Author : zebethcontrol

Fake Twitter accounts flock to blue check mark chaos • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, elon musk buys twitter, Social, TwitterNo Comments

Elon Musk’s mercurial leadership and half-baked product plans are already creating fertile ground for confusion on Twitter. We’ve lost count of how many times Musk has changed his mind or offered contradictory claims about what a new paid $8 verification badge would do, but after pushing the feature live, fake accounts are seizing on the chaos. Twitter’s bought blue check marks are now available for some paying subscribers, injecting the timeline with tweets that appear to be from official accounts. And apparently Musk’s Twitter skeleton crew made no meaningful changes to the visual language of the blue check, so right now it signals that you’re either really who you say you are — @CocaCola, for instance — or you’re somebody random who just coughed up $8 and got a stamp of approval. Now when tweets appear in Twitter’s timeline it’s impossible to visually distinguish the two categories of blue check accounts from one another. Doing so would require clicking through to examine a user’s follower count, which isn’t necessarily a reliable way to tell, or searching for whatever clues might be found in their other tweets. Clicking on the check mark itself from a profile page apparently displays different copy too, but like everything on Twitter right now, that is subject to change. So far this has resulted in some quick attention for an account impersonating LeBron James, which announced that the basketball star was requesting a trade away from the Lakers. A few other athletes got the same treatment, including baseball pitcher Aroldis Chapman and NHL player Connor McDavid. Following sports transactions and news could become a total mess with the new verification system Already fake LeBron and Aroldis Chapman tweets going around pic.twitter.com/vQgMqws1W0 — Joon Lee (@joonlee) November 9, 2022 As we’ve reported, Musk has already changed his mind a number of times already on the scheme to get rid of bots and spam by making people pay $8 a month. But now that the feature is suddenly live, anyone can impersonate someone else for $8 a month and see their content boosted algorithmically without any vetting. (Though apparently that paid perk, like nearly all of the “new” Twitter Blue’s features beyond the blue check mark, is “coming soon.”) All of those accounts are suspended now, but only after the tweets gained traction and caught the attention of Twitter moderators. With one half of the staff it was previously operating with, it’s impossible for Twitter to catch all of this stuff after the fact if it doesn’t have any interest in vetting at the time of payment, which Musk apparently doesn’t. The implications for Twitter as a reliable news source and the potential for abuse here is massive. Musk held off on his haphazard plan until the day after the U.S. elections, but with many races not yet called we can definitely expect to see confusion that’s orders of magnitude more consequential than a fake basketball trade. Misinformation potential aside, Musk’s plan also undermines the presence of celebrities — one of the things that makes Twitter interesting for the average user. If Twitter users can’t even reliably find prominent people like athletes, politicians and movie stars to follow, the platform’s value is going to fall off a cliff pretty fast, with its advertising revenue not far behind.

Some crypto VCs see decentralization as the future following FTX collapse • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Binance, blockchain, Crypto, EC Blockchain, EC Cryptocurrency, EC venture capital, FTX, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments

As the crypto market digests the past few days of chaos, venture capitalists see the moment as a warning, but also an opportunity for the growth of decentralization and maturation of the larger blockchain space. “As venture investors, we take a long-term view on the industry; despite the current market turmoil, we are actively assessing and investing in the right opportunities,” Marc Weinstein, founding partner of Mechanism Capital, said to ZebethMedia. “The premise of DeFi has, if anything, been strengthened by the collapse of centralized entities from opaque counterparty relationships.” Decentralized finance (DeFi) is often associated with trusting blockchain technology to execute services through smart contracts, while centralized finance (CeFi) usually refers to more traditional business models and involves having people manage funds and manually execute services. “Market sentiment is shaken, but committed VCs with experience from several crypto market cycles will continue to invest.” Marc Weinstein, founding partner of Mechanism Capital Historically, the venture market doesn’t get “too offended” by what transpires in secondary markets, David Gan, general partner at OP Crypto, said to ZebethMedia. Regardless, he said, the seeming death of FTX is saddening for everyone, “not just in the VC space, but across the board.” When there are massive crashes and burns, it speaks to what we’ve been seeing over the past decade: It’s the Wild West out there, Samantha Lewis, principal at Mercury, said to ZebethMedia. “When summarizing it all, I see it a continuation of the phase that started when winter hit and we saw Luna and all these crazy companies crash and burn like BlockFi, Celsius and now we have FTX,” Lewis said. “As an early-stage venture investor, it’s telling me the hype is now for sure gone. But that ushers in the maturation of the space that a lot of us have been craving for a really long time.”

