Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 11/11 – Do Gamers Not Like Crypto?

Episode Date: November 11, 2021

Discord floats the idea of incorporating crypto, but backs down after a vicious backlash. Apple wants to manage IT for small and medium businesses. YouTube is starting to hide the dislike option. Disney+ growth is suddenly anemic. And say hello to an NFT band. Like, literally, a Bored Ape Band. Sponsors: FindYourFidelity.com Dataiku.com Links: Discord pushes pause on exploring crypto and NFTs amidst user backlash (TechCrunch) Apple launches Apple Business Essentials: Device management, storage, onsite repairs, and more for one monthly price (9to5Mac) US sues Uber over 'wait time' fees for disabled passengers (Protocol) YouTube gives dislikes the thumbs-down, hides public counts (The Verge) Disney+ Subscriber Growth Slows, Company Misses Wall Street Expectations (The Hollywood Reporter) The World’s Largest Record Company Is Creating an NFT Super Group (Bloomberg) 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, November 11th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Discord floats the idea of incorporating crypto but backs down after a vicious backlash. Apple wants to manage IT for small and medium businesses. YouTube is starting to hide the dislike option. Disney Plus growth is suddenly anemic and say hello to an NFT band, like literally a bored ape band. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. So a couple days ago, the CEO of Discord tweeted a picture. of what looked like a test of integrating some sort of crypto wallets into Discord. This apparently caused immediate anger in the comments to the tweet and also on Discord and

Reddit and other places. So now Discord CEO Jason Citron says Discord has no plans to add crypto or NFT tools to the service. This is puzzling to me, quoting TechCrunch. In a tweet earlier this week, Citron shared an image of CryptoWallet Metamask integrated into Discord's user interface with the text, probably nothing, shorthand language in the NFT space for something that's about to be a big deal. He contextualized the previous tweet Wednesday evening, noting that Discord has, quote, no current plans to integrate crypto wallets into its app. Citron casually shared the screenshot Monday in a reply, not as an official company announcement, but passionate Discord users immediately jumped on the tweet. The company quickly explained

that the screenshot was part of a community hack week project and not something around the corner for the social chat app, but the horse had left the barn. Discord users wary of the crypto space quickly encouraged each other to ditch their Nitro subscriptions, Nitro being Discord's paid premium service that helps the platform stay ad-free. As the backlash spread, outraged Discord fans also pointed to a recent poll from the company asking for their thoughts on Web3 and NFTs. While the screenshot was only a pre-release mock-up of what crypto wallet integration might look like. Discord was indeed actively exploring how blockchain technology could complement its existing mission. Now some of that work will go on pause as Discord re-evaluates

how to best keep its values aligned with the communities that have built bustling home bases on the platform. Some Discord users chalked their strong reactions to Citron's tweet up to the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. Others more broadly objected to, quote, NFT bros. But even within Discord's many NFT communities, users express concern that integrated crypto wallets would only exacerbate rampant crypto scams on the platform, end quote. So this is what is confusing to me. Isn't Discord one of the places where a lot of NFT community gathers, where a lot of the energy in the space is? Wouldn't a crypto wallet make a ton of sense on a platform like Discord? Is there civil strife that I was unaware of between crypto folks and other communities online?

Perhaps say gamers? If so, that is news to me. Do any of you have any intel on this? I hear anecdotally that the nitro cancellations were no joke, like a number or percentage of cancellations that literally blew Discord management's hairback. Thus, this response from management. But again, this feels like some sort of civil conflict between, tribes that I was unaware of. Is there a backlash growing against crypto folks in general?

Or is there some sort of specific beef between specific tribes? More info, please. Apple has unveiled business essentials for small and medium businesses, with device management, iCloud storage, and more, all starting at just $2.99 per month per user and launching in the spring of 2022, quoting 9 to 5 Mac. Apple is introducing a new business. offering called Apple Business Essentials that combines device management, 24-7 phone support for IT and end users, business iCloud storage, and an option for on-site repairs for businesses of up to 500 employees. The free beta period launches today with the full service coming in the spring of 2022. Apple Business Essentials enable IT departments to configure settings and apps for individual

users, groups, or standalone devices. When employees sign in to their business or personal device with their work credentials, the collection. The collection Feature automatically pushes key settings such as VPN configurations and Wi-Fi information. The new Apple Business Essentials app will be installed on each employee's device where they can download corporate App Store apps assigned to them. Apple Business Essentials allows access to a dedicated ICloud account for work, providing simple and secure storage, backup, and collaboration on files and documents. IT managers can also enforce vital security settings such as file vault for full-disc encryption on Mac and activation lock to protect.

