Alphabet subsidiary Google has announced it’s buying prominent cybersecurity firm Mandiant in an all-cash transaction that values the business at $5.4 billion. The deal, which is slated to close later this year, sees Google snap up a coveted prize at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine is fueling widespread concern about rising cyberthreats.



Google’s bid for Mandiant comes a few weeks after rumors that Microsoft, a major rival in security and cloud computing, had been eyeing the business to further strengthen its own security offerings. At $23 a share, Google’s offer represents a 57% premium to Mandiant’s share price when news of Microsoft’s purported interest began spreading in February.



Mandiant will bolster Google Cloud’s security offerings as it seeks to compete more aggressively with Microsoft, AWS and other cloud giants. In a statement announcing the transaction, Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud, called the Mandiant brand “synonymous with unmatched insights for organizations seeking to keep themselves secure in a constantly changing environment.”



That environment could start changing faster than ever because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has triggered fears that cyberattacks within Ukraine could spillover into other countries. CIOs and chief information security officers (CISOs) at companies are looking to their ecosystem of security providers to alert them to—and help defend them against—escalating digital threats.



Mandiant, which was spun out of cybersecurity company FireEye in 2013 and sold to private-equity investors for $1.2 billion, has built up a reputation for smart analysis of hackers’ activities, including those of groups from Russia and China. It has also played a prominent role in unmasking several high-profile cyberattacks,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martingiles/2020/12/17/solarwinds-hackers-five-cybersecurity-challenges-for-cios/?sh=478b6a6c21b6">including one on SolarWinds</a>&nbsp;in 2020.



The business, which is led by CEO Kevin Mandia, a highly respected security leader, has 600 consultants who help businesses deal with many thousands of crises a year. It also has more than 300 analysts who track hackers’ activities and flag emerging risks. Mandiant has developed a software-as-a-service platform that will integrate with Google Cloud’s online offerings and which helped the security company grow revenue last year by 21%, to $483 million.



<h3 id="h-intelligence-sharing">Intelligence sharing</h3>



Technology leaders say intelligence from all kinds of third-party suppliers is more important than ever given the heightened uncertainty triggered by the conflict in Ukraine. “Step number one is to be really plugged into your information network, says Brad Arkin, the chief security and trust officer of tech giant Cisco, which boasts one of the largest cyber threat intelligence teams in the world in the form of its Cisco Talos Intelligence Group.



While hackers may have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-07/hackers-targeted-u-s-lng-producers-in-run-up-to-war-in-ukraine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">targeted computer systems at liquid natural gas providers</a>&nbsp;just before the invasion of Ukraine began, tech leaders say they generally haven’t seen any increase in specific threats. Still, they’re on the lookout for things such as distributed denial-of-service attacks, which flood websites with traffic to knock them offline, and wiper malware, which erases the hard drives of computers it infects. Both these and other tactics&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/02/23/another-round-of-malware-attacks-hits-ukraine-as-russia-crisis-intensifies/?sh=2e3c2afc585b">have already been used against Ukranian targets</a>.



Lou Steinberg, a former CTO of TD Ameritrade who is the founder and managing partner of cybersecurity firm CTM Insights, thinks the risk of cyber activity spreading beyond Ukraine and Russia will partly depend on how far economic sanctions go in terms of damaging the Russian economy. The harder these measures bite, the more Russia could be tempted to loosen the restraints on cyber hacking groups in the country. Steinberg recommends CIOs and chief information security officers keep a close eye on the Baltic states, which are likely to be the first to experience any spillover cyber events.



Like other security professionals&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;spoke with, Dawn Cappelli, who recently retired as the chief information security officer of Rockwell Automation, stressed that getting security basics right, such as bolstering defenses against phishing attacks that try to trick employees into handing over login credentials, is now more important than ever. Hackers, she says, could try to exploit feelings running high over the invasion to fool employees into clicking on phishing links.



<h3 id="h-chain-reaction">Chain reaction</h3>



Cappelli also recommends that companies step up scrutiny of their software supply chains, including code that controls key machinery and safety systems in factories and other critical infrastructure, such as power grids. Mandiant’s CTO, Charles Carmakal, who&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;interviewed before news of Google’s bid emerged, says that where possible companies should try to separate the networks that run software controlling key industrial processes from those handling general IT needs in order to stop cyber attackers from using corporate networks to access more sensitive systems.



Cisco’s Arkin recommends businesses step up scrutiny of their network environments more generally in order to detect any intrusions. “Now is not the time to look past things that are a little bit off,” he says. The key is to be able to tackle any intrusions before they can cause chaos. “I’m really, really focused upstream. How do I prevent those early steps of the attack chain.”



Events in Ukraine mean that experts at businesses such as Mandiant and Cisco Talos are going to be especially busy this year. Chief executives and boards are also likely to be questioning CIOs and CISOs about the state of their preparations for scenarios in which cyberattacks spread. But one security expert cautions that placing too much pressure on tech and security teams now could ultimately backfire.



Johannes Ullrich of the SANS Institute, which specializes in cybersecurity training and research, says there’s a real risk of companies overloading cyber defenders with preparations for threats that may or may not become reality when they’re only just recovering from dealing with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/12/14/amazon-cisco-microsoft-just-3-of-many-vulnerable-to-log4j-hacks/?sh=21f7603b40eb">the Log4j security crisis</a>&nbsp;in open source software at the end of last year. Warns Ullrich: “Exhausting your people with busywork [now] will hurt you later more than it helps.”



By&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martingiles/"></a>Martin Giles, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration, a woman holds a smartphone with

Google’s $5.4 Billion Acquisition Of Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant Comes As Tech Leaders Brace For Escalating Digital Threats

The future of the world is linked to the future of Africa and this tech giant is investing in it to enable startup successes.



BY PAULA SLIER AND SASHA STAR



GOOGLE ANNOUNCED IN EARLY OCTOBER THAT it would be investing $1 billion into Africa over the next five years. This is to focus on improving connectivity and enabling startups to flourish. The move is hardly the first but a reaffirmation of its commitment in Africa which it has been a part of for 14 years.



“If you look at sub-Saharan Africa, it’s home to 1.1 billion people, most of them very, very young. But only about 300 million people use the Internet on a regular basis,” reveals Google’s sub-Saharan Africa Managing Director, Nitin Gajria. “So there’s about 800 million people that have never experienced its power. Our goal with this billion-dollar investment is really to play some role in hopefully building a vibrant Internet ecosystem on the continent.”



In Gajria’s view, a key aspect of the ecosystem is emerging startups and the impact they can make. “I believe that no-one is better placed to solve some of Africa’s most profound challenges than young startup founders, young developers and the startup community in general.”



One of the startups that Google has taken under its digital wing is Food For Mzansi. The initiative, which recently turned three, focuses on South Africa’s agriculture sector, offering a platform for farmers to “grow” their communities by sharing their stories, news, opinions, career opportunities, and even recipes.



“We wanted to create a citizen journalist network — to upskill people and train them in basically everything from media ethics, to how to get stories and tell stories,” explains co-founder Kobus Louwrens.



The tech company facilitated the Sinelizwi remote training program that equipped 62 journalists with the skills and mentorship required to find sources and develop stories.



Although it began as an in-person workshop in the rural Eastern Cape province, like many projects, it was forced online by the Covid-19 pandemic and was thereafter conducted over WhatsApp.



“We are still fairly young in terms of our state of development and Google coming aboard with support and funding definitely fast-tracked that for us,” Louwrens shares.



“There was a vast information exchange and our team received a lot of experience in regards to structuring a much more sustainable project than I think would have been possible without the input from those experts.”



Gidi Mobile is another startup that Google has identified as improving the lives of those on the continent. The Nigerian startup enables low-income students to access online learning through its app, allowing them to attend classes on a variety of subjects and test their understanding through game-like modules.



“In the West, education has traditionally been the thing that has helped people grow and lift them up. The problem we have in the developing world is that the people who have the greatest need to be lifted up are precisely the people who cannot afford quality education,” states founder Tunji Adegbesan who has been teaching teenagers since he was one himself.



