Zwift snags massive $615m investment

Global platform Zwift has attracted a massive $615 million investments in virtual cycling.

Virtualised cycling experience Zwift.

Hello and welcome to The Download, The Australian’s technology blog for the latest tech news.

Chris Griffith 8.00am: Zwift snags $615m in new investments

Global virtual cycling platform Zwift has announced a $615 million ($US450m) “minority investment” led by global investment firm KKR. New investors include Permira and Specialised Bicycle Components’ venture capital fund, Zone 5 Ventures. Some existing investors are upping their contributions.

Virtualised cycling experience Zwift.

Zwift says the money will be used to further develop its core software platform and it is expected Zwift will start building hardware. Zwift uses gaming technology to simulate real world cycling environments, as well as its fictitious cycling world Watopia. Recently it added cycling experiences in provincial France and Paris, following the virtualised Tour de France in July. New York, Richmond Virginia, London, Yorkshire, and Innsbruck Austria are the other cycling worlds.

It also recently added steering on bikes in virtual environments.

Since launching in 2015, Zwift has seen over 2.5 million accounts registered across 190 countries. It offers 386km of virtual cycling terrain. It also offers treadmill running and is moving into rowing in some environments.

Zwift CEO Eric Min says the company will use the investment to operate in a broader fitness market and further deliver on its ambition to provide gamified fitness using integrated software and hardware. “We will be accelerating our investment in the core business, improving the overall product experience, and bringing forward new features, more content and Zwift designed hardware, all with the support of KKR and our new outside investors who can help drive our growth.”

7.40am: Facebook faces a surge in internal division

Facebook is moving to curb internal debate around divisive political and social topics, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says, after a spate of disputes and criticism that has fuelled discord among staffers.

The steps will include delineating which parts of the company’s internal messaging platform are acceptable for such discussions, and careful moderation of the discussions when they occur, Mr Zuckerberg told employees at a company meeting, according to a spokesman. Employees shouldn’t have to confront social issues in their day-to-day work unless they want to, the CEO said.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Picture: AFP.

Specific details of the new policy are still being decided, with more information to come next week, but Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook plans to “explore ways to preserve our culture of openness and debate around” its work, according to a spokesman.

The planned changes will arrive amid a contentious US presidential election that M. Zuckberberg says he fears could lead to civil unrest, as well as a series of other controversies that have intensified discussion inside and outside Facebook over how it handles controversial content.

Several employees recently have posted memos internally that leaked outside the company criticising its content policies. Some employees last month pressed Facebook’s leadership to review its handling of hate speech in India, after a Wall Street Journal article detailing what current and former Facebook employees said was a pattern of favouritism toward that country’s ruling party and Hindu hardliners.

And a group of employees staged a virtual walkout in early June to protest Facebook’s decision to leave up a post from President Trump about social unrest that the employees said broke Facebook rules about inciting violence, prompting Mr Zuckerberg to defend the decision in a highly charged employee meeting.

Other companies also have struggled to balance employee freedoms with a desire to limit internal discord and division — especially in Silicon Valley, where companies have long encouraged more freewheeling company cultures. Alphabet’s Google last year issued guidelines limiting employee discussion of politics and other topics, saying staffers should avoid spending time hotly debating matters unrelated to their jobs.

Restrictions on internal discussion are likely to be especially sensitive at Facebook, which has billed itself as a platform for free expression — and where Mr. Zuckerberg’s reluctance to put constraints on discussion of controversial topics by users has been a source of discontent among some staffers.

Facebook employees have long had the ability to set their profile photo with an image expressing support for a particular cause, such as Black Lives Matter. And Mr Zuckerberg says at the employee meeting that part of Facebook’s intention with the new measures is to ensure that Black employees and other under-represented communities don’t face a hostile environment when they come to work. Facebook has voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement, even as it has drawn ire from some activists for not doing enough to curb what they say is hate speech and incitements to violence on its platform.

The Wall Street Journal

7.15am: Twitter tightens account security

Twitter says it is tightening security of high-profile politicians, campaigns and journalists as a “critical preventative step” ahead of the US presidential election.

Twitter will implement more sophisticated systems to detect suspicious activity and ramp up defenses intended to thwart hackers from taking over accounts, according to the social media platform popular with US President Donald Trump.

“Implementing these security measures is a critical preventative step,” the tech firm’s safety team says in a blog post.

(FILES) In this file photo illustration taken on May 27, 2020, a Twitter logo is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. - Wall Street was mixed early August 10, 2020, with Nasdaq retreating further as investors digested President Donald Trump's efforts to take unilateral action in the absence of a deal with Congress on emergency pandemic spending. About an hour into the first trading session of the week, the tech-rich Nasdaq was down 0.4 percent to 10,963.75, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.95 percent to 27,686.07 and the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 3,357.96. Twitter gained 1.9 percent amid reports the social media giant held talks to combine with Chinese video app TikTok which Trump last week banned from the US amid what he said were security concerns. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP)

Twitter says it is “focused on keeping high-profile accounts on Twitter safe and secure during the 2020 US election”. Accounts targeted for heightened security include US federal and state politicians; political parties; candidates; presidential campaigns, and journalists who cover them.

Such accounts will be required to use strong passwords, and Twitter will enable a setting that requires confirmation by email or phone number to reset passwords.

Twitter also encouraged people managing those accounts to use two-factor authentication that requires a back-up validation, for example a confirmation code sent by text message, when logging in.

The safety team says it is applying lessons learned from prior incidents. Hackers in July took over dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts with an attack that tricked a handful of employees into giving up their credentials, according to the company.

The incident by bitcoin scammers stemmed from a “spear phishing” attack which deceived employees about the origin of the messages, Twitter said.

While that massive hack duped people out of money, it heightened concerns that legitimate accounts could be commandeered by malicious characters out to sway elections or cause conflict.

Twitter and other social media platforms are under pressure to stop being used to spread misinformation or exacerbate social division, ahead of the November poll.

AFP

7.00am: Oracle, Walmart flesh out their TikTok bid

Backers of a proposed new entity to take over Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok are working to create an ownership structure that would give US interests a majority stake, in an effort to ease the Trump administration’s security concerns.

Under the latest iteration, Oracle and partner in the venture Walmart could together own a significant stake, according to people familiar with the situation. That move, if combined with existing American investors, could put majority ownership in US hands, the people said.

Oracle company signage in front of its office building in Beijing. Picture: AFP.

Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon is expected to get a board seat if the deal goes through, said some of the people familiar with the matter. As part of the current plan, TikTok would file for a US initial public offering in about a year, said one of these people.

Trump administration officials have pushed for majority US ownership of TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. That goal could be met under the proposal for Oracle alone, or together with Walmart to take significant ownership stake. Their participation, together with existing U.S.-based ByteDance investors like Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and Coatue Management, could push US ownership in the new entity above 50 per cent.

The situation is highly fluid and it is unclear what the final terms of any deal would ultimately be. Mr Trump and Chinese authorities must also sign off on any deal.

Mr. Trump has expressed discomfort with any agreement that leaves ByteDance with majority ownership of the company’s US operations. “Conceptually, I can tell you, I don’t like that,” he told reporters.

Those reservations were echoed publicly by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who cautioned that a transaction that leaves the company Chinese-controlled might not meet the president’s standards.

Speaking at an online webinar on Thursday, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said the president was reviewing all options.

“The deal and its many aspects are being reviewed very, very carefully by economic and national security processes,” he said at the event, hosted by the Economic Club of New York.

The Wall Street Journal