TOPLINE Dozens of Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout on Monday, in an escalation of protests against CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s failure to act on President Trump’s “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” post.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>Staff members flocked to rival platform Twitter for a second day, to denounce Zuckerberg’s “do-nothing” approach to Trump’s post that threatened violence toward George Floyd protesters.</li></ul>



<ul><li>One employee, Owen Anderson, announced in a&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/OwenResistor/status/1267568422327447552?s=20" target="_blank">tweet</a>&nbsp;that he had quit the company.</li></ul>



<ul><li>“To be clear, this was in the works for a while.&nbsp;But after last week, I am happy to no longer support policies and values I vehemently disagree with,” he wrote.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Employees have also been circulating messages internally, with one staffer writing on a staff message board: “The hateful rhetoric advocating violence against black demonstrators by the U.S. President does not warrant defense under the guise of freedom of expression,” the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/technology/facebook-employee-protest-trump.html" target="_blank">reported</a>. Others urged Zuckerberg to take down Trump’s post.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said employees will not have the protest days taken out of their vacation allowance, Reuters&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-trump-employee-criticism/facebook-staffers-walk-out-saying-trumps-posts-should-be-reined-in-idUKKBN2382D0" target="_blank">reported</a>.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The walkout, staged virtually as all Facebook employees are working remotely in the pandemic,was triggered by Facebook&#8217;s refusal to take action over Trump&#8217;s inflammatory posts, while Twitter took the unprecedented step of flagging his comment for “glorifying violence.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>Zuckerberg has reportedly pushed the company’s weekly employee Q &amp; A session from Friday to Tuesday.</li></ul>



CRUCIAL COMMENT



In a joint statement, a number of the virtual demonstrators tweeted: “Facebook’s recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. We implore the Facebook leadership to #TakeAction.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/dan_abramov/status/1267544361929256966?s=20
</div></figure>



TANGENT



Online therapy company Talkspace has cut ties with Facebook over the issue. CEO Oren Frank&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/orenfrank/status/1267504648275005440?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;on Monday: “We at Talkspace discontinued our partnership discussions with Facebook today. We will not support a platform that incites violence, racism, and lies. #BlackLivesMatter.”



NEWS PEG



President Trump has driven a wedge between Facebook staff and the social network&#8217;s founder. Facebook&#8217;s no-leak culture, and the largely united front between management and staff had largely weathered previous storms in its march to &#8220;connect the world.” That accord was shattered in a flood of tweets condemning Zuckerberg&#8217;s decision to keep Trump&#8217;s post on the site. Before the walkout, several senior employees blasted Zuckerberg’s defence of keeping the post on the site. Design manager Jason Stirman tweeted on Monday: “I‘m a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark’s decision to do nothing about Trump’s recent posts, which clearly incite violence. I’m not alone inside of FB. There isn’t a neutral position on racism.”



In a post on Monday, Zuckerberg said Trump’s post and use of the historically racially charged phrase did not breach Facebook policies. “Our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10111961824369871" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



KEY BACKGROUND



The death of George Floyd after white policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes last Monday sparked outrage across the U.S. and subsequent protests in more than 75 cities. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/06/01/corporate-donations-tracker-here-are-the-companies-giving-millions-to-anti-racism-efforts/#701eab0037dc">Companies</a>, facing public pressure to speak out, have released statements pledging support to the black community, including Amazon, Netflix, Twitter and Peloton. On Monday, Zuckerberg<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/06/01/facebook-pledges-10-million-to-racial-justice-campaigns/#2c2f71374250"> announced</a> Facebook is donating $10 million to groups campaigning for racial justice.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/">Isabel Togoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

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Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Revolt Against Zuckerberg’s Inaction On Trump’s ‘Shooting’ Post

The coronavirus pandemic has continued to take a catastrophic toll on America’s small businesses. According to Facebook’s State of Small Business&nbsp;<a href="https://dataforgood.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SMBReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>, 31% of small businesses and 52% of personal businesses have stopped operating as a result of the crisis.&nbsp;



“What we know today is pretty sobering,” says Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. “We’re in a really hard economic situation that is hitting all businesses, but particularly, small businesses really hard. We also know how critical small businesses are for jobs—long before coronavirus,” she says. “Two thirds of new jobs in this country happen because of small businesses and so that means what’s happening with small businesses has always been important, but it’s more important than ever.”



Especially concerning is that only 45% of business owners and managers plan to rehire the same number of workers when their businesses reopen. That number is just 32% for personal businesses. 



“If these businesses are letting people go, it’s not that they don’t want to rehire them,” Sandberg says. “It’s because they don’t think they’re going to be able to. That’s a pretty serious thing for us to be facing.”



Businesses that have been able to maintain operations still face significant hurdles, namely access to capital and customers. Some 28% of businesses surveyed say their biggest challenge over the next few months will be cash flow, while 20% say it will be lack of demand. 



The report, conducted in partnership with the Small Business Roundtable, was based on a survey of 86,000 owners, managers and workers at U.S. companies with fewer than 500 employees. It is also a part of the company’s broader data collection initiative with the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on the Future of Business.



“We were already in the process of developing this report before the coronavirus pandemic hit,” Sandberg says. “We expected it to be a pretty rosy tale back then of low unemployment, flourishing entrepreneurship, and jobs growing all over the world. Fast forward to today and we’re in a very different position.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="960" height="540" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45576" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption>An example of Facebook&#8217;s new Shops feature, which creates digital &#8220;storefronts&#8221; for businesses.   FACEBOOK</figcaption></figure>



Now, the company is launching&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook Shops</a>, an ecommerce product that allows businesses to set up online “storefronts” on Facebook and Instagram. Businesses can customize their digital shops, using cover images to showcase their brands and catalogs to highlight their products. And just as customers can ask for help when shopping in physical stores, they can message business owners directly via WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct to ask questions, track deliveries and more. “Our goal is to make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers,” wrote Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10111927602176421" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>&nbsp;announcing the new product. As was the case with the survey, the rollout was planned prior to the pandemic, but was accelerated as businesses have turned to online tools to adapt in the face of the ongoing crisis. According to the survey, 51% of small business owners have&nbsp; increased their online interactions with customers, and 36% of operational businesses are now conducting all sales online.&nbsp;



“One of the things I find so amazing is how much of the activity has migrated online and that we’re doing things we never thought were possible,” says Sandberg. “If I had asked you or you had asked me, could I work entirely from home? Can my whole company go home? I would have said ‘No way.’ But we did it. Small businesses have even more entrepreneurial spirit.”



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<iframe loading="lazy" title="Sheryl Sandberg On The Pandemic&#039;s Threat To Small Business And Facebook&#039;s Latest Product | Forbes" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U4FKBcEScWU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



There are more than 30 million small businesses in the U.S., many of which are struggling to stay afloat amid forced closures and are still hoping to receive financial relief from the government. According to a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/US/infographic-small-business-relief/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;by Goldman Sachs, 71% of Paycheck Protection Program applicants are still waiting for loans and 64% don’t have enough cash to survive the next three months. As of April 19, more than 175,000 businesses have shut down—temporarily or permanently—with closure rates rising 200% or more in hard-hit metropolitan cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, according to Yelp’s Q1 Economic Average&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yelpeconomicaverage.com/yea-q1-2020.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>.



