Tag: small-business

How the tech industry is sewing confusion about privacy laws

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Alastair Mactaggart founded and bankrolled the privacy activism organization that pushed California’s landmark privacy law–the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)–into the books in 2018. The law spurred the introduction of similar privacy bills in states around the country, and it will likely give shape to an eventual federal privacy law. As the story goes, Mactaggart, who made his fortune in the Bay Area real estate market, spoke to a Google employee at a cocktail party in 2016 who told him he’d be surprised at the amount of data the search giant had on him. Alarmed, Mactaggart and his friend Rick Arney hatched the idea of proposing a ballot measure to ensure privacy rights for Californians, and signed on attorney Mary Stone Ross to help shape a new law. The ballot measure eventually gave rise to a comparable bill in the state legislature, which, despite heavy blowback from the tech and telecom lobbies, was quickly passed and signed into law by then-governor Jerry Brown. The CCPA gives Californians the right to know what data tech companies like Google and Facebook are collecting on them, the right to stop that data from being shared or sold, and the right to sue if a tech company fails to protect their personal data. It was the most extensive consumer privacy law in the country at the time. Mactaggart’s group, Californians for Consumer Privacy , pushed another ballot measure in 2020, Proposition 24, that strengthened the CCPA. Voters passed the measure, and the proposition became the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which goes into effect at the start of 2023. The law also establishes a new privacy agency called the California Privacy Protection Agency, with a 5-member board and a $10 million annual budget. While a number of states have followed California in passing their own consumer privacy laws , the vast majority of states still have weak or nonexistent privacy laws. Now Democrats and Republicans in Congress are trying to how to work together to pass a national privacy bill . A number of bills were floated in 2020, along with a major bill (from Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.) in 2021, but none has advanced very far. Meanwhile, the tech and online advertising industries are lobbying hard for a weak federal privacy law that might preempt stronger state laws, such as California’s. I spoke with Mactaggart about the state of data privacy today, and about the chances for a meaningful federal privacy law in the near future. The interview has been edited for length and clarity Read More …

We expect our emails and texts to send instantly. Why not our money?

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Recent events such as the Robinhood-GameStop controversy and financial hardships brought on by the pandemic have cast light on a pressing underlying issue: The U.S. financial infrastructure is too slow. The snail’s pace of the system is denying consumers and businesses access to their money when they need it, with crucial tasks such as collecting a salary payment or transferring money to family members taking far too long. In a confirmation hearing earlier in March, Rohit Chopra, the newly appointed director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, advocated for a “real time system” as a tool to achieve equal access. So, what’s holding us back? Of the many policy debates that arose in February when Robinhood became a household name due to the GameStop controversy, CEO Vlad Tenev cited the two-day trade settlement policy as a key reason for the slowdown of trading. While multiday settlement might be a burden for investors, the slow speed of the U.S. payments infrastructure also negatively impacts millions of consumers and businesses every day. Though payment technology companies are leading critical innovations, they continue to be bogged down by the archaic system in place. Read More …

Look out, Amazon. Asia-based companies such as Coupang are leading the next e-commerce revolution

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If you want to understand the future of e-commerce, look to Asia. Today, Coupang went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $4.6 billion in the biggest U.S. IPO of the year (so far). The South Korean e-commerce giant’s success is a compelling reminder that many Asian companies are among the world’s leading innovators in digital retailing and beyond. In the U.S., we have all been amazed by the speed, ease, and selection of Amazon. In reality, we are three to five years behind Asia. Americans are familiar with e-commerce giant Alibaba, but a new wave of companies such as Coupang, Pinduoduo, and Bytedance are quickly transforming the online shopping experience for millions of consumers. (Softbank Investment Advisers, my firm, is an investor in Bytedance and Coupang, and Softbank Group is Alibaba’s largest shareholder.) Here are the four prominent e-commerce trends in Asia that I predict will take hold in the U.S. and around the world: From e-commerce to “AllCommerce” using social media Asia’s brick-and-mortar companies were making the transition to digital well before COVID-19 forced businesses to shut their physical footprints. South Korea’s high-density urban landscape, high mobile penetration rate ( 95 percent of adults have smartphones, more than anywhere else in the world), and culture of late-night shopping have enabled the rapid growth and success of e-commerce by connecting local brick-and-mortar businesses to the online world.   In 2020, technology platforms such as Flipkart in India and Tokopedia in Indonesia added new offerings to support the digitization of small businesses and “solopreneurs.” (I am an investor in Tokopedia and backed Flipkart, which Walmart now controls.) Tokopedia launched TokopediaByMe, which allows influencers and individuals to build their own affiliate businesses via social media. These easy-to-use tools brought an extraordinary array of businesses online, from the local warung (family-owned) shop to the neighborhood restaurant. Tokopedia also offers logistics support to help sellers deliver products and services to their customers.   I expect we’ll see more e-commerce companies integrating with social media platforms to make it easier for small merchants to sell their wares without having to build a website or digital storefront. A great example close to home is a new feature from Shopify that adds shopping functions to Facebook and Instagram pages. Look for future marriages of e-commerce tools with social platforms such as Facebook and Bytedance’s TikTok. The upshot is a future in which every social post becomes an opportunity to make a sale. It’s not e-commerce, it’s “AllCommerce.”   Live commerce Though not a term yet familiar to most Americans, live commerce is a very simple but powerful modality that has seen explosive growth in Asia. Live commerce enables purchase engagement between a customer and seller through live video and chat. For Americans of my generation, this format is best understood as the next generation of HSN or QVC on mobile platforms. Read More …

