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☆ YouTube could be worth $400 billion — that's more than Disney and Comcast combined. We should be paying more attention.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Now YouTube could be worth as much as $400 billion, per analyst Michael Nathanson. You're still not getting close to the $375 billion to $400 billion value Nathanson is talking about. AdvertisementOr, alternately: You could combine Comcast ($172 billion) and Disney ($224 billion, after a big ramp-up this year — Nelson Peltz, your services are no longer needed) and end up with a $396 billion company. (You would also get to watch a funny wrestling match between Disney CEO Bob Iger and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts who have a long-standing enmity.) So if you're talking about video, and the internet, and advertising and audience and value and you're not talking about YouTube?

Persons: Michael Nathanson, —, ANDREW CABALLERO, REYNOLDS, let's, you'll, Lucia Moses, Nathanson, — Nelson Peltz, Bob Iger, Brian Roberts Organizations: Google, YouTube, Service, Big Tech, Meta, Twitter, Netflix, Paramount, Warner Bros Discovery, Fox, Comcast, Disney

☆ Don't tell Gen Z the ChatGPT hype bubble is over
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

43% of 18-29 year-olds in the US have used ChatGPT, up from 33% last July. Nearly a third of young people have used ChatGPT for work tasks, up from 12% last summer. When everyone was super excited and/or freaked out about ChatGPT and AI? Or, more precisely: Lots of normal people are still a bit interested in AI and ChatGPT. That's the conclusion you can draw from a new Pew survey, which reports that overall ChatGPT use has continued to increase — but that it's really increased among Gen Z.

Persons: —, They're, Gen Z Organizations: Service, Pew, Gen

☆ Why investors aren't betting against Trump's Twitter clone — yet
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp — Donald Trump's social media company — is a flashing red light of a stock. In other words: It seems like a perfect candidate for short sellers — investors who bet that a company's stock price is overvalued and will fall. But not that much, for now: More than 3 million shares of Trump Media have been shorted, says short-tracker S3 Partners. Related storiesS3's managing director, Ihor Dusaniwsky, offers one explanation: It's particularly hard to short Trump's company for technical reasons. There is extraordinarily little stock borrow available in [Trump Media] to support new short sales and stock borrow rates are extremely high.

Persons: Donald Trump's, Ihor, Trump's, I'd Organizations: Service, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp, Nasdaq, Business, Trump Media, SPACs, GameStop Locations: U.S

☆ You're going to need a Peacock subscription to watch another NFL game this fall
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Comcast's Peacock, which streamed an NFL playoff game in January, has another game scheduled for this fall. AdvertisementRemember when Peacock hosted an NFL playoff game in January, which meant that everyone who wanted to watch Travis Kelce play football — and/or watch Taylor Swift watch him play football — had to subscribe to Comcast's streaming service? Well, get ready for round 2: Peacock will have another exclusive NFL game in September, featuring the Philadelphia Eagles and a team to be named later. This one won't be a playoff game, so it won't have anything like the national interest — and the complaints from angry NFL fans — the last Peacock game generated. And subscription tracking service Antenna estimated that nearly 3 million people signed up for Peacock to watch the game.

Persons: Comcast's Peacock, Peacock, —, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift Organizations: NFL, Service, Philadelphia Eagles Locations: Sao Paulo, Brazil

☆ Why investors think Reddit is worth $1 billion more than The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Reddit, which loses money, is currently worth about $8.15 billion. The New York Times, which makes money, is worth about $7.2 billion. That's because investors love Reddit's business model, which depends on free content from its users. That would be Reddit, the message board that went public last week and has a market cap of $8.15 billion. It's going to take some time for the market to reach a consensus about what Reddit is really worth.

Persons: —, Reddit, — it's Organizations: New York Times, Service, Times, Media

☆ Why the big winner in the Reddit IPO is ... a magazine publisher
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AdvertisementIt's easy to write gloomy stories about the state of the media business. The media business is often pretty gloomy! This one is about a very Old World Media Company that has struck gold in digital media — one of the very few times that has ever happened. (While we're in disclosure mode, I should note that Business Insider itself is a digital media company acquired by German media conglomerate Axel Springer in 2015. AdvertisementMaybe a worthwhile playbook the next time — and there will be a next time — a big media company opens its wallet for a digital upstart again.

