GEOPOLITICS

TikTok Faces Timeout

On Friday, Amazon banned and then quickly unbanned TikTok from employees’ phones. While Amazon says its internal email telling employees to delete TikTok was a mistake, others are a bit more serious.

No accidents here

Wells Fargo recently directed employees to remove TikTok from their phones, citing security concerns, The Information reports. 

And the U.S. government is upping its pressure campaign. Yesterday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox Business the White House could take “strong action” against TikTok and Chinese super-app WeChat, echoing similar sentiments from President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Possible futures for the app

It’s only been 14 days since India banned TikTok. Amid questions of invasive data collection, content moderation practices, and Chinese laws requiring tech companies to hand over user data, TikTok finds itself flailing in geopolitical quicksand. 

Here are some possible futures I see for the app: 

• Status quo sticks: Somehow, Gen Z protestations to leave TikTok alone work and cooler heads prevail. More realistically, the U.S. could spare TikTok as a bargaining chip in the wider tech-trade war with China...or move on and forget about the app.
• Outright ban: The U.S. could place TikTok on its entity list, compelling Apple and Google to remove it from their app stores. In a post-TikTok world, other short-form video apps fill the void. Some creators are already planning for that future: Vine reboot Byte is already climbing up in app store popularity.
• Spinning TikTok off: For ByteDance, a sale could be better than owning an app that can’t operate in popular overseas markets. In December, Bloomberg reported ByteDance was mulling a TikTok sale. 

My takeaway: The U.S. is positioning TikTok as a Faustian bargain, saying: ‘Sure, the app may be sleek and enjoyable, but is it worth giving up your privacy wholesale?’ The app’s U.S. future may be determined by efforts to increase transparency and shed ties to its corporate parent. 

TELECOM

I’m Getting FOMO for not Backing Jio

If I were a multinational tech corporation, a private equity firm, or a state investment fund with a few hundred million dollars to spare, I would simply park those dollars in India’s Jio Platforms. But I am only a tech writer. 

Yesterday, Qualcomm Ventures announced a $97 million investment in Jio for a .15% stake. Two weeks ago, Intel Capital said it invested $250 million for a .39% stake. 

• Jio has raised over $15.7 billion in the last 12 weeks. 

Why did Jio Platforms sell over 25% of its business? 

1) Reduce debt.
2) Scale new e-commerce, streaming, and videochat initiatives.
3) Build a 5G network. Jio’s latest investor, Qualcomm, will be especially helpful here. 

Bottom line: Jio amassed India’s largest subscriber base–almost 400 million–by offering cost-effective mobile data packages, helping bring millions online. Foreign investors want to ride along as it brings new and improved services to its locked-in customer base.

SPONSORED BY HPE

How COVID-19 Is Accelerating the Move to Hybrid Cloud

COVID-19 has changed just about every facet of business. As Brian Solis, global innovation evangelist at Salesforce, puts it, “Whatever the digital transformation roadmap was before COVID-19 is now on hold, indefinitely postponed, or redirected.”

Many IT departments are now finding it necessary to accelerate their migration to multicloud architectures if they were not already headed that way. It’s predicted that by 2022, more than 90% of enterprises worldwide will use a mix of on-premises or dedicated private clouds, multiple public clouds, and legacy platforms.

In fact, many are dubbing 2021 “The Year of the Multicloud.”

Case in point, Volterra recently conducted a global study of 400 IT execs and found 97% planned to distribute workloads across two or more clouds. According to Solis, "This is going to take more unified digital strategies, vision, leadership, and purpose.”

Read on to learn more about how COVID-19 is accelerating the move to hybrid cloud.

UBI

Universal Dorsey Income

On Thursday, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey said he would donate $3 million to a coalition of mayors piloting universal basic income (UBI) programs. Stockton, CA, Mayor Michael Tubbs founded the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income group last month. 

• Member cities include Newark, Atlanta, Compton, St. Paul, Seattle, LA, Oakland, and Pittsburgh. 

UBI is “one tool to close the wealth and income gap, level systemic race and gender inequalities, and create economic security for families,” Dorsey tweeted. 

Why is this in Emerging Tech Brew? 

Looking beyond the coronavirus, automation could boost inequality and permanently eliminate certain job categories over time. UBI proponents, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, say the measure could lighten the economic impact of jobs lost to AI software, robots, and autonomous vehicles. 

Bottom line: Small-scale income pilots will arm U.S. leaders with more data about whether UBI could be a feasible hedge against automation at a national level. 

+ ICYMI: I spoke with Andrew Yang about UBI last March. Today, my coworker who makes newsletters for your ears is interviewing him to get an update.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Nearly 70% of U.S. iOS and Android users say they would deny tracking permissions if requested in-app, according to a recent survey from Pollfish. 

Quote: “AI works by accumulating a lot of data and seeing recurrence of similar events in order to make accurate predictions. And a pandemic is a once-a-century activity.”—AI expert Kai-Fu Lee explains to Wired why he gave the technology a B- in helping fight the coronavirus. 

Read: Last week, the Daily Beast wrote about Middle Eastern propagandists who posed as experts and placed articles in right-leaning publications. The part I’m interested in? Some of the personas’ headshots look like they were AI-generated. 

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Google announced a $10 billion “digitization” fund for India this morning. 
• PC shipments grew to 72 million units in Q2, an 11.2% year over year increase, according to IDC. 
• Downloads of encrypted chat app Signal are surging in Hong Kong. 
• Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain-machine interface venture, will share a research update on August 28.
• Google can avoid an EU antitrust investigation into its Fitbit acquisition if it agrees to not use health data for ad targeting, Reuters reports.

WHAT'S BREWING THIS WEEK

Monday: Stanford Medicine virtual chat with Dr. Fauci; Mind the Product digital conference runs through Wednesday; Paris men’s fashion week digital edition (only including this so I can say make it fashion) 

Tuesday: 2020 Energy Drone & Robotics Summer Summit runs virtually through Thursday; VentureBeat Transform runs virtually through Friday

Wednesday: Titans of (Emerging) Industry rideshare and P2P mobility Zoom webinar

Thursday: Netflix earnings; Asia Blockchain Summit runs virtually through Friday

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For wanderlust: Check out Atlas Obscura’s daily newsletter for intriguing stories covering everything from hidden places around the world to unusual gems in your hometown.

For talking the talk: This blog glossary demystifies all the terms you need to know in startupland, VC, and tech. Set aside some time to read through this absolute treasure. 

For an interesting op-ed: “Don’t ask if AI is good or fair, ask how it shifts power,” per this Nature piece. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Nvidia passes Intel in market cap 
• TikTok pulls out of Hong Kong, as app faces pressure in U.S.
• Seven trends from Q2