The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Disney Exec New CEO of TikTok, Uber Announces More Layoffs, & More Tech News

Episode Date: May 19, 2020

TDisney Exec New CEO of TikTok, Uber Announces More Layoffs, & More Tech News

Hi, this is Foss here from thechrisfossshow.com, thechrisfossshow.com. Here we're coming to you with another great podcast. I want to share with you some of the news that's come out today, some of the things that are shaping your world, etc., etc., the world of technology, which seems to be the one thing that's probably going to pull us out of this coronavirus more than anything else. There's a lot of talk right now in technological circles about how in 2008 there was a huge revolution, social media, the term,

the platforms rose out of the 2008 Great Recession. And so there's a lot of talk in VC circles, there's a lot of talk in Silicon Valley, there's a lot of talk around the nation that through the darkness of this depression that we're going to have, depression, light depression, call it what you want, there hopefully will be a rise of new technologies and people that will be hungry to be innovators and entrepreneurs that will create a new world for us and a better world for us, if you will. We saw that from the failure of the dot-coms, the dot-com crash in 1991, 92, I think it was, or no, I'm sorry, that would have been 2001, 2001-ish era, 1999 to 2001 era. That would have been that era of the crash of the dot-coms

but we saw a lot of rise of competent companies after that and better values etc etc so what do we have up on the tech thing it'll be interesting to see how our world is going to change be sure to subscribe the Chris Voss show so you see how that world changes and fluctuates, and we'll try and meet the forecast for where we are going. According to the New York Times, Disney's top streaming executive, Kevin Mayer, has resigned to become CEO of TikTok.

Holy crap. You know something big's going down when you're leaving Disney for TikTok. Of course, Brian wants that CEO gig. And CEO of parent company ByteDance. Disney names Rebecca Campbell as its successor. So that's kind of interesting. TikTok is a Chinese-owned app.

And if you're not familiar with it, it makes and shares short videos. It's exploded in popularity, especially during the pandemic. I have spent many a nights laughing my butt off because I really needed it during some of the darkest times of the pandemic. But I've spent many a nights for four hours just scroll flipping through TikTok, just laughing at that guttural level that you sometimes just need to just to remind you of humanity and the world isn't quite as dark as it is. So it's a funny app whenever I'm bored, lonely or depressed in quarantine life, I tend to pick up the TikTok and flip through that and I find I go to that more than I go to Instagram.

And there are some really talented people on there. There's people that are making really funny, incredible, creative stuff. There's a lot of people who get into the cosplay getup. You usually see these folks at the San Diego big show, the cosplay show. I forget what it's called, Comic- at the San Diego big show, the cosplay show. I forget what it's called, Comic-Con in San Diego. But you see a lot of these people, they must put in hours to do their makeup and outfits to show up and do, you know, what is about, I think it's about a minute or something. It's a real short comedy bit.

But, you know, they do a lot of them. And there's a lot of talent on there. There's a lot of good comedy. I mean, there are some TikTok things I have laughed. And I have laughed to laugh that where you get done, you're going. Man, I really needed that. I really needed that. And some of it is just really that freaking funny. So this will be interesting to see somebody uh somebody like disney going over to

uh uh an executive from disney going over to tiktok um so there you go uh it definitely seems to be the most popular thing when it comes to social media platforms these days uh that next to twitter with everyone raging at the orange monster over there uh next up, according to 9to5, Attorney General Barr says that no thanks to Apple, the FBI succeeded in locking the phones of a Pensacola gunman who found he had significant links to Al Qaeda. Apple, of course, stands up for people's privacy. Right now, there's a bill going through the, I believe the Senate or the House, I believe it's the Senate right now, it's starting out there, but they're basically giving Bill Barr the rights to just do whatever he wants

with your data, open it, look at it, poke through it, basically almost a backdoor, if you will. So get a chance to check in that legislation and fight against it. You know, I'm all for terrorists and and whatever but um getting prosecuted and and all that good stuff but but seriously um uh this there's there's also reason to be privacy private and wary of the government especially this government holy shit according to uh the register at an MIT event the Microsoft president Brad Smith says the company was on the wrong side of history with open source and the tell-all with president Brad Smith revealed Obama

