Hey all, it's Kurt Wagner in Denver. It's been a rough week for Meta, but first… Three things you need to know today: • The US accused China of a vast cyberattack against telecom companies • Foxconn's earnings beat expectations because of surging AI orders • Amazon introduced its cheaper Haul storefront to compete with Temu Meta Platforms Inc. has been on a tear this year. Its stock is up almost 65%, its AI ambitions seem to be panning out, and the company just debuted a pair of augmented reality glasses that a lot of people actually liked. But lost in all the election-related news has been something you may have missed: Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has had a sneaky bad week. And no, I'm not just talking about Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's decision to release his own version of Get Low alongside T-Pain, though that certainly didn't help. Instead, there have been several developments that, if not immediately harmful, at least signal turbulence to come for the world's largest social networking company. Here's a recap of events since Nov. 5: - Donald Trump was elected US president again. In case you forgot, Trump called Facebook an " enemy of the people" just eight months ago and suggested that Zuckerberg should go to jail. Zuckerberg has since spoken to Trump, who said he likes the CEO "much better" now that Meta is less involved in elections, but it may be a tough relationship to mend given their history. To cap it off, one of Zuckerberg's greatest nemeses, Elon Musk, is now Trump's BFF.
- A Trump presidency also means that TikTok, which is facing a ban in the US, may have a better chance of survival. Trump has been public about his feeling that TikTok shouldn't be shut down, in part because it would help Meta, and there is speculation that he'll do what he can to avoid that scenario. As much as Meta will tell you that TikTok's survival is good for competition, the reality is that blocking the popular video app from US users would likely benefit Meta more than any other company.
- Speaking of competition, a judge ruled that the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Meta can continue to trial. The company was able to narrow the FTC's argument slightly, but the case will move on.
- Meta's X clone, Threads, is no longer the only legitimate competition for Musk's social network. Have you seen Bluesky? The social networking app was atop Apple's US App Store on Wednesday, and has added more than 1.25 million new users since Election Day. Threads is still significantly larger, but Trump's victory may have revived a service that could give Threads a bit of a run.
- Meta had to cut back on its ad targeting in Europe to allay some regulatory concerns. Ads will still be targeted, but necessarily not as much as before, which could hurt performance. We'll have to wait and see.
- Did I already mention Zuckerberg's new song?
Maybe none of this will ultimately matter. Meta investors don't seem too concerned — the stock is up ever so slightly since Election Day. But none of these developments have been ideal, either, and if you're a shareholder in the company, you have to hope that this first week since Trump won election isn't a sign of things to come.— Kurt Wagner Leading artificial intelligence companies OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are struggling to build more advanced AI models. Questions are being raised within the companies about whether it's worth spending the huge sums of money needed to push these AI systems forward. Australia decided to make big tech firms liable for the safety of users online, with a plan to introduce a "digital duty of care" similar to UK and EU regulation. Just Eat Takeaway sold Grubhub to Wonder Group for about $650 million — a 90% discount to the price it paid in 2021. Tencent reported a better-than-expected surge in profit that signaled China's economy may be reviving. Elon Musk's Neuralink is among several health technology startups aiming to restore vision and treat other eye diseases. |
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