Employees of these businesses are disproportionately affected, with 74% and 70% reporting not having access to paid sick leave and paid time off, according to Facebook’s survey. For hotel, cafe and restaurant employees, those figures are over 90%.



Facebook, which relies heavily on small businesses for advertising revenue, was among the first major tech companies to provide much-needed aid. On March 17, the company announced $100 million in grants for small businesses, the majority of which will be distributed in cash, with some ad credits for business services. Of those funds, $40 million will be distributed across 34 American cities, with 50% being reserved for women, minority and veteran-owned businesses. The other $60 million will be distributed to small business owners throughout the world. In addition to financial assistance, the company also rolled out various product offerings including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital gift cards</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/fundraisers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fundraisers</a>&nbsp;and easier ways for businesses to communicate service changes to their customers.&nbsp;



Small businesses are resilient, even during times of crisis. According to the report, 57% of businesses are optimistic or extremely optimistic about the future, with only 11% of operating businesses expecting to fail in the next three months, should current conditions persist.&nbsp;



“The report raises awareness about the struggles small businesses face from the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Rhett Buttle, founder of Public Private Strategies and co-executive director of the Small Business Roundtable. “But small businesses have brought us out of previous economic downturns and they will do so again.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/">Maneet Ahuja</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs">Entrepreneurs</a>

gettyimages-1156934248-594×594

31% Of Small Businesses Have Stopped Operating Amid Coronavirus: Sheryl Sandberg Shares How Facebook’s Latest Product Aims To Help

TOPLINE Former Facebook moderators will receive at least $1,000 each after Facebook agreed to pay $52 million to settle a lawsuit over allegedly failing to protect moderators being exposed to harmful content online.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>Moderators were exposed to the worst types of content online including terrorism, pedophilia and animal abuse. They were hired by Facebook through third-party firms.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The settlement covers more than 11,000 current and former moderators across California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. It was filed at San Mateo County Superior Court on Friday.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Plaintiffs who have been diagnosed with a mental illness, including PTSD, qualify for additional compensation of up to $50,000.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The social media giant says it will change its policies in response to the case, and introduce compulsory group counseling sessions for moderators, while third-party firms will be required to step up support for moderators’ mental health.</li></ul>



CRUCIAL COMMENT



Lawyer Steve Williams, representing the plaintiffs, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/12/facebook-settlement-mental-health-moderators" target="_blank">told</a> The Guardian: “The harm that can be suffered from this work is real and severe. So the fact that we got some real, meaningful relief going forward just feels really good.”



KEY BACKGROUND



Facebook was sued in September 2018 by former content moderator Selena Scola, who developed PTSD after nine months in the job, thanks to regular exposure to images of rape and murder. The scale of the mental toll on moderators was exposed by The Verge last year. The outlet <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona" target="_blank">reported</a> that some Facebook content moderators working for IT firm Cognizant <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/cognizant" target="_blank">CTSH</a> in Arizona had developed fringe views after exposure to extreme right-wing and conspiracy theorist content, while some had developed PTSD. To cope, some moderators at the firm smoked weed to numb their emotions, while being paid just $28,800 a year. A Guardian report last year found that moderators for Facebook based in Berlin were becoming <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/17/revealed-catastrophic-effects-working-facebook-moderator" target="_blank">addicted</a> to extreme content, were overworked and paid little. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Thank you and the team for all of your diligent efforts, work, and support on this case for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/content?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#content</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/moderators?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#moderators</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/facebook?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/instagram?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/lydiaannewright?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lydiaannewright</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/d_charest_law?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@d_charest_law</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MentalHealthMatters?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MentalHealthMatters</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MentalHealthAwareness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MentalHealthAwareness</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MentalHealthMonth?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MentalHealthMonth</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PTSD?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PTSD</a> <a href="https://t.co/fXhq7UyS8n">https://t.co/fXhq7UyS8n</a>&mdash; Selena Scola (@selena_scola) <a href="https://twitter.com/selena_scola/status/1260321806633721858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/">Isabel Togoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

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Facebook Will Pay Out $52 Million After Failing To Protect Moderators From Dangers Of Extreme Content

Facebook said late Tuesday that roughly 100 developers may have improperly accessed user data, which includes the names and profile pictures of individuals in certain Facebook Groups.



The company&nbsp;<a href="https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2019/11/05/changes-groups-api-access/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">explained in a blog post</a>&nbsp;that developers primarily of social media management and video-streaming apps retained the ability to access Facebook Group member information longer than the company intended.



The company did not detail the type of data that was improperly accessed beyond names and photos, and it did not disclose the number of users affected by the leak.



Facebook restricted its developer APIs—which provide a way for apps to interface with Facebook data—in April 2018, after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke the month before. The goal was to reduce the way in which developers could gather large swaths of data from Facebook users.



But the company’s sweeping changes have been relatively ineffective. More than a year after the company restricted API access, the company continues to announce newly discovered data leaks.



“Although we’ve seen no evidence of abuse, we will ask them to delete any member data they may have retained and we will conduct audits to confirm that it has been deleted,” Facebook said in a statement.



The social media giant says in its announcement that it reached out to 100 developer partners who may have improperly accessed user data and says that at least 11 developer partners accessed the user data within the last 60 days.



Facebook has been reviewing the ways that companies are able to collect information and personal data about its users since the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/mark-zuckerberg-testify-congress.html" target="_blank">New York Times reported</a> that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested data of millions of users. Facebook later said the firm connected to the Trump campaign may have improperly accessed data on 87 million users.



The Federal Trade Commission slapped Facebook with a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mnunez/2019/07/24/ftcs-unprecedented-slap-fines-facebook-5-billion-forces-new-privacy-controls/#13f0183c5668" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$5 billion fine</a>&nbsp;as a result of the breach. As part of the 20-year agreement both parties reached, Facebook now faces new guidelines for how it handles privacy leaks.



“The new framework under our agreement with the FTC means more accountability and transparency into how we build and maintain products,” Facebook’s director of platform partnerships, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=678106196&amp;story_fbid=10157721394281197" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook post</a>.



“As we work through this process we expect to find examples like the Groups API of where we can improve; rest assured we are committed to this work and supporting the people on our platform.”



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mnunez/">Michael Nuñez</a>

facebook__wikipedia

Facebook Is Still Leaking Data More Than One Year After Cambridge Analytica

The founder of some of Nigeria’s best-known startups on the
mistakes and the millions that made him click in the technology business.



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



Sometimes, the simplest business ideas can come from strange
places, or even strangers. 



In his first year studying law at Waterloo University in
Canada, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji was approached by a stranger who asked to stay in his
house.



&nbsp;“I was like ‘I don’t
know you, you have long hair and you are white; I don’t know about this’, but I
said, ‘ok cool’, and he stayed over and we became good friends.”



