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Your guide to the new world of work. [img] [img] [img] [img] [img] [img] [img] Coverage | Newsletter | Intel | Events Coverage | Newsletter | Intel protocol gaming Power Amazon has never launched a successful video game. Will New World be Big Tech's first gaming hit? Plagued by delays, the new MMO from Amazon Game Studios could still be a major success for the company. An image of virtual avatars in Amazon's New World. New World has been delayed four times since last year, but the team is now gearing up for its all-important launch next month. Image: Amazon Game Studios Nick Statt August 15, 2021 The first success story for Amazon Game Studios may almost be upon us. New World, the ecommerce giant's massively multiplayer online game, is due out next month. But it's been a bumpy road for the Irvine-based development team. The most recent hurdle, after more than a year of remote work due to the pandemic, was yet another delay that pushed the release date out by one month. Game director Scot Lane told Protocol the main culprit was bugs, as well as other unforeseen issues from running the game at unprecedented scale during a beta period that started in July. "We have a little bit more work to do than we thought," Lane said in an interview over Zoom last week. "The surprise for me was our alpha community didn't find nearly all the exploits the whole world found." One bug, which allowed players to duplicate items, was discovered within days, and savvy fans worked together online to map out the best and most expedient ways of exploiting it. "Players are really clever at finding exploits. There are really no substitutes for that," Lane said. "It was clever and smart, and it was something we hadn't anticipated." New World is a big gamble from Amazon's game division, launching into an established genre with heavyweights like World of Warcraft that have been around for two decades. And a lot is riding on the game's success after the highly public failure of Amazon's prior project. The company's first foray into big-budget video games was called Crucible, a multiplayer online battle arena game influenced in part by major esports titles like Riot Games' League of Legends. But the game felt uninspired, derivative and directionless, with a hodgepodge of various design ideas pulling it many directions at once. Crucible was launched last year and then, a few months later, put back into a closed beta state after it failed to gain traction. In October 2020, the company canceled it outright, feeding the narrative that tech companies like Amazon and Google have been throwing large sums of money at a problem they don't have the creative chops to solve. In February, Google closed down its internal game development division for its Stadia cloud service, choosing instead to license third-party games from established developers. The question since has been whether Amazon would follow suit. That hasn't happened. New World is now Amazon's next big bet, and while it's been a rocky road not made any easier by COVID-19, the MMO is showing much more promise than Crucible after a successful beta that brought in thousands of players. "It was surprising. We had a lot more players than we expected come through. Honestly, we were humbled," Lane said. The team has also shown a strong willingness to get New World right. Since the beginning of last year, New World has been delayed four times. That number of launch date misses might typically spell a disaster in the making. Instead, Lane said it's about ensuring the launch meets the team's expectations and those of its early, diehard alpha and beta players. (Trying to meet deadlines during the pandemic was also an extremely difficult task, he said.) "About four or five days into the beta, we started discussing this among ourselves," Lane said of the delay. He added that the team fully expected to hit its Aug. 31 release date, but that "players found more bugs than expected" and there was simply more work to do. "It's important for us to listen to players and important for us to have a good launch," Lane said. "A good launch is everything in MMOs." The game is now scheduled to release on Sept. 28. Player feedback has been the biggest driver of change for New World, Lane said. The game saw a surge in popularity on Twitch thanks to a promotional event Amazon ran with streamers in the U.S. and U.K. That attracted new players in droves, and with the new interest came more feedback about how New World could be improved. "If there's anything we've learned in the last few years, the more we engage players the better it is for everyone," Lane said. "The game is going to get bigger and bigger over time and it's going to be based on what they're asking for." "I'm very frustrated about a lot of the problems that New World has, but I actually have a lot of faith in the game," popular Twitch streamer Asmongold told Dexerto earlier this month. "And the simple reason for that is because I complained about half of these things and they made them better. They listened to feedback." The company is now planning some changes to the full release, though it declined to share specifics. Lane said he wants new and existing players to be pleasantly surprised. New World is arriving at a time of rapid change for the industry. Some game makers, like Epic and Roblox, are chasing the metaverse, collaborating with real-world brands and hosting concerts. Others, like EA, are pouring money into mobile and free-to-play. New World is more of a throwback to the heyday of the MMO genre. It does feature some new twists on combat and interesting social features like a competitive faction system that allows players to influence the world's power structure. But New World's biggest differentiator is its business model. Most MMO games charge a monthly subscription fee, while many of the world's most successful esports and mobile hits have long since gone free-to-play to attract the most players possible and make money back through microtransactions. New World, on the other hand, will cost $40 at launch, with no subscription fee. "We're a new game, and we have to earn trust with players," Lane said. New World, he added, is a "full-fledged MMO for $40 and no subscription ... that seems like a good deal provided we can deliver on a full game." Despite the delay, the timing is still promising for New World. Activision Blizzard is seeing an exodus of players from longtime MMO leader World of Warcraft due to the company's ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination crisis. Another major competitor, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV, is struggling on a technical level to support an influx of new players. New World now has a chance to arrive on the scene and establish itself as a fresh newcomer to the genre. After the flop of Crucible, the pressure is on Lane and the New World team to deliver and establish Amazon Game Studios as not just another fleeting hobby for the game-obsessed tech industry. "At the end of the day, we have to make players love this game," Lane said. "We want New World to be an experience that delights players." From Your Site Articles * Amazon is good at so many things. Why is it bad at games ... > Nick Statt Nick Statt is Protocol's video game reporter. Prior to joining Protocol, he was news editor at The Verge covering the gaming industry, mobile apps and antitrust out of San Francisco, in addition to managing coverage of Silicon Valley tech giants and startups. He now resides in Rochester, New York, home of the garbage plate and, completely coincidentally, the World Video Game Hall of Fame. He can be reached at nstatt@protocol.com. amazon gaming video games protocol gaming patents Apple wants to let your friends drive The latest patent filings from Big Tech. Image: Rainbow Designs/Govind Dhiman/Noun Project August 15, 2021 Karyne Levy Karyne Levy ( @karynelevy) is the West Coast editor at Protocol. Before joining Protocol, Karyne was a senior producer at Scribd, helping to create the original content program. Prior to that she was an assigning editor at NerdWallet, a senior tech editor at Business Insider, and the assistant managing editor at CNET, where she also hosted Rumor Has It for CNET TV. She lives outside San Francisco with her wife, son and lots of pets. August 15, 2021 The slow summer has finally caught up with patent filings. This week: Google wants to fix your workflow, Apple wants to help you keep your Apple Pencil safe, and Microsoft wants everyone to have fun when they play video games, no matter what. As always, remember that the big tech companies file all kinds of crazy patents for things, and though most never amount to anything, some end up defining the future. Alphabet Allowing for different workflows Google docs are pretty straightforward: You write in the doc, edit it, allow other people to edit it, and all of the changes are stored in a version history that anyone can see. But a linear workflow isn't the only kind of workflow that's out there. Sometimes a branched workflow is more appropriate, such as when building a web portal. In those instances, each component is composed of various versions that all come together to make one item. Right now, document editors are only able to do one workflow at a time. But in this patent, Google imagines a way for both workflows to exist in the same document, and you can switch between them, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. That way you don't have to use various editors to do one task, and if you're sharing the document with someone else, they, too, can choose which workflow