Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 11/04 – Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, et al Win In California

Episode Date: November 4, 2020

Californians pass Proposition 22, and voters in Massachusetts strike a blow for the right to repair. You no longer need a phone to listen to Spotify on your watch. And why Walmart might partner with Comcast to make TVs, countries might force Netflix to produce content inside their own borders, and Hollywood is losing visual effects talent to Silicon Valley. Sponsors: Canva.me/ride  Metalab.co Links: Uber, Lyft Win California Bid to Keep Drivers as Contractors (Bloomberg) Massachusetts voters pass right-to-repair expansion opening up car data (Engadget) Wish Spotify streamed on Apple Watch? The time has arrived for many (9to5Mac) China Tells Ant It Can’t Go Public Until Capital Shortfall Fixed (Bloomberg) Comcast, Walmart in Talks to Develop and Distribute Smart TVs (WSJ) Canada to Force Netflix, Amazon Prime to Pay for Local Content (The Hollywood Reporter) Big Tech Snags Hollywood Talent to Pursue Enhanced Reality (WSJ) Link for tomorrow night's Listener Call In Episode: https://zoom.us/j/94445550255 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 Wednesday, November 4th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Californians pass Proposition 22, and voters in Massachusetts strike a blow for the right to repair.

You no longer need a phone to listen to Spotify on your watch, and why Walmart might partner with Comcasts to make TVs, countries might force Netflix to produce content inside their borders, and Hollywood is losing visual effects talent to Silicon Valley. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. So, I mean, obviously, you don't need me to tell you about the election, update you on vote totals and things like that. I mean, there are tech angles to what happened yesterday. Twitter placed sharing restrictions on a Trump tweet that alleged election theft. Facebook has added warnings that the results are not yet final.

Facebook has clarified its rules saying it will allow premature victory declarations in individual races, but it will prohibit doing so for overall elections. Yesterday, what Facebook described as a small subset of users were told erroneously that today was election day. Not sure how that can happen. But really, the tech angle here is the ballot initiatives. UberLift and DoorDash 1. California voters approved Proposition 22 exempting those companies from being required to classify their workers as employees. So in a stroke, all of those stories we did this year about injunctions and maybe shutting down service because of regulation. All that is Dunzo, quoting Bloomberg. Uber and Lyft soared more than 14% in pre-market trading after California voters

and the most expensive ballot initiative in state history approved a ballot measure exempting gig economy companies from the state labor law known as AB5. Almost 58% of voters were supporting the proposition versus 42 against, with more than 80% of the vote reported, according to the California's secretary of state's office. Drivers for Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, and their ilk will receive some new corporate perks, but won't be eligible for full unemployment benefits and protections as lawmakers had intended. Uber and Lyft alone will save more than $100 million a year on employment costs, according to one estimate. The measure, Proposition 22, was critical for the ride-hailing industry in California and beyond. At stake in the vote was the future of these app-based work platforms

which use armies of independent contractors to deliver takeout and ferry passengers across town. This fight's importance was reflected in the ballot initiatives financial contributions. DoorDash, Instacart, Lyft, Postmates, and Uber together spent $200 million on the campaign, making it the costliest ballot measure in state history. The No-On-22 camp, which was mostly funded by labor unions, only ever raised about a tenth as much, end quote. Also, I didn't get to squeeze this in like I wanted to earlier, but there was also something tech-related on the Massachusetts ballots. voters in that state approved a measure that gave car owners and mechanics the right to access telemetrics info. This was seen as a bellwether measure for the right to repair movement

that we usually think of in relation to gadgets, but as I think we've touched on before, could now apply to basically everything these days, even cars, quoting in gadget. One election night issue that appears to have an answer already is the passage of Question 1 in Massachusetts, which asks voters to strengthen laws guaranteeing people are able to repair things they own. In this case, it focused on cars, preventing manufacturers from locking third-party repair shops and car owners out of advanced telemetrics data that's increasingly being collected by vehicles via driver assistance tools. The Associated Press projected the measure passed around 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday. I fix it called the legislation a milestone for the movement,

