Articles
June 25, 2012
Simple by Design: Coinbase Opens Its Doors
This week, a new company opened its doors with a simple promise: buying bitcoins should not be an act of bravery. Coinbase was founded by Brian Armstrong, a former Airbnb engineer, and Fred Ehrsam, a former Goldman Sachs trader, and the company's pitch was the easiest way to buy, sell, and store bitcoins, built for ordinary people in the United States. The first version of the product was a simple web wallet with a clean interface, and the company was just getting started. The ambition was bigger than the product: to be the on-ramp that the whole industry lacked. This is the June 2012 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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May 22, 2012
Sixteen Billion: Facebook Goes Public
On Friday, Facebook went public, and the largest technology initial public offering in history produced the flattest debut of the social wave. The shares priced at thirty eight dollars, the top of the range, and the company raised sixteen billion dollars at a valuation near one hundred four billion. The stock opened at forty two dollars and five cents, spent the day drifting near the offering price, and closed at thirty eight twenty three, up less than one percent. The Nasdaq's systems failed around the debut, and the underwriters were said to have supported the price. This is the May 2012 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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April 13, 2012
Thirteen People, One Billion: Facebook Buys Instagram
On Monday, Facebook announced that it would buy Instagram for approximately one billion dollars in cash and stock, and the technology world spent the rest of the week trying to process the number. The photo-sharing app had thirteen employees, no revenue, and about thirty million users, and it had just launched on Android days earlier. The price dwarfed every comparable deal in the history of venture-backed startups, and the press called the app the most expensive in history. The announcement came from Mark Zuckerberg on his own timeline, and the message was short: Instagram would keep building independently. This is the April 2012 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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March 12, 2012
Four Times the Pixels: Apple's New iPad
There is a screen this week, and the screen is the announcement: the new iPad that Apple unveiled on Wednesday at the Yerba Buena Center. The screen is the promise, and the promise is the pixels: 3.1 million of them, four times the pixels of the iPad 2, the highest resolution display ever shipped in a mobile device. The screen is the moment: Tim Cook's first major launch as chief executive. Four Times the Pixels is the March 2012 story, and the story is the lesson: the display that changes the device, the device that changes the category, the category that changes the industry.
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February 2, 2012
845 Million Users: Facebook Files for Its IPO
On Wednesday, Facebook filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the most anticipated technology initial public offering since Google's debut in 2004 officially began. The document revealed the company's numbers for the first time: eight hundred forty five million monthly active users at the end of 2011, four hundred eighty three million daily active users, and revenue of three point seven one billion dollars, up eighty eight percent. The company planned to raise up to five billion dollars, and the figure was only the opening bid. The filing was a formality, and the filing was also a revelation. This is the February 2012 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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January 18, 2012
One Dark Day: Wikipedia Protests SOPA
There is a blackout this week, and the blackout is the encyclopedia: the English Wikipedia that went dark on Wednesday for twenty four hours, the protest against two bills in Congress, the action described as the largest online protest in history. The blackout is the message, and the message is the banner: 'Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge,' the words that greeted the web. The questions began that day: what were the bills, why choose silence. One Dark Day is the January 2012 story, and the story is the lesson: the web that spoke in one voice, the Congress that heard it, the free knowledge worth the fight.
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December 19, 2011
Virtual Goods, Real Money: Zynga Goes to Market
On Friday, Zynga went public, and the market greeted the social gaming company with a shrug. The shares priced at ten dollars, the top of the range, and the company raised about one billion dollars on a valuation near seven billion. The stock opened at eleven dollars and then faded, closing at nine fifty, down five percent from the offering price. It was the first big social internet initial public offering to end its first day below its price, and the signal was impossible to miss. This is the December 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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November 8, 2011
Up a Third: Groupon Rings Nasdaq
On Friday, Groupon went public, and the market gave the daily-deals company a reception that felt like a coronation. The shares priced at twenty dollars, above the already raised range, and the company raised about seven hundred million dollars on a valuation near twelve and a half billion. The first trade came in near twenty-eight dollars, and the stock closed its first day at twenty-six eleven, up about thirty percent. It was the biggest technology initial public offering since Google's debut in 2004, and the whole industry watched. This is the November 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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October 6, 2011
Goodbye, Steve
On Wednesday, the world said goodbye to Steve Jobs. The co-founder of Apple, the man who returned to save the company, and the most celebrated chief executive of his generation died at fifty-six, at home in Palo Alto, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. The tributes began within minutes and did not stop: from presidents, from rivals, from the customers who lined up at Apple Stores to leave flowers and notes. Apple had become the most valuable company in the world only months before, and now it faced the future without its founder. This is the October 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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September 21, 2011
Two Companies: Netflix Divides Itself
On Sunday evening, the chief executive of Netflix announced that the company would cut itself in two. Reed Hastings said the DVD-by-mail business would become a separate service called Qwikster, while streaming would keep the Netflix name. The split was the climax of a summer of fury from subscribers who had watched their bills rise and their loyalty tested. The company that had built the modern mail-order movie business was now telling the world that its future lay elsewhere. The reaction came fast, and it was not kind. This is the September 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: ...
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