Techmeme
February 3, 2022, 6:20 PM

Top News

Amazon:
Amazon Q4: revenue up 9% YoY to $137.4B, net income up 98% to $14.3B, and AWS revenue up 40% to $17.8B; FY 2021 revenue grew 22% to $469.8B; stock is up 15%+  —  SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE) February 3, 2022—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Amazon will raise Prime's annual price by $20 to $139 and its monthly price by $2 to $14.99, on February 18 for new members and March 25 for current members  —  Amazon is upping the price of Prime, increasing the annual fee of its membership from $119/year to $139/year.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon reports advertising services revenue of $31.2B in 2021, with $9.7B in Q4, up 32% YoY; subscription services grew 15% to $8.1B  —  - Amazon shares rallied in extended trading Thursday after the company posted a big earnings beat for the fourth quarter, helped by a gain on its investment in electric vehicle company Rivian.
Bloomberg:
Meta closes down 26%, erasing $250B+ from its market cap, the biggest loss of market value in single day for a US company, after weak Q4 results and Q1 guidance  —  Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is set to shed about $200 billion in market value, in what would be one of the biggest …
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Meta CFO says Apple's ATT privacy changes will cost the company $10B in revenue during 2022 and that Google “faces a different set of restrictions from Apple”  —  Meanwhile, the company accused Apple of favoring Google over app-based platforms like Facebook with its privacy policies
Parmy Olson / Bloomberg:
Meta and Alphabet are the least diversified of the tech giants, relying on ads for 98% and 81% of revenue, respectively, a long-neglected vulnerability  —  Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., the world's biggest digital advertising platforms, once again raked in astonishing amounts of money in 2021.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
The US Senate Judiciary Committee approves the Open App Markets Act, which would allow app sideloading and let developers use their own in-app payment systems  —  The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today approved the bipartisan Open App Markets Act, an antitrust bill that would allow …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Audio: Daniel Ek says Spotify needs exclusives for leverage to land deals with Amazon, Google, and others, and he finds many things Rogan says “very offensive”  —  He says Spotify is a platform, not a publisher  —  Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed employees about the Joe Rogan controversy …
Los Angeles Times:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Nintendo reports 10.67M Switch sales in Q3, down 8% YoY, bringing lifetime Switch sales to 103.54M, overtaking the Wii's 101.63M in under five years  —  A good holiday quarter, but Nintendo cut its forecast  —  The Nintendo Switch had a relatively strong holiday quarter …
Reuters:
Sources: Israeli surveillance company QuaDream used the zero-click ForcedEntry exploit to break into iPhones in 2021; ForcedEntry was also used by NSO Group  —  A flaw in Apple's software exploited by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group to break into iPhones in 2021 was simultaneously abused …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Snap reports its first quarterly net profit, with Q4 revenue of $1.3B, up 42% YoY, net income of $23M; revenue for FY 2021 grew 64% to $4.1B; stock is up 60%+  —  - Snap reported earnings for the fourth quarter Thursday that beat analyst estimates on earnings, revenue and user growth.
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Interview with Satya Nadella on Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition, preparing for the metaverse, the future of gaming and workplaces, and more  —  Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles.  Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
GameStop plans to launch an NFT marketplace in 2022, built on the Ethereum-based Immutable X platform, and is creating an “up to $100M” fund for game developers  —  It hopes a $100 million fund will make developers use it  —  GameStop plans to launch its own marketplace for non-fungible tokens …
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
White House forms the Cyber Safety Review Board, loosely modeled on NTSB, to investigate major national cybersecurity failures, starting with the Log4j bug  —  The new panel is loosely modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board and will look into the recently discovered Log4j internet bug
Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:
The Conti ransomware group hits major British snack producer KP Snacks, affecting the supply of Skips, Hula Hoops, McCoy's, and others to leading supermarkets  —  KP Snacks, a major producer of popular British snacks has been hit by the Conti ransomware group affecting distribution to leading supermarkets.
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
Counterpoint: Apple shipped 2.3M iPhones in India in Q4, up 34% YoY; Xiaomi shipped 9.3M smartphones, up 2% YoY, and Samsung shipped 7.2M, down 8% YoY  —  Apple Inc. had its strongest quarter for iPhone sales in India yet, a sign the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is finally making progress …

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data  —  Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics.  Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
ETL tool evaluation checklist: 6 things to look for before you choose  —  Your data is only as valuable as your ability to move, prepare, and access it efficiently.  Choosing the wrong ETL tool can lead to months of rework …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Tim Cook's Legacy + The Future of U.B.I. With Andrew Yang + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Chapter's Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz: From Palantir To $3B Medicare Disruptor
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI President Greg Brockman on GPT-5.5 "Spud," AI Model Moats, and Cybersecurity Risks
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Lenny's Podcast:
How Anthropic's product team moves faster than anyone else | Cat Wu (Head of Product, Claude Code)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Access:
Silicon Valley finally has its "Succession"
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:20 PM ET, February 3, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: