Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 06/02 – Facebook’s F8 Refresh

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

All the headlines from Facebook’s F8 Refresh. Etsy buys a used clothes marketplace. Another ransomware attack shutting down a major player in a vital industry, this time, literally in the meat-space. And you can start trading Dogecoin on Coinbase tomorrow. Sponsors: Cybereason.com Metalab.com Links: Facebook opens its Messenger API for Instagram to all (Tech Crunch) Microsoft to reveal its next generation of Windows on June 24th (The Verge) Amazon Prime Day set for June 21 and 22 (CNBC) Etsy is buying the fashion resale app Depop for $1.6 billion. (New York Times) U.S. says ransomware attack on meatpacker JBS likely from Russia; cattle slaughter resuming (CNBC) Meat Buyers Scramble After Cyberattack Hobbles JBS (Wall Street Journal) Coinbase Lists Dogecoin on Professional Trading Platform (Coindesk) Judge dismisses charges against Apple security chief in gun-permit probe (Reuters) 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 ride home for Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. All the headlines from Facebook's F8 refresh conference. Etsy buys a used clothes marketplace. Another ransomware attack shuts down a major player in a vital industry. And this time it's literally in the meat space. And you can start trading doge coins on Coinbase tomorrow. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. So Facebook's F8 developer conference kicked off today, after taking last year off due to the pandemic, of course. Mark Zuckerberg didn't do a real proper keynote, just a few minute-long video message saying Facebook was going back to its roots, i.e. focusing on developers, quote,

some of the most important services in the world started when someone looked at an existing issue and found a better way to build, and I'm optimistic that some of the next generation of services are going to start right here with you, Zuckerberg said. Well, that mostly meant messaging, at least so far today, and specifically business messaging. Facebook said it will open up the Messenger API for Instagram to all businesses, quoting TechCrunch. The feature is opening first to all developers globally with a phased approach for businesses. Phase one will see Instagram accounts with follower accounts of over 10,000 and under 100,000 connect to the API. It plans to expand that to accounts with followers numbering between 1,000 and 100,000. in July, which is phase two, with remaining accounts coming online by Q3. The feature was first announced as a closed beta in October with select businesses, 30 developers and 700 brands in all. Now, any brand or

organization using Instagram to interact with customers can use it. The key point with this tool is that this integration represents a significant step forward in how companies can leverage the wider Facebook platform. In the past, a brand that wanted to interact with customers either needed to do so directly through Instagram or via Facebook's unified business inbox, which are limited how they can be used, especially by companies that might be handling large volumes of traffic, or keen to be able to link up those customers' interactions with wider customer service databases. The Messenger API, by contrast, can be integrated into any third-party application that a company or brand might be using to manage communication, whether it's a social media management

platform like Hootsweet or Sprinkler or a CRM application that can bring in other kinds of customer data, for example, warranty information, or loyalty card numbers. Facebook noted that one of the key takeaways from the closed beta was that brands and companies wanted better ways of managing communications from one place, and another was that many of them are making more investments in software to better manage their communications and workflows, so extending the Messenger API to Instagram was a feature that was long needed in that regard, end quote. Then it was on to that big push to make it easier to chat with businesses on WhatsApp, quoting

and gadget. To start, you won't need to type quite as often to interact with businesses on WhatsApp. You'll now get menus that let you tap an option instead of writing a message. You'll also get more information from businesses such as back in stock alerts, so you're more likely to get follow-ups. If you ever have a truly bad experience with a business, you'll have options to provide more feedback when blocking chats by that company. You might see more companies using WhatsApp in the first place. The Facebook Owen brand says it has cut the time to get started. started with business chats from weeks to as little as five minutes. WhatsApp believes this will mainly help medium and larger firms, but that's still helpful if

you'd rather not make a phone call or wait for email, end quote. What else? Facebook says it is planning to launch an API designed for the academic community. After deprecating thousands of APIs following the Cambridge Analytical scandal, there's also something called Login Connect with Messenger, sort of the good old Facebook login feature, but I guess making it easier to create an account for businesses for less friction at checkout. They're talking about the Spark AR platform now, but they're noting that, of course, you're still building AR applications for hardware that they haven't released yet. That's as far as