Persons: Condé Nast, —, Reddit, Time Warner, Axel Springer Organizations: Advance, Service, World Media Company, Vogue, Yorker, Big Media, News Corp, MySpace, Penguin, YouTube, Maker Studios, Disney, Fox, Time, Comcast, NBC, Vox Media Locations: Reddit

☆ Citadel's relocation to Miami was a success. But can Ken Griffin get the rest of Wall Street to do it?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. In today's big story, we're looking at how two of the most powerful Wall Street firms are doing two years after relocating to Miami . Nearly two years ago the billionaire uprooted his hedge fund, Citadel, and market maker, Citadel Securities, from their Chicago headquarters to Miami. Employees at Citadel and Citadel Securities spoke to Business Insider's Emmalyse Brownstein about life in the new HQ . Shares tumbled 55% after The Wall Street Journal reported that Fisker had hired restructuring advisors to assist with a possible bankruptcy filing.

Persons: —, we're, sarayut Thaneerat, Tyler Le, Ken Griffin, Samantha Lee, San Francisco, Griffin, Anita Kot, Dogecoin, Elon Musk, Ned Davis, Fisker, Patrick Pleul, Andrew Cabellero Reynolds, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Sam Altman, Muhammad Ali, Steven Mnuchin, BI's Peter Kafka, Ezra Bailey, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb, George Glover Organizations: Service, Business, Wall, Citadel, Citadel Securities, Sunshine State, Miami, New York, Ned Davis Research, Street Journal, Elon, OpenAI, Google, KKR, Benz Locations: Miami, Florida, Chicago, New York, London, York, Plenty, San, Austin, He's, Blackstone

☆ Elon Musk would be the best owner for TikTok. There's just one problem.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

At one point, Elon Musk might have seemed like a great candidate to buy TikTok. Turns out my boss Henry Blodget is suggesting we all band together to rustle up the money to buy TikTok. You might recall Elon Musk from 2022. And that Elon Musk would be a great candidate to buy the US operations of TikTok. The sales pitch would be simple: Elon Musk.

Persons: Elon, —, Steven Mnuchin, doesn't, Bobby Kotick, Sam Altman, Henry Blodget, Henry, didn't, Joe Biden, ByteDance, that's, Steve Mnuchin, — Elon, Elon Musk, Guy Who, Esther Crawford, Musk, he's Organizations: Service, Activision, Street, Yahoo, Twitter, Elon Locations: TikTok, ByteDance

☆ Who could have possibly foreseen that Elon Musk would be capricious and erratic except for Everyone Who Has Watched Him For Years?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon says Elon Musk has canceled his Twitter talk show before its scheduled debut. Lemon says Musk, who courted him to come to Twitter, didn't like the interview Lemon had just conducted with Musk. If you're surprised by this kind of behavior from Musk, you're not paying attention. AdvertisementElon Musk courted former CNN anchor Don Lemon to start a talk show on Twitter. Now it's not going to happen at all, Lemon says: He says Elon Musk canceled the show — before it ever aired — shortly after Lemon interviewed him last Friday.

Persons: Don Lemon, Elon Musk, Lemon, —, it's Organizations: CNN, Twitter, Service

☆ This guy is serious about crypto, but his joke character has gone viral
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewLike a lot of people, Nick O'Neill got the crypto bug during the pandemic. But then he stumbled into a bit of viral fame: A joke post he made boasting about his crypto prowess took off, fueled in part by people who didn't realize he was joking. "Choose rich" is O'Neill's catchphrase, which is mostly a joke, but also very similar to things people used to say on crypto Twitter, for real. AdvertisementPeter Kafka: You make this thing that is a little sincere but is mostly a joke, and it triggers people who don't think it's a joke. Peter Kafka: I couldn't tell if you were satirizing crypto, or crypto culture, or Twitter/X culture.

