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Super Typhoon Goni barrels through a Philippines already suffering from pandemic and earlier storms

Nov 01. 2020

By The Washington Post · Regine Cabato, Jason Samenow · WORLD, SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT, ASIA-PACIFIC
MANILA – Super Typhoon Goni, the world’s strongest storm this year, crashed through the Philippines on Sunday, leaving a trail of destruction and flash floods behind it. 

When Goni slammed into Catanduanes Island early Sunday morning, home to 260,000 people, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated its peak winds were around 195 mph. These extreme winds are as strong as any storm to hit land on record this year and comparable to Super Typhoon Haiyan, the catastrophic storm that devastated Tacloban City in the Philippines in 2013 and killed more than 6,000. 

The sheer strength of the typhoon is expected to badly devastate the Philippines, which is already reeling from two other typhoons and a coronavirus epidemic that has caused a recession and record unemployment earlier this year.

The storm, however, bypassed the densely populated capital Manila, just showering it with rain, before it passed on into the West Philippine Sea.

Only seven deaths have been reported so far, including a child who was swept away in a flood, but the true scope of the casualties often takes days to assess after a typhoon.

Ahead of landfall, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration predicted “catastrophic violent winds and intense to torrential rainfall” and a storm surge over 10 feet (3 meters) – making it “a particularly dangerous situation.” 

The government announced Sunday that almost 347,000 affected people were evacuated, but the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that figure could rise to a million. At 8 a.m., 10 electricity cooperatives had lost power.

In the eastern province of Camarines Sur, a light tower snapped like a matchstick in a video uploaded by a local congressman. Another video showed a hanging bridge whipped by the wind, like a jump rope. 

Keith Serrano, a 26-year-old medical student based in Manila, told The Washington Post on Sunday evening that his last contact with his parents who were in the province was at 6:30 a.m.

His brother is a newly minted police officer, who was assigned to conduct rescue operations in vulnerable areas. Their last call was at 10 a.m.

“He told me that they’re currently stranded at the house of their rescue since the winds are already too strong to permit travel,” said Serrano. After that, his brother stopped replying, “which made me anxious given the situation.”

A bridge in the province of Albay collapsed, while a dike also gave way and water inundated a residential area. The region is the home of the Mayon Volcano, and the rains caused rock slides and mud flows from its slopes that left destruction in their wake. Congressman Zaldy Co posted photos of one whole village buried in a landslide, saying an estimated 300 houses were affected with several people missing.

Airports in the cities of Naga and Legazpi were also damaged, with the roofing and ceiling boards blown away. In a university in Naga, large trees were uprooted and a the glass entrance to the library shattered. 

Airport and train operations in the capital region, Metro Manila were suspended. 

Online, the top trend on Twitter was #NasaanAngPangulo – translated as “where is the president?” – as the government began its briefing on the typhoon after it made landfall without President Rodrigo Duterte. It was later revealed he had opted to ride out the storm from his hometown Davao City, well out of the typhoon’s path. 

Hitting Catanduanes Island weakened the storm and by midday its peak winds were estimated to be around 150 mph, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane, as it was passing Camarines Sur. 

The effects of the typhoon have previously been described as a “double whammy” on top of covid-19, as the Philippines has recorded more 380,000 coronavirus cases, around 7,200 deaths and widespread job losses. 

The Health Department said it would make sure generators and lifesaving equipment were provided to hospitals, anticipating power outages due to the storm. It previously also said safety officers were needed to check on sanitation and monitor covid-19 symptoms in typically crowded evacuation centers. 

In Baler, Aurora, a tourist town known for its surfing, beachside businesses kept their surfboards in stockrooms ahead of the storm. On top of the consecutive storms – Goni is the third to hit the Philippines this week – their employees have been out of work due to the pandemic. 

Surfing instructors have had to take on odd jobs in construction, cutting hair and electric goods repair. 

“If we wait for Baler to open, and with all the typhoons, we’ll really lose a source of income,” said Jayson Iglesias, 35, who runs El Dawn Surfing School. His business normally earns up to $2,000 a month in the peak season, he added. 

