LA streaming giant YouTube plans to offer all original programming free by 2020
A whopping one day after announcing new discounted student subscription rates, YouTube unveiled a much wider-impact business plan: free, ad-supported streaming. (Not sure what that looks like? We covered the basics in our convo with Trade Desk here.)
A company insider told The Hollywood Reporter that the Google-owned streaming giant would be rolling back its investment in scripted content — shows like ‘Karate Kid’ reboot ‘Cobra Kai’ — while pursuing a strategy that makes all streaming free to users, paid for by ads rather than subscriptions. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Amazon’s Alexa talked her whole way through Giving Tuesday
The spirit of giving has never been chattier — or easier to execute on. This Tuesday, Amazon announced that Alexa users will be able to donate toys to charity by placing orders through the device. The company partnered with Toys for Tots to create a curated list of reasonably-priced toys to be shipped directly to the charity’s headquarters and disbursed on Christmas Day. Amazon will also be matching donations of toys up to $100,000 through December 31, 2018. [TechCrunch]
TaskUs adds five new offices following $250M investment in August
Customer-experience-slash-artificial–intelligence company TaskUs is adding a few new stamps to its passport. The Santa Monica-based company announced this morning that they’ll be opening five new offices in the U.S., Philippines, Taiwan and Mexico. The expansion, backed by a $250M investment from Blackstone in August, puts TaskUs in more than a dozen offices throughout the world.
“TaskUs grew more this year than any other in our ten-year history,” TaskUs CEO Bryce Maddock said in a statement. “We have always emphasized the importance of the employee experience, and we’re excited to bring our world-class culture and top-notch customer service to more locations.” [Press release]
Elon’s subterranean 405 freeway transit plan grinds to a halt
The Boring Company’s plan to build a two-and–a-half mile tunnel beneath LA’s famed 405 freeway has been put on ice following a lawsuit filed by two neighborhood groups. The suits accuse city officials of skipping environmental review in order to push the plans through. In a statement, both parties acknowledged that the development — which would have burrowed beneath the freeway and Sepulveda Blvd — would no longer happen.
Critics all over the country are guessing what’s next for the company, following the opening of their Hawthorne test tunnel (with free public rides) in early-December. Many think Musk has his eyes (and super-powerful equipment) set on the route to Dodger Stadium, just outside of Downtown. [Engadget]
Six months and 300 million miles later, a new NASA probe gently plopped down on Mars
NASA’s InSight probe (or “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport” probe — because NASA is government-run, and the government loves acronyms) landed on Mars this Monday. Photos of the planet are already en route back to Earth, and into our daily consciousness via the device’s official Twitter feed.
Our favorite tweet: “Aaah...soaking up the Sun with my solar panels. 🌞 After a long flight, and thrilling #MarsLanding, it feels great to get a good stretch and recharge my batteries. (Like, literally.) It’s just what I’ll need to really start getting in tune with #Mars. [Gizmodo]
A NYTimes reporter takes us for a deep dive into the tech behind West Wing headlines
White House reporter Katie Rodgers empties her technological tool bag right in front of you, detailing what apps she uses and why. Many are the kind of insights you’d expect; Katie’s top used apps include Twitter, Signal and WhatsApp. Others, not so much; like Katie’s advice that if you want to get on the phone with someone, call from a blocked number — they’ll think it’s the West Wing. [NYTimes]
‘Tis the season...for lawmakers to ban together against ‘Grinch’ bots
Black Friday got extra dark for cyber-scammers this year. Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative rolled out bills aimed at stopping so-called ‘Grinch’ bots from crawling online retailers to buy out in-demand items, which shady profiteers then resell at a premium on sites like Amazon and eBay. This legislative push is part of a growing body of laws that aims to stem the use of automated online accounts to commit crimes online — from fake Facebook accounts to e-commerce racketeering. [Washington Post]
Virgin Hyperloop One has a new CEO
It’s been a big month for the top brass at Virgin Hyperloop One. The next-gen mass transit company saw the exit of former chairman Sir Richard Branson in late October — “I feel [the company] needs a more hands-on chair,” Branson said in a statement — and the announcement of a new CEO, Jay Walder, earlier this month. Walder is a former New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority exec and was the CEO of Motivate, the largest bike share operator in North America (now owned by Lyft).
This week, the new CEO talked to the LA Business Journal about how mass transit is changing. “In a nutshell, we have not really had a new form of mass transportation in over 100 years,” he told the publication. “Hyperloop is a new way of imagining travel that connects cities and urban areas much more tightly and closely. The benefits of that can be realized in both passenger travel and also cargo movement. It’s an extremely fast, on-demand form of travel.” [LA Biz Journal]