Gidi now has access to expertise and has helped to create STEM content that relies on gaming technology, rather than conventional learning. By participating in tournaments and quests, users find themselves engaging with the subject matter and actually having fun doing so.



While a wealth of exciting ideas are springing forth from Africa’s depths, real challenges still stand in the way of ensuring that all citizens can benefit from them.



“There remain challenges with connectivity — whether it’s the cost of a smartphone, network coverage, data speeds, data costs — these are all real, tangible, meaningful challenges that the lay person on the street faces,” Gajria admits.



Google is laying the Equiano subsea cable along the west coast of Africa.



As Gajria states, “Anyone who is looking at Africa has to realize the potential and opportunity that exists. I can’t help but believe that the future of the world is inextricably linked to the future of the continent.”

Screenshot 2021-12-21 at 09.10.45

How A Billion For A Billion Is Going To Enable Startups in Africa To Flourish

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Google amended its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2021/11/18/bidens-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-is-on-hold-but-here-are-companies-requiring-shots-anyway/?sh=2c4e7a767198">Covid-19 vaccine mandate</a>&nbsp;to include all remote employees who work with the federal government “directly or indirectly,” a policy driven by federal rules, sparking backlash from some company staff, according to internal emails reviewed by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/23/google-employees-sign-manifesto-against-widened-vaccine-mandate.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNBC</a>.



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Google is requiring its employees to report their Covid-19 vaccination status by December 3, and will require staff who work with government contracts to get vaccinated even if they work remotely, the company told its employees in a memo last month obtained by CNBC.



Google&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/business/google-return-to-office-masks.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first said</a>&nbsp;in July that all employees returning to a physical office must be vaccinated, but CNBC’s Tuesday report is the first indication that any remote employees would be included in the mandate.



In response to the updated vaccination guidelines, CNBC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/23/google-employees-sign-manifesto-against-widened-vaccine-mandate.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>&nbsp;at least 600 Google employees — representing 0.4% of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204421000020/goog-20210331.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roughly 140,000</a>&nbsp;people working at Google — signed a memo opposing the current vaccine mandate.



Google did not immediately respond to&nbsp;Forbes’ request for comment.



<h2 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Google’s workforce has remained mostly remote since the beginning of the pandemic, though many employees will be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/31/22650639/google-mandatory-return-january-2022-remote-work" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expected</a>&nbsp;to return to the office beginning in January.



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Google’s new policies are largely in response to a pair of federal vaccine mandates. President Joe Biden is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/teakvetenadze/2021/11/04/most-us-workers-face-vaccine-mandate-with-new-jan-4-deadline-for-large-businesses/">requiring</a>&nbsp;all federal contractors —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.saferfederalworkforce.gov/faq/contractors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">including</a>&nbsp;people who work from home — to be vaccinated by January.&nbsp;The federal government also hopes to enforce a broader&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/04/fact-sheet-biden-administration-announces-details-of-two-major-vaccination-policies/#:~:text=First%2C%20the%20Department%20of%20Labor's,at%20least%20a%20weekly%20basis." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mandate</a>&nbsp;that would compel all private businesses with 100 or more employees to require&nbsp;<a href="https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets2/faqs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in-person staff</a>&nbsp;to either get vaccinated or get tested weekly by January, though a federal appeals court has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberleespeakman/2021/11/12/federal-appeals-court-reaffirms-decision-to-temporarily-halt-biden-administration-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/?sh=4742a17e1972">temporarily halted that policy</a>.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



82.2%. That’s the proportion of American adults who are at least partially vaccinated against Covid-19, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>.



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/23/google-employees-sign-manifesto-against-widened-vaccine-mandate.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Several hundred Google employees sign manifesto against widened vaccine mandate</a>&nbsp;(CNBC)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/11/23/biden-asks-appeals-court-to-reinstate-employer-vaccine-or-test-mandate-heres-what-could-happen-next/?sh=1ba4766c7922">Biden Asks Appeals Court To Reinstate Employer Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate—Here’s What Could Happen Next</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

FRANCE-ECONOMY-TECHNOLOGY-VIVATECH

Google Will Reportedly Require Some Remote Workers To Take Covid Vaccine

For a great many of the 16 million people who work in the $2.6 trillion U.S. tourism industry, getting an accurate assessment of travel demand is akin to finding the Holy Grail. For destination organizations and visitor bureaus at the national, state and local level, pinning down where people want to travel is the key to efficiently managing budgets and spending. Airlines gauge travel demand when deciding where to open new routes. Hotels and other tourism-related businesses use demand forecasting to right-size supply and determine how many employees to hire.



But predicting travel demand has become harder over the past decade, and the Covid-19 pandemic has upended traditional forecasting models that rely on recent historical data.



“I used to be able to close my eyes and tell you, ‘Here’s what we’re going do, and this is our audience,’” says Butch Spyridon, president of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.visitmusiccity.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nashville Convention &amp; Visitors Corporation</a>. “And I can’t do that anymore.”



Today, Spyridon and other U.S. tourism professionals are about to get an eyeful from Google. The technology company is launching&nbsp;<a href="https://travelinsights.withgoogle.com/intl/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Travel Insights with Google</a>, a brand new suite of free tools that leverage Google Search data to deliver insights into real-time travel demand.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60eece71c0c0a16f7b59d7a9%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="Google travel trends tool"/><figcaption>Destination Insights lets travel marketers glean quick &#8220;focusing facts&#8221; that highlight major trends.&nbsp;GOOGLE</figcaption></figure>



The first tool,&nbsp;<a href="https://destinationinsights.withgoogle.com/intl/en_ALL/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Destination Insights</a>, gives travel businesses, governments and tourism boards a clear picture of where travel demand is coming from so they can plan accordingly. A second tool,&nbsp;<a href="https://hotelinsights.withgoogle.com/intl/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hotel Insights</a>, has been customized to help hoteliers analyze search trends so they can attract new guests based on where interest is coming from.&nbsp;



“It’s really difficult to find any anchor of data to forecast the future, and so we felt it was a good time right now to share some of our search data with the industry to help travel companies understand what users are looking for. And here’s the kind of queries they’re doing, and here’s the data and information they’re interested in,” says Gianni Marostica, Managing Director of Global Business Development for Google Travel.



Google started piloting the Travel Insights tools last December in the Asian Pacific region, where some destinations were already bouncing back early from Covid-19 and looking for directional data to guide where they should spend marketing dollars.



“The launch is very timely for Vietnam as we are looking at reviving tourism and restructuring destination markets post Covid-19,” says Ha Van Sieu, deputy chairman of&nbsp;<a href="https://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vietnam’s tourism organization</a>. “The tool is extremely useful for us to understand domestic, inbound and outbound travel demand based on real-time digital data, and to develop marketing strategies.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60eec53a5c09d5e76d59d7a9%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="travel trend data Google"/><figcaption>Which destinations are growing in popularity? Destination Insights pulls data from Google Search.&nbsp;GOOGLE</figcaption></figure>



During the initial six-month pilot in Asia, Google received valuable feedback from the governments and travel organizations that test-drove the new tool. “They provided some great insights as to some additional data or different cuts of data that we should have in the tool,” says Marostica. “And hopefully now, moving forward, as we roll this out in the U.S., we’ll get even more insights and maybe do different cuts of data based on what U.S.-based users would like to see.”



As chairman of the board for&nbsp;<a href="https://destinationsinternational.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Destinations International</a>, a trade group representing over 650 destination organizations, convention and visitors bureaus and tourism boards worldwide,&nbsp;Spyridon helped forge a partnership with Google.&nbsp;Now he can’t wait to use Travel Insights to glean insights into where travel demand is strongest for Nashville.



The Music City’s $10 billion tourism industry has traditionally relied on a heavy leisure drive market, says Spyridon, but in recent years it&#8217;s become almost impossible to get a handle on where demand is most concentrated. “The whole country has become our market in the last 10 years. Now it&#8217;s 50-50 fly-drive and just as strong West Coast and Northeast as it is Atlanta,” he says. “That&#8217;s good news for us. But it&#8217;s also hard to retarget that audience.”