About a year later, Pierre, the friend, decided to head to Silicon Valley for his cooperative education term. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Entrepreneurship Funds In Africa: Distinguishing The Good From The Bad (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2019/05/09/entrepreneurship-funds-in-africa-distinguishing-the-good-from-the-bad/" target="_blank">Entrepreneurship Funds In Africa: Distinguishing The Good From The Bad</a>



“He told me about this amazing world of Silicon Valley, tech
and investments, and I was sold. A few months later, we decided to start our
own tech company called bookneto.com,” says Aboyeji.



It was a platform that enabled students to download past
examination questions and work with a team of people at the school to help
answer them.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 



The company did decently for three years until it got sued
by the university, but at least that marked a turning point in Aboyeji’s
entrepreneurial life.



It turned out that the intellectual property for past examination questions belonged to the professors at Waterloo University, a fact that was “unknown” to the pair of entrepreneurs and they were found “guilty of piracy”. The venture was eventually sold to a professor who wanted to teach students not enrolled on campus, for a small fee.



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“We had it for three years, and by this time, I had
graduated and looking for a new adventure and I was pretty sure I did not want
to run another business in Canada, so I had started looking at other markets
and Africa was a big one for me, Nigeria in particular,” says Aboyeji.



After graduating, he returned to Nigeria in 2013. 



His proclivity for identifying opportunities inducted him
into the world of massive open online courses (MOOCs). The dominant players at
the time were Coursera and Udacity. 



According to a report by Component, globally, the MOOCs
market is estimated to hit $20.8 billion by 2023. Aboyeji wanted in. He set up
a company in Abuja called Fora.com focused on incorporating MOOCs into the
university environment especially for courses that were relevant but not provided
by Nigerian universities due to a lack of quality resources.



“I was very naïve. I imagined that it would be a breeze to build that business and learned the hard way that anything regulated doesn’t operate rationally. So, the regulators didn’t give me any approvals and universities were skeptical and didn’t want to be laid off so it didn’t work out. We ended up pivoting that business and ended up selling online MBAs instead. Our typical clients were young bank managers who wanted to get an MBA or advanced degree courses to improve their chances of being promoted,” says Aboyeji.



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The firm began to gain some traction. People were paying for
the application courses and Aboyeji decided to pilot a loan program where
financial institutions would offer loans to students.



“So, we were making money but it wasn’t popping off. I went
to New York with the team because we had just gotten some new funding and we
had to meet the new investors. I had met a guy named Jeremy Johnson when he was
in Nigeria earlier so I pinged him and told him what we wanted to do. I wanted
to learn from his experiences. He agreed to meet for coffee in New York.”



During their meeting, Johnson expressed his idea about a new
form of education geared towards skills rather than degrees. Aboyeji also
talked about unemployment in Nigeria and how that represented a massive
opportunity. 



It was a match made in heaven.



“One of the things he told me was that he could not find a
sales force engineer for $150,000 in New York. They just didn’t exist so I said,
‘man, I can train you sales force engineers’. And he said ‘if you decide you
are going to pivot, what you are doing or adding to it… I would fund you and I
will be chairman and we can do this together’. So, I said ‘someone is going to
fund you to do a new business, why not’.”



Aboyeji had just stumbled on a new gold mine and Andela was
born. He started with one person and began teaching him how to code. He
repurposed the team from Fora into coding masters, bid masters and operational
staff, and shifted the focus of Fora because they had the flexibility to do it.



“I don’t think at the time we had any idea how big what we
were doing was. We did the first one, it was semi-successful, we trained the
next four, which was really good. We put out a job description saying no
experience required, we will pay you to learn how to program and we had over
700 applicants off Twitter and we knew we had something.” 



They whittled down to about four or five people that completed that program. To find work for his new coders, Aboyeji used Upwork, the popular freelance jobsite, to bid for jobs. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We didn’t know anybody, so we bid for jobs, executed it and before we knew it, we had about 150 people in the room. That was how the transition happened from Fora to Andela,” says Aboyeji.</blockquote>



The company has since gone on to raise $180 million in
venture funding from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and other notable investors
from Silicon Valley. Aboyeji left the company after three years in search of
his next adventure but is still a major shareholder in Andela. 



That voyage led him to co-found Flutterwave, an integrated
payments platform for Africans to make and accept any payment, anywhere from
across Africa and around the world. Under his watch, the company processed 100
million transactions worth $2.5 billion. 



Turning his eyes firmly on future opportunities has led
Aboyeji to set up his own family office called Street Capital, with a focus on
identifying passionate and experienced missionary entrepreneurs with the
integrity and courage to flawlessly execute in Africa. 



With a solid track-record of unearthing diamonds in the
rough, Aboyeji hopes to empower the next generation of African entrepreneurs to
achieve their fullest potential and help build some of Africa’s fastest-growing
and most-impactful tech businesses.

Iyinoluwa-Aboyeji-2-1-2

The Maverick In Tech

Love is in the air at F8, the annual Facebook developers conference. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday, among other things, Secret Crush, an iteration of Facebook Dating, the mobile-only app that rolled out to a limited audience last year, much to the discomfort of Tinder, its parent company Match and other competitors in the crowded online dating market.



Secret Crush, like Facebook dating, is banking on the social circle, not to mention all that personal data its been collecting for years. Rather than swiping randos, Facebook Dating suggests connections based on logged likes and behavior. With Secret Crush, users now have the option of crushing on up to nine Facebook friends, whether those friends have Facebook Dating profiles are not. Those friends are notified that a mysterious someone likes them, and if that admiration is returned via the dating app, both parties are notified. &nbsp;



Whether Facebook Dating, with its Secret Crush option, poses a danger to the existing online dating market likely won’t be known until it reaches a larger market. As well as its original test countries, Canada, Colombia, Thailand, Canada, and Argentina, the augmented app is now available in 14 more countries in Asia and South America—but not Facebook’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/the-social-series-who-s-using-facebook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">170 million</a>monthly active users in the U.S.



That’s likely why Facebook’s new dating features haven’t yet threatened Tinder and its parent company, Match, which operates sites in 25 countries and also owns a majority stake in Hinge. Match stock [MTCH] fell 1.7%, trading at $60.40. And while many features of Match and Tinder are free, some users opt to pay for premium services. So far Facebook’s dating features will be free for users and will be available in the U.S. “within the year,” according to a company spokesperson.



Facebook’s scale may put it at some advantage, but the two companies will likely be able to coexist in the dating ecosystem.



“No matter what our competitors may do, or large internet platforms may announce, we have tens of millions of people all over the world who visit our brands every month,” Joey Levin, CEO of Match’s parent company, wrote in a letter to shareholders last year. “Facebook can give up and scrap their dating project anytime, but that&#8217;s not an option for us—it&#8217;s our life.”



And there’s something to be said for online anonymity.



During the first day of the two-day event, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be focusing on privacy. Which seems ironic now that it wants to be active in its user’s romantic lives.