seeing it as the start of a nationwide push to open up car data. According to I-Fixit founder Kyle Weens, quote, this will be the most advanced right to repair law in the world, opening wireless automotive diagnostics and unleashing a world of possible apps, end quote. Automakers spent millions opposing the proposal claiming that third parties wanted to scoop up information, violate privacy, and possibly enable criminal acts. A now inaccessible but archived page on the automaker-backed coalition for safe and secure data page said, quote, it will allow these people to access very detailed information, including how, when, and where a person drives. From this information, a third party such as a sexual predator could stalk and or harm victims by exploiting insecure transmissions of vehicle information, end quote. The Massachusetts Right to Repair Committee had already declared victory as of 9 p.m. And said in a statement that, quote, the people have spoken by a huge margin in favor of immediately updating right to repair, so it applies to today's high-end cars and trucks, end quote.

I wasn't even aware this wasn't possible before. Spotify has begun rolling out support for streaming audio from its standalone Apple Watch app. I didn't know this, but until now, the Spotify app on the Apple Watch was nothing more than a glorified remote control, apparently. Quoting 9 to 5 Mac. The testers report they can use the Apple Watch app of the streaming service autonomously without an iPhone to stream music and podcasts over the cellular network or Wi-Fi. This significantly enhances the Spotify app. Over the weekend, Spotify has apparently started to make the feature available to a larger group of its users. There appears to be a recently played section in addition to access to your library when using streaming on Apple Watch.

But one downside is there doesn't appear to be a search feature, so when you start seeing the streaming option, you'll need to rely on Siri to pull up specific songs, artists, albums, etc. In addition, the most recently played content is available. This actually might be the most compelling argument yet. for getting the Apple Watch with a cellular connection, though, as described above, you can still achieve the same thing with your normal Apple Watch as long as you're close to Wi-Fi. Following up on what continues to be an interestingly odd story, sources are saying China has told Ant Group that it can't proceed with its planned IPOs until that company complies with new capital requirements and reapplies for licenses to operate nationwide, quoting Bloomberg.

It's unclear how extensively Ant will have to overhaul its business to meet all of China's new regulations, which have been widely anticipated for months but only took effect on November 1st. Representatives for Ant and China's securities regulator couldn't immediately comment on the issue after business hours. The Shanghai Stock Exchange cited a, quote, significant change in the regulatory environment when it unexpectedly put a stop to Ant's $35 billion share sale on Tuesday, upending what would have been the biggest market debut in world history. The move came just two days before Ant was due to start trading, and a day after Jack Ma, the company's billionaire founder, was summoned to a rare joint meeting with the country's

central bank and three other top financial regulators. The company long operated with less oversight than traditional financial companies, but has recently come under growing regulatory scrutiny as part of China's push to rein in systemic risks. On Monday, the banking regulator released another round of draft rules that would force Ant and other operators of online lending platforms to fund a greater share of the loans they offer together with banks, end quote. Three segments now that are all loosely related to the idea that streaming media is eating the entertainment world, which I guess is a codicil of Andresen's software is eating the world.

Entertainment is no different than anything else in the world. Sources are telling the Wall Street Journal that Comcast and Walmart are teaming up to develop and distribute their own line of smart TVs. Why? Well, Comcast wants its own version of Roku, basically, or its own version of Apple TV, its own platform beyond its dwindling actual, you know, cable box under your TV. And Walmart wants some of that sweet, sweet recurring revenue, quote, under the terms of the companies are discussing, retail giant Walmart would promote TV sets running Comcast software and would get a share of recurring revenue from Comcast in return, the people said. A third party would likely

manufacture the sets, and one possibility is that they could carry Walmart branding, they said. The Comcast software, drawing on expertise the company has developed and technology it has acquired, would aim to help consumers navigate through their streaming apps and watch programming. That would put Comcast up against tech companies that already are the major players in the streaming era's living room, Apple TV maker Apple, Fire TV maker, Amazon, and Roku. The strategy would enable Comcast to market to consumers nationwide, a change in a U.S. cable industry, players have stuck for decades to their regional footprints. Comcast would be able to promote its new streaming service Peacock front and center in the smart TVs. The people familiar with the matter said,