Binance backs out of deal to buy FTX • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Binance, Crypto, crypto exchanges, FTXNo Comments

The world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, Binance, said it would walk away from a deal with the third largest crypto exchange by volume, FTX. On Tuesday, Binance signed a letter of intent to purchase its troubled competitor, FTX, in what appeared to be a potential bailout of the latter amid a liquidity crunch. But just a bit over 24 hours later, that plan crumbled. Binance backed out after reviewing the company’s structure and books, it said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. “Our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help,” Binance said. “As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged U.S. agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of [FTX],” Binance said in a tweet. “Every time a major player in an industry fails, retail consumers will suffer,” Binance continued. “We have seen over the last several years that the crypto ecosystem is becoming more resilient and we believe in time that outliers that misuse user funds will be weeded out by the free market.” Binance and FTX did not immediately respond to ZebethMedia requests for comment. Earlier today, sources familiar with the matter told CoinDesk that FTX’s loan commitments raised concerns among Binance’s top brass. The report follows Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeting that FTX “going down is not good for anyone in the industry.” This is a developing story and may be updated if new information arises.

Google and Twitter veteran maps out a Twitter alternative • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Apps, gabor cselle, Social, social media, Startups, TwitterNo Comments

Twitter’s new CEO and owner Elon Musk is rattling the cage at his social network and ruffling a lot of feathers both inside and outside of the company. But while some in the tech world describe that kind of chaos as a garbage fire, others see it as something very different: an opportunity. Years-old federated social networks, legacy social platforms that have their own issues, and a cacophony of pre-existing fringe efforts are all emerging as possible alternatives to Twitter. And in that vein, so are completely new ideas. One of these is being hatched by Gabor Cselle, a repeat founder who wants to build what he described to me as “a new Twitter.” In true Valley hustle style, Gabor is still honing in on small details like a name and what, exactly, all this will entail. He’s doing that in real-time, with a multi-tabbed Google Doc that you can view. But as a first step to gathering interest for his New Twitter, Gabor has put together a sign up list for people to register their interest as he works away. (Note: The name on the sign-up page, T2, appears to be an abbreviation for Twitter 2, but Gabor says this is just a placeholder name.) Now you might be asking yourself, why pay attention to this? Isn’t Gabor getting a little ahead of himself here? He doesn’t have a name, or even a product, yet. Well, yes. Gabor is in that sense just one of hundreds of millions of founders out in the world noodling on ideas. But there are a few things that set him and his alt-Twitter effort apart. For starters, he’s a repeat founder who sold his first company, the YC-based mobile email startup reMail, to Google. His second company, the native advertising startup Namo Media, he sold to Twitter itself. He’s worked on products at those two titans between and after those acquisitions, and that experience — he focused on Timeline, new-user onboarding and logged-out experiences at Twitter; and on many, many different consumer ideas a director at Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator project — has given him a taste of what’s interesting, and what is not. And also what works, and what does not. Gabor left Google in July 2022 and has since been tweeting out his daily journey to figure out what to do next. (Day 106, for example, was spent at ZebethMedia Disrupt, where he came to see Paul Davison, another hustler, talk about the highlights of Clubhouse and the low lights of Highlight.) His public journal has been giving Gabor some Twitter-style viral momentum and attention and, naturally, insight into conversation about Twitter itself. He tells me that Elon’s initial mobilization to buy Twitter led to a huge whir of interest among his friends and contacts, who chattered in downcast tones about how the whole place would fall apart. Then, Musk did buy it. And then, the layoffs hit — a tipping point for Gabor. “I had been thinking about a new Twitter for a while,” he said. “But after multiple friends of mine still at the company were laid off last week, I thought to myself, ‘This is the thing I’ve been thinking about for so long! Maybe this is the time.’” Gabor is long on big-picture ideas at the moment. “I want to build the next public square for discussion. I want it to be delightful and fun, rewarding and valuable, and safe from harassment,” he tells me. “We’ve had 15-20 years of content moderation experience on the internet now, and so let’s build that in.” He’s also a big fan of Andrew Chen’s Cold Start concept. For his own cold start, Gabor is focusing first on coalescing a critical mass of people — a community to hit the ground running when “T2” launches. According to the Google Doc, this is currently set to be September 2023, a date Gabor tells me he might try to move up. He’s even had some investor interest, which he has been building via iMessage. That inbox includes a former Twitter-exec-turned-investor who he will not name, who has already texted asking how much money Gabor would like to have to get this new bird off the ground. And he’s had plenty of unsolicited advice. Twitter is great for that. “Someone asked last week, why doesn’t someone just start a new Twitter? It would only take 3 days and $50 million,” he said. “That’s what got me first to ask what a roadmap might look like. I think for me it wouldn’t be a three-day build, but it also doesn’t take $50 million.” This brings up many other questions… not least why he thinks he can build what Twitter has never managed to build itself. For now, his hunch is that creating something from scratch will be easier than trying to fix something that’s already big and in operation, and that it definitely won’t be as simple as just bringing together what he calls “the best people,” but also not impossible. “I think right now I’m seeing this empty space,” he said, “and I want to be in that space.” Sign up here if you want to take a gander, too.