“I get that a lot of people aren&#8217;t sure that we are serious about [privacy],&#8221; Zuckerberg said at F8. “We are committed to doing this well and to starting a new chapter for our products.&#8221;



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?type=text%2Fhtml&amp;key=cfc0fb0733504c77aa4a6ac07caaffc7&amp;schema=facebook&amp;url=https%3A//www.facebook.com/FacebookforDevelopers/videos/422572928569998/&amp;image=https%3A//i.embed.ly/1/image%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fscontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net%252Fv%252Ft15.5256-10%252F57433520_422579141902710_9018393283839131648_n.jpg%253F_nc_cat%253D102%2526_nc_ht%253Dscontent-iad3-1.xx%2526oh%253D9ffd568c2f883ad3b969e741f640ab73%2526oe%253D5D3101DC%26key%3D8804248494c144f5b4765c41f66c6ed5"></iframe></figure>



Other announcement topics include:



Messenger—In addition to a desktop messenger app, friends can watch videos in real time together, through a group message.



Facebook Redesign—A new, more ‘immersive’ look and reimagined groups tab will be added.



Groups—New capabilities for specific types of groups, for instance, job groups will have templates for employers to post openings.



Marketplace—Paying for purchases and continental U.S. shipping will now be available directly through Facebook.



Instagram—Updates to Instagram include shopping from posts, a donation sticker for users to donate through the platform, and camera features with effects and interactive stickers.



Oculus Quest and Rift S—Facebook has opened pre-orders for new VR gaming system Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S.



Spark AR—The interactive AR platform will now support both Windows and Mac and will include new features for creation and collaboration.



Portal—The video chat device will now be available internationally, include voice command and messaging functions and allow users to integrate photos from their Instagram feed.



&#8211;Monica Melton; ForbesStaff

gettyimages-98592727-594×594

Facebook Recommits To A More Personalized Dating App, Your Privacy

The net worths of big tech’s blue chip billionaires jumped Thursday as soon as stock markets opened. The gains came after both Facebook and Microsoft reported better than expected revenue growth on Wednesday after the market closed. Altogether the value of Facebook and Microsoft shares held by 27 billionaires rose $7.4 billion, thanks to the strong earnings reports.



The biggest gainer by far was Facebook CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/#76f154083e06" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a>, the largest individual shareholder in the social network he founded in a Harvard dorm room 15 years ago.&nbsp;Zuckerberg’s fortune rose $3.9 billion on Thursday to $71.8 billion.&nbsp;



Despite concerns over its platforms’ data security and privacy, Facebook’s quarterly revenue exceeded $15 billion, a 26% year-over-year increase. The company estimates that 2.1 billion people use one of its services every day. Its share price on Thursday rose 5.8% to $193.26.



Facebook also disclosed a $3 billion to $5 billion legal charge from the FTC, which it claims dragged its diluted earnings-per-share down 55%. The penalty seems to be tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kennethcorbin/2019/04/25/with-billions-at-stake-is-facebook-getting-serious-about-privacy/#51b80cd17ed4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sparked a national conversation</a>&nbsp;about the social media giant’s usage of user data. But investors seemed to shrug off that news.&nbsp;



“We’re making significant investments in safety and security while continuing to grow our community and our business. This quarter once again, shows that we can do both,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/sheryl-sandberg/#24035a5c58b6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sheryl Sandberg</a>, Facebook’s billionaire chief operating officer. The 22 billionaire Facebook shareholders’ stakes&nbsp;are&nbsp;collectively&nbsp;worth $5.7 billion&nbsp;more as of 4:30 pm ET Thursday&nbsp;compared to the market close on Wednesday.



The day’s second-biggest gainer was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/steve-ballmer/#6f6c30644818" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Steve Ballmer</a>, the former Microsoft CEO who still holds more shares in the software giant than any other individual.&nbsp;His fortune jumped $1.2 billion, to $48.2 billion.



Microsoft’s earnings&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jjkinahan/2019/04/25/with-earnings-season-turning-out-better-than-expected-market-mostly-upbeat/#4f0f5fa5553e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shattered expectations</a>, with diluted earnings per share up 20%. Its quarterly revenue climbed 14% to $30.6 billion, largely on the back of its commercial cloud business, which alone has jumped 41% year-over-year.



Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 as its 30th&nbsp;employee and served as CEO from 2000 to 2014. He bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers from fellow billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/11/19/billionaire-donald-sterling-settles-lawsuit-with-the-nba-over-clippers-sale-to-steve-ballmer/#5ff22915275c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Donald Sterling</a>&nbsp;in 2014&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/11/19/billionaire-donald-sterling-settles-lawsuit-with-the-nba-over-clippers-sale-to-steve-ballmer/#5ff22915275c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">for $2 billion</a>. Ballmer has put $2 billion into a donor-advised fund focused on addressing poverty in America.



He’s not Microsoft’s only big winner today. Cofounder and former CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/#5e3c50ed689f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bill Gates</a>&nbsp;sold or gave away most of his shares years ago but still enjoyed a $400 million boost. According to Forbes’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#177b3ef83d78" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">real time wealth tracker</a>, he’s now worth $101 billion,&nbsp;one of just two centibillionaires alive, beaten only by Jeff Bezos. (Bezos’s net worth could&nbsp;skyrocket during trading&nbsp;Friday&nbsp;in the wake of&nbsp;a&nbsp;strong quarterly&nbsp;earnings report from Amazon today.)



Overall, the nine members of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#24ecdcbf251c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forbes World Billionaires list</a>&nbsp;who have significant stakes in Microsoft—a verifiable “who’s who” of investors that include Gates, Ballmer,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/reed-hastings/#28414fa42782" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reed Hastings</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-simonyi/#14bc0c9f6639" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Charles Simonyi</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/penny-pritzker/#2debe58c216e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Penny Pritzker</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-stevens/#2b9bc6f1345a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mark Stevens</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/herbert-wertheim/#3bfb9dd9577a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Herbie Wertheim</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/robert-duggan/#31bb751a526d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robert Duggan</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/reid-hoffman/#2f4b31cb1849" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reid Hoffman</a>—saw their fortunes rise a combined $1.7 billion.



Not every billionaire won after Wednesday earnings. Billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/#1ba3a63e7999" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elon Musk</a>lost over $650 million of his net worth, with Tesla facing a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2019/04/24/tesla-returns-to-the-red-with-bigger-than-expected-702-million-loss/#667cc7a7a2af" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bigger-than-expected $702 million loss</a>.



“This was one of the most complicated quarters I can think of in the history of the company,” Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla’s new CFO, said on a conference call with analysts.



-Carter Coudriet; Forbes Staff

Global Technology Leaders Attend “Tech for Good” Meeting With France’s President Emmanuel Macron

Zuckerberg, Ballmer Gain Combined $5.1 Billion After Strong Microsoft, Facebook Earnings

The once and future richest person in the world (once the Bezos divorce finalizes), Bill Gates will happily apply the dispassionate, sharp-elbowed logic that made him one of the most fearsome business minds of the past century—even when the subject, abstractly, is him, as well as the other, suddenly unpopular members of the Three Comma Club. 



“I think it’s fascinating that for the first time in my life people are saying, ‘Okay, should you have billionaires?’ ‘Should you have a wealth tax?’ I think it’s a fine discussion.” 