we've gotten, at least as I've been listening live, so I'm going to stop now to get this out, and then if there's something important that we miss, we'll bring it up tonight on the Twitter space and or we'll cover it tomorrow. Speaking of events, Remember how Microsoft's recent developer event had this weird sort of hole in the middle of it, vis-a-vis the future of Windows? Yeah, well, Microsoft said this morning it will detail its, quote, next generation of Windows at an event on June 24th with what it is calling significant changes, including visual enhancements. Quoting the verge. The invite comes just a week after Nadella teased a next generation of Windows announcement. Microsoft is expected to detail its next significant

changes to Windows, and they will likely include a number of visual enhancements, were expected to see some significant UI changes to Windows under something codenamed Sun Valley. Microsoft's Event Invite even appears to tease a new Windows logo. A lot of the visual work has already started with new system icons, file explorer improvements, and the end of Windows 95-era icons. Microsoft is also focusing on improving the basic foundations of Windows with fixes for a rearranging apps issue on multiple monitors, the addition of the Xbox Auto-HDR feature, and improvements to Bluetooth audio support. Nadella has also promised to unlock a better economy for developers and creators within Windows itself, so we'll likely get a closer look at the store changes coming to Windows.

Microsoft has been working on a new app store for Windows in recent months, and rumors have suggested Microsoft will open its store up to all apps and even rival payment platforms, end quote. And one more bit of event news. This was delayed and disrupted last year as well, but Amazon says this year's Prime Day, or actually Prime Days, will return to its typical summertime time slot, although taking place about a month earlier. This year it'll be happening on June 21st and 22nd, at least here in North America, quoting CNBC. Members of Amazon's Prime subscription program will get access to more than two million deals across every category, said Jamil Ghani, Vice President of Prime during a press event Tuesday. Prime Day, which started in 2015, is typically held in July. The discount celebration is partially designed to attract new prime subscribers to promote Amazon's products and services and to provide a sales boost during a normally slower shopping period. Last year, the company was forced to delay Prime Day until mid-October due to pandemic-related uncertainty and strains on its fulfillment and logistics capacity. Amazon is postponing

this year's Prime Day in India and Canada due to the worsening spread of COVID-19 in those countries. CFO Brian Olavsky said during Amazon's most recent earnings conference call that the company would hold Prime Day one month earlier this year because July is typically a busy vacation period. Analyst told CNBC that a June prime day could potentially help soften year-over-year comparisons to its business during lockdowns last spring, end quote. Etsy announced this morning that it is buying the London-based fashion resale app, D-pop. I was not familiar with D-pop, but apparently it is very popular with Gen Z. and apparently it was worth $1.6 billion to Etsy, quoting the New York Times. The cash deal, which is expected to close by the third quarter of this year, underscores the growing influence of clothing resale platforms. More shoppers are turning to the secondhand market for something cheaper and potentially greener, as the overproduction of clothing increasingly adds to landfills.

The trend appears to have been accelerated by the pandemic as more shoppers look to declutter wardrobes, earn cash by selling their old clothes, or set up fashion customization businesses from their bedrooms. Investor appetite is also on the rise. Last month, Europe's largest secondhand fashion marketplace vented raised 250 million euros in a funding round that valued the startup at around 3.5 billion euros, while in the United States companies such as ThreatUp and Poshmark have gone public this year. D-POP, which was founded in 2011, has been particularly successful in building a marketplace for younger consumers who are adopting secondhand fashion faster than any other group.

90% of its users are under 26 with 30 million users across 150 countries. The platform is particularly known for its vintage clothes and streetwear and for creating a new cohort of online influencers famous for selling their wares, end quote. Yes, reading the chatter on this this morning. It turns out that Etsy's audience apparently skews a bit older than that. The global market for pre-owned apparel is about $40 billion a year, but that's only 2% of the overall global apparel market. So, you know, 2% representing $40 billion is quite a lot.