style they want to use. Apple Animated avatars Emojis are fine, but animated Memojis are even better. You can send one to a friend and it can more or less figure out your emotions by analyzing your facial features via the camera. But what if it's not really reading your face and accurately depicting your current mood? Or what if you for some reason want to create an avatar when you're in a meeting, as this patent suggests? Apple wants to figure out other ways of animating avatars, and it's starting with the simplest: by typing in the emotions you're feeling. If you want to send a text to your mom that you can't come to the party, you can send a text that says "I'm sorry I can't come to the party," then give it a command, "send with a sad robot," and the message will go through with a robot looking sad. The system could even offer a dropdown of various emotions, so you can choose which one to send. Never feel bad for missing a party again, because you've got a sad robot on your side to help. Storage for your Apple Pencil Although it's known for its clean designs, some Apple designs are a miss. For example, try using your Magic Mouse while you're trying to charge it. I'll wait. But that's not the only big miss: No Apple devices have a built-in, dedicated, secure spot for an Apple Pencil. Apple's trying to change that with one of its recent patent filings, which imagines a little slot at the top of your laptop keyboard that can fit a Pencil. Does this have anything to do with last week's patent filing that imagined a touchscreen MacBook? Give others access to your ride Most vehicles require a key or key fob to enter. But what if you want to let your friend drive your car? Give them the key, of course. But what if you're on vacation? Or what if your car offers a way to input a code? You'd have to change the code once you got back so your friend didn't take your car for joy rides at night. This patent aims to make everyone's life easier by providing a token to a friend based on their phone number or some other type of identification method, similar to how apps use tokens to authorize users. But with this method, the car effectively "locks" the user out after using it or after a set amount of time by the owner. Facebook A better way to virtually type When using a VR headset, there are ways to use a virtual keyboard to input text. But often the inputs don't give any kinesthetic feedback, and typos might occur. This patent imagines a way to fix that by using a language model that can autocorrect or autocomplete a word in real time. When the headset determines that you're not really paying attention to the keyboard, or that your typing slows down or speeds up, or your gaze shifts, it can be a little more aggressive in fixing typos and finishing your sentences. Microsoft Playing with friends Playing games online, like first-person shooters or MMORPGS, can be fun -- unless your skill level doesn't match the others. Whether you're too good, or really bad, if everyone's skill doesn't match up, it could leave gamers feeling disengaged. This patent wants to change that, by assigning various game modes to players of varying skill levels. If you're a level 1, it will assign you easy tasks to do that help the entire team complete the mission. If you're a level 10, it will assign you hard tasks to do that will also contribute to finishing the mission. Everyone will be able to enjoy playing with friends, no matter the skill levels of the entire team. Keep Reading Show less Karyne Levy Karyne Levy ( @karynelevy) is the West Coast editor at Protocol. Before joining Protocol, Karyne was a senior producer at Scribd, helping to create the original content program. Prior to that she was an assigning editor at NerdWallet, a senior tech editor at Business Insider, and the assistant managing editor at CNET, where she also hosted Rumor Has It for CNET TV. She lives outside San Francisco with her wife, son and lots of pets. apple google facebook microsoft patents sponsored Sponsored Content Supercharge your bottom line with better payments data Forward-thinking businesses don't just value payments data; they work with providers that allow them to leverage it to garner deeper insight to reduce costs, unlock more revenue and grow their business. August 15, 2021 Checkout.com Checkout.com helps innovative global brands, like Grab, Revolut, Careem, Glovo, Robinhood, Farfetch, Klarna and Remitly manage their digital payments - empowering them with tailored solutions that allow them to drive more revenue and better customer experiences, starting with their payments. July 13, 2021 Businesses are well aware of the value that data as a whole brings and invest heavily to unlock that advantage. Yet one function -- payments -- has been left relatively untouched by this data revolution. Payments have