Change is here 🙌
Twitter moves, more IPOs, and everyone leaving cities.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Let’s go ahead and get started:
First things first ☕
1️⃣ Yo Google, they’re here again—a month or so ago, the US department of justice had brought an antitrust suit against Google for anticompetitive practices in search. Now the state of California has joined the suit as well, further piling on to Pichai’s legal problems. So far, December is turning out to a horrible legal week for Big Tech, with Facebook just recently hammered by the FTC for monopolization. What makes matters more complicated is that the US seems hell-bent on taking on its own tech giants right now, all while it prepares for a looming tech-war against China, all while undergoing government leadership change. Too overwhelming bruh.
2️⃣ IPO shower in India—first, there’s Burger King India, which will open for trading in a couple of days. Demand for the IPO has been so high that the bids were oversubscribed 156 times. Then there’s Mrs. Bector's Cremica, one of Burger King’s key suppliers, as well as a supplier to the quick service restaurants industry and the broader food industry—bids for which will open this week, and expectations from all names are set for nothing short of blowouts.
BTW—Cremica’s founding story is absolutely mind blowing. Rajni Bector started and shepherded the company through tumultuous times to make it one of the most successful confectionery suppliers in India. We did a quick thread over the weekend 👇
3️⃣ Roblox no go for IPO—the current frothy markets LOVE pretty much anything with “tech” slapped on to it, and there was no better time for Roblox to IPO. But the social gaming company, which rose to popularity among western kids, has delayed its bid until next year. Apparently Reuters landed on some internal docs that said they’re pushing the IPO because they want to figure out the best way their employees, investors, and advisers can make the most out of this capital raise.
Well, Roblox’s promises of a metaverse and social gaming is unlike any — good enough to guarantee a smooth sail on Wall Street even in 2021, so not all is lost for them. Also the company has been around forever and taking care of your employees, financially or otherwise, is the only way to ensure you’re on track to building what many consider is the next big thing in gaming and broad immersive entertainment. Good luck to them.
Twitter making moves 🐦
Twitter acquired Squad, a screen-sharing platform popular among teenagers, as the company looks to foster community and topic-focused engagement within tight circles.
Basically, observing that teenagers like to “view” stuff online together, like cat videos or Netflix —Squad made an app for screen sharing on phones. The tool became quite popular during lockdowns, with management saying engagement spiked nearly 1,100% since COVID.
Price tag on the deal is unannounced but Squad’s co-founders, CEO Esther Crawford (well known among tech circles) along with the team will join the Twitter bandwagon, lending their talent towards product, engineering, and design department needs. Squad had raised $7.1 million from big name VCs.
Why this matters to TWTR—Among all big tech, Twitter has been a late bloomer. As consumer social wars intensified over the last 5 years, the company has mostly found itself playing catch up - copying stories, rolling outdated integrations etc. But COVID may have offered an opportunity to make a serious comeback as 1. Engagement is at all time highs with people locked inside homes 2. Emerging consumer behaviours in the aftermath of COVID are surprising even the most formidable competitors — what exactly are users asking for, what will stick post COVID, and finally, what will eventually drive profits?
So perhaps with Squad, Twitter can foster group-viewing, co-viewing in audio or video and bring these “cohorts” more together? Perhaps a Clubhouse-clone? Hard to read Dorsey’s mind to a tee, but the possibilities sound super promising. But it's a bummer though that Squad as an independent app will shut down — and the teenagers so far do not seem very happy about that.
Some social debate from techland 🔥
The exodus from big cities is the biggest debate gripping the tech-social scene (digitally of course), with the engineers and their buddies abandoning expensive cities and high-rents to the comforts of quaint lives along the coasts or chic towns globally.
For example, the hip designer in your team who’s been working from a beach shack in Goa for god-knows how long now, and then in the latest news, Oracle’s decision to leave the state of California, where the company was founded and based for 30+ years. Miles apart, but you get what we’re talking about.
Now Oracle leaving San Francisco is like Infosys leaving Bengaluru—does it matter much? Uhmm... maybe. Lesser tax revenues for BLR, lesser rent, no corporate support for flyovers and bridges, no more mass hiring numbers that boost state’s employment figures and lower salaried tax base. But does it hurt innovation? Maybe not so much. The best minds who are inclined to build something will anyway find their way back to these “centers” of innovation.
But then events like Elon Musk and Tesla leaving California may be something the regulators should worry about. Also, not to forget, states like Texas have very favorable taxation laws and vast vast resources of land, minerals, and arid land—to happily build these gigantic toys that tech-billionaires like to play with.
But the question remains—is this a sustainable trend? Because if so, the economic, political, social, and cultural implications of this change in behaviour could be truly lasting. What can a nation like India learn from this and if possible, work to make the most of it?
Bottomline: technology is throwing governments an interesting challenge. Although the allure of cities remains strong for those seeking more opportunities, a large part of it is fading too, particularly for family-making millennials who are now drawn towards a quiet lifestyle and with Zoom and exclusive-communities online filling a void for meaningful professional connections. With that, governments are on a clock to figure out how to deal with this generational issue of talent migration and the lasting consequences in its aftermath. 👏
That should help you with some small talk this week :P
Closing out 👋
Easing the brake-pedal from free-flow of payments within the nation, the government has made RTGS transfers within banks operational 24x7 here on out. The RBI governor announced via Twitta! “Kal subah aao, abhi system down hai” is no longer a viable excuse at the bank counters. Atleast, we hope so.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
💰 Centre discussing more capital infusion- public sector banks needing bailouts are set to receive another round of checks to salvage them, with the government meeting to discuss Q4 allocations. Some ₹14,500 crores of funds will be diverted to avoid any brewing nuisance. Who gets what will be debated.
😂 Rampage over no pay - hundreds of workers at an iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka run by Apple went on a rampage over poor working conditions and low pay. Hundreds have been detained now and cops are investigating to see if the chaos was an organized attack.
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
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