Spyridon says his biggest obstacle has been a lack of good intel. “By the time we look at, the data is weeks, months and in some cases, a year old,” says Spyridon. “Putting our arms around current real-time data, we have never had that opportunity.”



The destination tool offers quick insights such as “fastest growing destination globally,” “country with the most inbound interest” and “top city in demand.” Marketers can dive deeper into each data set, and toggle the date range to see how that changes results.



Spyridon sees today’s launch is a game changer for travel marketers. “Google is the best in the business for gathering this data,” he says. “This is the best, most accurate and most real-time data that we will have access to. It will allow us to understand the search trends and meet the demand more effectively and be more current.”



“Responsibly reinvigorating the tourism sector will take ingenuity and effort across the industry,” writes Marostica on <a href="https://www.blog.google/products/ads-commerce/tools-partnerships-help-travel-recover-thrive/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google’s blog</a>. “As we make progress toward recovery, we’ll continue to seek to find new ways to support the global travel and tourism sector by sharing data and insights that can help the industry rebound.”



By Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Forbes Staff

Man walking with suitcase at airport terminal

Google Just Unlocked The Mysteries Of Travel Demand—And The Tourism Industry Can’t Wait To Have At It

TOPLINE: Google was hit with a $593 million (€500 Million) fine by antitrust regulators in France on Monday after the company failed to offer a fair deal to local publishers for hosting their news content on its platform, adding to the list of several large fines the U.S. tech giant has copped in Europe in the past few years.



<h3 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.autoritedelaconcurrence.fr/fr/communiques-de-presse/remuneration-des-droits-voisins-lautorite-sanctionne-google-hauteur-de-500" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruling</a>&nbsp;comes after Google failed to comply with an April 2020 decision by the French regulators to negotiate a deal “in good faith” with publishers to carry snippets of their content on its Google News platform.



As part of the ruling, the French Competition Authority has ordered Google to come up with a remuneration offer for its use of the news snippets within two months.



If the tech giant fails to meet the deadline, it will face penalty payments of up to $1 million (€900,000) per day of delay.



In a statement shared with&nbsp;Forbes, Google said it was “very disappointed” with the ruling and it believes it had “acted in good faith throughout the entire process.”



The company added that it is about to reach a global licensing agreement with the French news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP), but did not provide a timeline.



Google will be able to appeal Tuesday’s fine, but it is unclear if it will choose to do so.



<h3 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



“The sanction of 500 million euros takes into account the exceptional seriousness of the breaches observed and how Google’s behavior has led to further delay of the proper application of the law…which aimed to better take into account the value of content from publishers and news agencies included on the platforms,” Isabelle de Silva, president of the French Competition Authority said in an official&nbsp;<a href="https://www.autoritedelaconcurrence.fr/fr/communiques-de-presse/remuneration-des-droits-voisins-lautorite-sanctionne-google-hauteur-de-500" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>.



<h3 id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h3>



Tuesday’s fine is the second-biggest antitrust penalty a single company has faced in France. Last year, the competition regulator hit Apple with a $1.2 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/16/apple-fined-1point2-billion-by-french-competition-authorities.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fine</a>&nbsp;after the company was found to have signed anti-competitive agreements with two distributors over the sale of non-iPhone products such as Apple Mac computers. Apple has appealed the ruling.



<h3 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



Publishers in Europe have clashed with Google multiple times in the past year, accusing the tech giant of luring away billions of euros in advertising money from the publishers while leveraging their content. Particularly contentious has been the company’s Google News platform which hosts snippets of news stories from publishers without paying them. On the flipside, publishers are unable to yank their content from Google’s platform as they rely on it heavily to drive traffic to their sites. Earlier this year, Google managed to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-france-copyright-exclusive/exclusive-googles-76-million-deal-with-french-publishers-leaves-many-outlets-infuriated-idUSKBN2AC27N" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reach a $76 million deal</a>&nbsp;to pay a group of 121 French Newspapers. But the AFP and other French publishers who were not part of the deal expressed anger and slammed Google for being opaque. De Silva has dismissed that deal and criticized Google for limiting the scope of the negotiations, excluding agency content like photos, and offering to pay the same amount for news content that it does for dictionary listings or weather information.



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/google-said-to-be-fined-593-million-by-french-antitrust-agency?utm_medium=social&amp;cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-markets&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_content=markets&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;sref=CSMHWBLp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Fined $593 Million By French Antitrust Agency</a> (Bloomberg)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Google Hit With $593 Million Fine In France For Failing To Ink Deal With News Publishers

TOPLINE Amazon and Google are facing a formal investigation in the U.K. over concerns they are not doing enough to protect users from fake reviews, the competition watchdog announced Friday, adding to increasing regulatory efforts around the world to compel tech companies to take more responsibility for problematic content on their platforms.



<h4 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



The Competition and Markets Authority said it had opened an investigation to determine whether Google and Amazon had broken consumer law by failing to take sufficient steps to “protect shoppers from fake reviews.”&nbsp;



The probe follows a broader investigation into fake reviews last year that “raised specific concerns” the two companies were not doing enough to detect and remove fake or misleading reviews or to identify “suspicious patterns of behavior” among reviewers.



The CMA said it was also concerned that neither platform had done enough to discourage businesses or reviewers from posting bogus reviews and Amazon in particular had failed to prevent sellers from manipulating its product listings.&nbsp;



“Fake and misleading reviews have the potential to impact on businesses’ star ratings and how prominently companies and products are displayed to consumers, changing their whole shopping experience,” the watchdog said.&nbsp;



The companies face enforcement action should the investigation find they have broken the law, the CMA said, which could include formal commitments to deal with the issue or, should they fail to do so, court action.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Amazon and Google did not respond immediately to&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;request for comment.



<h4 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s chief executive, said the watchdog’s worry is “that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations.” In addition, “it’s simply not fair if some businesses can fake 5-star reviews to give their products or services the most prominence, while law-abiding businesses lose out,” Coscelli added.



<h4 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Online reviews are a powerful driver of consumer decisions, whether that be for what to buy, where to go or what to eat. Many people rely on them as a metric to determine quality and authenticity and reviews will shape what is shown to consumers. A 2015 study by the CMA&nbsp;<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/436238/Online_reviews_and_endorsements.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimated</a>&nbsp;them to drive around £23 billion (around $32 billion) in spending a year in the U.K. alone. To seize upon this, an entire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56069472" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">industry</a>&nbsp;has emerged trafficking in fake or misleading reviews. The CMA has previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/21/facebook-and-ebay-told-to-take-action-over-fake-reviews-cma" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ordered</a>&nbsp;Facebook and eBay to tackle the problem after it found “troubling evidence” of a thriving marketplace for fake reviews.



<h4 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



16,000. This is how many&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/09/facebook-removes-over-16000-groups-trading-fake-reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">groups</a>&nbsp;Facebook took down earlier this year after the CMA intervened for a second time after the platform failed to honor its promise to deal with fake reviews.&nbsp;



<h4 id="h-contra">CONTRA</h4>



Amazon recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/16/amazon-blames-social-media-for-struggle-with-fake-reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blamed</a>&nbsp;social media companies for a large chunk of its fake review problem, saying they are not doing enough to remove the “bad actors” coordinating or soliciting reviews from their platforms. “While we appreciate that some social media companies have become much faster at responding, to address this problem at scale it is imperative for social media companies to invest adequately in proactive controls to detect and enforce fake reviews ahead of our reporting the issue to them,” the company said.



<h4 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/09/facebook-removes-over-16000-groups-trading-fake-reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook removes over 16,000 groups trading fake reviews</a>&nbsp;(Guardian)



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/06/amazon-reviews-thousands-are-fake-heres-how-to-spot-them.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon is filled with fake reviews and it’s getting harder to spot them</a> (CNBC)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustrative Google, Amazon and Apple logos

Amazon And Google Face U.K. Investigation Into Fake Reviews

TOPLINE Google parent Alphabet posted first quarter earnings Tuesday of $26.29 per share (versus Wall Street expectations of $15.82 per share) on revenues of $55.31 billion (versus expectations of $51.7 billion), boosted by surge in ad revenues.