typically been viewed as a cost center. This has led executives to focus on driving down the cost of payments rather than unlocking its strategic potential. But in today's digitized economy, an optimal payments strategy powered by rich data insights can offer a competitive advantage. Take control of costs The majority of businesses still have a big opportunity to cut their costs simply by accessing better payments data from their providers. Moreover, a significant opportunity to unlock innovation and growth remains pent up in high quality payments insights which, once tapped, will be a huge strategic boon to merchants. Wanting to unlock the opportunities that access to rich payments data provides is one thing. Having the ability to do so is another. Let's take Europe's online retail sector as an example. Checkout.com recently surveyed over 550 senior executives at top ecommerce retail organizations and found that 59% aren't getting a transparent breakdown of the costs of payments. A further 67% are not receiving any fraud or chargeback analysis. Without these critical data points, businesses are working in the dark. They cannot build accurate logic that encourages a customer to complete payment while still in session -- such as automating a retry or prompting them to use a different card. This matters because payments can become an expensive part of the business if left uncontrolled. For example, chargebacks alone can typically cost businesses between 0.7% and 1% of all their sales every year. A number made worse because estimates suggest an eye-watering 60-80% of these are fraudulent. Indeed, 62% of European retailers say that payments cost them 11% or more of their total annual revenue. And these costs have a genuine impact, affecting their ability to competitively price their products and free up cash to find new ways to grow revenue. The good news is that these figures represent a sizable opportunity for merchants to turn losses into gains because good payments data can be the difference between payments as a cost and payments as a revenue driver. Unlock more revenue with unrivaled payments performance Spiraling costs are compounded by the revenue left on the table due to inadequate payments performance. Looking again at European retailers, Checkout.com research finds that only 31% have a payment authorization rate of 90% or more. That means a large number of customers are finding themselves unable to complete their purchase at the checkout. This matters not only because customers are unlikely to retry after having their payment rejected, but because 33% of consumers say they've been put off shopping on a site permanently when their payment was incorrectly declined. These false declines deprive businesses of billions of dollars in sales revenue every year. Again, the problem is understandable when we see how underinformed merchants currently are. Over 70% of European online retailers don't have access to raw response codes -- the data points that tell merchants why a payment has failed. Without these critical data points, businesses are working in the dark. They cannot build accurate logic that encourages a customer to complete payment while still in session -- such as automating a retry or prompting them to use a different card. This cycle of failed payments and lost revenue can be broken as soon as a merchant has the data transparency required. Trailblazers, like Deliveroo, Shine, Uber and Fartech, with leading edge payments partners like Checkout.com, have shown how knowledge is power and data is control. They can measure how a few percentage points in increased authorization rates equates to millions on their bottom lines. Find a data-driven payments partner The truth is, when it comes to accessing payments data, businesses are at the mercy of their providers. And many aren't equipped to provide merchants the data they need to cut costs and capture more revenue. Merchants should look for a partner which is built on the latest technology and owns the end-to-end payment flow. Take decline codes, for example. These codes can be a rich source of actionable insights which can be optimized to decrease false declines and increase successful transactions. Some providers consolidate these codes to just a dozen categories, but transparency-first providers will often pass back this data in full. Checkout.com, for example, shares 150+ decline codes. This gives businesses access to the most granular payments data in the format they need it, when they need it. It's also important that payments partners can provide expertise and dedicated support to help merchants understand their payments data and build strategies to optimize performance and reduce costs. Make payments a long-term competitive advantage Questions around competitiveness often come with the subtext of acting