Sunday, January 28, 2024

Apple's possible response to critics over App Store fees / Tesla's recall of 200k vehicles / Taylor Swift's deepfake pictures could spark Congress action

Plus: X.com to create 100-person team that will focus on moderating sensitive content

Inside Business

For January 28, 2024

Here are the top business stories to look forward to this upcoming week:

🍎 Apple's possible response to App Store fee critics.
🚙 The effect of Tesla's recall of 200k vehicles.
📃 Taylor Swift's disturbing AI deepfake pictures could lead to action from Congress.
🔍Elon Musk announces the creation of a 100-person team to moderate sensitive content on X.com.
🚢 Shipping company Flexport could lay off 20% of its workforce soon.
🛩 United Airlines resumes 737 Max 9 flights.

Arbër
p/Arber

Look for: Apple's response to the criticism of its new fee policy for apps in the App Store. Daniel Ek, Spotify's CEO, publicly called out the company on X two days ago, stating Apple's new fee policy falsely claims it will help improve user security when, in fact, it only helps Apple overcharge companies. Ek called Apple's App Store a monopoly and said that its new fee policy would increase costs tenfold. Regulators may also look once again for ways that Apple could change its rules, even though this policy change was forced by European regulators.

Look for: How Tesla's recall of over 200,000 vehicles affects its stock performance and whether more issues with its EVs are made public. Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that the world's largest EV maker would recall 2023 Model S, X, and Y vehicles that have the Full Self Driving 4.0 software installed due to an error preventing the rearview camera image from displaying. This recall comes only weeks after Tesla's largest recall in history, where it had to release an over-the-air update to 2 million vehicles to fix an autopilot issue.

Look for: Earlier this week, disturbing AI deepfake pictures of Taylor Swift went viral on X.com.The photos, which were viewed more than 27 million times and liked over 260,000 times, were taken down within 19 hours, while users were left unable to search for Taylor Swift's name. Since the event, the White House has released an announcement stating it is alarmed over this issue and believes Congress should take legislative steps to prevent such events from happening again. Look for more news on this front by Congress members.

Look for: X.com owner and Chairman Elon Musk has announced the creation of a 100-person team of content moderators assigned to make sure the app's posted content adheres to its policy. Once built, this team will work out of the "Trust and Safety Center of Excellence" in Austin, Texas. The division will focus on child sexual exploitation content, hate speech, violent posts, etc. Look for more news regarding the specifics of this newly created team.

Look for: Shipping company Flexport could lay off 20% of its entire workforce soon. The freight company, which recently raised $270M in funding from Shopify, cut around 600 jobs last year when Ryan Petersen returned to the firm as CEO. Look for more updates on this story in the upcoming days.

Look for: United Airlines has resumed flights with Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after an investigation report concluded that the planes were safe to use. The investigation began after an incident last month when a door blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight. The flight was carried out in a nine-week-old Max 737 9 jet. Look for news on whether there are any more technical errors found in the controversial planes this week.

Quick Hits:

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Holcim is reportedly looking to spin off its US cement division in a deal that could be worth up to $30B.
China's securities regulator has announced that the lending of restricted shares will be banned as of Monday.
Oklahoma-based regulatory tech company Thentia has raised a $38M Series B round led by First Ascent Ventures, Spring Mountain Capital, BDC Capital, and Espresso Capital.
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Arbër Musliu

Writer

Arbër is an Inside analyst who has previously incubated his startup at the largest incubator in Southeastern Europe. He has collaborated with multiple major publications and holds a business degree from XAMK University in Finland.