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<ul><li>Alphabet’s reported fiscal first quarter net income of $17.93 billion, or $26.29 a share, almost tripled the net income of $6.84 billion, or $9.87 a share, in the year-ago period.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The first quarter revenues of $55.2 billion represented a 34% jump from the first quarter of 2020.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Google’s total advertising revenues soared by 32% year-over-year to $44.6 billion.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Revenues at Google’s Cloud unit amounted to $4.05 billion (a 46% surge over last year), but slightly below analyst estimates of $4.07 billion, according to financial date firm FactSet.</li></ul>



<ul><li>But ads generated by the YouTube unit totaled $6.01 billion, above expectations of $5.70 billion (according to FactSet unit StreetAccount) and a 49% surge over the prior year, </li></ul>



<ul><li>Traffic acquisition costs (which are payments made to affiliates and online companies for directing traffic to their websites) came in at $9.71 billion versus expectations of $9.25 billion, according to FactSet estimates.</li></ul>



<h4 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



Total revenues in the first quarter “reflect elevated consumer activity online and broad-based growth in advertiser revenue. We’re very pleased with the ongoing momentum in Google Cloud, with revenues of $4 billion in the quarter reflecting strength and opportunity in both [Google Cloud Platform] and [Google Workspace computing software],” said Ruth Porat CFO of Google and Alphabet.



<h4 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Alphabet shares climbed about 4% in post-close trading. Google’s Cloud platform, which competes with rivals Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Services), posted a $974 million operating loss for the quarter, but that compared to a $1.7 billion loss in the prior year. &#8220;In the FAANG [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet] group Amazon is the only competitor against Alphabet on more than one front and whilst Amazon has a large cloud service in AWS, Google’s ad business dwarfs its rival,&#8221;<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/alphabet-google-youtube-reports-q1-earnings-results-150238095.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Tom Johnson</a>, chief transformation officer at marketing agency WPP Mindshare, told Yahoo Finance. &#8220;As brands accelerate out of the pandemic, Alphabet’s combined offering… is likely to become even more attractive as more businesses move to direct-to-consumer or hybrid business models leveraging Alphabet’s advertising and cloud services.&#8221;



<h4 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



32%. That’s how much Alphabet shares have surged year-to-date, well above the S&amp;P 500&#8217;s return of 11.5%.



<h3 id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h3>



While Alphabet jumped by 30.9% in pandemic-afflicted 2020, it underperformed some of its FAANG peers: Apple soared 85%, and Amazon surged about 76%.



<h3 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



In March,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/18/google-to-spend-7-billion-in-data-centers-and-office-space-in-2021.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google said</a>&nbsp;it would spend $7 billion to expand offices and data centers across 19 states, creating at least 10,000 full-time jobs.



<h4 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/01/13/google-parent-alphabet-set-to-hit-1-trillion-in-market-value/">Google Parent Alphabet Is No Longer A $1 Trillion Company After Latest Earnings Miss</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/02/04/google-parent-alphabet-is-no-longer-a-1-trillion-company-after-latest-earnings-miss/">Google Parent Alphabet Passes $1 Trillion In Market Value</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/01/13/google-parent-alphabet-set-to-hit-1-trillion-in-market-value/">Google Cofounders Are $14 Billion Richer After Stellar Earnings Report </a>(Forbes)



By Palash Ghosh, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the American multinational

Google’s Quarterly Results Smash Expectations

TOPLINE Tech CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey will soon have to answer to lawmakers about the rise of misinformation on their platforms and how they plan to address it, as the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday a hearing with the Facebook, Google and Twitter leaders will take place on March 25.



<h3 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



Zuckerberg, Pichai and Dorsey—who lead Facebook, Google and Twitter, respectively—will testify at a remote hearing on “misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms,” the House committee announced.



The hearing will further the committee’s work of “holding online platforms accountable” for the issues on their platforms, committee chair Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and subcommittee chairs Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in a statement.



The lawmakers singled out misinformation on election fraud and the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccine as particular matters of concern.



The tech leaders have previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/facebook-twitter-ceos-senate-judiciary-committee-prepared-testimony.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">testified</a>&nbsp;before lawmakers in recent months, including an October&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/28/facebook-google-and-twitter-ceos-testify-in-congress-over-section-230-live-updates.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hearing</a>&nbsp;with all three CEOs before the Senate Commerce Committee on Section 230, which shields tech companies from legal liability for the content their users post.



<h3 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



“For far too long, big tech has failed to acknowledge the role they’ve played in fomenting and elevating blatantly false information to its online audiences. Industry self-regulation has failed,” Pallone, Doyle and Schakowsky said in a statement. “We must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation.”



<h3 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h3>



93%. That’s the percentage of Americans who say they are either very or somewhat about the spread of misinformation on the internet, according to a Gallup/Knight Foundation&nbsp;<a href="https://knightfoundation.org/articles/most-americans-would-believe-social-media-misinformation-warnings/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;conducted in September.



<h3 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



The House Judiciary Committee also separately announced plans to investigate big tech Thursday, unveiling a series of antitrust hearings aimed at curbing tech giants’ market dominance as it develops antitrust legislation. The renewed investigation will continue the antitrust subcommittee’s ongoing work probing the tech giants and their monopolistic power, which included a July&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/07/29/republicans-use-tech-antitrust-hearing-to-rail-against-anti-conservative-bias/?sh=6f7e186855aa">hearing</a>&nbsp;with Dorsey, Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.



<h3 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



Online misinformation and its spread on major social networks has come under significant scrutiny in recent months, particularly amid the Covid-19 pandemic and around the November election. Social media companies have taken significant&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/01/31/heres-how-facebook-twitter-and-tiktok-are-battling-coronavirus-misinformation/?sh=2dfca99c6651">steps</a>&nbsp;to curb the spread of false information, such as Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/09/twitter-new-rules-try-to-prevent-election-and-trump-related-chaos-misinformation/?sh=262d250f6840">adding safeguards</a>&nbsp;to limit sharing posts that have been flagged for misinformation and Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/18/facebook-continues-fight-against-misinformation-plans-to-debunk-climate-change-myths/?sh=7cac8aee4804">announcing</a>&nbsp;Thursday new efforts to combat misinformation around climate change. Despite their efforts, however, misinformation still continues to persist: an October study by the German Marshall Fund of the United States&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/12/facebook-users-interacting-with-misinformation-way-more-now-than-in-2016-study-finds/?sh=403d34415973">found</a>&nbsp;that engagement with false content producers on Facebook had gone up by 102% since 2016, for instance, while a September&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news/releases/covid-related-misinformation-videos-spread-primarily-through-facebook-as-its-fact-checkers-fail-to-spot-false-information-finds-new-oxford-study/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;from the University of Oxford found Facebook’s third-party fact checkers had only caught less than one percent of Covid-19 misinformation videos on the platform.



<h3 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/18/house-antitrust-amazon-apple-facebook-google/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">House to grill Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs as Washington seeks to crack down on disinformation, antitrust</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/18/facebook-continues-fight-against-misinformation-plans-to-debunk-climate-change-myths/?sh=7cac8aee4804">Facebook Continues Fight Against Misinformation, Plans To Debunk Climate Change Myths</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/01/31/heres-how-facebook-twitter-and-tiktok-are-battling-coronavirus-misinformation/?sh=2dfca99c6651">Here’s How Facebook, Twitter And TikTok Are Battling Coronavirus Misinformation</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/12/facebook-users-interacting-with-misinformation-way-more-now-than-in-2016-study-finds/?sh=403d34415973">Facebook Users Interacting With Misinformation Way More Now Than In 2016, Study Finds</a> (Forbes)



By Alison Durkee, Forbes Staff

US-politics-computers-internet

Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs Set To Testify About Misinformation

Google says it will begin paying news publishers in the United Kingdom to feature articles on one of its platforms, a move that comes as the Silicon Valley giant is trying to prove to global antitrust regulators that it is willing to support the media industry.