It’s a discussion that took place yesterday just a block from Trump Tower, home of America’s first-ever billionaire president. “My opinion is that there should be an estate tax and maybe even higher than we have today. Among The Forbes 400, I don’t think we’d get a majority—Warren [Buffett] and I are sort of against interest on that,” says Gates. “So I think there’s plenty of debate about how capital should be taxed, how estates should be taxed.” 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Jeff Bezos Says National Enquirer Owner Tried To Blackmail Him (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2019/02/08/jeff-bezos-says-national-enquirer-owner-tried-to-blackmail-him/" target="_blank">Jeff Bezos Says National Enquirer Owner Tried To Blackmail Him</a>



But as for the kind of disincentivizing economics lamented by the Beatles in “Taxman” and increasingly championed by America’s far left, Gates remains clear: “The idea that there shouldn’t be billionaires—I’m afraid if you really implemented something like that, that the amount you would gain would be much less than the amount you would lose.” 



In looking at how Gates now deploys tens of billions philanthropically—both the money he and his wife Melinda put into their eponymous foundation, the world’s largest, and that given and pledged by Buffett—it’s critical to understand that perspective. 



Just as Gates views, correctly, that a tax system moving from progressive to confiscatory creates less wealth and innovation overall, he and Melinda examine issues systemically. 



“It’s more evocative to say you’re saving one life than to say you’re saving a million,” he says. “It’s a weird thing.” 



That worldview comes through in the 2019 edition of the Gateses’ annual letter, released this morning. Ostensibly, this year’s letter, which lays out their philanthropic observations and priorities, focuses on nine surprises that have inspired the Gateses to take action. In reality, it’s a valentine to the power of philanthropic investment—the idea of giving not to salve problems, but to solve them. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I think it’s fascinating that for the first time in my life people are saying, ‘Okay, should you have billionaires?’”</blockquote>



The Gateses write about Becoming A Man (BAM), a group counseling program that helps teenage boys stay in school by channeling their anger. (Bill Gates says he had a “touching experience” sitting in on a group, and even took his turn to vent—about learning that global polio cases were going up.) 



And their “toilet fair” in Beijing, designed to inspire a next-gen toilet that can alleviate sanitation issues. Their fixation on Africa, whose young population promises to transform the global labor force. 



All of these initiatives tell a similar story. They’re about “picking novel ideas” or “off-the-wall theories,” as Gates says, and then proving that the concepts work. “Once you find a solution and want to scale that up, it’s usually government money.” 



That’s a sticking point when dysfunctional Washington can’t enact even the most obvious forward-thinking policies. Take foreign aid, less than 1% of the U.S. budget and an expenditure that, since the Marshall Plan, has consistently generated positive ROI, in terms of creating stability and vital trading markets and stemming deadly diseases. 



While Congress rejected President Trump’s proposed foreign aid cuts, Gates remains worried. “It just can’t be ignored, given the intensity of political debate over domestic issues—and if you have one party saying, ‘Hey, helping foreign countries, that’s kind of a sucker’s deal, does it even benefit us?’” 



This shortsighted nationalist streak is a global issue. “We’re very worried that if Brexit goes poorly, at least for a time, [the U.K.] might not see [foreign aid] as a priority at all,” he says. “If the French domestic stuff gets too painful, will they stay generous?” 



In education, Gates has faced similar headwinds. “You get into political policy things in terms of what you’re trying to achieve. It’s tricky.” The most obvious example here: his previous battle for the Common Core education standards, which critics like Diane Ravitch undermined by terming such efforts a “billionaire boys club.”



READ MORE |<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2019/02/01/facebook-profits-defy-critics-zuckerberg-vows-company-has-changed/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Facebook Profits Defy Critics – Zuckerberg Vows Company Has Changed (opens in a new tab)">Facebook Profits Defy Critics – Zuckerberg Vows Company Has Changed</a>



“The attack that ‘Why should you even have a say in setting the agenda?’—that has a certain resonance to it,” admits Gates. 



So why should billionaires get to choose what problems we’re solving? 



“Philanthropy is there because the government is not very innovative, doesn’t try risky things and particularly people with a private-sector background—in terms of measurement, picking great teams of people to try out new approaches,” says Gates. “Philanthropy does that.”



Philanthropy, as practiced by the Gateses, also takes risks in the existential terrain political leaders would rather bury their heads in. Bill Gates still worries about nuclear proliferation, an area his partner-in-crime Buffett has championed. He’s been the global leader on the risks around pandemics and also, to a lesser degree, climate change, where his $1 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund makes big bets. 



Artificial intelligence looms on the horizon as the newest threat brought on by innovation. “In the long run,” says Gates, “AI is a tough problem.”



Notably, Gates does not feel that way about social media. Last century’s boy wonder, who faced scrutiny for what the federal government saw as Microsoft’s monopolistic tactics, clearly has empathy for this century’s boy wonder, Mark Zuckerberg, now a lightning rod for Facebook’s role in the erosion of democracy, as most recently outlined by Facebook investor Roger McNamee. 



“I think what Roger [McNamee] has said is completely unfair and kind of outrageous,” says Gates. “They’re blaming Mark for everything. I mean, Trump was not elected because of Facebook. They say ‘filter bubble.’ All these polarization things. … Well, be clear. I get to read whatever I want to read, I get to listen to right-wing radio, I get to listen to Fox News. You kill Facebook and I can still live in my filter bubble. But filter bubble is not just my Facebook feed, so acting like, ‘Hey Mark, wake up someday and solve the filter bubble problem.’ No, Roger McNamee has no practical solution to the filter bubble thing.” 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“They’re blaming Mark for everything. I mean, Trump was not elected because of Facebook.”</blockquote>



(“It’s hard when you’re in this vortex,” adds Gates. “I was in such a vortex once upon a time. A little bit different because mine was more of a court-related thing than the broad view of whether the software was good or not.”) 



Ultimately, Gates, whose net worth, even after large donations to the foundation, approaches $100 billion, views philanthropy as a vital force for good. And he thinks that potential critics—even a loony potential British prime minister—will come around to that view. 



“When I met with Jeremy Corbyn for the first time, does he view me as the billionaire guy who collected more money than he thinks anybody is supposed to collect?” recalls Gates. 



“Or does he view me as the philanthropist who’s helping improve Africa and hopefully learn about education? Fortunately he was very nice, he viewed me as the second. But I’m sure he had to hesitate: ‘This guy is one of those people that maybe there should be none of’.”



-Randall Lane, Forbes Staff

China International Import Expo (CIIE) – Day One

Bill Gates Gets Why People Are Doubting Billionaires—And He Has A Defense (Even For Mark Zuckerberg)

Mark Zuckerberg may have been feeling vindicated on Wednesday.&nbsp;



After what’s been a horrible year for his&nbsp;company’s reputation, Facebook surprised Wall Street&nbsp;by posting record profits for its fourth quarter, and revenues that beat expectations.



The company reported earnings per share of $2.38, up from the $1.44 it reported a year earlier and also&nbsp;ahead of forecasts&nbsp;for $2.17. Net earnings for the quarter&nbsp;totalled&nbsp;$6.9 billion.



The company’s shares were up more than 8% to $162.3 in after-hours trading in New York, which will come as some relief to investors—Facebook’s stock has declined by roughly 30% in the past six months.