warned tech giants the privacy reckoning was coming so that's an interesting conversation check that conversation conversation out on the register. Man, it's bad out there. It really is bad out there. In an email to staff, the CEO of Uber says Uber will cut 3,000 more jobs. If you were listening on the Chris Voss show a few days ago, I think, or a week ago, they let go of 3,700 people on a Zoom call just all at once. Like, if you're watching this Zoom call, you're currently unemployed, which was a hell of a way to pull that baby off. So they're going to close 45 offices, eliminate 3,700 more jobs on top of that.

Meanwhile, they're still looking to acquire stuff. Glad they have money for that. Jesus Christ, I just don't. We need to have better laws in this country about employment. That's just it. Oculus says it will start accepting Quest titles that support

hand tracking this month and details two new collaborative and productivity apps coming this year. So lots of neat things happening with Oculus. I'm just so excited this is finally just, you know, rolling with Oculus. For like, what was it, 10 years it took them to build this thing? So there you go. According to Facebook's VP of Consumer Hardware, Andrew Bosworth, says users who spent over $100 million on Quest VR content

and portal sales are up 10 times compared to mid-March. Holy crap. $100 million? What is that, like five Oculuses? No, I'm just kidding. They're not that expensive. It's 10. No, but wow, that's a burgeoning uh burgeoning sort of uh

market there 100 million holy shit wow i don't know i like vr but content's just not that good yet until it can get as good as my pc games or my ps4 or something we got a long ways to go baby i've seen some of the games and they're a little cheesy uh We've got a long ways to go, baby. I've seen some of the games and they're a little cheesy. But there's a new one out that's really good. According to Adweek, Instagram is introducing Guides, a feature that lets creators curate content on a specific object, debuting with select accounts focusing on wellness. So you can curate content on a specific object,

debuting with select accounts, and focus on something. Sounds kind of like Flipboard, doesn't it? Yeah. Where you can create your own guide. Like, hey, here's a guide to, I don't know, whatever. Might be kind of interesting. We'll see what happens. So guides, it's a new feature on Monday. Whatever. Might be kind of interesting. We'll see what happens. So, guides.

It's a new feature on Monday. Check it out at your local Instagram store. According to Verge, Microsoft says Minecraft has now topped $200 million in sales, up from $100 million in 2016 with 126 million monthly players. Minecraft saw a 25% increase in players last month. Yeah, that's because everyone was in quarantine. Wow, that $2 billion, I think it was, they paid for Minecraft. That thing's looking like a really solid deal at this point, huh? Wow.

God, Minecraft. Who would know? I just can't stand that 8-bit graphics i grew up with 8-bit graphics i don't want to be using 8-bit graphics anymore and minecraft i don't know i guess the kids like it that's all that matters right that's all that matters clearly we knew parents weren't uh teaching their children they were putting them on the Minecraft to say, you know, forget about it. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the Nikkei Index, if you're familiar with it, sources say TSMC, the biggest contract chip maker, has halted new orders from Hawaii

in response to new U.S. export controls. The orders were placed before and were not impacted. So this is kind of interesting. There's been a big thing going on where they are supposed to be, if you've been listening to prior Chris Foss shows, they're supposed to be putting up a chip-making facility here in the United States, which the Trump administration wants them to do that. They're Taiwan based. And so there's a huge like issue now, because as you're familiar with, China doesn't recognize Taiwan because Taiwan, well, China recognizes Taiwan as a part of them.

And countries around the world have to play this silly little dance with China not to recognize Taiwan. And so there's this whole political gamesmanship that's being played with them trying to bring a facility to America because that doesn't make China happy. So there you go. I don't even know how to solve that Rubik's Cube, and it's probably above my pay grade.