Under its Google News Showcase initiative, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/products/news/google-news-showcase-launches-uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Wednesday that it had struck agreements with 120 publishers, including The Telegraph, the Evening Standard and the Financial Times. The agreements determine that Google will pay licensing fees — which for some publishers will reportedly amount to several millions of dollars per year — to feature news clips on its Showcase, an aggregated news platform in the Google News mobile app.&nbsp;



“Today, we’re announcing that Google News Showcase, our new product experience and licensing program for news, will begin rolling out with local, national and independent publishers in the U.K.,” Ronan Harris, Google’s UK and Ireland managing director, wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/products/news/google-news-showcase-launches-uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a>. “Alongside governments, other companies and civic society, we&#8217;re dedicated to continuing to support the sustainability of the news industry both in the U.K. and around the world.”



It is Google’s latest effort to prove to governments across the world that it is willing to cooperate with news publishers, many which have been forced to shutter newspapers as advertising dollars have shifted to online platforms. In October, Google&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/google-news-initiative/google-news-showcase/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it planned to spend $1 billion globally on partnerships with publishers, and it says it has since signed such agreements with 450 publishers in a dozen countries, including France, Brazil and Argentina.&nbsp;



But the agreements signed under its News Showcase platform haven’t satisfied all governments. In Australia, a proposed law is likely to pass that would force Google to pay news publishers to feature articles on its search platform and news feeds, and must reach agreements with publishers, or be forced into mandatory arbitration — a protection not offered to publishers under the agreement Google has struck in the U.K.&nbsp;



In response, Google has threatened to withdraw its Google Search from Australia. Google has called the Australian law “unworkable” and instead pointed to its News Showcase licensing as a solution. Facebook, which will also be affected by the law, has also threatened to stop showing news content on its platform to Australian users.&nbsp;



“We’ve seen this around the world with Google and Facebook: the only time they’ve been moved is when they’ve been forced to,” Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2021/02/01/google-facebook-big-tech-antitrust-australian-accc-rod-sims/?sh=24e5bfb33ea0">Forbes</a>&nbsp;last week.



Though Australian effort has been met with fierce opposition by Google, Facebook, and even the U.S. government, it appears to have worked in France, where last month Google&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/google-agrees-to-pay-french-publishers-for-news.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agreed</a>&nbsp;to some licensing agreements with publishers after a court intervened.&nbsp;



With the Australian law all but certain to pass, European Union lawmakers said this week they are now&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4c40c890-afd3-40a3-9582-78a66c37a8af" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">considering adopting</a>&nbsp;parts of the Australian law into two new draft regulations that affect tech companies, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA).&nbsp;



As governments consider more stringent measures against Google, the company appears to be betting that its News Showcase will secure the support of publishers — something echoed in its Wednesday blog post, which included statements from various publishers, including  Zach Leonard, CEO of The Independent: “We’re thrilled to join the platform as it rolls out.&#8221;



By David Jeans, Forbes Staff

Senate Commerce Committee Hearing On Big Tech

Google Signs News Licensing Deals In U.K. In Latest Effort To Satisfy Publishers

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have have <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(20)30934-4/fulltext" target="_blank">found</a> a link between Google searches and Covid-19 cases that could help experts predict and respond to Covid-19 outbreaks sooner — this link was evident up to 16 days before the first cases were reported, which could give officials an edge when allocating resources to areas in need. 



<h4>KEY FACTS</h4>



Researchers found a strong relationship between certain Google search terms, examined using Google Trends, and Covid-19 outbreaks in parts of the U.S.,



There was a strong relationship between some keywords — including “Lysol,” “Face mask,” “loss of smell,” and “coronavirus testing center” — and outbreaks in an area, sometimes up to 16 days before cases were first reported.&nbsp;



The data, which is publicly available, could be used by officials to respond more quickly to outbreaks — “any delay in information could lead to missed opportunities to improve preparedness,”&nbsp;<a href="https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/analyzing-web-searches-can-help-experts-predict-respond-to-covid-19-hot-spots/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">says</a>&nbsp;Dr. Bydon, the study’s senior author.



Typically, traditional methods of surveillance, which include testing and public health reporting, lag behind the actual incidence of disease, which Dr. Bydon says makes this finding a “great way of helping to understand where future hot spots will emerge.”&nbsp;



<h4>KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



In recent years, numerous studies have identified internet surveillance, particularly through keyword search trends, as a useful tool in predicting outbreaks of infectious disease. The information is cheap, if not free, to gather and available in real time, a significant change to traditional methods that can sometimes take weeks to gather and process accurately. This makes it a useful supplement to existing public health surveillance.



<h4>TANGENT&nbsp;</h4>



Google tried — and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/10/can-learn-epic-failure-google-flu-trends/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">failed</a>&nbsp;spectacularly — to predict flu outbreaks based on search trends a little over a decade ago. It serves as an important reminder that such predictive mechanisms can, and do, fail, and should be used to supplement, and not replace, existing surveillance.&nbsp;



<h4>FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(20)30934-4/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Correlations Between COVID-19 Cases and Google Trends Data in the United States: A State-by-State Analysis</a>&nbsp;(Mayo Clinic Proceedings)



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.wired.com/2015/10/can-learn-epic-failure-google-flu-trends/" target="_blank">What We Can Learn From the Epic Failure of Google Flu Trends</a> (Wired)



-by Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Coronavirus – Stuttgart

Google Searches Can Help Predict Covid-19 Hot Spots

Ruth Porat, the stalwart chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google, is no stranger to a crisis. She began her career at Morgan Stanley in 1987, a mere seven weeks before Black Monday—the largest single-day decline in trading history at the time. “At that moment, I was concerned that maybe my career was over before it even started,” she recalls.



Far from it. Porat is one of the rare corporate executives to have transcended the upper echelons of Wall Street to the highest ranks of Silicon Valley. While the scenery may be different, many of the challenges remain the same: navigating economic downturns, government investigations and regulatory hurdles. Of course, a global pandemic is a new obstacle. “This environment is more challenging than anything I&#8217;ve seen because you&#8217;re combining a health crisis with an economic crisis,” says Porat in her first-ever interview with&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;from her home in Palo Alto, California. “The path forward is less certain.”&nbsp;



But Porat has deftly charted a path through uncertain territory before. During her 28-year tenure at Morgan Stanley, she held roles such as vice chairman of investment banking and global head of financial institutions before ultimately rising to the rank of chief financial officer in January 2010. “I certainly started in banking when it was not easy to be a woman in banking,” she says. “I haven’t thought about those shoulder pads for a long time, the bow ties, the scarves, the scotch, the horrible efforts to fit in.” What kept her there, she says, was the opportunity to “keep learning and growing”—remarkably, in the face of great turmoil. Case in point: being called upon by the U.S. government to help with the bailouts of insurance giant AIG and mortgage-financing agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the Great Recession. “Much like the current crisis environment, one of the highlights of my career was advising the U.S. Treasury Department during the 2008 financial crisis,” she says. “I was able to use the skills I developed over a [lifelong] career for something that was so important at that moment in time for the country.”&nbsp;



Over a decade later, Porat has the same steely resolve when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, which has already taken a tremendous toll on the U.S. economy. Over 100,000 businesses permanently shuttered as of April, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w26989.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. At the same time, 88% of small business owners say they’ve used all of their Paycheck Protection Program loan funding, according to a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/small-business-confidence-goldman-sachs-74ba6e69-ad0e-4cb5-bee3-d03445b2a30e.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;of over 1,500 businesses conducted by Goldman Sachs. And without additional government funds, 30% say they’ll exhaust their cash reserves by the end of the year. That’s why Porat is leading Google’s latest efforts to help get America’s ravaged small businesses and economy back on track. This while managing one of the world’s largest corporate balance sheets amid the looming threat of anti-trust lawsuits that may hold the fate of the entire tech industry in the balance. It may just prove to be her greatest challenge yet.



While Google is a corporate behemoth, its roots are in small business. “It’s so clear that small businesses are the lifeblood of the American economy,” says Porat, rattling off the stats: They provide about two thirds of net new jobs, and 67 cents of every dollar spent at a small business stays in the local economy.