fast. And though it's right that businesses don't delay, they also shouldn't rush. Transforming payments from the cost of doing business to a competitive advantage is not achieved by a series of quick fixes. Instead, merchants should take a holistic approach and take time to find a partner for whom data insights and operational capabilities are inseparable. The result will be a competitive edge that is more profound, scalable and sustainable. Get in touch with Checkout.com to see how we can free your payments potential. Keep Reading Show less Checkout.com Checkout.com helps innovative global brands, like Grab, Revolut, Careem, Glovo, Robinhood, Farfetch, Klarna and Remitly manage their digital payments - empowering them with tailored solutions that allow them to drive more revenue and better customer experiences, starting with their payments. sponsored source code podcast Samsung phones, app store bills and vaccine mandates Plus, why 2022 might be the new date to be back in the office. Image: Samsung August 15, 2021 David Pierce David Pierce ( @pierce) is Protocol's editor at large. Prior to joining Protocol, he was a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a senior writer with Wired, and deputy editor at The Verge. He owns all the phones. August 15, 2021 On this episode of the Source Code podcast: First, a quick look at Samsung's new foldable phones, and what it'll take to make anyone care about foldable phones. Then Ben Brody joins to talk about the new bill in the Senate that would change the way Apple and Google's app stores work. Finally, Allison Levitsky catches us up on tech's return to offices, new vaccine mandate policies, and the increasingly flexible future of work. For more on the topics in this episode: * Samsung's big bet on a foldable future * Ben Brody on Twitter * A new Senate bill would overhaul Google and Apple's app stores * Allison Levitsky on Twitter * Vaccine mandates aren't enough. Big Tech wants employees to prove it. * Tech company hybrid work policies are becoming more flexible, not less Subscribe to the show: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts Keep Reading Show less David Pierce David Pierce ( @pierce) is Protocol's editor at large. Prior to joining Protocol, he was a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a senior writer with Wired, and deputy editor at The Verge. He owns all the phones. source code podcast is this tech? People Chewy might just be a retail company that uses tech exceptionally well If a company has to fill my mailbox each week with coupon mailers to use their "tech," I would have to say not really. Things 100% age out of being tech every day. Photo: Chewy/Unsplash August 14, 2021 Becca Evans Becca Evans is a copy editor and producer at Protocol. Previously she edited Carrie Ann Conversations, a wellness and lifestyle publication founded by Carrie Ann Inaba. She's also written for STYLECASTER. Becca lives in Los Angeles. Protocol Team A new media company from the publisher of POLITICO reporting on the people, power and politics of tech. August 14, 2021 Is Chewy tech? From poaching tech talent in Beantown and breaking ground on its first automated fulfillment center to using its Chewy Innovation Blog to wax poetic about the company's "platform experience," the ecommerce site catering to our furry friends has certainly been building a resume for itself. As Biz Carson wrote in last week's pet-centric Pipeline (Pupline? OK everyone's booing me nevermind), VCs are hungry for investments in the pet space. But is VC enthusiasm enough to brand the pet retailer tech? Some could also point a paw (I'm getting booed again) at the strength of Chewy's ecommerce system, but as we've discussed before, just using tech for retail might not be enough when everyone's doing it. Chewy's foray into telehealth with its Connect with a Vet offering might be something to consider, and like our muse last week, Chewy is endeavoring -- and kind of succeeding! -- in taking on Amazon in its niche. But now it's time to let our intrepid team put it to a vote and see whether the ecommerce good boy can fetch the tech tag it's been barking for (I'm being thrown out of the Protocol office like DJ Jazzy Jeff). This conversation has been edited slightly for clarity and length. Becca Evans: Is Chewy tech? Kate Cox: Chewy the online pet-supply-order company? Becca: you know it Issie Lapowsky: read this prompt, thought it was about granola bars and threw my hands up in dismay Owen Thomas: This is kind of a stand-in for a broader question on whether ecommerce generally is tech, right? Kate: I was out last week, did the room decide Walmart is tech? Sarah Roach: maybe we should ask the pets themselves Ben Pimentel: So not Chewbacca? I think Star Wars is tech Owen: I submit for your consideration Chewy's GitHub page Owen: That's a lot of tech right there but Tom Krazit: @Ben Pimentel I think the preferred nomenclature is "Chewie" Tomio Geron: is pet food tech? Owen: Ramona likes deliveries of treat packages but barks at the mailman. I'm not sure what that means for tech. Kate: I think Chewy is neither more nor less tech than any other ecommerce brand that doesn't also make half the web run. Owen: It raises the question: Is Amazon's core retail business tech? Or is it just retail that requires a lot of tech to run? Where's the line? Owen: If we accept Amazon's retail business as tech, which other retail businesses are or aren't tech and why? Kate: The serious answer is: Amazon is different because it is also a third-party platform and it collects and uses vendor data in a lot of ways -- some of which are under investigation -- and I think that kind of scale changes the equation. Kate: The less serious answer is: Was the Sears catalog tech? Ben Brody: I feel like I'm playing @Owen's song here, but: how I think about Chewy springs a bit from Pets.com. Like, it was considered the ultimate folly that supposedly should have told us the dot-com bubble had gone too far. This debate isn't new! Ben Brody: Ha, maybe not as far back as that, Kate Owen: The Sears catalog absolutely used cutting-edge technology of the time -- the railroad. Owen: It created products designed to be shipped by rail and it marketed those same products via the U.S. Postal service, whose reach and speed was being greatly accelerated by the development of railroads. Kate: Right. And now instead of using the USPS, retailers use the web /apps. There's a reason I reached for catalogs, hehe. Tom: Was the Roman Empire tech? Joe Williams: The personalized painting campaign is uber cute. Tomio: Is fire tech? Ben Brody: Thanks Tom, now I'm just doing the "what have the Romans ever done for us" scene from "Life of Brian" in my head Owen: What I'm trying to figure out is what Chewy did differently from Pets.com, or if it just had way better timing. Ben Brody: I mean, things can age out of being tech? Kate: Things 100% age out of being tech every day Owen: Ironically, the same company bought the Pets.com domain name and later bought Chewy.com -- PetSmart. Ben Brody: Right! Pets.com=PetSmart=Chewy hardly looks hubristic today! Kate: That's not ironic IMO, that's predictable. Niche retailer want to succeed in reaching more people. Use the internet, which reaches all people. Try again, when online shopping is a thing everyone does, instead of when it's weird Kate: (I bought some books for class off Amazon in 1999. The general consensus among friends, family, and professors was, "You bought them... where?!") Owen: Weirdly, though, the private equity firm that now owns PetSmart split up the businesses -- so now they're just two companies that share an owner. Biz: There's definitely a ton of appetite for VCs to fund pet tech companies right now. I just wrote my whole Pipeline column on it last week because we're seeing doggie DNA companies like Embark raise money, telemedicine vets, a whole bunch of DTC fancy food brands. It's a $110 billion industry Owen: I think this goes back to a recurring question -- does venture investment in a sector make that sector tech? Biz: but as we've talked about before -- just because a VC funds it, it doesn't mean its tech. although it could put it on a path of having tech-like business multiples Biz: you read my mind owen Owen: Exactly. I think VC and tech are often conflated, though historically VC has invested in many sectors, including new consumer/ retail brands. Megan Rose Dickey: if amazon is tech, chewy is tech Owen: When I talked to investors in the '90s who were funding ecommerce startups, they viewed them more as consumer investments than tech in many cases, and played up their familiarity with funding consumer brands as an advantage. Biz: i think there was a point where ecommerce was tech because it was using technology to have an advantage over incumbents in a field (and then hopefully delivering greater returns because of it). But I think I continue to argue that having a website, using technology, etc. is just table-stakes for a retail player in 2021, and I don't consider it a tech company. Just a retail company that uses tech exceptionally well Kate: Investment in pet everything is hot right now, because Americans are spending a metric buttload of money on their (our) furry friends. I covered a bunch of pet food and product acquisitions in the 2017-2019 world Megan: ok but chewy delivers ridiculously fast Megan: if that's not innovation, idk what is Owen: Ah, Megan, I think you're getting to a question at the heart of this series: Owen: Is innovation tech? Biz: Innovation: is it tech Owen: Biz stop reading my mind, that's CREEPY Megan: lolol Kate: Does Chewy do their own logistics, @Megan, or