“We’ve fundamentally changed how we run this company,” Zuckerberg said on an earnings call, adding that Facebook had invested “billions of dollars in security.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2019/01/29/zuckerberg-to-integrate-whatsapp-instagram-and-facebook-messenger/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Zuckerberg to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger (opens in a new tab)">Zuckerberg to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger</a>



Wednesday&#8217;s results were in strong contrast to the flurry of criticism levelled at the company recently around its privacy practices, including from tech giant Apple. This week&nbsp;the iPhone maker blocked Facebook&nbsp;from distributing internal iOS apps that its staff used for testing new services, a major shot across the bow in what’s becoming a tense battle over privacy standards.&nbsp;



But none of that seems to matter to Wall Street right now. Not only&nbsp;is Facebook’s bottom line rising, its user base is still growing too, countering much of the recent discourse about an exodus of users from the platform.



The company said Wednesday that 2.32 billion people were active each month across its platforms, including WhatsApp and Instagram, versus 2.27 billion the previous quarter.



The number of people using Facebook daily was up 9% from last year to 1.52 billion, led by growth in India, Indonesia and the Philippines, the company’s chief financial officer David Wehner said on an earnings call on Wednesday.



Wehner also sought to downplay the impact of critical press articles over the past year on Facebook’s business and growth. “I’d let the numbers stand for themselves,’ he said. “We are growing in all regions.”



Zuckerberg said that the Stories feature on Facebook and Instagram would be where some of the greatest potential lay for generating more advertising dollars, by also using artificial intelligence-powered software to target Facebook users more accurately. “Stories on FB is growing quickly,” he said, though he also admitted, “We started a bit later and execution wasn’t as great as it needed to be.”



Wehner evaded a question on the earnings call about how much time people spent on Facebook versus Instagram, sidestepping concerns that its flagship network is falling out of favor.



“The daily active user trends that we’re giving do paint the picture, which is stability in the developed markets and growth for Facebook Blue in developing markets,” Wehner said. “Time spent is not our focus, and our focus is meaningful social interactions. Daily active user trends tell the story broadly.”&nbsp;



Advertisers, however, tend to spend more money on targeting users in developed markets, so even while signups to Facebook are growing in developing markets and even in the U.S., there may still be some concerns about return on investment if users in North America and Europe are spending only fleeting moments on the site. For now though, investors seem pleased enough with the growth numbers and the revenue beat.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5c52273531358e522e540e85/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Facebook's monthly active users continued to grow, reaching 2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. "/><figcaption>Facebook&#8217;s monthly active users continued to grow, reaching 2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. GRAPHIC VIA FACEBOOK</figcaption></figure>



&#8211;Parmy Olson Forbes Staff

Facebook Profits Defy Critics – Zuckerberg Vows Company Has Changed

From the rapprochement between North and South Korea at the Winter Olympics in January to December’s frantic news agenda, 2018 has had no shortage of surprises. Below are my key picks for the defining moments of the year. 



Elon Musk, Mars, and a roller coaster year for billionaires



On Feb. 6, Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apps-space-commentary/commentary-spacex-launch-opens-new-frontier-in-space-commerce-idUSKBN1FQ38W">blasted into space</a>&nbsp;from Florida and sent a cherry-red Tesla roadster hurtling toward Mars. It was a powerful statement about the influence and ambition of a new generation of tech billionaires.



Overall, however, 2018 would be a rough year for the group, and Musk was no exception. By July, he was&nbsp;<a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-ceo/tesla-shares-fall-after-ceo-musk-abuses-british-caver-idUKKBN1K62H7">embroiled in a high-profile spat</a>&nbsp;with a British cave rescue diver over a miniature submarine he had hoped would help rescue 12 boys trapped underground in Thailand, just one of a series of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/19/elon-musk-tesla-timeline-difficult-painful-year">increasingly negative headlines</a>.



Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – once touted as a potential U.S. presidential candidate – had scarcely a better year, his firm plagued by its own stream of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/11/15/18097064/facebook-political-reaction-new-york-times-capitol-hill">scandals and political headwinds</a>.



Google, whose chief executive Sundar Pichai became the latest tech chief&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/12/11/18134984/live-google-ceo-congress-hearing-china-testimony-house-judiciary-committee-censored-search">summoned before Congress</a>, faces a mutiny from some workers on multiple topics, including his dealings with the U.S. and Chinese governments. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/14/jeff-bezos-low-income-people-pay-amazon-workers-better">faces mounting criticism</a>&nbsp;over working conditions and low tax payments.



Yet none of this looks set to stop tech firms from continuing to radically disrupt the world – indeed, many of their founders appear to believe their mission is to do so. Expect these battles to grow in 2019, particularly if new technology such as artificial intelligence and driverless cars accelerate change.



Trump fires advisers, tightens his grip



One billionaire learning his way around the political system in 2018 was U.S. President Donald Trump. After reports of growing frustration with some of his most senior officials, March saw him fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Both had been viewed as moderating influences on Trump, with successors Mike Pompeo and John Bolton&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apps-bolton-commentary/commentary-with-bolton-trump-shakes-off-generals-restraints-idUSKBN1GZ2W4">perceived as less prone</a>&nbsp;to questioning him.



<a href="https://uk.reuters.com/news/picture/john-kelly-to-leave-white-house-idUKRTX6HPZZ">December&#8217;s departure</a>&nbsp;of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly leaves Defense Secretary James Mattis the key restraining influence.



Overall, Trump seems increasingly keen to trust his own judgment rather than that of establishment-based gatekeepers or Republican insiders.



POTUS woos Kim and Putin. Elsewhere, diplomacy unravels.



In Singapore in June and in Helsinki in July, Trump upset many in his own administration with the warmth of his meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The friendliness of the summits stood in stark contrast to the G7 gathering of Western and Allied leaders in Canada, also in June. There, Trump appeared&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g7-summit/trump-torpedoes-g7-effort-to-ease-trade-spat-threatens-auto-tariffs-idUSKCN1J50H3">more isolated than ever before</a>&nbsp;on topics including climate change, protectionism and relations with Russia. The G7 leaders were unable to agree on a communiqué, with the six non-U.S. members making their own statement independent of Washington.



Events at the G7 pointed to a wider malaise in international diplomacy. World leaders at November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apps-china-commentary/commentary-can-u-s-china-relations-be-saved-idUSKCN1NO2EJ">also failed to agree</a>&nbsp;on a communiqué, this time due to divisions between China and the United States and its allies over trade.



Military posturing is also on the rise. Russia, China and NATO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apps-wargames-commentary/commentary-why-china-and-russia-are-obsessed-with-vast-new-war-games-idUSKCN1LE1O6">each held their largest wargames</a>&nbsp;in recent history this summer, while confrontations between jets and warships in the South China Sea and Europe have also increased markedly.



Khashoggi killed as authoritarian states take the gloves off



The world’s authoritarian states appeared at least equally as focused on stifling dissent and opposition. Nowhere was that clearer than in the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-khashoggi-adviser-insight/how-the-man-behind-khashoggi-murder-ran-the-killing-via-skype-idUKKCN1MW2H4">murdered and reportedly dismembered</a>&nbsp;in his own country’s consulate building in Istanbul. Like the suspected Russian nerve agent assassination attempt on a former double agent in the UK town of Salisbury the previous year, the killing sparked international outrage and some diplomatic isolation of Riyadh – but little in the way of convincing apology from those believed responsible.



