Good Morning. After a big, big break, Right Click is back. Thanks for waiting. This email covers:
Apple’s ideas of a Tesla competitor reminds Elon Musk of the days when Tim Cook refused to meet him.
Zoom’s Chinese presence is creating problems in the US.
And, Google and Facebook choose to collaborate, not compete
Plus, some quick updates on why Joe Biden’s official twitter account will start from 0 followers.
Let’s hop on. It’ll take ~5 mins.
Apple on the roads, “like the first time you saw the iPhone”
What happened: Two Apple insiders say Apple’s planning to launch a passenger vehicle in 2024. “Project Titan”, as they call it, was in the works since 2014.
Being the giant Apple is, financially, will it make sense to make a car? It took Tesla 17 years to become profitable.
Driving this idea: Apple’s unique “monocell” design, which, those sources say, frees up space, giving the car a potentially longer range. Apple’s also looking at Lithium Iron Phosphate for the battery that should be less likely to overheat and thus, safer.
Elon Musk reacts:
FUN FACT: The idea of an Apple Car—or iCar— isn’t new. It was there even before the first iPhone launched in 2007.
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The tech’s China problem
What happened: A Chinese Zoom executive was charged by US Deptt of Justice for sending data of US-based users to Chinese civilian spy agency, Ministry Of State Security.
Chinese laws: Researchers have long warned that Chinese government can ask US businesses with employees based there to share private data.
Zoom also abides by those Chinese laws which requires it to hand over information and terminate meetings that are against Chinese laws.
Xinjiang Jin, the now-terminated Zoom employee worked as “primary liaison” for the Chinese govt to regularly respond to their moderation requests.
They were found to violating Zoom’s Terms Of Service when the US DOJ found they sent email addresses, names and IP addresses of people outside China.
Chinese risk: The US Security and Exchange Commission has warned Zoom of the risk of having high number of R&D employees in China. But Zoom says it’s most cost-effective way to do it. Zoom, however, has said it’d increase number of employees in the US.
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Cooperate, not Compete
Backstory: Last week, 10 US States sued Google for cutting a deal with Facebook to avoid competition. The lawsuit states that they Facebook agreed to not compete with Google’s online advertising tools in exchange for special treatments in web ad auctions.
But: Much of the details remained unknown because the lawsuit was heavily redacted.
What happened: WSJ reviewed a recent draft of this lawsuit without redactions and found a lot more details.
Here are they:
The code name for the deal was “Jedi Blue” inspired from Star Wars.
Both companies will “cooperate and assist each other in responding to any Antitrust Action” and “promptly and fully inform the Other Party of any Governmental Communication Related to the Agreement.”
Starting in the deal’s fourth year, Facebook is locked into spending a minimum of $500 million annually in Google-run ad auctions. And “Facebook is to win a fixed percent of those auctions.”
An internal Facebook document described the deal as “relatively cheap” when compared with direct competition, while a Google presentation said if the company couldn’t “avoid competing with” Facebook, it would collaborate to “build a moat.”
The big picture: There’s a trend. If two Big Tech companies have same business models, they collaborate. If they have differing business models, they fight.
Facebook collaborated with Google but is fighting with Apple.
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Quick Catch-up
🔐 A lock on your Facebook.
Facebook’s expanding its Facebook Protect security tools to more people like journalists, human rights defenders and celebrities, and also to users in countries with upcoming major elections. It includes 2 Factor Authentication and realtime hacking monitoring. Plus: soon, you’ll be able to buy physical keys for your FB account.
🧹 Biden’s Twitter will start clean-slate
When President-elect Joe Biden will take over US Administration’s official Twitter handle, @POTUS (33M followers), he will have to start from 0 followers. Unlike President Trump, who in 2017 took the handle with all 13M followers it had then.
Trump’s tweets will be transferred to @POTUS45, an archive of Trump’s official tweets as the president. (@POTUS44 is President Obama’s)
Followers of @JoeBiden and @WhiteHouse will be asked to follow the new account with a notification but will not be migrated over automatically.
This also applies to the First Lady’s (@FLOTUS, 16M+) and Press Secretariat’s (@PressSec, 6M+) and more accounts.