So there you go. According to The Verge, Jack Dorsey has told Square employees they can work from home even after the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders end. As you remember, he told that to the folks at Twitter. So I think that's brilliant. Why bring people into an office if they can work from home and do their jobs? That would be great. Fun is fun according the block international exchanges

backed b-a-k-k-t says its institutional custody business now has more than 70 clients at eyes the launch of a much anticipated consumer app backed is a digital asset venture owned by i-c-e international or intercontinental exchange and they have an institutional custody custody business and let's see what else they get into here so anyway they have a consumer app that's going to come out they partner with an insurance broker Marsh to offer clients more than $500 million worth of coverage. And, uh, yeah, if you're into backed, you can check out what's going on with those folks.

How about that? I'm not clearly, uh, according to Bloomberg or Facebook conducted a survey of 86,000 small business owners and employees, uh, showed that more than 31% of small businesses have stopped operating and 11% more expect to fall in the next three months. It's not good. That's 42%. 42% of people have to have plans to rehire employees. They had to cut.

Wow, man, that's 42%. Like just main streets just wiped out again. Just when Main Street, like, really got going and cooking again, wiped off the planet. And there you go. This is kind of interesting to me. According to The Verge, Google suspended a popular Android podcast app, Podcast Addict, the Chris Voss show. And it's a night eight other podcasts are on podcast attic i know um but eventually uh the app was dumped from the play store and removed ads from existing installs

because it lists covet 19 content and i guess one of the big issues is is some of this covet 19 contact content isn't uh up to par and you know, rumors and false information, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of that going around. So there you go. Fun is fun. Let's see. According to margins, DoorDash is listing restaurants on its service without their permission, leaving the inaccurate menus, unhappy customers,

and even arbitrage opportunities. So watch for that when you're ordering from DoorDash. That can get a little weird. The bada-bing, bada-bing, bada-boom. What else do we have in the thing? And a win for Facebook, unfortunately, according to The Verge. SCOTUS has declined to hear a lawsuit claiming the social network provided material support to terrorists by hosting their content.

I guess they have to follow that one rule that was originally written for Facebook and stuff. But definitely needs to be better responsibility and regulation of Facebook. I'm fully supportive of that. I'm fully on board, et cetera, et cetera. According to Reuters, Alibaba's Jack Ma resigned from the SoftBank board as he pulls back from formal business roles to focus on philanthropy. SoftBank to propose three new appointments. Probably better for him the way Soft yeah it has that whole ugly deal and

we work oh my god what a mess that thing still is to this day um and and probably only gonna get worse with with what's going on with covid19 i mean just talk about that thing's just a dumpster fire you can't put out um dumpster fire on top of that uh what's that place in yugoslavia or someplace over in the middle east and it's like it has an endless fire it's an endless pit they call it the gates of hell or something pit and it's just like endless methane gas coming up from the core of here just melting stuff so anyway um what else do we have? This is kind of interesting and I follow. Apple says it's reopening 25 stores this week plus 12 stores in Canada, adding to nearly 100 global locations that have reopened so far.

So I guess Apple feels it's safe to go out and it's safe for you to come in and buy your iPhones so that they'll break in a week or two and you can take them back to the Genius Bar. How genius. Never buy a product from a company that has a repair shop right inside of it. You know they actually design cars for repair. They actually do. Yeah, yeah.

Of course, we all know that Apple runs on planned obsolescence. Everyone knows that. So anyway, that's my story. I'm sticking to it guys. Uh, be sure to go to the cvpn.com, the Chris Voss podcast network and subscribe to the show. Tell your friends to subscribe, just grab their phone and sign them up. There you go. Tell them, don't tell them I told you to do that. Cause I don't want them to call me and be like, I'm so happy that my friends subscribed you to your show. My life is more complete now. Thank you.

I appreciate that. And, you guys, thanks for tuning in. Watch tomorrow. We have a most excellent guest. We have a bunch of really excellent guests. Some people running for governor and some other things trying to make the world a better place.

So there's be some of those, some great book authors and speakers are going to be on the show. So stay tuned. No flipping. We'll see you next time.