Marianne Oreta, who manages El Niño Surf School in Baler, is also waiting out the typhoon as her partner Erly Niño Zaldivar is braving the storm in disaster relief operations. He used to run the school with her, but has since supported the couple with the allowance he scrapes together as an emergency worker. The pandemic has left the pair unemployed. 

“It’s in our nature to help,” said Oreta. “He doesn’t want to waste time, and even if there’s no salary, he just keeps going.” 

A mere tropical storm on Wednesday, Goni erupted into 2020’s most powerful cyclone on the planet by Friday. On Sunday morning local time, its winds peaked at 195 mph, the globe’s strongest storm since Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which devastated the northwest Bahamas. It is the most intense storm in the western Pacific since Typhoon Meranti in 2016.

The Philippines, with the Pacific Ocean to its east and located on the earthquake-prone Ring of Fire, is no stranger to disaster. Of the 20 tropical cyclones estimated to enter the region every year, around eight or nine make landfall in the Philippines.

This typhoon threatens the country just days after Typhoon Molave struck, killing at least 22 people, mostly just south of Manila, according to Reuters. Goni is following a similar path.

Before Goni exited Philippine land, Serrano – the medical student – heard back from his brother, who was back in the command center.

“I was relieved and teary-eyed when my brother messaged me,” he said.

He has not heard from his parents yet. He said it took two days for power and signal to be restored in their area after Typhoon Molave. With a stronger storm like Goni, Serrano said it might even take a month or more.

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TikTok creators successfully block U.S. app ban with lawsuit

Nov 01. 2020

By The Washington Post · Rachel Lerman · NATIONAL, BUSINESS, WORLD, TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS, COURTSLAW 
SAN FRANCISCO – TikTok has again been spared a ban in the U.S., this time by a judge in Pennsylvania who granted a temporary halting of the restrictions against the video app that were set to take effect Nov. 12.

This time, it wasn’t TikTok itself that secured the injunction. Instead, three creators who use the app to build their businesses filed a suit to stop it from being shut down in the country. The TikTokers, as they are called, each have more than 1 million followers on the app and argued they would lose access to “professional opportunities afforded by TikTok,” according to the suit.

The injunction means that TikTok will remain online and usable in the U.S. past Nov. 12, as long as the decision is not overturned. It marks another defeat for the Trump administration in its long-running efforts to restrict TikTok in the U.S., though Chinese TikTok parent ByteDance might still be forced to sell parts of its business to a U.S. company.

Judge Wendy Beetlestone in federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in her decision that the ban would cause the creators to “lose the ability to engage with their millions of followers on TikTok, and the related brand sponsorships.”

TikTok was set to be effectively banned in the U.S. on Nov. 12 after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in August stating it was a national security threat due to its parent company’s ties to China. The Commerce Department laid out the specifics of that ban in September, setting initial measures that would have removed TikTok from U.S. app stores, and more serious measures that would have prevented Internet businesses in the country from working with TikTok.

The first part of the ban, which would have removed it from app stores, was halted last month by a District of Columbia judge, who said that the Trump administration’s proposed ban against video app TikTok may “likely exceed” the bounds of the law.

The new ruling also halts the additional measures scheduled to go into effect Nov. 12, When the United States was set to ban any provision of Internet hosting services, or other network services, that allows TikTok to function domestically.

The Justice Department can still appeal the injunction granted Friday, as it already did in the District case. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

TikTok spokesperson Hilary McQuaide said the company was “deeply moved” by the support from creators.

“We support our creative community in continuing to share their voices, both through the platform and the legal options available to them, and we are committed to continuing to provide a home for them to do so,” she said in a statement.

TikTok brought the lawsuit fighting the ban in the District, and a court hearing is set for Nov. 4 to discuss whether the judge should stop the Nov. 12 restrictions from taking place.

ByteDance still has that same deadline to divest from TikTok in the U.S., under a separate presidential order. The company has been in talks with Walmart and Oracle to make investments in a new TikTok entity. Even though Trump gave his tentative blessing to the deal last month, it still has not been finalized.

