy (Venture Beat) Tickets for: Brian's 92Y Book Event 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 TechMeme right home for Thursday, November 1st, 2018. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Google employees stage a walkout protest around the globe.

Vox swallows recode. The new devices this week continue Apple's push to increase ASP. And maybe it's subscriptions that are really eating the world. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Google employees across the world walked out of work briefly today in protest of Google's handling of sexual harassment incidents inside the company. Google workers in Japan, Singapore, Israel, the UK, Ireland, India, and the U.S., all downed tools and shared photos of their protest on social media.

This company-wide protest was organized by Google employees. At a Twitter account called At Google Walkout, the organizers posted a list of their demands. Number one, an end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination. In case you didn't know, that is apparently part of Google's contract if you sign up to work there. You must submit to arbitration, which critics say prevents victims from taking cases to court. Number two, a commitment to end pay and opportunity inequality. Number three, a publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency policy. Number four, a clear, uniform, global, inclusive,

process for reporting sexual misconduct safely and anonymously. And number five, a request that the chief diversity officer be elevated to a position where they would answer directly to the CEO and have the power to make recommendations directly to the board of directors. In addition, the group requests the appointment of an employee representative on the alphabet board of directors. This obviously has come to a head in light of that New York Times. story from a week ago today

outlining how the creator of Android Andy Rubin was forced to resign from Google after an internal investigation into claims of alleged sexual misconduct. Rubin was nonetheless paid $90 million in an exit package after leaving the company.

In that email to staff that I told you about earlier this week, which Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent to Google employees earlier this week, Pichai expressed support for the walkout and protests. Quotech, Some of you have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies going forward. I'm taking in all of your feedback so we can turn these ideas into action, sources say he wrote in the email.

In a statement today, Pichai said, quote, on Wednesday, we let Googlers know that we are aware of the activities planned for Thursday and that employees will have the support they need if they wish to participate, end quote. In the show notes, I've linked to a business insider piece about the protests if you want to see pictures from the walkout. In Berlin, Googlers marched to the Brandenburg Gate. Apparently in Zurich and various British offices, Googlers collectively shared stories of harassment and company cultural issues. Here in New York, marchers headed to Hudson River Park, followed by reporters and a police escort.

At the time of this recording, the walkouts on the west coast of the U.S. have not happened yet, so I can't tell you about them. A Google engineer named Liz Fong Jones, encouraged media like yours truly, not to focus on management's response to this walkout, but rather on the walkout itself and the workers participating. Quote, all of the headlines that start with Google CEO supports are focusing on the wrong thing. What matters today is workers' voices and demands. It doesn't matter whether management claims to support.

The real test will be whether the demands are met. Hashtag Google Walkout, end quote. This news is sort of inside baseball, but it does have a meaningful impact on this podcast, perhaps, because how often do I read stories from Recode, that tech vertical founded by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg? For years, some of the best tech reporters in the business have broken stories under the Recode banner. But not too long ago, Walt retired. Kara is now a columnist for the New York Times. And several big-name reporters have been leaving Recode for RECode for, other reporting gigs recently.

And so today, Recode announced that it will essentially be folding itself into Vox.com, the flagship general news site of Vox Media, which acquired Recode in 2016. Archives of Recode will remain up. No layoffs are planned. The Recode Code Conference will continue

under the jurisdiction of Swisher and Peter Kafka. The various Recode podcasts will continue, but it's clear that Recode would will merely now be the tech news section of Vox going forward. According to Ben Mullen in the Wall Street Journal, quote, Recoats traffic has declined in recent months, as some of the sites marquee journalists have left the company for jobs at other news organizations.

The site attracted 1.36 million unique visitors in September 2018, a 50% decrease from its audience of 2.77 million unique visitors during the same period the year before, according to Comscore. By comparison, The Verge, another Vox-owned tech website, drew 25.9 million unique visitors in September. The website's traffic has declined, but the audience for Recode's podcast, newsletters, and conferences has increased over the last year, a Vox Media spokeswoman said, end quote. Can we come back to the big Apple event of this week and hit on a couple of interesting angles? First, in an opinion piece in 9 to 5 Macs, Ben Lovejoy notes that Apple's newly unveiled products almost all came in at a subtly higher price point.