Persons: —, Nick O'Neill, he's, O'Neill, Crypto, There's, Peter Kafka, That's, It's, bro, Solana, NFTs, Dan Bilzerians, there's, you've, X Nick O'Neill, Dave Portnoy's Organizations: Service, Business, pic.twitter.com, Twitter, MySpace, Washington Locations: Miami, Solana

☆ 'Barbie' + 'Oppenheimer' = not great Oscars ratings
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

AdvertisementTheir last big hope: That if the awards featured big movies people have seen or at least heard of, audiences might return. That was supposed to happen this year, when monster hits "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" were both up for multiple awards, including Best Picture. And the producers for ABC's broadcast smartly leaned into it, by doing things like bringing in "Barbie" nominee Ryan Gosling to sing and dance, to general acclaim. On the other hand: That means this year's telecast still drew considerably less than the 23.6 million viewers who watched the 2020 show, which didn't have anything like "Barbie" or "Oppenheimer," box-office-wise. Back then, a couple of the Best Picture nominees were ones regular folks may have seen in theaters, including "Ford V. Ferrari" and "Joker."

Persons: Oppenheimer, Barbie, Ryan Gosling, Ford, Ferrari, Oscar, hasn't, COVID, we're Organizations: Hollywood, ABC

☆ The TikTok ban chaos — explained in 60 seconds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A bill that could ban TikTok in the US is moving quickly through Congress. AdvertisementA new bill working its way through Congress could ban TikTok in the US. Donald Trump, who used to want to ban TikTok in the US, now says he'd like it to be here. And some people who support the ban bill insist it isn't a ban bill. Why do people want to ban TikTok in the US?

Persons: —, Donald Trump, Let's, TikTok, hoover Organizations: Service, Business

☆ 3 theories to explain Trump's TikTok flip-flop
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

For instance: In 2020, when he was president, Trump said he wanted to ban TikTok from the US. While we are here, let's be even-handed, and note that Trump is not the only politician who has inconsistent and contradictory approaches to TikTok. So that's a lot of TikTok Ban news to consume over a short period. But I'm still sticking with the argument I made Thursday:It's easy to vote for a TikTok ban if you don't really think it's going to result in a TikTok ban. But it's a lot harder to actually ban TikTok for real — particularly during a very close presidential campaign, where the risk of blowback from angry users is a real thing.

Persons: —, Donald Trump, Trump, Jeff Yass, — we're, Republican Sen, Rand Paul, Paul, Biden, — Rand Paul, I'm, …, TikTok, let's, Joe Biden, ByteDance Organizations: Service, Facebook, Business, Club, Growth, Trump, Republican, Texas, Project Texas, GOP, Street Locations: Yass, Project, China

☆ Apple's movies are box-office duds. Apple says they're profitable. Huh?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

And since the Apple-made movies are expressly built to be shown on its Apple TV+ streaming service, Apple can't make money selling them to a different streamer. Apple, movies, and TV: Why? And the second obvious answer is that Apple needs Apple TV+ because it's increasingly focused on making money from "services" as iPhone sales slow down. Apple has managed to grow Apple TV+ meaningfully after a rocky start. Still, even in the best-case scenario, Apple TV+ is a sliver of the $85 billion Apple made from services last year.

Persons: …, Napoleon, That's, —, James Bond, Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Dave Benett, Apple, it's, Martin Scorsese's, he's Organizations: Apple, Variety, Business, Google Locations: Dua Lipa

☆ Sam Altman and Elon Musk are beefing, but the two share plenty in common
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're looking at Sam Altman's sprawling AI empire amid his beef with Elon Musk . AdvertisementBut first, the sun never sets on Sam Altman's AI empire. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was thrust into the mainstream consciousness with the release of ChatGPT in 2022. Elon Musk and Sam Altman Michael M. Santiago/Getty, Nordin Catic/Getty, Tyler Le/BIThere is another tech billionaire whose vision exceeds a singular company. But unlike Musk, Altman has, somewhat incredibly, mostly skirted controversy (save for his ouster-then-return saga ).