The Pennsylvania suit was brought by creators Doug Marland, Cosette Rinab and Alec Chambers, who all use TikTok as professional influencers. Rinab has 2.3 million followers on the app and makes videos mostly for fashion brands, for which she makes between $5,000 and $10,000 per video.

Marland, who has 2.7 million followers, on the app said the ban would have been a “major hit” to his business. Marland makes comedy videos and posts about his life, and partners with record labels to promote music on the app.

“For so many people, me included, thier entire job and livelihood is TikTok and to have that taken away based on random speculation really does not make sense,” he said Friday.

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Apple shares decline after iPhone sales miss, China drops 29%

Nov 01. 2020

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Mark Gurman · BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS 
Apple shares fell as much as 5.6% Friday after the company reported iPhone sales that missed Wall Street estimates and said revenue in China slumped.

The company gave no forecast for the key holiday quarter, disappointing some analysts who were hoping for guidance. However, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the new iPhone 12 line has been well received. Sales of Macs and Services also reached all-time highs in the fiscal fourth quarter.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant on Thursday said sales in the three months ending Sept. 26 came in at $64.7 billion. That beat analysts’ estimates of $63.5 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings were 73 cents a share, also topping Wall Street expectations.

Sales of the iPhone fell 21% on anticipation of the new models, which arrived later than usual this year. Cook said the response to the 5G iPhone lineup and other new devices has been “tremendously positive.”

In Greater China, one of the company’s most important regions, revenue fell 29% to $7.9 billion, the lowest since 2014. Products beyond the iPhone grew double digits in China, Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. He expects the iPhone 12 Pro Max with its larger screen to do “incredibly well” in the region and that the company is confident about growing there in the December quarter.

The stock, which had gained 57% this year before earnings were released late Thursday, tumbled to a low of $108.85. The company is valued at $1.8 trillion.

“Apple capped off a fiscal year defined by innovation in the face of adversity with a September quarter record, led by all-time records for Mac and Services,” Cook said.

The world’s largest technology company didn’t provide guidance again due to the ongoing impact of covid-19, with Maestri citing the uncertainty from rising cases in the U.S. and Europe. The holiday quarter is usually Apple’s most important. This year, it includes the release of the iPhone 12 lineup, a new iPad Air, a cheaper HomePod and Macs with Apple’s own processors.

On a conference call with analysts, Apple said the iPhone, other major hardware and services will generate double-digit growth in the current quarter.

Maestri is optimistic about the iPhone’s performance, saying that the new line has the “tailwind of 5G, which is a once-in-a-decade opportunity.”

Cook added that Apple is entering 5G at the right time, with carriers improving and expanding their networks on a weekly basis. He also said 5G networks are “fairly advanced” in China, which could help sales during the current period.

Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue from the iPhone was $26.4 billion. Wall Street expected $27.1 billion. The iPad brought in $6.8 billion, beating estimates of $6.1 billion, while Mac sales totaled $9 billion, ahead of Wall Street forecasts of $8 billion.

The pandemic has forced millions of people to work and study from home, spurring demand for Apple devices. But the health crisis has also disrupted the company’s global supply chain.

“Our outstanding September quarter performance concludes a remarkable fiscal year, where we established new all-time records for revenue, earnings per share, and free cash flow, in spite of an extremely volatile and challenging macro environment,” Maestri said in a prepared statement.

New iPhones often come out in September, giving Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter a boost. This year, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro went on sale last week, while the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max become available for pre-order next week.

That left Apple relying on other new products in the September quarter, including a couple of weeks of sales of the Apple Watch Series 6 and a lower-end iPad. The company also saw continued iPhone sales from the cheaper iPhone SE launched earlier this year, the newest iPad Pro and existing Macs.

Services, which includes the App Store, Apple Music and iCloud, generated sales of $14.5 billion, up from $12.5 billion a year ago and higher than Wall Street expectations of $13.9 billion. The services result was spurred by records for music streaming, cloud storage, AppleCare product support and the App Store, Maestri told Bloomberg TV.

That segment might get another boost in the current quarter when the company launches Apple One subscription bundles and a new Fitness+ service. Maestri said the bundles will launch on Friday and that the fitness service will debut this quarter.

