Jul 18, 2017

Instagram COO explains why its "Stories" clone is unique

Instagram borrowed Snapchat's "Stories" format, but what makes it unique is how it works in concert with the rest of the photo-sharing app's features, Instagram COO Marne Levine explained at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen.

"We've acknowledged over and over again that we did not invent the Stories format," said Levine. "It's a great format and it works well in our community," adding that Stories lets users post photos they often wouldn't post as traditional Instagram photos.

Why it matters: Instagram's decision to launch a feature identical to Snapchat's Stories last August has been met with both criticism and praise for getting its users to adopt it so quickly (currently 250 million people are using Instagram's Stories every day). The competition between the two apps is well known, and Stories has become the new battleground.

Go deeper

Axios

Coronavirus updates: Market ends worst week since financial crisis

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

The stock market ended its worst week since the financial crisis, prompting the Fed to release a statement. Meanwhile, the WHO warned that countries are losing their chance to contain the novel coronavirus and raised its global risk assessment to "very high" Friday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,860 people and infected more than 84,000 others in over 60 countries and territories outside the epicenter in mainland China. The number of new cases reported outside China now exceed those inside the country.

Go deeperUpdated 7 hours ago - Health

Marisa Fernandez, Orion Rummler

California coronavirus: Latest case has no recent history of international travel

Gov. Gavin Newsom. Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

A new case of the novel coronavirus in California was announced on Friday after Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that 33 people had tested positive for the virus, noting the risk to the public remains low.

What's new: An adult woman with chronic health conditions in Santa Clara County who "did not recently travel overseas" or come into contact with anyone known to be ill was confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus on Friday by CDC and California Department of Public Health officials.

Go deeperUpdated 7 hours ago - Health

Ina Fried

Big video game conference delayed amid coronavirus concerns

Photo: GDC

Next month's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco became the latest tech event to be cancelled or postponed amid growing concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The big picture: A growing number of events are being scrapped, including Mobile World Congress and Facebook's F8 developer conference. Some, like the giant SXSW event in Austin, insist they are moving forward.

Go deeper7 hours ago - Technology