company data if the devices are lost or stolen. If employees use a personal device at work, Apple's user enrollment creates cryptographic separation for their work data to keep personal data private while company data remains secure. A new AppleCare Plus for Business Essentials option adds on 24-7 access to phone support for both IT teams and end users and up to two device repairs per plan each year. End users can initiate repairs directly from the new Apple Business Essentials app and an Apple train technician will come on site in as little as four hours to repair devices. AppleCare Plus for Business Essentials is not available during the free beta period. Apple Business Essentials plans enable businesses to cover every employee and device in their

organization. Plans can be customized to support each user with up to three devices and up to two terabytes of secure storage in ICloud starting at $2.99 per month. With optional AppleCare Plus for Apple Business Essentials, pricing for AppleCare Plus for business essentials will be announced later, end quote. That is, by the way, extremely aggressive pricing. More analysis on this move on this weekend's bonus episode in the first 15 minutes of the discussion. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Uber, alleging the company has overcharged writers with disabilities in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, quoting protocol. The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday it filed a lawsuit against Uber, alleging the company

charged disabled passengers a wait-time fee when they were slow to enter their rides. The fees were part of a broader policy of charging passengers if their ride hadn't begun two minutes after a car arrived for a pickup, but the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it failed to, quote, reasonably modify the policy for passengers who need more time due to disabilities, the Justice Department said. Riders, for instance, might, quote, use a wheelchair or walker that needs to be broken down and stored in the car, while blind Uber users, quote, may need additional time to safely walk from the pickup location to the car itself, end quote. The U.S. is seeking a modification of the policy and training on the ADA for both staff and drivers, as well as damages and penalties.

Uber said it put in place a new policy last week to waive fees for, quote, any writer who certifies they are disabled, end quote, and that users could dispute the charges. Quote, we fundamentally disagree that our policies violate the ADA, the company, said in a statement, end quote. I did not know this, but Lyft apparently settled a similar suit with the DOJ last year. YouTube has begun hiding public dislike counts on videos to keep smaller creators from being targeted by dislike attacks following a test in March. Could this be the first sign that the dislike button is on the way out? Because this is becoming something of a trend across social media.

Quoting The Verge. This move isn't out of the blue. In March, YouTube announced that it was experimenting with hiding the public dislike numbers, and individual creators have long had the ability to hide ratings on their videos. But the fact that the dislike counts will be disappearing for everyone, gradually, according to YouTube, is a big deal. Viewers are used to being able to see the like-to-d dislike ratio as soon as they click on

a video and may use that number to decide whether to continue watching. Now that will no longer be an option, but it could close off a vector for harassment. YouTube says that when it tested hiding dislike numbers, people were less likely to use the button to attack the creator, commenting, I just came here to dislike was seemingly less satisfying when you don't actually get to see the numbers go up. That behavior may still continue, to some extent, though, as creators will be able to see the dislike numbers for their own video in YouTube studio. The company says this still lets well-meaning viewers leave private feedback, to content creators or use dislikes to tune the algorithm's video recommendations.

Other social networks have given users the option to hide rating metrics too. Instagram and Facebook famously let you hide like counts if you want to avoid the potential social pressure that comes with having your main measure of success on the platform shown to everyone. It's not exactly a perfect comparison. The number of likes your YouTube video gets will still be public if you leave public ratings on. And Instagram hasn't turned off likes site wide yet, but it shows a growing concern.

with what data creators have access to versus what data their audiences have access to, end quote. Again, as I do every time we do this, I will say it's wild to me that we're covering earnings for Disney, but we have been. And we have to now because there's been a major narrative violation that has occurred. Disney missed its Q4 estimates after slower streaming services growth because Disney Plus added just 2 million subscribers, leading to a grand total of 118 million subscribers. Hulu added only 700,000 subscribers to a total of 39.7 million, and ESPN Plus was better adding 2.3 million to a total of 17.1 million,

quoting the Hollywood Reporter. On the company's quarterly earnings call, CEO Bob Chepec hyped up Disney's long history of using technology to enhance its storytelling and threw in one of the corporate world's latest buzzwords. quote, suffice it to say, our efforts to date are merely a prologue to a time when we can connect the physical and digital world, even more closely in our own Disney Metaverse, Cheapack said, end quote. Rout row, joining the Metaverse jargon bandwagon, that doesn't sound thirsty at all, does it?