Apple’s Wearables, Home and Other Products category, one of the firm’s fastest-growing segments that includes the Apple Watch and AirPods, brought in $7.9 billion in revenue. That beat Wall Street predictions of $7.4 billion.

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Cooler weather in store for upper Thailand with occasional light rainfall

Nov 01. 2020Photo Credit: Meterological Department 

By The Nation

A high pressure system from China has covered the upper North and the Northeast of Thailand.

Cool weather with isolated light rain is possible in upper Thailand. People in the North and the Northeast should watch their health due to the changeable conditions, the Thailand Meterological Department said. The weak monsoon trough across the South, and the northeast monsoon over the Gulf of Thailand would bring isolated thundershowers to the South,  the department forecast. 

The category 5 Typhoon Goni in the east of the Philippines will move into the middle South China Sea by November 2. It is expected to move to Tonkin bay and the coast of upper Vietnam on November 4-5.

The weather forecast for the next 24 hours:

Bangkok: Cloudy with scattered thundershowers; minimum temperature 23-24 degrees Celsius, maximum 31-33°C; easterly winds 10-20 kilometres per hour (kph).

North: Cool with scattered rain mostly in Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Tak and Kamphaengphet provinces; minimum temperature 20-23°C, maximum 29-33°C;  cold on mountain tops with minimum temperature 9-14°C;  northeasterly winds 10-20kph.

Northeast: Cool with isolated thundershowers mostly in Loei, Khon Kaen, Maha Sarakham, Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram, Surin, Si Sa Ket and Ubon Ratchathani provinces; minimum temperature 20-22°C, maximum 29-33°C;  cold on the mountain tops with minimum temperature 12-15°C;  northeasterly winds 10-20kph.

Central: Cool with scattered thundershowers mostly in Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani, Chainat, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi, Suphan Buri and Ratchaburi provinces; minimum temperature 21-23°C, maximum 31-33°C;  northeasterly winds 10-20kph.

East: Cloudy with scattered thundershowers in Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat provinces; minimum temperature 23-24°C, maximum 31-33°C;  northeasterly winds 15-30kph; Waves about a metre high and 1-2 metres offshore.

South (east coast):

Cloudy with scattered thundershowers mostly in Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Songkhla and Pattani provinces; minimum temperature 23-25°C, maximum 30-33°C;  northeasterly winds 15-35kph; waves 1-2 metres high and about two metres during thundershowers.

South (west coast):

Cloudy with scattered thundershowers mostly in Phang-Nga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Satun provinces;  minimum temperature 23-24°C, maximum  31-33°C; northeasterly winds 15-35kph; waves 1-2 metres high and above two metres in thundershowers.

Forecast for the next seven days:

From October 31 to  November 2, the high pressure area from China extends to cover upper Thailand. Slightly cooler temperatures are likely over upper Thailand. The monsoon trough lies across the middle south while the northeast monsoon prevails over the Gulf of Thailand and the South, bringing isolated rains to the South. From November 3-6, another rather high pressure area from China will extend to cover upper Thailand. The temperature will drop by 2-4°C with cool air and windy conditions likely over upper Thailand. While the monsoon trough slides down across the lower South, the northeast monsoon over the Gulf of Thailand and the South will intensify. More rain with isolated heavy rain is likely in the South. Moderate wind waves are likely in the upper Gulf of Thailand about two metres high and above two metres in thundershower areas. The category 5 Typhoon “Goni” in the eastern part of the Philippines will move into the central South China Sea on November 3. It is expected to move to Tonkin bay and the coast of upper Vietnam on November 4-5

People in upper Thailand should be careful of their health due to the cold weather from November 3-6. People in the South should beware of the heavy rain and accumulated rain, the department said.

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Twitter falls on paltry gains in new users in third quarter

Oct 30. 2020The Twitterlogo is displayed on the facade of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2013. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by David Paul Morris. 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kurt Wagner · BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS 
Twitter shares tumbled 18% Friday after the company reported far fewer new users in the quarter than analysts had estimated, dashing optimism that the social network would benefit from a return of live sports and the coming U.S. election.