At the start of the pandemic, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced an <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/commitment-support-small-businesses-and-crisis-response-covid-19/" target="_blank">$800 million commitment</a> to aid small businesses and provide overall crisis relief. Of that, a $200 million Grow with Google Small Business fund was launched in March in partnership with the Opportunity Finance Network—a national association of community development financial institutions—with a mission to serve small businesses underserved by mainstream finance and a proven model for moving capital into the hardest to serve communities. The main objective? Supporting the short-term recovery and long-term financing needs of small businesses hardest hit by Covid-19. To be clear, this is not a handout. The majority of funds are earmarked as up to 10-year term loans at no greater than 3% interest. Some $340 million in Google Ads credits were also made available to all small businesses with active accounts over the past year.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-large">“Small businesses are part of our DNA as a company&#8230;Over 21 years ago, Google itself was a small business that started in a two-car garage and our first ads customer was a mail-order lobster business in Maine.” <cite>Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet &amp; Google</cite></blockquote>



“Small businesses are part of our DNA as a company,” says Porat, sharing the company’s approach to small business for the first time since the pandemic began. “We often talk internally about the fact that over 21 years ago, Google itself was a small business that started in a two-car garage and our first ads customer was a mail-order lobster business in Maine.”&nbsp;



In many ways, Porat sees her transition to Silicon Valley as getting back to her roots. She was raised in Palo Alto, California, where her father, a former research fellow at Harvard, moved the family to take&nbsp; a position at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. After earning her bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations at Stanford in 1979, she went on to get her master’s degree in industrial relations from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Wharton before joining Morgan Stanley. Porat was co-head of technology investment banking during the ‘90s tech boom, working alongside famed internet analyst Mary Meeker, who is godmother to her three children. “Tech was something I had done quite a bit, actually,” says Porat. That’s an understatement: She was the chief architect behind the debt financing that saved Amazon from near collapse during the dot-com crash in 2000 and then worked on Google’s IPO in 2004. “It was great to see the vision, the mission, the drive of Google at such an early stage,” she says. “Given I’ve known Google since inception, and how passionate I was about the company, when the opportunity presented itself, I said yes on the spot.”



While Porat has broken the glass ceiling time and again, Google has struggled with diversity within its own ranks. As racial tensions reached a boiling point this summer, Google <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ofn.org/articles/ofn-announces-first-round-google-loans-and-googleorg-funded-grants" target="_blank">announced</a> in June an additional $45 million in loans and $5 million in Google.org grants to assist small businesses, with a focus on Black-owned businesses. The company committed to increase the diversity of its leadership 30% by 2025. “Hopefully this is the moment that changes race relations and really addresses racial inequality. There is no more time—and so we’re taking a hard look at ways we can help address systemic racism against the Black community with a real sense of urgency,” she says.



The company also announced the first round of the Grow with Google Small Business Fund. Five community development financial institutions (CDFIs)&nbsp; were awarded a total of $15.5 million in loans, and six received $750,000 in grants. Among those awarded were Grameen America, a non-profit founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Yunnus (and currently run by Andrea Jung, former chairman and CEO of Avon) that provides microloans, training and support to diverse low-income women entrepreneurs and Citizens Potawatomi Community Development Corporation, one of the largest Native-owned CDFIs in the nation. “Systemic inequities, like the racial wealth gap create significant disadvantages for minority communities, which is why we’re so focused on providing Black, Latinx and other underserved communities with more equitable access to capital through our partnership,” says Porat.&nbsp;



The partnership is also unique in structure compared to relief efforts of other tech firms like Facebook and Amazon. “What makes Google such a strategic first mover and different is their focus on recovery versus just short-term relief,” says Lisa Mensah, president and CEO of OFN. “It is extremely rare for a corporate Treasury to release $170 million and judge on their own that this is the kind of debt they will hold. They didn’t wait for a risk rating from S&amp;P or to have it all guaranteed by the government or another source—Google is a trailblazer.”



For Porat, it was a chance to help reposition businesses that were already at a significant disadvantage prior to the pandemic. “Most small businesses are started with personal assets and loans that are typically guaranteed with one’s network,” says Porat. “But if you start with the types of wealth disparities that we have in society where only 20% of small businesses are minority-owned and only 21% are women-owned, our current situation is an outgrowth of that initial disparity.”&nbsp;



The small business lending space is a massive market, one with around <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://qedinvestors.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/The-Brave-100-The-Battle-for-Supremacy-in-Small-Business-Lending_vf.pdf" target="_blank">$800 billion in annual originations</a> and an antiquated process involving tedious paperwork, manual inputs and very little transparency—or software, for that matter. Will Google, a company whose founders famously spoke in 2014 of the need for “<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.inc.com/laura-montini/larry-page-says-its-time-to-think-big.html" target="_blank">revolutionary change</a>,” set its sights on disrupting the small business lending space next? Porat quickly puts that idea to rest. “We’re not a financial institution and we don’t intend to become [one],” she asserts.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-large">“The biggest compliment I can give someone is to say they are a real difference-maker—that’s Ruth.”<cite>Hank Paulson, former U.S. Treasury Secretary &amp; former Goldman Sachs CEO</cite></blockquote>



Throughout her decades-long career, Porat has seen great success bridging divides to find solutions. “The biggest compliment I can give someone is to say they are a real difference maker—that’s Ruth,” says Hank Paulson, former U.S. Treasury Secretary during the financial crisis and a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. In 2013, Porat landed on President Barack Obama’s shortlist for deputy treasury secretary until she withdrew her name,&nbsp;<a href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/ruth-porat-withdraws-name-from-deputy-treasury-race/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;over concerns of how bankers were being treated by politicians. “She&#8217;s a real U.S. patriot with a passion for public service.”&nbsp;



To be fair, Google’s efforts are not just altruism. They are growth engines for big business—and of course, some good publicity doesn’t hurt. The over 30 million small businesses across the U.S. drive nearly half of all of gross domestic product. Globally, small and medium-sized enterprises represent over 90% of the business population and 55% of gross domestic in developed economies, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ifac.org/knowledge-gateway/contributing-global-economy/discussion/foundation-economies-worldwide-small-business-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World Trade Organization</a>. And like many of their industry peers like Facebook, Google relies on small businesses for a sizable portion of their business, although they, along with their competitors, do not disclose the actual amount.



“I look back on some of the toughest times in my career, and I know that I’ve learned from them,” says Porat, a two-time breast cancer survivor.  “That ghastly, terrifying experience was also a gift because that proverbial question became all too real: What happens if you are given no more than five years to live?” she shared in her <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGdugTS_RR8" target="_blank">2016 Wharton commencement speech</a>. “So I set about figuring it out: What did I want to do with what could be a limited amount of time? And I realized I simply had no regrets. I hadn’t punted on my life—I hadn’t put things on hold. My lesson from that awful experience was that if you want to do something, then do it . . . life doesn’t know it’s supposed to follow a schedule.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-large">“In the midst of tremendous disruption and market turmoil, Ruth’s judgment and experience are invaluable.”<cite>Stephen Schwarzman, cofounder &amp; CEO of Blackstone</cite></blockquote>



That can-do anything attitude and fortitude may just be a key part of her recipe for not just surviving crises—but emerging stronger as a result of them. “In the midst of tremendous disruption and market turmoil, Ruth’s judgement and experience are invaluable,” says Stephen Schwarzman, cofounder and CEO of Blackstone. “It is rare to find people who have operated at the highest levels on Wall Street and Silicon Valley and that combination is exceptionally powerful.” In June, she joined the board of the $564 billion private-equity powerhouse, whose IPO she also worked on in 2007.



Porat is quick to acknowledge that the tough times she’s endured pale in comparison to much of the pain being felt in the world today. Yet, history has taught her to still believe in the promise of better days ahead.&nbsp;



 “For those who are looking at this moment and wondering the path forward, I would say that having lived through many turbulent times before, there are recoveries,” she says. “New opportunities arise out of crises.”



by Maneet Ahuja, Forbes Staff

Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2018 – Day 1

Exclusive: Ruth Porat On Leading Through Crisis And Google’s Latest Moonshot To Rebuild The U.S. Economy—One Small Business At A Time

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST



After briefly becoming the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2020/08/31/elon-musk-100-billion-net-worth/#7d8e258880ed">fifth centibillionaire in the world</a> on Monday, August 31, Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended the week down $9.9 billion as tech companies — and their founders’ fortunes — took a hit.