Power up with our partners at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in BSV, Crypto, Polygon, Startups, TC Sessions: Crypto, TC Sessions: Crypto 2022, wilson sonsiniNo Comments

We’re packing our bags and getting pumped about flying to Miami for TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17. What about you? Don’t miss your chance to rub elbows with the kings and queens of blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFT and web3 — the current rulers and the up-and-coming contenders for the crown. Buy your pass today and join the royal courtiers of the cryptoverse. You’ll hear from the likes of Binance founder and CEO, Changpeng (CZ) Zhao; OpenSea co-founder and CEO, Devin Finzer; Sequoia Capital partner, Michelle Bailhe Fradin; and many other movers and shakers. I mean, just look at this power-packed agenda. Like all ZebethMedia events, these great speakers, interviews, panel discussions — plus world-class networking opportunities — are designed to help founders and early-stage startups build stronger businesses. But it’s not just us — our event partners are equally committed to your success. Take a look at the companies who have partnered with us for TC Sessions: Crypto: Hedera, MetaJuice, Polygon, Wilson Sonsini, Bitcoin Association for BSV and Otter.ai. They do more than cut a check — they show up to deliver their expertise and relevant content and to provide resources that educate, engage and support early-stage founders. TC Sessions: Crypto takes place on November 17 in Miami. Don’t miss your opportunity to connect with our partners and to tap into the tech, trends and controversy spanning the blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFT and web3 cryptoverse. Buy your ticket today! Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Gaming company Kabam lays off 7% of its workforce to better align with goals • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Gaming, Kabam, Layoffs, StartupsNo Comments

Kabam, the gaming company that has developed mobile games in partnership with entertainment brands including Disney, Marvel and Universal, has laid off about 7% — around 35 people — of its workforce, ZebethMedia has learned from sources and confirmed with the company over email. The Vancouver-based company informed the affected employees about the move earlier this week, a person familiar with the development said. “As we at Kabam reviewed our strategic priorities, we made the decision to adjust our resourcing structure in alignment with our goals. This means that while we will continue to hire in key areas in the year ahead, unfortunately, we are reducing our workforce by approximately 7%. For those we are parting ways with, we are grateful to [sic] their contributions to our success, and are supporting them through this challenging transition,” a Kabam spokesperson said in a statement emailed to ZebethMedia. The company has a headcount of over 500 employees. Kabam has a catalog of mobile games generating hundreds of millions of downloads in total, including Marvel Contest of Champions, Disney Mirrorverse, Shop Titans, Transformers: Forged to Fight, Mini Guns, Fast & Furious 6: The Game, Fast & Furious: Legacy and Blastron. The company also has studios and offices in Montreal, San Francisco, Charlottetown, Austin and Los Angeles — alongside its headquarters in Vancouver. Founded in 2006, the gaming company ran as a startup until 2016 when it was acquired by South Korea’s Netmarble Games for a reported $700 million to $800 million. In March this year, Netmarble’s North American operations merged with Kabam. It aimed to bring many Netmarble game titles to western markets. Kabam is one of many companies in the tech world that have cut its workforce during this economic slowdown. In the last few days, the impact of the ongoing financial crunch was largely seen through massive layoffs announced by Twitter and Meta. Companies including Netflix, Spotify and Tencent also let some of their staff go. Similarly, Indian startups such as Unacademy, Byju’s and Ola have also laid off hundreds and thousands of employees to reduce the burden of limited funding and investments.