The company reported 187 million daily users at the end of the quarter, an increase of 29% from last year, but a paltry gain over the previous period. By comparison, Twitter added 20 million new users in the second quarter.

Advertisers, however, flocked back to the San Francisco-based company in the third quarter, driving sales well above analysts’ estimates, in a sign the digital advertising business is returning following the outbreak of the global pandemic.

Twitter is one of three internet companies under intense pressure from U.S. officials over their treatment of political content. Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey testified alongside the heads of Facebook and Google at a Senate panel on Wednesday. In the results Thursday, the company didn’t give a forecast for the holiday quarter but suggested that uncertainty around the Nov. 3 election could impact the business.

“It is hard to predict how advertiser behavior could change,” the company wrote in its shareholder letter. “In Q2, many brands slowed or paused spend in reaction to U.S. civil unrest, only to increase spend relatively quickly thereafter in an effort to catch up.”

Twitter shares fell to $43.15 at 10:03 a.m. in New York after closing at $52.43. The stock had gained 64% this year through Thursday.

There was some concern that Twitter’s business would be affected by a wide-ranging ad boycott in July, when a number of high-profile brand marketers pulled spending from social media companies over frustration with their content-moderation policies.

Twitter, unlike Facebook, has long been dependent on live events and large brand advertisers but said in April it also needed to improve its direct-response ad product, which is typically more useful for e-commerce advertisers looking to drive immediate sales. At the time, Twitter executives called better execution on these kinds of ads a “top priority.”

In the shareholder letter, Twitter said a new version of these types of ads is now delayed until 2021 so the company “can integrate expected new industry-standard mobile privacy requirements.” Ned Segal, the chief financial officer, confirmed that the delay is partly due to expected updates related to Apple’s new iOS 14 software. Some changes to Apple’s software will affect how online advertisers can track people around the web, but those have been postponed until early next year. Twitter is waiting to see how they are implemented, Segal said.

Twitter didn’t issue guidance for the holiday quarter, but on a conference call with investors executives were asked repeatedly for some kind of update. Segal said October “has a similar setup as September,” a suggestion that the period was starting on a positive note.

He did warn that November would be harder to predict due to uncertainty surrounding the U.S. election.

“When advertisers do choose to pause or slow down because there is a more important discussion happening on our service, when they come back they often spend through that budget that they had set aside for Twitter because their objectives and their reach goals haven’t changed,” Segal said.

Sales increased 14% to $936 million in the period ended Sept. 30, Twitter reported on Thursday. It was the biggest jump since the second quarter of 2019. Analysts projected a 5% decline to $780.5 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the letter to shareholders, Twitter cited the return of live events, such as professional sports, and product improvements as key drivers.

Twitter said in July that it was exploring additional business lines, including subscriptions and “managing pay walls,” but those efforts weren’t highlighted in the shareholder letter.

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Virus exposes gaps in Thailand’s clunky operating system:TDRI

Oct 30. 2020Itsakul Unahakate, a lecturer from Thammasat University’s Economics Faculty 

By The Nation

Using digital data technologies to become a “smart government” is crucial if Thailand wants to restore national competency and keep up with the world.

“It’s not enough for state agencies to have their digital data systems and applications,” said Itsakul Unahakate, a lecturer from Thammasat University’s Economics Faculty.

“They must give up the silo mentality and operations to improve public services and transparency by making their digital databases interconnected and transparent,” he stressed.

The ultimate goal is to enable Thai citizens to access all public services with one ID card, he said during his talk on “State Data Systems towards a Smart Government” as part of the 2020 TDRI Annual Conference on October 5-7.

Entitled “Hacking the Operating System of the Thai State: Learning from the Handling of the Covid-19 Crisis to Prepare for New Challenges”, the conference focused on bureaucratic reform to improve national competency.

According to Itsakul, the government’s Covid-19 cash handout programmes underscore the fact that the country’s fragmented database systems are inefficient and user-unfriendly. Subsequently, a large number of people in need are not receiving state assistance during the pandemic.

Due to the fragmented database systems, people need to fill in different forms for every service they seek because there are no central digital databases and those under different state programmes are not connected, he said.