Yes, it does, I'm going to answer my own question there. Though one could argue that with their theme parks business, who is really in the business of a Metaverse, depending on your definition of what that is, and always has been more than Disney. But look, the story here is the growth of streaming for Disney has basically suddenly hit a wall. That gain of 2.1 million Disney Plus subs was the lowest growth since Disney Plus launched. Though, again, Devil's Advocate, when they launched, their goal was to get to 60 to 90 million subs by 2024. So, again, they're way ahead of the game by far.

Now, the issue here with these slow growth numbers might just be pipeline-related. There's not a lot of new exciting content coming to Disney Plus right now. It's not until some quarter next year that Disney Plus will have new movies or shows from all of its major platforms, Star Wars, Marvel, etc. So this might just be a bit of a content law, as Lance Olinoff tweeted, quote, Existing subscribers have seen all the Star Wars and Marvel movies and the post-pandemic fresh content pipeline has been a little thin, which is probably made attracting new subscribers a little harder, end quote. Or, or the bare case worry is this. Remember how we still don't know if streaming is a good enough business to replace the sort of business Hollywood used to do? If Disney Plus is plateauing now, if this is as good as it's going to get for Disney for at least a little while, is this enough, reverend? to keep Disney corporate happy? I'd say analysts are not sure and are a little worried. The answer is no right now. Remember, Disney Plus subscribers on average, averaged across the entire cohort of subscribers, pay about one-third of what the average Netflix subscriber pays. Finally, today Universal Music Group says it is creating a band, a band called Kingship, out of four Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and plans to feature them

and video games, VR, and more. Why? I'll give you one guess, quoting Bloomberg. If that sentence makes you question your sanity or the state of Western civilization, you aren't alone. Universal Music Group is combining two hot digital concepts that you've likely read about in the past year, non-fundable tokens or NFTs, and the Metaverse. Thanks to the appreciation of cryptocurrencies and some very famous boosters, like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, both have gone from esoteric to ubiquitous in just a few months. Universal Music, the home to top-selling musicians like Drake and Taylor Swift, is working with collector Jimmy McNellis to convert four of his NFTsys into a band called Kingship. Kingship consists of four digital characters, three board apes and one mutant ape, all part of an NFT collection known as the Board Ape Yacht Club.

The club is one of the most successful NFT stories of the past year. It gave anyone who bought one of the ape's full commercial rights to use the image. 1022 p.m. One of Universal's labels has hired a team of crypto artists and animators to turn the two-dimensional apes into three-dimensional beings. The company will record music for kingship that it releases on streaming services. The band, in quotes, will perform and participate in video games, virtual reality applications, and across the constellation of digital experiences, known as the Metaverse. Quote, you can call it an NFT band or think of them as characters, Celine Joshua, the head of 1022 said in an interview this week, the characters will come to life. The apes will come to life, end quote. Joshua and her team are going to create these characters' stories from scratch. They will put together a marketing campaign to introduce the apes to potential fans, explain how they met and describe who they are. It's just like the way we introduce new artists to the world, she said, end quote. So I wanted to share this to make a point that I don't think I've made before, but maybe I did, so forgive me. The bored apes especially, but a lot of the NFT art in general. Hasn't it struck you that it quite obviously is reminiscent of, looks like,

has the aesthetic of gorillas, that cartoon band dreamed up by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett back in the late 90s and early odds? Has anyone done a deep dive on that? Why exactly is the NFT aesthetic mimicking that look from 20 years ago? I've got nothing against it. Just curious why that is the overriding vibe for NFTs. Maybe it's just a generational thing. Crypto kids today remember this look from their childhoods. Again, if anyone has any insight on this, I'm all ears. That's all for today. Talk to you tomorrow.

No, I haven't started writing down song lyrics or movie quotes to use here yet. If you have any favorites, tweet them at me, and I'll use it and credit you if I use it. Talk to you tomorrow.