Andrew Yang has some concerns about Zoom

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There’s nobody quite like Andrew Yang, the erstwhile presidential phenomenon whose campaign for a universal basic income found an unlikely ally in the Trump White House—and helped lay the groundwork for direct cash payments during the pandemic. He’s a political outsider who loves to be on the inside; a tech cheerleader who worries about artificial intelligence; a progressive who’s not afraid of Joe Rogan; and now a New York City mayoral candidate who’s . . . never voted for mayor. He’s also a serial entrepreneur, with deep ties to the tech community and strong opinions about how the public and private sectors should cooperate to foster innovation. That’s one of Fast Company’ s bailiwicks too, so we decided to catch up with the father of two (and former Fast Company columnist) in New York to discuss the Great Reopening, the future of bitcoin, why Manhattan beats Miami, and the trouble with Zoom. Fast Company: Congrats on the latest poll . Were you surprised at all to be leading the field with 32%? Andrew Yang: I’m excited that New Yorkers are excited. I think a lot of people are frustrated with what’s been going on in the city this past number of months and years. We know we need a different kind of leadership. I’m thrilled that people see that we can do better for ourselves. That’s my main mission, to restart the engine of New York’s economy and get the agencies and bureaucracies functioning at a higher level. Right—the number one thing on most people’s minds right now is the reopening the economy. We’re poised for a massive rebound in economic activity, but there’s a general feeling that the guidance from the government—on schools, restaurants, where and when you can take off your mask—has been confusing and slow. I’ve talked to dozens, maybe hundreds of business owners here in New York City, small-business owners, comedy clubs, restaurants, bars—and they were very frustrated with the operating guidelines and the lack of visibility. Right now there are different restrictions in New York State as opposed to New York City, which I think made sense at a certain point during the pandemic, but it makes less and less sense now, given the expanded vaccination rates and the fact that infection rates are falling. So number one is, can you reopen your doors? Number two, can you manage all of your financial obligations, primarily rent? If you were the average bar or a restaurant, you might owe somewhere between 3 and 10 months of back rent, even if your landlord is cutting you a break in terms of your cash obligations. Read More …

The startup that saved the restaurant industry in the nick of time

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Nick Kokonas, CEO of the restaurant reservations platform Tock, is meeting a handful of new employees over Zoom for the first time. The latest hires of his rapidly growing Chicago-based company are tuning in from their apartments. He’s logging in from a house in Lake Tahoe that he’s rented for a few weeks in January in an attempt to take a vacation after an extraordinarily busy year.  The plan is to welcome his employees to the company with an introductory pep talk. He’ll explain how his 6-year-old reservation system is designed to help chefs manage both their dining rooms and kitchens more efficiently. He’ll go on to tell them about the way it threw a lifeline to independent restaurants during the pandemic by allowing their kitchens to offer take out and delivery service on better terms than other platforms. And then he’ll explain how the 140-person company is now taking on some of the biggest industry players with a tech platform that gives more control to chefs and restaurateurs. He is, after all, co-owner of Chicago’s renowned Alinea restaurant, along with several other eateries in the city, and has spent the past decade and a half thinking about what a restaurant needs to survive and even thrive.  But before he begins, Kokonas wants to set one thing straight: He did not purchase the large wooden yin-yang that hangs above his head. “This is not my house. This is not my yin-yang,” he tells his new hires. “This is T. Read More …