Most notably, the 2018 MacBook Air starts at a base price that is 20% higher than before. For a computer that, again, is ostensibly Apple's entry-level laptop. This is continuing a trend that Lovejoy makes note of, quote, When Apple launched the iPhone 10, it did more than just change the design language of the iPhone. it also offered a whole new pricing level, not just for iPhones, but for any smartphone. It was a move that has significantly boosted the average selling price, or ASP,

of the iPhone range as a whole, end quote. Gallagher notes the march upward of average selling price ASP on Macs began with the 12-inch MacBook in 2015, and it continued with the MacBook Pro in 2016, and now the same thing has happened with the new MacBook Air, even the Mac Mini and iPad. From a financial perspective, everything Apple has done is smart.

But the company has prioritized ASP over Logic in its MacBook lineup. We now have a MacBook Air, a branding all about lightness, which weighs more than the MacBook. We have a MacBook, a no-frills name, which suggests it's the basic model,

which costs more than the MacBook Air. And we have an inferior machine, the MacBook, which costs more than a significant, significantly better one, end quote. I had speculated on Tuesday that we would be talking about this, and so here we are. In a different opinion piece in Apple Insider, William Gallagher wonders if the MacBook lineup hasn't gotten completely muddled. Most pressingly, what is the purpose of the MacBook lineup now?

Now that the MacBook Air is back, refreshed, and beefed up. The pricing is similar. The form factor, while slightly different, is similar. The MacBook Air has touch ID, which the MacBook doesn't. The MacBook is lighter, but when we're talking under three pound machines, is there really a difference? And what's the middle of the road right now? The touchbar MacBook Pros, really? Like, not having a touchbar at all kind of makes the MacBook Air more compelling just from the get-go.

Gallagher concludes by writing, quote, we're sure that this touchbar-less MacBook Pro is going to fade away. It's harder to be so certain about how the MacBook will fare. Without question, the new MacBook Air is going to take business away from the MacBook, so it's possible to imagine Apple simplifying the range. It's possible to imagine Apple having the MacBook Air as the entry-level model and keeping the MacBook Pro 13-inch and 15-inch models with touchbar as the higher end, end quote. And one more thing, which is unrelated to those two,

opinion pieces I just read you. TechCrunch reports that the T2 security chip found in the 2018 Mac laptops and which enables touch ID on the MacBook Air has a cool extra security feature that we didn't know about. Whenever you close the lid now on a laptop with a T2 chip, it disconnects the machine's microphone from the rest of the hardware. Quote, this disconnect is implemented in hardware alone

and therefore prevents any software, even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed. And Apple Support Guide notes. So all these years, you've been worried about hackers tapping into your webcam. Maybe you have tape over yours,

but did it ever occur to you to worry about the microphone when the lid was closed? Well, you can start worrying now, and then, if you're super worried, by a new MacBook error, and I guess you can stop worrying again. From the we knew this was coming someday department, Facebook has finally figured out how to cram ads into WhatsApp. WhatsApp VP VP VP, Chris Daniels confirmed at an event in Delhi

that Facebook will soon be placing ads in WhatsApp's status section, but he declined to provide a timeline for when the ads would begin rolling out. quoting the verge WhatsApp status was launched early last year as a knockoff of the stories feature found in Instagram and Snapchat it has since become very popular

even surpassing Snapchat usage the feature allows you to add a combination of text, photos and videos to your profile which are encrypted in the same way as your messages status updates are visible to your contacts for 24 hours before they disappear end quote we knew Facebook

would want to monetize WhatsApp someday The fact that it's taken this long is probably the only surprise. And since stories are the new hotness for everything in social media advertising, this pretty much lines up as expected. When Google demoed its duplex system, which will allow Google Assistant to make calls on your behalf and book restaurant reservations and the like, some people were weirded out by it.

But I confess, it never occurred to me that businesses might also not be cool with a robot calling them. Over at SEO roundtable, Barry Schwartz posted a screenshot that shows that Google is proactively allowing Google My Business advertisers to opt out of duplex calls. In the screenshot, there's a section with a checkbox, quote, it reads, Google Assistant calls, let customers use the Google Assistant to book with you. Also quickly update your listing by getting occasional calls to confirm your details. There is then a checkbox that says, accept Google Assistant calls. So if you do not want robots calling you, you can disable it.