Persons: —, There's, Sam Altman's, Elon Musk, Alastair Grant, Rebecca Zisser, Sam Altman, Altman, Darius Rafieyan, Sam Altman Michael M, Nordin Catic, Tyler Le, Elon, Musk, OpenAI, execs, Altman isn't, Robert Downey Jr, Tony Stark, Goldman Sachs, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Neema Raphael, Goldman's, Jerome Powell, Powell, Li Qiang's, Xi Jinping, Fernando Gutierrez, leapfrog, Ridley Scott's, Napoleon, BI's Peter Kafka, Elon Musk's, Joe Biden, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb, George Glover Organizations: Service, Elon, Business, OpenAI, Microsoft, Goldman, Beijing, Nvidia, leapfrog Apple, Apple, Google, FTC, Facebook, Variety, Tesla, Costco, Kroger, Digital Locations: China, Delaware, New York, London

☆ Elon Musk says he's not donating money to Trump. Does that settle it?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewNews that Elon Musk met with Donald Trump on Sunday raised the obvious question: Is Trump, who needs money, going to get some from one of the world's richest men? Absolutely not, says Elon Musk on Wednesday:That settles that. Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. In 2022, Elon Musk said he was acquiring Twitter shares as a "passive" investor — and then bought the whole company. Or maybe Musk thinks he's crafted a clever tweet about "not donating money to either candidate for US President," and what he really means is he is "not donating RIGHT NOW."

Persons: —, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Trump, he's, Teddy Schleifer, Puck, Schleifer, Vivek Ramaswamy's, Musk, Elon, …, doesn't Organizations: Service, Elon, US, Business, Twitter, Trump, Trump PAC, Nope Locations: Silicon Valley

☆ Google can recover from the Gemini flop. Just look at Apple Maps.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google's Gemini flop looks bad from the outside. Ask the folks who worked on Apple Maps. Apple Maps fiasco could point the way forwardBut let's be more positive this time around, with a different echo from the Big Tech Screwups file: Remember Apple Maps? And then, over time, Apple did get its act together, and people did start using Apple Maps, and now there are plenty of normal people who use Apple Maps as a default, and some of them even argue that it's better than Google Maps. Except: The time between Apple Maps' flop and that article I linked to above — headline: "People Have Begun to Love Apple's Most Hated Product" — was more than a decade.

Persons: —, Alex Kantrowitz, wokeness, OpenAI, Hunter, Tim Cook, Cook, Apple's, Gemini Organizations: Google, Big Tech, Apple, Service, Gemini, Microsoft

☆ Elon Musk has a unique plan to solve Twitter's ad problems
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk owns X, formerly Twitter, which has an advertising problem. AdvertisementThe company formerly known as Twitter has a well-known advertising problem: It is owned by Elon Musk, who does his best to repel advertisers. So look at a (very partial) solution to Twitter's advertising problem: Elon Musk! More specifically, Elon Musk's Tesla, which is advertising on the company formerly known as Twitter:This new? Model Y starts at $36,490 after Federal Tax Credit for eligible buyersBook a Demo Drive to try it https://t.co/McJ7TwPy4c — Tesla (@Tesla) February 29, 2024Beyond the novelty, a couple of other ideas:

Persons: Elon Musk, —, Elon, Elon Musk's Tesla, uM6X0cQnKL — Jay Yarow, Tesla, Jay, — Tesla Organizations: Elon, Service, Twitter, YouTube, Federal Tax

☆ Who's going to pay $50 a month for a sports streamer that doesn't have all the sports?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

What we still don't know: Why would someone pay $50 a month for this? AdvertisementAfter all, if you like paying for streaming TV, you can pay $73 a month for YouTube TV. So, again: If you're a big enough sports fan that you want to pay for streaming TV, don't you also want all of the sports on streaming TV? And, yes: Spending $50 a month on something instead of $73 a month on something is meaningfully cheaper. Now he's asking them to pay an extra $50 a month — and not get everything they want.

Persons: Lachlan Murdoch, it's, —, Here's, Murdoch, Brendan McDermid, they're, They're, he'll Organizations: Service, Fox Corp, Disney, Warner Bros, Comcast, YouTube, REUTERS, NFL, CBS, league's AFC, NBC, Amazon, Media Locations: America

☆ Why Apple's $2 billion fine is a $80 billion problem
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Apple's stock fell Monday morning after EU regulators slapped the company with a $2 billion fine. The fine is part of the EU's push to get Apple to open up its App Store. Investors are trying to figure out how much opening the App Store will hurt the company long term. Which means, at the moment, that Apple's $2 billion fine has cost it some $80 billion in market cap. But as recently as a month ago, the conventional wisdom was that Apple's fine was going to be something in the $500 million range.