Walmart, a dominant seller of TV sets, already has a partnership with Roku to sell smart TVs under the Walmart brand on. The Comcast talks with Walmart are at an early stage and may not result in a pact people familiar with the talks cautioned, end quote. So I'm flagging this story for a couple reasons. First, for all of the snark that Apple TV Plus has not been a Grand Slam hit for Apple yet, obviously, you have much more control over your own destiny as a streaming service if you also control distribution, if you have a hardware platform of your own. Disney is Disney and may not need one, but if there's going to be a survivor beyond Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu in the streaming wars, then Comcast and Peacock would be smart to basically become their own Roku. But also,

I think it's important to understand how big a business this is to be someone's smart TV. I recently updated our living room TV to a smart TV from TCL and Roku. And if you don't have experience with one of these newfangled sets, you need to realize how much your smart TV becomes your platform for finding everything you watch. The cable box almost becomes superfluous. You want to play Harry Potter for the kids. Your smart TV platform tells you what service it's available on and pops you right in there. there. Apple TV does this too, of course, Amazon, Chromecasts, they all do it. And if you say

screw it, I'll subscribe to CBS All Access for a month to watch the latest Star Trek or whatever. Whatever smart TV platform you order that through on your remote, that platform gets a cut. The way these deals have been structured so far, they get a cut every month. The subscription lasts. So if you sign up for HBO Max or whatever and keep that subscription for 10 years, Apple TV or Amazon or whomever goes ka-ching every single month. It's a really, really good business to be a smart TV platform.

You get people to buy the hardware at cost, then you make lifetime revenue even if they never subscribe to your own subscription offering yourself. That's why everyone, Apple, Google, Amazon is in this game. Facebook once in two, might we see a portal TV someday soon?

It's not insane. And from Walmart's perspective, think of how revolutionary this is for them. All these years, they've had to claw to make tiny margins selling goods to consumers. Now, not only can they sell folks something, they can sell something and make our sweet recurring revenue on it in perpetuity. Next, we've heard before about countries incentivizing streamers like Netflix or Hulu to produce their content inside their borders, offering tax breaks and the like, and Netflix especially has been very aggressive about investing in production overseas. The better to find

local talent that can create local content valued by local markets and say, I don't know, India, Portugal. But for the last hundred years or so, even as Hollywood has been dominant, most countries have always also had thriving local media production industries for their own TV and cinema markets. Now, streaming threatens that, because streaming is global. So could this be the beginning of a trend to shore up local and regional media production? Canada has, has proposed to regulate global streamers like Netflix and Disney Plus in that country, requiring them to invest more than $800 million in Canadian content creators by 2023, quoting the Hollywood Reporter.

The proposed amendments to the Federal Broadcasting Act will create a new online company category and for the first time regulate global media players active in the Canadian market. The resulting obligations will include foreign players having to subsidize the development, production and distribution of local entertainment and cultural content. Quote, we're asking these large and wealthy companies to invest in Canadian stories, in Canadian music, and Canadian artists, much as local cable TV providers and broadcasters already do. Heritage Minister Stephen Gilbeau told an Ottawa press conference, Gilboe argued that until now, American players have voluntarily invested in local content

production. Quote, online broadcasters, web giants, if you prefer, the Netflix, the Spotify, the Apple music, the Amazon Prime of this world, need to be brought under Canadian regulation, and that's exactly what we're doing, he said. Netflix and Google are unregulated in Canada, unlike local broadcasters and cable players that contribute a share of their revenue to subsidize local TV production. And U.S. streamers are increasingly making Canada their latest home away from home as they take advantage of local incentives, sound stages, and production crews to produce their own originals. Currently, domestic broadcasters and cable TV providers must invest between 25 and