is it UPS or FedEx delivering? Owen: It's good to have a healthy writer-editor relationship but installing a telepathic implant in my brain is a little beyond Karyne Levy: Fedex delivery Tomio: can something low tech be innovative? Biz: the electric wine bottle opener is life-changing Owen: Absolutely, Tomio. For example, Brex underwrote corporate cards based on startups' financial prospects rather than the founders' individual creditworthiness. There's nothing tech about that, it's just a business-model shift that had considerable appeal to an underserved sector of the market. Tomio: yes! Owen: But Chewy sure acts like a tech company. For example, it added an office in Boston to attract more technical talent. (Don't tell all the Miami-heads that South Florida's technical bench isn't that deep!) Biz: is hiring an engineer the definition of a tech company now? Biz: i think the only company i've voted yes for in this series as a tech company is peloton. so i'm going to stick with chewy in the no camp for me Owen: I can tell you from glancing at Chewy.com's job listings that it has some pretty ambitious ideas around pet health. Imagine tying together ecommerce, vet telemedicine, and pet wearables ... Owen: It's clear that Chewy has to do something besides fast shipping and really great customer service to stay ahead of Amazon. And that may mean incorporating tech more directly into what it does. Chris: If a company has to fill my mailbox each week with coupon mailers to use their "tech," I would have to say not really Owen: Direct mail is an underrated marketing technique ... and may have a comeback especially as more privacy and data regulation falls into place! Owen: Is direct mail tech? Ben Brody: not that you asked, but the direct mail industry has a surprisingly robust lobbying presence Becca: ok let's put it to a vote Becca: emoji react to this if chewy is tech [?] 4 Becca: and react to this one if you think it's not tech [?] 7 Megan: owen Megan: you can't vote twice! Chris: wait, are the dog emojis tech? Owen: Periodic reminder that I will make your pet a petmoji on request Keep Reading Show less Becca Evans Becca Evans is a copy editor and producer at Protocol. Previously she edited Carrie Ann Conversations, a wellness and lifestyle publication founded by Carrie Ann Inaba. She's also written for STYLECASTER. Becca lives in Los Angeles. chewy ecommerce pets is this tech? Protocol | China Eight takeaways from Xiaomi founder Lei Jun's viral speech As Jack Ma and other company leaders lay low, Lei Jun is becoming the most beloved tech figure in China. Photo: VCG/Getty Images August 13, 2021 Zeyi Yang Zeyi Yang is a reporter with Protocol | China. Previously, he worked as a reporting fellow for the digital magazine Rest of World, covering the intersection of technology and culture in China and neighboring countries. He has also contributed to the South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, Columbia Journalism Review, among other publications. In his spare time, Zeyi co-founded a Mandarin podcast that tells LGBTQ stories in China. He has been playing Pokemon for 14 years and has a weird favorite pick. August 13, 2021 Jack Ma is so last year. For the next Chinese tech leader accumulating a cult-like following, look no further than Lei Jun. The 51-year-old founder and CEO of Xiaomi -- currently the world's second best-selling smartphone brand -- gave an hour-long speech at a Xiaomi product launch this Tuesday, and the attention it received eclipsed any product released that day. Lei is often referred to by fans and critics as "the Steve Jobs of China," which started as a sarcastic aside but has become a genuine piece of praise. Lei's latest speech, in which he recounted 10 difficult decisions he made as CEO and shared personal anecdotes of embarrassment and humiliation, has only bolstered those comparisons. Below are eight major takeaways; you can watch the full speech or read the 10,000-character-long script here. People want a tech CEO icon As Jack Ma's previous fans turned against him and other tech founders lay low, Lei is increasingly filling the role of the charismatic, industry-changing, celebrity tech leader. What were once mocked as Lei's drawbacks -- like his countrified Chinese accent and his humble upbringing in a small Chinese town -- are now adored by the public. It's a long way from Lei's early years at Xiaomi, when he was "shy, reserved ... and made any speaking opportunity sound like a product launch," according to He Yifan, veteran journalist and former deputy editor of Bloomberg Businessweek's Chinese edition. Now, Lei has become one of the few tech CEOs who give public speeches often and even seems to enjoy them. Life post-IPO is not 'happily ever after' For many Chinese tech companies, at least before DiDi's IPO fiasco, going