As reported by the World Bank, he said, the government has so far spent 13 per cent of the GDP to cope with the pandemic. “Unfortunately, much of this amount misses the target groups.”

He expressed concern that the government is still pressing ahead with more handout policies when its database systems are still ridden with flaws and leaving many people in need behind.

To become a smart government, the state database systems need to be overhauled in four ways, he said.

1. The systems must be designed to serve people’s needs, not the state agencies’ convenience. To do so, the government must first understand the people’s “pain points” before designing a system to tackle the problems effectively, he said.

2. The data compilation systems must not be redundant, asking for only necessary standard information from the citizens. They must avoid imposing administrative burdens on the citizens, costing them time and money to access public services. The system must aim for the once-only principle with privacy protection to ensure public trust, he added.

3. The databases must be consolidated into integrated data systems and communications networks accessible to state agencies involved. “The aim is to include all necessary information in one ID card so they can use it to access public services with ease,” he said.

The consolidated data systems will also enable the government to use readily available information for better planning and decision-making, he explained.

4. The systems must be open for public input so they can be constantly updated to meet people’s needs. This open system also fosters transparency and democratic processes, he added.

Towards being a digital government, the digital database and communications networks must be citizen-centric, data-driven, and performance-focused, he stressed.

Many countries already have digital governments – Chile, for example. Its social data system already covers 72 per cent of the population. Estonia, meanwhile, is now using the once-only principle for administrative procedures. OECD countries’ once-only principle has also significantly reduced their administrative costs.

Thailand could do it too, he said. “But it must start with state agencies opening their minds and foregoing organisational interests to make smart government possible.”

The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) is a non-profit, non-government think tank focused on social and economic development issues.

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Apple could lose the billions its gets from Google, but Wall Street sees a rosy future in Cupertino

Oct 30. 2020

By The Washington Post · Reed Albergotti · BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY 
One of the biggest contributors to Apple’s earnings is in jeopardy: Apple reaps up to $12 billion a year in revenue from Google, which pays the iPhone maker to be the default search engine on Apple devices. As Apple and Google report their quarterly earnings Thursday, analysts have an eye on the number to better understand how dependent Apple is on Google.

The amount Google pays to Apple came to light in the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Google this month. The hefty sum, the DOJ argues, gives Google an unfair advantage over smaller rivals that can’t afford to buy that kind of market share. That sum could go away, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.

Apple directs the payments from Google to its “services” category – a part of Apple’s earnings that Wall Street pays close attention to, with iPhone sales on the decline. Apple, for instance earned $26.44 billion from iPhone sales this quarter, down from $33.36 billion a year ago, missing analysts’ expectations and sending the stock down more than 4 percent in after hours trading Thursday. The services category accounts for the revenue Apple is generating in new areas like online streaming and video games.

Apple’s services revenue has risen steadily and was up 16% this quarter to $14.55 billion, playing a big part in the company’s lofty valuation. But the Justice Department lawsuit reveals that nearly a quarter of that comes from Google. In essence, Apple’s most valuable service is cashing checks from Google, according to the lawsuit.

But Wall Street isn’t worried, reflecting the resilience of Apple that has led it to a $2 trillion valuation, the first publicly traded company in the U.S. to reach that threshold. “The Street is not overly concerned about this dynamic for now, although it highlights how important Google is to Apple services business,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. And even if Google’s contribution to Apple’s bottom line was reduced, it would be less costly than the alternative: Apple launching a competing search engine.

On a conference call with analysts Thursday, Apple chief executive Tim Cook downplayed the significance of its deal with Google, touting Apple’s growing number of services.

“There’s a lot of room there and potential there,” Cook said. “I have no idea how the DOJ suit will go, but I think it’s a long way from a conclusion on it.”

The collective shrug from analysts highlights the depths of investor faith in the iPhone maker and Cook. When Steve Jobs died, there were plenty of predictions that Apple’s star would fade, but it became the most valuable company in the world. When the smartphone market plateaued, Apple reached new heights. And during a global pandemic, Apple barely broke stride. The potential loss of the Google search deal may not even rank as one of Cook’s biggest challenges.