Persons: —, that's, they've, there's Organizations: Apple, Service Locations: Europe

☆ Google's Gemini flop raises the question: What exactly do we want our chatbots to do, really?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Internet culture chronicler Max Read has a particularly sharp assessment about all of it: Yes, this is dumb. are all that interesting or enlightening questions compared to something like "well, what did you want the computer to do?" I can't really even come up with situation where Gemini's refusal to say that Hitler is worse than Elon Musk has some terrible downstream effect. And, also — The Gemini debacle really is a debacle. AdvertisementMaybe we can all take a breath and slow down, and figure out what this tech really can, and can't do.

Persons: Elon Musk, Hunter, Ted Cruz, Max Read, Pol Pot, Martha Stewart, Hitler, they've, chatbots, Marc Andreessen Organizations: Big Tech, Google, Twitter Locations: New York

☆ Google is starting to feel like any other business, and staging a comeback won't be easy
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. In today's big story, we're looking at how Google has gone from the tech industry's vanguard of cool to just another boring company . AdvertisementGoogle has long stayed atop Silicon Valley's volatile popularity contest — but the best place to work in tech is starting to feel like any other business , Business Insider's Hugh Langley and Lara O'Reilly write. Bureaucracy, an aversion to risk, and deference to Wall Street over employees — things Google long eschewed — have become the norm. The latest example is the debacle surrounding Gemini — its flashy new AI model that faced backlash for being too "woke."

Persons: —, Rebecca Zisser, Hugh Langley, Lara O'Reilly, Alistair Barr, Sundar Pichai, Hugh, Lara, Mateusz Wlodarczyk, BI's Peter Kafka, it's, David Rosenberg, Gary Shilling, Snowflake's Frank Slootman, Ozgur Hakan Aslan Toyota, Boxabl, Elon Musk, Tesla, Hewlett Packard, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb Organizations: Service, Google, Business, Gemini, Meta, Big Tech, OpenAI, Corporations, Nvidia, SEC, Universal Music Group, Universal, BI Locations: —, New York, London

☆ Music on TikTok is disappearing amid battle with Universal Music Group. Can it make photos work?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

TikTok is losing access to Universal Music Group's songs, including from artists like Taylor Swift. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementTikTok, the platform best known as "the app where people dance around to music," is losing a lot of music and is going to lose more. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: TikTok, Taylor Swift, —, Drake, Bunny Organizations: Universal Music, Service, Street, Universal Music Group, Universal, Business Locations: UMG

☆ Wait. Why is Reddit losing so much money?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Last year, according to Reddit's newly filed IPO documents, the company generated $804 million in revenue and lost nearly $91 million. But it's still a lot of money to lose selling a free product. AdvertisementOne big, obvious answer: It has been hiring a lot of engineers and spending a lot of money on their salaries. (Note: There are some dumb stories floating out there about Reddit CEO Steve Huffman getting paid $193 million last year. The best argument I can make in their defense is that Reddit is still adding a lot of users and that more users equals more ad money.

Persons: —, it's, Condé Nast, that's, Steve, Greg Doherty, Steve Huffman, Elon Musk, Reddit, they're, Alex Heath Organizations: Service, Facebook, Business, Twitter, Google

☆ Google's mission is organizing the world's information. Its 'woke' AI debacle prompted critics to say it's failing.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewSince its inception, Google has had a mission statement that is now practically enshrined as lore: "To organize the world's information and make it accessible and useful." Its AI, critics say, risks suppressing information instead by being too "woke." AdvertisementGoogle's AI troublesGoogle has more than 90% of the search market, giving it dominant control over the world's information flow online. Advertisement"The original mission was to index all the world's information. In a blog published Friday, Google vice-president Prabhakar Raghavan acknowledged some of the images Gemini generated turned out to be "inaccurate or even offensive."

Persons: —, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Gemini, Peter Kafka, Adolf Hitler, Elon, David Sacks, Critics, Sam Altman, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, Bilal Zuberi, Brad Gerstner, Microsoft —, Elon Musk, OB1CCZHan3, Prabhakar Raghavan, overcorrected, Raghavan Organizations: Service, Google, Business, Craft Ventures, Lux Capital, Microsoft, Elon Locations: Menlo Park, AFP

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