While tech companies have largely been driving the stock market’s surge during the pandemic, heavyweights like Facebook and Amazon took a spill on Thursday and Friday during what some observers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bd5804ef-94d0-45b4-9c2b-8fb7996ec5f6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">are calling a correction</a>. The S&amp;P 500 was down 2.3% for the week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 1.8%. Tesla stock started to falter on Wednesday,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/02/teslas-largest-outside-shareholder-reduces-holding-citing-portfolio-restrictions.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">after news broke that</a>&nbsp;its largest outside shareholder, Scottish investment firm Ballie Gifford, reduced its stake in the company. The stock ended the week down 5.5%.&nbsp;



Even with the decline, Musk is four times wealthier than he was a year ago, with a net worth of $87.9 billion. He is currently the fifth richest person in the world, $5.5 billion ahead of Warren Buffett.



The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, hit a milestone last week when he became the first person tracked by Forbes with a fortune that exceeded $200 billion. With Amazon shares worth 3% less than a week ago at the market close on Friday, Bezos’ fortune dropped  $5.8 billion to $193.5 billion. His ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott (net worth: $62.4 billion), is $2 billion poorer this week.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="594" height="425" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46514" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1-300x215.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 6, 2019. (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune fell $4 billion as Facebook shares dropped 3.7% in the past week. He’s been more vocal than ever before about political misinformation on the social media platform and announced steps to mitigate the problem. On Wednesday, he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced a&nbsp;<a href="https://gizmodo.com/zuckerberg-drops-300-million-to-support-u-s-elections-1844921516" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$300 million donation</a>&nbsp;to support voting infrastructure, such as protective equipment for poll workers and polling place rentals. On Thursday, he said that Facebook would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/09/03/facebook-will-block-new-political-ads-in-the-week-leading-up-to-election-day/#30873f0b7950">block new political ads</a>&nbsp;during the week before Election Day, and flag posts in which a candidate tries to claim a premature victory.&nbsp;



Quicken Loans cofounder Dan Gilbert had a chaotic week as shares of the online mortgage lender’s parent company, Rocket Companies, soared midweek ahead of the company’s first earnings report since it went public in August. Although <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.thestreet.com/investing/rocket-rkt-earnings-mortgage-initial-public-offering" target="_blank">it reported strong profits</a>, the stock corrected itself and ended the week down more than 13%. As of Friday, September 4, Gilbert is worth $51 billion — $7.3 billion less than last week, but nearly eight times richer than he was a year ago.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



HERE ARE THE BILLIONAIRES WHOSE FORTUNES FELL THE MOST THIS WEEK.



The net worth change is from close of markets Friday, August 28, to Friday, September 4.



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">1 | ELON MUSK</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$87.9 BILLION, DOWN $9.9 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH |&nbsp;TESLA



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">2 | DAN GILBERT</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$51 BILLION, DOWN $7.3 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | QUICKEN LOANS



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">3 | JEFF BEZOS</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$193.5 BILLION, DOWN&nbsp;$5.8 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES﻿



SOURCE OF WEALTH | AMAZON



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">4 |  STEVE BALLMER</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$72.9 BILLION, DOWN $4.1 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | MICROSOFT



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">5 | MARK ZUCKERBERG</h4>



NET WORTH | &nbsp;$103.8 BILLION, DOWN $4 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | FACEBOOK



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">6 | LARRY ELLISON</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$74.2 BILLION, DOWN $2.7 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | ORACLE



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">7 | AMANCIO ORTEGA</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$65.3 BILLION, DOWN $2.5 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;SPAIN



SOURCE OF WEALTH | ZARA



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">8 | MA HUATENG</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$57.5 BILLION, DOWN $2.3 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;CHINA



SOURCE OF WEALTH | TENCENT



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">9 | LARRY PAGE</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$70.6 BILLION, DOWN $2.2 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color">10 | SERGEY BRIN</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$68.7 BILLION, DOWN $2.1 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



-Ariel Shapiro, Forbes Staff

Key Speakers At The Satellite 2020 Conference

Elon Musk Down Nearly $10 Billion In One Week As Tech Stocks Plunge

Facebook on Friday became the latest major tech company to criticize Apple for taking a 30% cut of app purchases, adding to growing criticism over what companies say are Apple’s unfair and anti-competitive App Store policies that amount to a “shakedown” of competitors.



KEY FACTS



Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/ios/app-store/principles-practices/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">takes</a>&nbsp;a 30% cut of all app purchases and requires developers use Apple’s payments systems so it can also charge a fee for in-app purchases and subscriptions.



Facebook said Friday it asked Apple to reduce the 30% fee for a new feature letting small businesses charge users for online Facebook events, but Apple “dismissed” their requests and as a result small businesses will only be paid 70% from transactions on iPhones, the company said.



Facebook’s rebuke comes a day after Fortnite owner Epic Games sued both Apple and Google over the 30% fee and launched a public relations blitz against the tech giants with the hashtag #FreeFortnite, arguing the “tax” forces companies to increase prices in order to pay for the fee.



Music streaming service Spotifty last year&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-03-13/consumers-and-innovators-win-on-a-level-playing-field/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed</a>&nbsp;a complaint with the European Union’s Antitrust Commission over what it called the “Apple Tax,” arguing that it can’t compete with Apple Music—which isn’t subject to the fee—if it has to raise prices to cover the charge.



Though Airbnb and ClassPass don’t normally have to pay the fee because the fee doesn’t apply to physical services outside their apps, they did have to start paying when they began offering virtual classes and information sessions during the pandemic,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/technology/apple-app-store-airbnb-classpass.html?action=click&amp;module=Top%20Stories&amp;pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;New York Times, drawing complaints from both companies.&nbsp;



In June, Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson called Apple’s fee a “shakedown” and a “ransom” after the company’s email app was rejected from the App Store because it used a different payments system,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1273019513538314245?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">adding</a>&nbsp;that “Apple&#8217;s abusive behavior with the App Store has been an open secret in the developer community for years.”



CHIEF CRITIC



Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from&nbsp;Forbes, but CEO Tim Cook defended the company’s App Store practices at a House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing last month. “For the vast majority of the apps on the App Store, developers keep 100% of the money they make,” he said. “&#8230;Commissions are comparable to or lower than commissions charged by the majority of our competitors. And they are vastly lower than the 50-70% that software developers paid to distribute their work before we launched the App Store.”



KEY BACKGROUND



Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) asked Cook during the hearing if continuing to charge companies a 30% fee as they move their services online during the pandemic amounts to “pandemic profiteering.” Cook responded by saying Apple “would never do that,” and acknowledged he was working with companies to find a solution. But even as Cook said the fee applies to all developers and apps equally, emails released during the hearing show that Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/07/29/apple-offered-to-reduce-its-fee-to-get-amazon-prime-video-on-devices-emails-show/#58889c313eae">offered</a>&nbsp;to lower its fee in order to get Amazon Prime Video on devices in 2017.



TANGENT



Google also charges a 30% fee for apps on the Google Play Store, but much of the focus has been on Apple, which is usually more lucrative for developers than Google.



-Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff

Allen & Co. Holds Its Annual Sun Valley Conference In Idaho

Spotify, Epic Games, Facebook: Major Companies Take Aim At Apple’s App Store Fee

The headwinds of Covid-19’s economic impact in the second quarter were strong enough to slow down even the ad-funded tech giants.



In its second-quarter results released on July 30, Facebook reported $18.7 billion in revenue, an increase of 11% despite the slowdown of advertising spend as marketers navigate the ongoing crisis. The results included $18.3 billion in ad revenue, a 10% year-over-year increase. Revenue from other operations totaled $366 million, up 40% from second-quarter 2019.