Analysts say Apple is probably going to get through this unscathed for a handful of reasons. First, the Justice Department’s lawsuit will take years at best. At worst, it will fizzle out in a court system friendly to corporate interests, and if a new party enters the White House next year, the government resources allocated to the suit could change. Second, even if the lawsuit is successful, it’s unlikely the payments from Google will stop. More likely, they’ll be reduced. And third, the rest of Apple’s services business is probably growing much faster than its annual payment from Google.

The search deal between Apple and Google came to light six years ago, in a lawsuit between Apple and Oracle. Back then, Google was paying Apple $1 billion a year. Analysts had predicted the fee had grown, but the idea that it had ballooned twelvefold was shocking.

“That is a big part of services and services is a big part of why investors have become more comfortable with the story,” says Gene Munster, an analyst at venture firm Loup Ventures. But Munster looks at it from another angle. Google’s growth has been slowing, which means its payments to Apple would probably not get much larger over time. At the same time, Apple wants to show its services business is growing at a pace much higher than Google’s rate of growth. Munster said that having Google’s money mixed in with high-growth areas like music streaming and movies might be a “drag to the growth” of one of its most important Wall Street metrics.

The Google lawsuit has also revived fresh speculation that Apple might launch its own search engine to compete with Google. The concept is simple: If Apple is going to lose its lucrative Google deal, it could make up for the loss by building its own search engine and selling search ads. After all, Apple’s head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, once ran Google’s search business.

But Apple competing with Google in search would be incongruous with Apple’s rhetoric around privacy. Cook has criticized the business models of companies like Google. Collecting data, both to sell advertisements and to improve search results, would represent a major change for the company that could limit its growth in other areas. It’s one thing to take money from Google. It’s quite another to try to become Google.

Another complicating factor for a hypothetical Apple search engine: It controls less than 14 percent of the global smartphone market. Almost all the rest belongs to Google. That means Google will always have more data to improve search results and targeted advertisements. Apple will be fighting an uphill battle to make its search engine as good as Google’s.

With the dark clouds of antitrust lawsuits on the horizon, analysts expect Apple will do the same thing that got them to $2 trillion: Stay the course.

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TikTok Files suit escalating patent fight with Triller

Oct 30. 2020Signage for ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok app is displayed on a laptop computer in an arranged photograph taken on July 1, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Gabby Jones. 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Christopher Yasiejko, Shelly Banjo · BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY, COURTSLAW 
TikTok and its parent ByteDance Inc. sued rival Triller Inc., asking a U.S. judge to clear up a “cloud” over the China-based popular video-streaming app after Triller accused it of stealing technology.

ByteDance is in talks to sell parts of its TikTok unit in a deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars after President Donald Trump moved to ban its U.S. operations over national security concerns.

The case filed Wednesday in San Francisco federal court is a response to a patent-infringement suit Triller filed against ByteDance in late July in Waco, Texas, a hub for complaints by patent owners looking for a friendly judge and quick litigation.

Triller Chief Executive Officer Mike Lu fired back, saying “we may be small, but we have right on our side.’

“TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have been infringing on Triller’s patents and stealing its technology for many years — enriching themselves and their investors at Triller’s expense,” he said in an emailed statement. “This is nothing more than a transparent attempt by a Chinese conglomerate with tens of thousands employees to manipulate the U.S. legal system by not responding to Triller’s complaint or answering for their violations.”

TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Triller’s allegations against TikTok and its users “cast a cloud” over ByteDance’s business, according to the complaint. ByteDance is seeking a court order that it, its products and its users don’t infringe the patent and that none of them are liable for damages or injunctive relief.

The patent, issued in June 2017 and assigned to Brooklyn-based Mibblio Inc., covers systems and methods for creating music videos synchronized with an audio track. Triller, in its Texas complaint, said it owns the patent. ByteDance says TikTok doesn’t perform the steps covered by the patent.

A showdown over the Trump’s administration’s attempt to ban TikTok, which a federal judge temporarily blocked in late September, is slated for a Dec. 14 argument in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington. The company two weeks ago asked a federal judge to block a broad set of government restrictions designed to curb use of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app in the U.S.