A string of autocratic governments appear increasingly dismissive of human rights, openly taking draconian action against critics and enemies alike. Russia is continuing its ruthless military campaign against remaining rebel enclaves in Syria, and a Saudi-led coalition has persisted in its war in Yemen – at catastrophic cost to civilians, where millions now face starvation.



China is cracking down on its Muslim Uighur minority, with a U.N. report&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-un/u-n-calls-on-china-to-free-uighurs-from-re-education-camps-idUSKCN1LF1D6">citing estimates Beijing has</a>&nbsp;interned up to one million in “reeducation camps.” Such steps suggest authoritarian rulers like China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Putin may not feel as secure as they appear – or that they believe such brutal tactics are simply necessary to retain their grip.U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea&#8217;s leader Kim Jong Un leave after signing documents that acknowledge the progress of the talks and pledge to keep momentum going, after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst



G20 meets as Paris burns



November’s G20 gathering in Argentina was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apps-g20-commentary/commentary-for-g20-leaders-greater-problems-yet-to-come-idUSKBN1O22FW">perhaps the year’s most successful</a>&nbsp;multilateral gathering, with world leaders managing to agree on a largely bland communiqué on reform of global trade. Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi brought some temporary relief from the two countries’ trade war, even as Ukraine tensions and Mueller’s Russia probe made a Trump-Putin meeting impossible. There was still no shortage of disagreements on show, however – and as the leaders met, riots in Paris were grabbing global headlines.



Almost every Western leader in Argentina returned home to an existential political crisis. French President Emmanuel Macron has since bowed to some of the demands of the “yellow vest” protesters, particularly over fuel tax, but that has not been enough to stem the unrest. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled she will shortly leave politics, although she has seen some success in appointing a protegé to lead her party. Trump went back to Washington to face the fallout from former lawyer Michael Cohen’s admission of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/cohen-new-charge-trump-1.4925270">lying to Congress</a>&nbsp;about a Trump Tower project in Moscow; British Prime Minister Theresa May has so far failed to find a Brexit deal she can get through Parliament.



Many of these impasses stem from a much wider crisis in Western nations, with rising wealth gaps and often mounting discontent and hardship among the poorest. Solving those issues will be tough – and more disruption feels inevitable through 2019 and beyond. &#8211; Reuters



<ul><li>Peter Apps </li></ul>

gettyimages-855492078-594×594

Commentary | Five Moments That Defined 2018

After a turbulent few days on the stock market, fueled by rising tension between China and the U.S. over trade agreements as well as hostile attention towards tech companies for its data-use standards, technology shares continued its decline on Tuesday. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.9%.
The fortunes of two of the world&#8217;s biggest tech titans suffered big losses. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook&#8217;s</a> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> closed Tuesday $3.1 billion poorer while Amazon&#8217;s <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeff Bezos</a>, the richest man on Earth, ended the day down $4.6 billion, at $124.1 billion.
Since March 17, when news first broke about the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica’s improper use of data gathered via Facebook, Zuckerberg’s fortune has fallen by nearly $13 billion. Forbes pegs his net worth at the close of markets Tuesday at $61.3 billion. He’s ranked seventh richest in the world, down from fifth richest as of mid-February.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/03/20/latest-pr-nightmare-mark-zuckerbergs-net-worth-drops-5-1-billion-hours/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: After Latest PR Nightmare, Mark Zuckerberg&#8217;s Net Worth Drops $5.1 Billion In Hours</a>
Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in several British and American newspapers on Sunday to apologize for the social media giant&#8217;s role in Cambridge Analytica data incident. &#8220;This was a breach of trust, and I&#8217;m sorry we didn&#8217;t do more at the time,&#8221; the ad reads. &#8220;We&#8217;re now taking steps to ensure this doesn&#8217;t happen again.&#8221;
Amazon&#8217;s stock, meanwhile, fell alongside other tech stocks on Tuesday. After closing Monday in the green, Amazon stock dropped 3.7% on Tuesday. Bezos, who founded the e-commerce giant from a Seattle garage in 1994, owns 16% of the company&#8217;s stock.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/03/07/forbes-billionaires-2018-meet-richest-people-planet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Forbes Billionaires 2018: Meet The Richest People On The Planet</a>
Bezos overtook <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microsoft</a> co-founder <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Gates</a> as the richest man on Earth in October 2017. He is also the only centi-billionaire on the Forbes billionaire rankings. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Angel Au-Yeung</a>, FORBES STAFF

Zuckerberg And Bezos Fortunes Shed Billions Amid Tech Stock Slide

After another public relations debacle for Facebook—in which a Trump-affiliated data firm was accused of improperly gleaning information on more than 50 million users—the company’s stock plummeted nearly 7%, through 1pm Eastern Time on Monday, erasing $37 billion of market value. The decline had the biggest impact on Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s cofounder and CEO, whose net worth fell $5.1 billion.
Zuckerberg, who owns about 16% of Facebook&#8217;s shares, is now worth an estimated $69.5 billion, according to Forbes’ <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#version:realtime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">real-time</a> rankings of the world’s billionaires. He is currently the seventh-richest person on the planet, down from fifth, after falling behind Zara cofounder Amancio Ortega and Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico’s richest person.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/03/07/forbes-billionaires-2018-meet-richest-people-planet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Forbes Billionaires 2018: Meet The Richest People On The Planet</a>
It’s the latest in a string of bad news for Facebook. Last year it was blamed for, among other things, facilitating misinformation, contributing to polarization in Britain, Austria, Italy and elsewhere and enabling foreign political interference. Already, 2018 has been no less turbulent.
On March 17, news broke that data firm Cambridge Analytica—which worked as a consultant for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—allegedly ”harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission.” The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html">report</a>, published in the New York Times, has exacerbated concerns that the social media giant can be exploited for partisan gain. On Sunday, March 18, lawmakers in both the United States and United Kingdom <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/us/cambridge-analytica-facebook-privacy-data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/us/cambridge-analytica-facebook-privacy-data.html">pressed Facebook</a> for more details on the matter.
In the Times report, Facebook&#8217;s deputy general counsel, Paul Grewal, called the incident &#8220;a scam — and a fraud.” “We will take whatever steps are required to see that the data in question is deleted once and for all — and take action against all offending parties,” he added. Cambridge Analytica was suspended from the platform soon after.
The data consultancy has been in the headlines since Trump’s victory in November 2016. The firm had targeted voters and helped tailor political messaging for his campaign. Amid the post-election upheaval Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, Alexander Nix, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2017/12/09/trump-campaigns-data-vendor-cambridge-analytica-says-it-is-moving-away-from-u-s-politics/#a86615a584af" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Forbes</a> in December 2017 that the company would de-emphasize its political work in the U.S. He further stated that the business had “no involvement with Russians,” an assertion that was also disputed in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-russia.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-russia.html">Times</a> this week.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2017/09/08/facebook-says-fake-accounts-likely-tied-russia-bought-100000-political-ads/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Facebook Says Fake Accounts Likely Tied To Russia Bought $100,000 In Political Ads </a>
Zuckerberg, 33, founded Facebook in 2004 as a 19-year-old student at Harvard. He dropped out during his sophomore year to focus full-time on the company, which quickly expanded past its initial niche on college campuses. Today Facebook boasts more than 2 billion monthly active users.
The business’ revenue has swelled in turn, to $40.7 billion in 2017. Together with Google, Facebook accounts for over 60% of online advertising dollars, according to <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/12179/google-and-facebook-share-of-ad-revenue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.statista.com/chart/12179/google-and-facebook-share-of-ad-revenue/">Statista</a>. As the firm’s financial and social power continues to intensify, some have called for regulatory intervention. This week’s tumult will do nothing to ease that pressure. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Noah Kirsch</a>, FORBES STAFF