The clothing business already on Etsy is estimated at around $1 billion a year. It's happened again. JBS is the world's top meatpacker, and JBS got hit over the weekend by a ransomware attack that forced it to shutter various operations, which was concerning because JBS handles roughly a fifth of meat production in the United States, quoting CNBC. The disruption quickly had an impact on Tuesday, industry analysts said. U.S. meatpackers slaughtered 22 percent fewer cattle than a week earlier, and 18 percent than a year earlier, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pork processing was also down. Prices for choice and select cuts of U.S. beef shipped to wholesale buyers and large boxes, each jumped more than 1 percent, the USDA said. The USDA contacted several major major. meat processors to encourage them to keep supplies moving and slaughter additional livestock when possible, according to a statement. The agency also urged meatpackers to make their IT and supply chain infrastructures more durable, end quote. This morning, JBS said it had made, quote, significant progress to resolve the cyber attack impacting operations and the, quote,

vast majority of its meat plants will be operational by later today. So is this more of that freebooting we discussed with the CISO of Cyber Reason on a bonus episode recently. Well, quoting the Wall Street Journal, Brazil-based JBS, the world's biggest meat company by sales, told the Biden administration that it was the victim of a ransomware attack. White House principal deputy press secretary, Corrine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. She said JBS reported that the attack originated from a criminal group likely based in Russia. The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering

the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals. Ms. Jean-Pierre said, JBS didn't comment on the White House's description of the attack. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov on Wednesday declined to comment on the attack saying he had no information about it, but there were ongoing contacts between Russia and the U.S. through diplomatic channels, end quote. Coinbase says that Coinbase Pro users will be able to trade Dogecoin starting tomorrow, Thursday, depending, quoting CoinDesk. Coinbase Pro said in a blog post that users could transfer Doge into their professional trading accounts with trading expected to launch on Thursday, quote, if liquidity conditions

are met, end quote. While the blog post did not announce whether Coinbase would add the cryptocurrency to its retail trading platform and mobile app, the publicly traded crypto exchange typically adds cryptocurrencies to its retail platform a few weeks after listing on the professional version first. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong first announced the exchange Woodlist Doge during an earnings call last month. Dogecoin's price appears to have spiked on the announcement trading at about 34 cents as of press time, end quote. Finally today, the conclusion to what continues to be a super odd story, a California court dismissed bribery charges against Apple's security chief, Thomas Moyer, saying accusations of iPad donations in exchange for gun permits were, quote,

pure speculation. Quoting Reuters. Prosecutors alleged that Moyer had offered to donate iPads to the sheriff's office after a 2019 meeting in exchange for help getting concealed weapons permits for the company's executive protection team. It is illegal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit in California and county sheriffs have wide discretion over whether to grant them. Judge Eric S. Geffen of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County found on Tuesday that Moyer had been in talks with the sheriff's office about permits for more than a year by the time of the 2019 meeting. By then, Geffen wrote, the evidence suggests Moyer believed the permits were already approved and would soon be issued. Geffen said prosecutors erred in alleging that Moyer had any corrupt intent in offering to donate the iPads, quote,

this argument is pure speculation and is not supported by the evidence presented to the grand jury, Geffen wrote. Moreover, Geffen wrote that Moyers offered to donate the iPads to the sheriff's office rather than any specific officer, and the fact that Moyer followed all of Apple's internal rules for requesting a donation showed a lack of corrupt intent. Apple said in November that it had already conducted an internal investigation and found no wrongdoing. I thank the court for giving this case such careful consideration and for allowing me to move forward with my life, Moyer said in a statement, I also want to thank Apple, my friends, and family for their unwavering support, end quote. Tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m.

Pacific. Chris Messina and I are doing another Twitter space. We don't have any guests lined up at the moment, but I'm sure we're going to start by discussing Facebook's F8 Refresh thing today. So if you're a developer who has interests and opinions in this area, raise your hand and help us sort through it. The space will, of course, be on the spacecast feed some hours after we record it or tomorrow morning. If you check the spacecast feed right now, you'll see a new space done by. by Brady Dale, his lightbulb talks series delving into the world of crypto. This time he spoke to the co-founder of Flexa, a startup trying to steer crypto back in the direction of, you know, payments, actually using cryptocurrencies as currencies to pay for things. He also spoke to a crypto VC from the Venture Fund, 1KX. Good stuff. Check it out. Search your podcast app now and subscribe to SpaceCass. Talk to you tomorrow.