San Francisco-based Fastly Inc., which runs a content delivery network that pushes data quickly around the internet, said on Wednesday that ByteDance pulled most of its TikTok traffic from its network. In a letter to shareholders, Fastly tagged the reduction as a “response to the potential of a prohibition of U.S. companies being able to work with this customer.”

Triller is in talks with blank-check acquisition companies about a merger that would take the company public, Reuters reported this month.

The case is ByteDance Inc. v. Triller Inc., 3:20-cv-7572, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

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Amazon, Apple probed by Germany over online sales curbs

Oct 30. 2020

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Karin Matussek · BUSINESS, WORLD, TECHNOLOGY, THE-AMERICAS 
Amazon.com and Apple face German antitrust scrutiny over a policy that excludes independent sellers of brand products on the online market place.

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the country’s antitrust regulator, is probing both companies over a policy at Amazon called “brandgating,” the authority said in an emailed statement. The policy allows makers of branded products such as iPhones to have independent sellers removed from the platform as long as Amazon can sell the items, according to the statement.

“Brandgating agreements can help to protect against product piracy,” the Cartel Office said. “But such measures must be proportionate to be in line with antitrust rules and may not result in eliminating competition.”

Amazon and Apple are among the tech giants under intense scrutiny by regulators across the world, including in the European Union, which is poised to propose sweeping new laws to rein in Silicon Valley. Authorities are wrestling with how to act against companies that critics say run a rigged game when they set the rules for platforms that also host their rivals.

Amazon said in a statement that it never removes sales permissions without a sound reason and invests heavily to protect customers from the illegal distribution of goods. It said it’s cooperating with the regulator.

Apple is a “prominent” example of how Amazon does brandgating, which can take various forms, the German regulator said. Since the start of 2019, only authorized Apple vendors can sell via Amazon’s marketplace. Amazon itself became such an authorized seller.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on the probe earlier.

“The safety of our customers is our first priority, and our teams are constantly working with law enforcement, resellers and e-commerce sites around the world to remove counterfeit products from the market,” Apple said in a statement.

“We work with Amazon to protect our customers from counterfeit products and provide confidence they are receiving a genuine Apple product out of the box.”

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Facebook CEO Zuckerberg calls 2020 election ‘test’

Oct 30. 2020Mark Zuckerberg / file photo 

By The Washington Post · Elizabeth Dwoskin · NATIONAL, BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS 
The U.S. 2020 election will be a “test” for Facebook, said chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on the company’s third-quarter earnings call. 

And he again warned of the potential for delayed election results because of increased use of mail-in ballots.

“I’m worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or weeks to be finalized, there is a risk of civil unrest across the country,” he said. “Given this, companies like ours need to go well beyond what we’ve done before.”

Facebook has faced criticism for its handling of the 2016 election, when it became clear in the weeks following that Russian and other foreign entities had used the platform to attempt to influence the election.

This time around, Zuckerberg said that the company had built best-in-class technical systems over the last four years to tackle threats, and had created new policies in anticipation of civil unrest during the election. The company will label posts with premature declarations of victory to authoritative information. It has blocked new political ads in the week before the election and all political ads during the week after, and said it estimates that Facebook helped more than 4.4 million people to register to vote.

Facebook has banned conspiracy group QAnon, as well as ads that discourage people from taking vaccines, Zuckerberg said.

The CEO emphasized that his beliefs in free speech had not wavered – a nod to political criticism from the pro-free speech right – but said that the company was balancing its approach to emphasize safety. “To be clear, this is not a shift in our underlying philosophy or strong support of free expression.”

Separately, Facebook said it is also benefiting from a pandemic-driven acceleration of e-commerce as businesses race to replace lost revenue from shuttered brick-and-mortar stores.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said that the company was benefiting from dramatic shifts in consumer behavior during the pandemic.

“Before the pandemic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, eCommerce’s share of U.S. retail sales was steadily increasing by an average of 1 percentage point a year for the past 4 years,” she said. “This share leapt by 4 percentage points in Q2 alone – that’s 4 years of change in less than 100 days.”