On Tech: Credit to tech’s pandemic leadership

America's tech companies have been leading the way for how large employers should aid in the pandemic response.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story July 30, 2021 Credit to tech's pandemic leadership America's tech companies have been leading the way for how large employers should aid in the country's pandemic response. Sean Dong By Shira Ovide This newsletter will begin publishing three days a week. This will give us a chance to dig a bit deeper into the tech stories that affect us most. We'll see you Tuesday. America's technology companies could have done more to keep Americans informed about the coronavirus and to help people and businesses that have struggled. But they have also been decisive trend setters in keeping their workers and the rest of us safer from the virus. Last year, some high-profile tech companies were relatively early to close their corporate offices as coronavirus outbreaks started in the United States, and they continued to pay many hourly workers who couldn't do their jobs remotely. Those actions from companies including Microsoft, Salesforce, Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter probably helped save lives in the Bay Area and perhaps beyond. Now many of the same tech companies — along with schools and universities, health care institutions and some government employers in the United States — have started to announce vaccine mandates for staff, the resumption of requirements to wear masks, delayed reopenings of offices or on-site workplace vaccinations to help slow the latest wave of infections. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT America's tech companies, which deserve criticism for misusing their power, also should get credit for using their power to take decisive action in response to virus risks. Those steps helped make it palatable for other organizations to follow. And in some cases, tech companies have acted more quickly in response to health threats and communicated about them more effectively than federal or local government leaders. I get that readers will disagree over whether employers should require vaccinations or other health measures. I also get that tech companies have many advantages over other kinds of employers, including workers who can largely do their jobs away from an office. Companies that manufacture cars or airplanes, serve food or run hospitals don't have that luxury. And tech companies based in left-leaning parts of the United States including the Bay Area and Seattle are less likely to encounter backlash from staff or local politicians for requiring vaccinations. Having infinite dollars also gives tech companies the ability to do what they believe is best. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT But other affluent corporations mostly haven't been as visible in leading the way for how large employers should aid in the country's pandemic response. Technology companies cannot and should not replace effective government. The collaboration of private industry and the U.S. government was instrumental in the development and delivery of extremely effective vaccines, and it was the federal government's actions that significantly reduced poverty in America in a time of crisis. It's appropriate to worry that tech superpowers and other private companies have too much influence. But in this case, technology companies have been flexing their might to make us all a little safer. If you don't already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. Subscribe Today We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times with this special offer. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Before we go … A MeToo reckoning in video games: Many employees of the video game company Activision Blizzard are protesting what they say is routine workplace harassment and unfair pay for women. The video game industry has traditionally shrugged off claims of sexism and mistreatment of women, but now a "critical mass of the industry's own workers are indicating they will no longer tolerate such behavior," my colleagues Kellen Browning and Mike Isaac write.Related: Women at Google complained about mistreatment by their bosses. They were offered mental health counseling, and in at least one case the company asked for access to an employee's patient records, Alisha Haridasani Gupta and Ruchika Tulshyan report. America's drivers are the unwitting guinea pigs: Greg Bensinger, a member of The New York Times's editorial board, writes that Tesla puts everyone at risk by overstating the capabilities of driver assistance technologies in the company's cars. We can't blame only the internet companies: It's a mistake to overstate the influence of online misinformation on anti-vaccine beliefs in the United States, a Wired writer says. There's also a risk of the public and news media using "misinformation" as an overly broad term for posts that aren't objectively false but contain cherry-picked statistics or misleading interpretations of facts. Hugs to this Watch the family of the Olympic gymnast Sunisa Lee erupting in joy when she won a gold medal. We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you'd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com. If you don't already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. You can also read past On Tech columns. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for On Tech With Shira Ovide from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. 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On Tech: Big Tech has outgrown this planet