But I assume most people rather talk to robots over humans, end quote. Well, actually, no, Barry. I know you're joking when you say that, but I totally get this. If I'm a small business owner, why do I want to give my customers a way to avoid interacting with me? I want them to call me personally. I want the chance to win their business personally. Yeah, I can see use cases where Duplex calls.

can take care of the drudgery on both sides of a call, but I can also see businesses that would never want anyone to intermediate their relationship with their customers. I want to end by hitting up Spotify's earnings real quick because it will allow me to tee up something else in the next segment. Spotify met Wall Street's expectations by reporting Q3 revenue of 1.3 billion euros, which was up 31% year over year.

Spotify added 4 million premium subscribers in the quarter, giving out a total of 87 million worldwide, and that all-important Mao number came in at 191 million worldwide. With that revenue number, as Daniel Cooper points out in N-Gadget, Spotify is just 6 million euros away from turning a profit. Compare that to a loss of 90 million euro just in Q2. Spotify also opened up for the first time about its new system for allowing indie artists to submit tracks to Spotify Playlists. Quoting Cooper, according to the company, more than

67,000 artists and labels have uploaded content, and more than 10,000 of them were selected for inclusion on Spotify Playlists. One more angle to this, before we move on to the last segment, though, the angle being the streaming music wars, which of course is a completely separate conflict

from the streaming video wars, but both theaters of battle do contain a similar combatant, meaning Apple, As Ingrid London tweeted, many have murmured that Apple has overtaken Spotify and subscribers in the U.S. Globally, at least, it's still well ahead. 87 million versus 50 million reported this summer for Apple, end quote. So that leads me to conclude with this, a piece from Venture Beat,

according to a mobile app engagement report produced by user acquisition from Liftoff and mobile engagement platform, Lean Plum, The cost to acquire a customer for subscription-based apps is now only $86.99 per customer down 46.4% year-over-year. And engagement for subscription apps is up 32% year-over-year. So why do I think this is important? Because numbers jumping like that year-over-year suggests there is a true secular shift going on in consumer behavior. Many people, especially in publishing, over the years have made the claim that the original sin of the Internet was that people expected everything to be free. When I was researching the book, you don't know how many articles deep into the 90s I'd read, article after article of people wondering when e-commerce would ever takeoffs simply because consumers weren't willing to spend any money online, full stop. And even when consumers got in the habit of e-commerce, of buying goods,

people then bemoan the fact that consumers seemingly would never consent to pay for content, for media. Remember Napster? But now, seemingly because of things like Spotify, Netflix, Dollar Shave Club, we've, I guess, truly seen a sea change in consumer behavior. Maybe it took the shift to mobile to make it happen. Maybe it took the conceptual shift to hashtag app life. But it certainly looks like people are finally willing to pay for content. If you give them convenience, if you give them any screen, any device, whenever they want,

if you give them maybe free shipping, if you give them unlimited selection, instant gratification, people are willing to pay and they're willing to pay monthly. Quoting from the Venture Beat piece again, acquiring users for this AppCatat, isn't inexpensive by any means, but the year-over-year data showcases major momentum for subscriptions. Now pair that with Apple's recent report that revenue from subscription monetized apps is up 95% since 2017, said Mark Ellis, CEO of Palo Alto, California-based liftoff in a statement. And there's no question that the long-term benefits of the subscription model in the form of

loyal users and stable cash flow are worth the investment in service quality, and marketing spend, end quote. That's all for today. Hey, real quick, if you're a listener to this show who lives in New York City, I'm doing a book-related speaking event tomorrow at the 92nd Street Y, tomorrow being Friday, and some tickets are still available. I've got a link to the event in the show notes, the very last link. If any, tech meme ride home listeners or internet history podcast listeners,

come to the event at the 92nd Street Y. Please come up to me afterwards and make yourself know. If you're free, we can hang out afterwards to shoot the breeze because I've got some time to kill before my next media event that evening. Which, by the way, means that Chris Higgins will be manning the store for me tomorrow, so thanks to him in advance. And that means that I'm going to wish you all a good weekend now, preemptively. Have a good weekend.