45% of their revenues from within Canada in local content depending on their market share. Quote, we can expect similar obligations from streamers, Gilbo told reporters, including penalties if foreign companies do not fulfill their local content funding obligations, end quote. And finally, there apparently is a brain drain or talent drain going on right now. It's going in the direction of Hollywood north towards Silicon Valley. Looking to improve their AR and VR offerings, as all of the major platforms remain convinced, that's the next big thing, tech companies have been hiring Hollywood's visual artists en masse, and the visual effects gurus are largely jumping at the chance, apparently, for a reason that I found interesting. As opposed to Hollywood, Silicon Valley treats these artists like kings, quoting the Wall Street Journal.

In recent years, former visual effects professionals have traded careers, working for top Hollywood firms like Industrial Light and Magic, whose credits include the Star Wars films, digital domain, Marvel, and Weta Digital, Lord of the Rings, Jumanji the Next Level, in favor of often higher-paying gigs at tech companies developing AR and VR applications and hardware. Quote, it's harder to make as much money working in visual effects, said Paul Debevick, a veteran of the visual effects industry, who is now a professor at the University of Southern California. About four and a half years ago, Google hired Mr. DeBevick, an award-winning pioneer in the creation of convincing digital humans to help the company advance extended reality. A lot of the most talented individuals that I've met through the visual effects industry find their way into the tech industry, he said.

Three of Mr. Debevick's team joined him at Google. Working in visual effects in film and TV can mean long, unpredictable hours, limited compensation, poor job security, and paltry benefits. Many call that the cool tax that one pays for the pleasure of working in Hollywood. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has been pouring billions of dollars into extended reality technology. The disparity between the two industries has created an abundance of attractive jobs that some fed up visual effects professionals find hard to turn down. The difference is, in tech, you are broadly treated more like a human being, said one veteran visual effects artist who, like many of his peers, recently left Hollywood for a job in technology. He now works developing AR platforms for one of the world's largest tech companies. Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus Shoshana Zuboff calls the Hollywood to Silicon Valley migration,

quote, the latest illustration of how tech empires are able to corner critical intellectual labor, end quote. She likens the shift to what has happened in the field of artificial intelligence, as major technology companies persuade scientists to leave government or university jobs, end quote. Yeah, when you have, you know, all of the money, you can, elbow your way into a ton of markets. What you want to do, if you want to have really good job security, is be a craftsperson in a trade or market that tech covets. It's the quickest way to a quick buck and a decent job. All right, everybody, here's the plan. Tomorrow night, 9 p.m. Eastern Time, 6 p.m. Pacific. We're going to record a listener call-in episode. The link to

the Zoom meeting is in the show notes. If you decide to participate tomorrow night, please note that I would like to put the video on the YouTube page if possible, so keep that in mind. I suppose you could always call in and just keep your video off if you ask a question if you'd like. And as before, there is a post in the show subreddit at R-slash right home for people to post ideas for topics and questions for tomorrow. Putting your ideas in there ahead of time isn't required. You can just show up and raise your hand, but if you do post what you'd like to talk about there, and I really like it, it is far more likely that I will call on you during the show. And as we experimented with last time,

I'd like to keep people up on stage, as it were. We want to try to run it a bit like how they run things at Clubhouse, i.e., I'll try to make it so that you don't just come up on stage and ask your question and then sit right back down. We can keep people on to comment on subsequent questions if they should choose to do so, if they've got something interesting to say. I want to do these on a regular, maybe monthly basis in 2021. So the idea is I want to develop some regular callers. People we know have good questions, give good radio, have good info, if you will. I'd love it if someday we could run one of these.

And if someone were to ask a question about security or something, I can be like, where's Josh? Is Josh from San Mateo on the line? Josh is always our go-to obsec person. Josh, what did you think of what Sarah had to say? That's the dream anyway. I guess in the end, as a lifelong Howard Stern, Ira Glass, W-F-A-N listener, I guess I just wanted my own radio show all this time. Helping me build out our own Silicon Valley Wackpack. Talk to you tomorrow.