Elon Musk addresses Twitter advertisers in a meandering Q&A • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Social, TwitterNo Comments

New Twitter owner Elon Musk joined a Twitter Space today to address concerns from advertisers about changes at the company. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s nascent foray into running a social media platform has been tumultuous, from launching unfinished products, to alienating advertisers, to laying off half of its staff. Twitter’s Client Solutions Leader, Robin Wheeler moderated the hour-long conversation with Musk, Trust & Safety Head Yoel Roth, and International Advertising Bureau CEO David Cohen. For the most part, Musk repeated many of the same talking points that he has been peddling since he initially launched his bid for Twitter. “We really want to be, as I’ve mentioned before publicly, sort of the digital town square, where that is as inclusive as possible… Like, can we get 80% of humanity on Twitter, and talking, and maybe, ideally, in a positive way?” Musk asked at the top of the call. “Can we exchange… instead of having violence, have words, and maybe once in a while people change their minds? The overarching goal here is like, how can we make Twitter a force for good for civilization?” If Musk wants to get 80% of humanity on Twitter, he has his work cut out for him. If Twitter’s estimate of 237.8 million monetizable daily active users is correct, then 3% of the world’s population currently uses Twitter daily. Musk also addressed the questions around his plan to verify any user who is willing to pay $8 per month for a blue check. “The issue is that creating a fake account is extremely cheap, it maybe is a tenth of a penny,” he said. “By charging $8 a month, it raises the cost of a bot or troll by somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000.” He obliquely nodded at the idea that only a certain number of accounts connected to an individual phone number or credit card can be verified. “Wouldn’t a state actor have $8 million a day to create a million fake accounts? Well, yes, they’ve got the budget. But here’s the problem. They don’t have a million credit cards, and they don’t have a million phones. That’s the actual kicker. There’s no way to overcome that. And we will be vigorously pursuing any impersonation,” he said. With regard to the verification process, Musk laid out clearly: “Someone has to have phone, a credit card and $8 a month. That’s the bar.” Musk has continued doubling-down on the idea that by verifying as many users as possible — and charging users for that privilege — it will be more difficult to see posts from users who don’t pay to be verified. “Over time, maybe not that long of time, when you look at mentions and replies and what not, the default will be to look at verified. You can still look at unverified, just as in your gmail or whatever, you can still look at the probable spam folder,” Musk said. “You can still look at all the others, but it will be defaulted to the highly, highly relevant category, which will be verified.” Since before Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has offered a separate feed for verified users that only shows notifications from fellow blue checks. In terms of other product updates, Musk elaborated on some plans for how Twitter can get more into commerce and payments. He also reiterated his previous statements about investing in creator monetization, though existing creator features have not been quite successful for Twitter thus far. With major advertisers listening to the call, Wheeler pivoted the discussion to ask about content moderation and brand safety. Last week, a report revealed that IPG — one of the world’s largest advertising companies, with customers such as Coca-Cola, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel and Spotify — issued a recommendation for clients to temporarily pause their spending on Twitter because of moderation concerns. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a coalition of platforms, advertisers and industry groups fighting harmful content on social media, also said it was monitoring Twitter’s handling of content moderation. Yet Musk’s comments were vague and did not specifically address these groups’ concerns. “It stands to reason that if somebody’s advertising, that they do not want super negative information right next to their ad,” Musk said. “We all kind of work hard to make sure that there’s not bad stuff right next to an ad.” He also said that Twitter is working to increase the relevance of ads. When asked about hate speech, Musk responded, “I don’t think having hate speech next to an ad is great.” Musk was equally avoidant when asked about his plan to create his own content moderation council. Musk has continually said that this group will represent a diverse set of viewpoints, but did not state what kinds of people or groups will be on the board. After a meeting with human rights groups last week, Musk committed to including representatives from groups that suffer from hate-fueled violence. But Musk said today that it might take a few months to put this council together. Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022 Roth commented on how enforcement policies might change soon, too. “For many years, the only thing that Twitter could do was delete tweets and ban accounts,” he said. “One of the directions that we’re trying to build towards is having more tools in our toolbox to be able to reduce the harmful impacts of content without always having to go to that step of a ban. And so in the coming days and weeks, you’re going to see us start to introduce some of these new concepts and frameworks for content moderation.” Roth elaborated: “There’s a lot of other stuff that we can do, from warning messages, to interstitials, to reducing the reach of content, that we haven’t fully explored in the past. And you’re going to see us move

The bottom keeps dropping for software valuations • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Startups, VentureNo Comments

Another day, another 52-week low. It seems that instead of finding fresh support, the value of software companies keeps discovering new basement levels to descend into. This afternoon, software stocks were off 3% or so, while the broader Nasdaq Composite was down around 2% in midafternoon trading. The dramatic collapse in the value of software stocks has been a key story starting when the trend began in late 2021. Since then, the value of a dollar of software revenue has been cut, slashed, beaten back, and then kicked in the shins. How much decline are we talking about? Here’s one way to examine the situation, the chart of the Bessemer Cloud Index:

Tesla vehicles will soon have Zoom video conferencing • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Enterprise, EV, Tesla, Transportation, zoomNo Comments

