Sara Fischer

The upcoming sale of Yahoo and AOL to a private equity firm for $5 billion represents a massive media markdown. At their dotcom bubble peaks, Yahoo and AOL were valued at more than $125 billion and $200 billion, respectively, or $193 billion and $318 billion in 2021 dollars. AOL made one giant mistake. It famously bought Time Warner for $182 billion in cash and stock in 2000, saddling the company with debt just before the dotcom bubble burst and the rise of broadband made AOL's dial-up services virtually obsolete.

Nearly every major social platform has recently introduced some form of tipping, allowing users to directly support their favorite personalities in real time. The popularity and availability of payment platforms such as Venmo, CashApp and Stripe are making it easier for tech companies to enable peer-to-peer payments on their platforms. For creators, getting money from users directly is critical because platforms are not financially incentivized to pay out most people directly.

The COVID-19 crisis drove digital media consumption to new heights, while traditional media stagnated, according to data from eMarketer. Time spent with media overall increased significantly during the pandemic, thanks to lockdowns that people spent online. Time spent with digital increased 15% in 2020 from 2019 to 7 hours, 50 minutes daily. Connected TV saw a 33.8% increase in usage last year, to 1 hour, 17 minutes per day. Subscription streaming saw a 33.9% increased in usage to 1 hour, 12 minutes per day. Digital audio saw a 8.3% increase in usage to 1 hour, 29 minutes per day.

Where there’s a coup, there will probably be an internet outage. At least 35 countries have restricted access to the internet or social media platforms at least once since 2019, according to Netblocks, a group which tracks internet freedom.

The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is trying to lure away partners that have provided services for the 

The only competitor challenging the growth of Google and Facebook's digital advertising dominance of late is Amazon. A years-long effort by major media companies to take on "the duopoly" has mostly fizzled out -- although media companies and activists have been successful in putting regulatory pressure on Google and Facebook, and that seems to be playing out in their favor, if ever so slightly.

The Trump Administration said it would challenge a federal court ruling Sept 20 that temporarily blocked its attempt to curb the use of Chinese messaging and e-commerce app WeChat in the US. WeChat's ban has had a lower profile than TikTok's, but the fate of the app, widely used by Chinese people around the world to stay in touch with family and friends, is at least as consequential. The ruling suggests that WeChat's fate in the US could be decided not only on grounds of national security and commercial regulations but also around freedom of speech principles.

The Open Technology Fund is requesting that the US Office of the Inspector General investigate its parent, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), for breaching a firewall provision that is supposed to protect government-funded media agencies from political interference. In a letter to USAGM CEO Michael Pack and the Office of the Inspector General, Open Technology Fund interim CEO Laura Cunningham requests that Pack recuse himself from reviewing the OTF's funding and security matters in order to keep politics out of the process. The letter alleges that USAGM and Pack have attempted to under

Facebook is rolling out a new policy that will prevent U.S.

The coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and a looming election have brought long-simmering conflicts between tech platforms and President Donald Trump to a boil, as Facebook, Twitter and other services are starting to take presidential misinformation seriously. The new willingness to challenge the president is coming only as Trump's presidency is weakened by a deadly pandemic and an economic meltdown.