South by Southwest is no longer the preferred launchpad for social apps, but it may be for others like Blue Duck, a San Antonio-based transportation company debuting its scooter service this weekend.
Context: Between Twitter's big breakout moment in 2007 and Meerkat's in 2015, SXSW has served as a great marketing opportunity for social apps. But that's ended as consumer trends have shifted and Hollywood and other consumer companies have taken over the festival.
Speaking to Axios' Mike Allen at South by Southwest Saturday, Congresswoman Terri Sewell, a member of the House Intel committee, said social media platforms have been very cooperative with the committee in investigating the extent to which Russians used their platforms to meddle in the 2016 election.
"They’ve been very cooperative. All of the social platforms have been very cooperative. They've all turned over all the documents we’ve asked. They’ve been very helpful."
The backlash against the power players of Silicon Valley is testing pro-business tendencies of Republicans, including the influential chairs of the commerce committees in the House and Senate, and giving conservative activists a new cause.
Why it matters: It's rare for powerful Republicans to pressure corporations that haven't run afoul of the law — but tech is proving an exception to that rule, highlighting the ways in which political attitudes toward the industry have changed in the last year.
In honor of International Women's Day, Google introduced a new feature that allows business owners to identify their businesses as "women-led" on Google My Business, per Google. Businesses that use Google My Business can enable the attribute from their dashboard, where it will appear in their listing until they choose to disable it.
How it works: The Google My Business verification process allows businesses to manage their information on Google platforms such as maps and search. The "women-led" descriptor, including the female gender symbol, will appear alongside the details in the businesses's listings that highlights any special offerings such as Wi-Fi or outdoor seating.
Facebook and the MLB have agreed to stream 25 afternoon games in the U.S. Neither party has disclosed financial terms, Bloomberg, who first reported the deal, says that the price tag is somewhere around $30 million.
Why it matters: It's the first time a major league sports franchise will exclusively air a series of regular games on Facebook. (Facebook competitors, like Amazon and Twitter, have landed such deals with he NFL.)
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said his company's "intention is to open verification to everyone," Gizmodo reports. He said he doesn't want Twitter to "be the judge or imply bias" on who gets verified. The company didn't respond to a Gizmodo request for more info.
Why it matters: Verification of legitimate sources is a huge part of what helps curb the spread of fake news on Twitter. Expanding verification could open them up to more bad actors trying to take advantage of potentially false or misleading credibility.
More than half of Americans (58%) believe that artificial intelligence poses a greater threat to U.S. jobs over the next 10 years than immigration and offshoring (42%,) according to a new Northeastern University/Gallup survey.
By the numbers:
61% of the youngest age group polled, 18-35 year olds, believe that technology poses the deepest threat, compared to 39% of pointed to immigration and offshoring.
Republicans were the only subgroup to think that immigration and offshoring (48%) pose a bigger threat than AI (52%,) while Democrats chose AI as the higher threat (67%) by 34 more percentage points than immigration and offshoring (33%.)
Qualcomm said Friday that Paul Jacobs, former CEO and son of the company's co-founder, is stepping down as executive chairman. Independent board member Jeffrey W. Henderson will serve as non-executive chairman of the board, while Jacobs will remain a director.
Why it matters: The move comes as Qualcomm is fighting a hostile takeover bid from Broadcom, trying to complete a deal to buy NXP Semiconductors and locked in a legal battle with Apple, one of its biggest customers.
This year's South by Southwest conference will be packed with events on digital currencies, health data, and artificial intelligence — a sign of how quickly these have become the biggest topics in future trends. But there's also a recognition of a dark side: lots of panels about how social media is reshaping news and information, and not always for the better.
What to watch: The festival starts in Austin today. Watch for panels on tech industry trends like cryptocurrencies and voice assistants, the growing presence of lawmakers, a particular interest in media, and especially Facebook’s growing influence. You can also catch a panel on "innovation superpowers." Oh yeah, and Ethan Hawke will be there.