public has meant that they've made it. But a big chunk of Lei's speech is about the rollercoaster ride Xiaomi experienced after debuting on the Hong Kong exchange. Xiaomi's stock price almost immediately fell post-IPO and for months sat below 50% of the debut price. It took the company two years to finally come back up, and Lei said it became his priority to convince the market of Xiaomi's value. Even though the speech didn't mention it, Xiaomi's eventual comeback relied on an accident: Huawei had to exit many overseas markets because of U.S. sanctions, and it left a big gap in the smartphone demand that Xiaomi filled. Failure stories have wide appeal The stock market journey gave Lei Jun immense pressure, and he shared several personal anecdotes that the public hadn't heard before. One of them, which instantly spread around the web, is that Lei Jun was too embarrassed to meet with the media after Xiaomi's stock slipped under its IPO price on the first day. "After the [opening bell] ceremony, there were many media publications at the entrance [to the stock exchange]," Lei said. "None of us wanted to face the embarrassment, so we hid in a storage room." There's even a photo capturing the moment. [6u-0UtDrCr] In another anecdote, Lei said he was reprimanded face-to-face by one investor for more than an hour "as if we were grade-school students." These anecdotes are consistent with Lei's image as one of the more down-to-earth tech leaders in China. Set ambitious goals Lei is no stranger to ambitious goal-setting. He opened the speech with a callback to seven years ago, when he publicly promised to turn Xiaomi into the world's biggest phone brand within a decade. He also mentioned that Apple's senior vice president Bruce Sewell, who was at the same event with him in 2014, jokingly commented: "It's easy to say; it's much more difficult to do." As market analytics firms reported, for the first time, Xiaomi has dethroned Apple as the second best-selling phone brand in the world. Lei's goal from seven years ago seems more realistic now. Patriotism still sells One section of Lei's speech is dedicated to the story of how Xiaomi fought back the Trump administration's decision to classify it as a Chinese military-controlled company. The story has been reported before -- how the U.S. Department of Defense based its decision partly on a (rather meaningless) government plaudit Lei Jun had received as an entrepreneur. Xiaomi eventually won the lawsuit against DoD and took itself off the investment blacklist, and Lei retold the story in his speech, casting it as an important achievement for Xiaomi. "This is an unprecedented win," Lei said, taking credit for other suits against Washington. "Inspired by Xiaomi's success, several other Chinese companies have also sued [the U.S. government] and won." Tend the fan economy Xiaomi has always branded itself as a company that stays extremely close to its customers, many of whom are brand fanatics. Lei announced Xiaomi will offer a refund to every single person who bought one of Xiaomi's first smartphone model as a thanks for their early support. It will involve 184,600 buyers and cost about $57 million, Lei said, but it's a price Xiaomi is willing to pay. It's always time to buy on livestreaming Lei's speech could be watched live on almost all Chinese social media platforms, including several livestream ecommerce apps. Even when Lei wasn't directly plugging any Xiaomi products in his speech, the apps that carried it were constantly prompting the audience to buy a Xiaomi product. As Chinese publication Dianshang Zaixian reported, on Taobao, over 1 million viewers of Lei's speech purchased over $10 million worth of products that day. Expect more speeches like this one This is the second time Lei has given his "annual speech." It started in 2020, the company's 10-year anniversary, when Lei gave a three-hour-long presentation that summarized Xiaomi's journey. Judging from the attention this year's speech has garnered, it looks like this will become a new annual tradition for Lei. From Your Site Articles * Comparing Biden and Trump's banned Chinese company lists ... > * Online nationalism, meet real life - Protocol -- The people, power ... > * Xiaomi is taking China into the smart home era - Protocol -- The ... > Keep Reading Show less Zeyi Yang Zeyi Yang is a reporter with Protocol | China. Previously, he worked as a reporting fellow for the digital magazine Rest of World, covering the intersection of technology and culture in China and neighboring countries. He has also contributed to the South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, Columbia Journalism Review, among other publications. In his spare time, Zeyi co-founded a Mandarin podcast that tells LGBTQ stories in China. 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