Zoom is working with Tesla to bring video conferencing into its vehicles. The announcement, made at the 2022 Zoomtopia conference, was light on details. But according to Zoom’s group product manager Nitasha Walia, the video conferencing feature “will come standard on all new Tesla models soon.” “You’ve been zooming from your home, your office, your phone, and even your TV,” Nitasha Walia, group product manager at Zoom Video Communications, said Tuesday. “We’re going to make it even easier for you to zoom from anywhere.” Image Credits: Zoom What’s unclear is what Zoom means by “comes standard on all new Tesla vehicles.” Will this integration require additional hardware in Tesla vehicles or can this feature be rolled out via a software update? And when? Tesla has continued to add features to its infotainment system designed to entertain its driver or passengers while sitting parked, likely at an EV charger. Its vehicles, all of which have large touchscreen displays, can stream Netflix and YouTube, has karaoke and offers a host of video games, including Fallout Shelter, Cuphead and Stardew Valley. All of these entertainment features as well as performance related improvements have been rolled out via wireless software updates.

Elon Musk details his vision for a Twitter payments system • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Apps, Elon Musk, Fintech, payments, Social, TwitterNo Comments

Elon Musk detailed his vision for Twitter’s plan to enter the payments market during a live-streamed meeting with Twitter advertisers, hosted on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday. The new Twitter owner suggested that, in the future, users would be able to send money to others on the platform, extract their funds to authenticated bank accounts, and later, perhaps, be offered a high-yield money market account to encourage them to move their cash to Twitter. The new remarks followed a report this morning by The New York Times which confirmed Twitter last week had filed registration paperwork that would allow it to process payments. The report cited Twitter’s filing with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), noting that a business would need to register before it could conduct money transfers, exchange currency or cash checks. In today’s meeting, Musk explained how paid verification, which Twitter is rolling out now with its revamped Twitter Blue subscription, as well as support for a creator ecosystem could pave the way for a payments system on its platform. He stressed that, initially, Twitter would need to make fundamental technology architecture changes in order to better support video. The company was recently reported to be working on a “Paywalled Video” feature that would allow creators to charge for access to their content. This suggests Twitter could be moving into a space where it may try to compete more directly with various social media video providers, like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and others. The Washington Post saw mockups of this concept where a tweet with a video could be unlocked for as little as $1.00. It said creators may be able to choose from preset prices, like $1, $2, $5, or $10 when paywalled videos were launched. As a result, creators would end up with a cash balance as they began to monetize their content. In addition, Musk noted that Twitter’s paid verification program would help in its plan for payments because anyone who subscribed to Twitter Blue would have already been verified by the “conventional payment system.” That is, Twitter Blue subscribers have to sign up using a credit or debit card and have their payments processed through the app stores’ in-app purchase system, which helps to combat fraud. Musk then explained how this payments system could scale saying that, once users gained a cash balance, Twitter could prompt them to move that money on its platform. It could even make a small donation to users’ accounts to get them started. “Now we can say, okay, you’ve got a balance on your account. Do you want to send money to someone else within Twitter? And maybe we pre-populate their account…and say, okay, we’re gonna give you 10 bucks. And you can send it anywhere within Twitter,” Musk said. Later, the user could move their money out of Twitter by transferring it to an authenticated bank account, he added. In the longer term, however, Musk appeared to be toying with the idea of establishing bank accounts on Twitter’s platform that would pay a high-interest rate to attract users. This could become a competitor, perhaps, to Apple’s recently launched Savings Account for its cardholders, various fintechs or other payment providers, like PayPal and Venmo, which encourage their users to retain cash balances within their own ecosystems. Explained Musk, “the next step would be this offer for an extremely compelling money market account where you get an extremely high yield on your balance.” If such a system existed, he believed people would move cash to Twitter. “And then add debit cards, checks, and whatnot and…just basically make the system as useful as possible. And the more useful and entertaining it is, the more people will use it,” he said. The move to enter the payments business also ties to Musk’s larger plan to turn the social media platform into an “everything app” or “super app” called “X.” While that plan today is still fairly vague, the general sense is that Musk aims to combine payments, social networking, entertainment and other things into one experience, similar to China’s WeChat (though that plan could be misguided.) Musk has experience in payments, of course, as he founded an early digital payments company X.com. It’s not surprising that he would try again, given the opportunity Twitter presents. His ideas about Twitter payments, however, may not have been good fodder for a conversation with advertisers who are already worried about Twitter’s long-term commitment to their goals, given the company’s move into subscriptions which signals a desire to reduce reliance on ad dollars. Musk tried to assuage these fears by saying that Twitter was thinking about protecting advertisers’ brand safety in the longer term, not just about its ability to drive short-term sales.