The gap keeps widening between the super rich tech superstars and the merely super.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story July 29, 2021 Big Tech has outgrown this planet The gap keeps widening between the super rich tech superstars and the merely super. There's one possible explanation. Nicole Ginelli By Shira Ovide The already bonkers dollars of Big Tech have become even bonkers-er. My colleagues and I have written a lot about the unreal sales, profits and oomph of America's five technology titans — Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook. This might feel like old news. Tech's Titanic 5 have been big and rich for a long time, and they've gotten even more so as people and organizations have needed their products during the coronavirus pandemic. Yadda, yadda, yadda. We get it. But no, we really don't get it. American's technology superstars have launched into a completely different stratosphere than even other wildly successful companies in tech and beyond. Let me give you a flavor of the bonkers-ness: The current stock market value of the Big Five ($9.3 trillion) is more than the value of the next 27 most valuable U.S. companies put together, including corporate giants like Tesla, Walmart and JPMorgan Chase, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Apple's profit just from the past three months ($21.7 billion) was nearly double the combined annual profits of the five largest U.S. airlines in prepandemic 2019. Amazon's stock price increases have made Jeff Bezos so rich that he could buy a new model iPhone for 200 million people — and he would still be a billionaire. Google's $50 billion in revenue from selling advertisements from April to June was about what Americans — all of the Americans — spent on gasoline and gas station purchases last month. The annual revenue of one of Microsoft's side businesses, LinkedIn, is nearly four times that of Zoom Video Communications, a star of the pandemic, in the past year. Facebook expects to dole out more cash outfitting its computer hubs and offices in 2021 than Exxon spends around the world to dig oil and gas out of the ground in a year. I know that lots of odd things are happening in the U.S. economy right now. But I cannot adequately explain how not normal these numbers are from the tech superpowers. Maybe that's why Bezos wanted to touch outer space; the Big 5 tech giants have outgrown Earth. What's clear more than ever is that America's tech titans have formed a separate universe in which they are the sun, and everyone else — billions of humans, other companies, entire countries and governments — are mere planets that revolve around them. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Perhaps even more surprising than the size and scale of these companies is how they have mostly grown more profitable in what could or should have been economic conditions that hurt their profits. I have been befuddled that Amazon and Apple have shown higher profit margins than those companies have had for years — possibly ever. That has happened even though the pandemic has forced those companies to reorganize factories or warehouses, deal with disrupted global shipping, scramble for parts in short supply and spend a fortune to keep their workers safe. That chaos and unplanned spending should have made the companies less profitable, not more so. (Apple did spook investors a little by saying this week that it was having trouble getting all the parts it needs for the next few months. Amazon will disclose its financial results later on Thursday.) What does all this mean? Well, for one thing, members of Congress or state attorneys general might look at the numbers and ask: If, as the Big Tech companies say, they face stiff competition and could die at any moment, how could profit margins keep going up like this? Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Logic would suggest that if the companies are fighting off lots of rivals, they might have to cut prices and profit margins would shrink. So how does Facebook turn each dollar of revenue, nearly all from ads it sells, into 43 cents of profit — a level that most companies can only dream of, and higher than Facebook posted before the pandemic? I've asked over and over in this newsletter whether America's Big 5 tech titans are invincible. As the gap keeps widening between the super rich tech superstars and the merely super, I'm starting to believe that the answer is yes. If you don't already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. Subscribe Today We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times with this special offer. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Before we go … Every country wants to regulate Big Tech: Turkey has forced Google to make major changes to its search engine in the country. My colleagues Adam Satariano and Dai Wakabayashi have details, and say that Turkey could provide a preview of more country-by-country government regulation that could become a fixture of the global internet. A big, possibly odd, day for Robinhood: It's the first day as a public company for the app that made stock trading as fun and easy as playing Candy Crush. My DealBook colleagues ask: Is Robinhood really worth $30 billion or more? Here is the most convoluted way to set up home internet equipment. Gizmodo has one man's tale of a DIY Wi-Fi setup involving plastic bins, bungee cords and a small fan. Don't try this at home, probably. Hugs to this A red monster mascot appeared on the field at a baseball game in Japan, "swallowed" a security guard and spit him back out without his uniform. It's way less menacing than it sounds. We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you'd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com. If you don't already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. You can also read past On Tech columns. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for On Tech With Shira Ovide from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018