While Facebook maintained growth during the second quarter, its advertising rival Google did not. Around the same time that Facebook released its results, Google’s parent company Alphabet reported a rare decline in revenue, falling 2% year-over-year to $38.3 billion. Revenue from Google Search and other areas totaled $21.3 billion, down from $23.6 billion in second-quarter 2019. However, ad revenue on YouTube increased 6% to $3.8 billion, which the company said was driven by direct-response advertising.



In a statement, Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google, said revenues were “driven by gradual improvement in our ads business and strong growth in Google Cloud and Other Revenues.”



“We continue to navigate through a difficult global economic environment,” she said.



Both Facebook and Google have been known for their steady and massive quarterly growth despite concerns from advertisers, consumers and regulators around issues such as data privacy and content moderation. In 2019, Facebook reported revenue growth of 28% in the second quarter, 28% in the third quarter, and 25% in the fourth quarter. Revenue then grew just 17% in the first quarter of 2020 during the final three months before the pandemic prompted many advertisers to either pause or slow spending on various digital and traditional platforms.



Google’s growth story has been somewhat similar. Year-over-year revenue grew 17% in the first quarter of 2019, 19% in the second quarter, 20% in the third quarter, 17% in the fourth quarter before slowing to 13% in the first quarter of 2020.



On an earnings call today with analysts, Porat said advertising revenue “gradually improved” through the quarter with a “modest” improvement already in July.



“We do believe it’s premature to say we’re out of the woods, given the fragile nature of the economic environment,” she said.



The results come at a time of turmoil for the ad industry during the pandemic. In late June, marketing research firm eMarketer said it expected U.S. digital ad investment to increase just 1.7% this year—or $2.2 billion—compared to the previous growth estimate of 17%, or $22 billion. However, the slowed spending should be no surprise. In fact, during the early weeks of the crisis back in March, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2020/03/27/marketers-think-covid-19-will-be-worse-for-advertising-than-the-2008-financial-crisis/#5cb3315b537f">survey of 400 media buyers</a>&nbsp;found that 74% thought the pandemic would have a larger impact on ad spend than the 2008 financial crisis.



Facebook and Alphabet—along with other tech giants like Amazon and Apple—also have been under increased scrutiny by lawmakers. On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai along with the CEOs of Apple and Amazon spent the entire afternoon testifying to members of Congress. While the hearing was meant to focus on issues of antitrust, the four executives also touched on other issues ranging including data privacy, content moderation, and political influence.



While ad revenues were slower over the past three months, engagement was not. According to Facebook, engage on Facebook’s properties in terms of daily active users (DAUs) and monthly active users (MAUs) also increased in the second quarter, with DAUs increasing 12% year-over-year to 1.79 billion and MAUs increasing 12% to 2.7 billion. Across its “family” of apps—which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp—DAUs totaled an average of 2.47 billion for June 2020, an increase of 15% over the same period last year. The family monthly average was 3.14 billion in June—up 14% year-over-year.



According to a Facebook statement about its results, the growth in usage reflects “increased engagement as people around the world sheltered in place and used our products to connect with the people and organizations they care about.” However, the company said it’s recently seen “signs of normalization” as lockdown measures around the world have eased.&nbsp;Meanwhile, total ad impressions in the second quarter increased 40% although the average ad price decreased.



“Our business has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, like all companies, we are facing a period of unprecedented uncertainty in our business outlook,” Facebook said in a statement about its quarterly results. “We expect our business performance will be impacted by issues beyond our control, including the duration and efficacy of shelter-in-place orders, the effectiveness of economic stimuli around the world, and the fluctuations of currencies relative to the U.S. dollar.”



In July, Facebook has also dealt with a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2020/06/19/as-civil-rights-groups-ask-marketers-to-boycott-facebook-outdoor-brands-pause-spending/#72bc990c6a39">boycott</a>&nbsp;over its practices and policies around moderating hate speech on the platform. The boycott—organized by civil rights groups including the NAACP and Anti-Defamation League—has been joined by hundreds of larger and smaller advertisers. Addressing the boycott on an earnings call with analysts, Zuckerberg said the company has agreed to an audit by the Media Ratings Council, and added that he’s “often troubled by the calls to go after internet advertising, especially during a time of such economic turmoil like we face today with Covid.”



“Some still seem to wrongly assume that our business is dependent on a few large advertisers, and while we value every single one of the businesses that use our platforms, the biggest part of our business is serving small businesses,” he said. “Our advertising is one of the most effective tools that businesses have to find customers to growth their businesses and create jobs.”



When an analyst on the call later asked how the boycott might be resolved, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the company is still talking with civil rights groups and advertising trade organizations such as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. She added that Facebook is “going to keep working hard at this, not because of advertiser pressure but because it’s the right thing to do.”



“It’s an interesting situation we find ourselves in because I think often times when companies are boycotted, it’s because they don’t agree with what the boycotters want,” she said. “And that’s not true at all here. We completely agree that we don’t want hate on our platforms and we stand firmly against it. We don’t benefit from hate speech. We never have. Users don’t want to see it, advertisers don’t want to be associated with it.&#8221;



By Marty Swant, Forbes Staff

INDIA-US-INTERNET-FACEBOOK

Facebook Reports Slower Q2 Advertising Growth While Google Reveals A Rare Revenue Decline

Google released its seventh consecutive diversity report on Thursday, revealing modest gains in representation for women and people of color, and a disproportionately white, Asian and male workforce.



The percentage of black hires in the U.S. grew from 4.8% in 2018 to 5.5% in 2019, a .7% increase. The percentage of black hires in technical roles also grew by .7%, the largest increase in the share of black technical hires since Google first started publishing diversity data. Latinx employees, on the other hand, saw a dip in hiring, dropping from 6.8% in 2018 to 6.6% in 2019. The percentage of Latinx employees in technical roles increased by a mere .2%.



Female employees didn’t fare much better, dropping from 33.2% of global hires in 2018 to 32.5% in 2019. Over that same time period, the percentage of women hired for technical positions remained at about 25.6%—a far cry from gender parity. But hiring only shows one side of the coin, which is why Google began to include attrition rates in 2018.



As in previous years, women continued to have a lower than average attrition rate in 2019, while Latinx attrition in the U.S. dipped below the Google average. Attrition was highest for Native Americans and increased significantly for black women.



Overall, Google’s workforce representation—defined as hiring minus attrition—saw a slight uptick for most underrepresented groups. Black and Latinx employees represented 9.6% of the U.S. workforce in 2019, up from 9% in 2018, and women represented 32% of Google’s global workforce, up from 31.6%.



The representation of women and Latinx employees in leadership roles also grew, increasing by .6% and .4% respectively. The percentage of black employees in leadership positions didn’t change year-over-year and dropped by .2% for Native American employees.



Although the needle has barely budged for women and people of color in tech over the last year, Google has made it a point to invest in diversity programs. Through its philanthropic arm,&nbsp;Google.org, the company committed $10 million to support low-income students and students of color in Bay Area STEM classrooms in 2019.



Internally, the company has launched smaller initiatives, such as running all job postings through a bias removal tool, which it says has led to an 11% increase in applications from women. And in an effort to retain diverse talent, Google expanded its retention case management program for underrepresented employees who are considering leaving the company.



Looking at its most recent diversity figures, however, Google concedes that there is considerable room for improvement. “The Native American population is one of those areas where we remain flat and so we will continue to invest more focus in 2020 to make sure that we&#8217;re targeting this population as well,” says Melonie Parker, Google’s chief diversity officer.



While she wouldn’t specify what that investment would entail, Parker says that the company is moving forward on its 2020 diversity goals and will continue to focus on representation and creating an inclusive culture companywide. She also notes that&nbsp;even the smallest percentage gains represent&nbsp;thousands of jobs for underrepresented groups.&nbsp;



One area where Google has seen significant progress is in its internship program: Globally, 40% of interns in technical roles were women in 2019 and 24% of U.S. interns were black and Latinx.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthumoh/">Ruth Umoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/diversity-inclusion">Diversity &amp; Inclusion</a>

Tag: Google

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