After Latest PR Nightmare, Mark Zuckerberg’s Net Worth Drops $5.1 Billion In Hours

Some of the world&#8217;s richest people &#8211; including Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos &#8211; lost billions apiece on Monday as stocks took an ugly nosedive.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,175 points, or 4.6%, marking the largest one-day drop the blue-chip index has ever seen and wiping out its gains for the year. The Dow, which tracks 30 U.S. companies, is now down 2% so far this year. The S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq also fell by about 4% each on Monday.
Warren Buffett was hit the hardest by the sell-off: The drop shaved $5.3 billion off his net worth &#8211; a nearly 6% drop in just one day. He is still the third-richest person in the world with a net worth of $84.6 billion, according to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#version:realtime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes real-time billionaire rankings.</a>
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/02/01/african-billionaire-fortunes-rise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: African Billionaire Fortunes Rise</a>
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was next in line, shedding $3.6 billion, or 4.7% of his net worth, as shares of his social media company dropped 5%. He finished the day with $73.1 billion to his name.
Amazon&#8217;s Jeff Bezos, the richest person on the planet, saw his fortune drop $3.2 billion. That erases <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2018/02/02/jeff-bezos-adds-3-4-billion-to-fortune-as-amazon-investors-cheer-record-profits/#4c957c231a72" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the $3.2 billion he gained</a> one day last week after his company announced blockbuster quarterly results. He is still worth an astounding $115.7 billion, which puts him $25 billion ahead of the second-richest person on the planet, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/01/24/jeff-bezos-gains-2-8-billion-reaches-highest-net-worth-ever/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Jeff Bezos Gains $2.8 Billion, Reaches Highest Net Worth Ever</a>
Meanwhile, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each lost $2.2 billion as shares of their parent company, Alphabet, fell by 5%. Oracle founder Larry Ellison&#8217;s fortune also dropped by $2.2 billion.
Altogether, the six billionaires that suffered the most from the market rout saw their fortunes shrivel by a whopping $18.8 billion in a single day. Many of the world&#8217;s richest people have their net worth tied up in shares of their publicly-traded companies and are vulnerable to fluctuations in the market.
To be sure, these billionaires have benefited hugely from a relentless bull market that is coming up on its nine-year anniversary. The S&amp;P 500 gained 19% in 2017, driven in part by record corporate profits and an improving economy. Jeff Bezos, for instance, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2017/10/27/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-is-the-richest-person-in-the-world-again/#ca192ca19480" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has become $28 billion richer</a> in just the last four months as shares of Amazon rose 30%. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Lauren Gensler</a>, FORBES STAFF

Buffett, Zuckerberg & Bezos Lose Billions As Dow Drops Over 1,000 Points

Lessons And Ideas By The 100 Greatest Living Business Minds

The average member of The Forbes 400 is, at 67,  old enough to retire. But 14 members of the new Forbes list of America&#8217;s 400 richest people &#8211; including the fourth richest person on the list &#8211;  are under 40. Ten are self-made tech entrepreneurs, four inherited their fortunes from their families, and all of them are men. The youngest member of The Forbes 400 for the third year in a row is 27-year-old Evan Spiegel, the founder of Snapchat and the CEO of its parent company, Snap.
The youngest members of The Forbes 400 are more likely to drop out of college than The Forbes 400 as a whole: 28% of list members under 40 are college dropouts, compared to only 11% of the overall list. Two of these dropouts are Harvard roommates and Facebook cofounders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, both 33, who left college after their sophomore year to work on building Facebook full-time.
Zuckerberg is the richest member of The Forbes 400 who is under the age of 40. With a $71 billion fortune, he is worth more than the rest of the under 40’s combined. At only 33, Zuckerberg controls a social media platform used by more than a quarter of the world’s population. In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, he is grappling with the role Facebook played in spreading Russian-sponsored ads and fake news. His second daughter, August, was born in August 2017. At the birth of his first daughter, Max, in December 2015, Zuckerberg pledged to give away 99% of his Facebook stock in his lifetime and formed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as an entity to do so. In September, Zuckerberg said he would sell up to 75 million Facebook shares (worth up to $12.8 billion on the day he made the announcement) in the next 18 months to fund his philanthropy.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2017/10/18/donald-trumps-fortune-fell-600-million-one-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How Donald Trump&#8217;s Fortune Fell $600 Million In One Year</a>
The second richest under-40 on the list is Facebook cofounder Moskovitz, who is just a few days younger than Zuckerberg. In 2008, Moskovitz left Facebook and founded software start-up Asana, but his estimated $13.6 billion net worth still stems mainly from his Facebook stock.
The only newcomer among the under-40s this year is Rishi Shah. He became a billionaire after his start-up, Outcome Health, which places tablets in doctors’ offices so that pharmaceutical companies can advertise their drugs, raised $600 million at a $5 billion valuation in May. But the start-up’s lofty valuation is already in question: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2017/10/04/sizzling-startup-outcome-healths-drug-marketing-shows-signs-of-struggle/#5eebd7435ac1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes reported in October</a> that some drug companies are dissatisfied with Outcome’s results and that Pfizer got a full $4 million refund for one ad campaign. Outcome says it provides “meaningful returns” and that the majority of its customers renew their deals.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/lists/2017/10/18/forbes-400-2017-meet-richest-people-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Forbes 400 2017: Meet The Richest People In America</a>
The youngest Forbes 400 member, Evan Spiegel, has had a rollercoaster year. In March 2017, Snap had its initial public offering and the net worths of cofounders Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, 29, initially rose as high as $5.4 billion on the first day of trading. But Snap stock dropped nearly 40% from its IPO through late September as user growth slowed and Facebook&#8217;s Instagram launched copycat features. Over the summer, Spiegel married former Victoria&#8217;s Secret model Miranda Kerr.
With a $13.2 billion fortune, Wal-Mart heir Lucas Walton is the richest under 40 who inherited his fortune. He is a grandson of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, and inherited his stake in the retail giant after his father, John Walton, died in a place crash in 2005.
The number of billionaires under 40 on this year’s list is the same as it was last year. While Shah joined the list this year, beer heir Alejandro Santo Domingo turned 40 in the past year. His brother Andres Santo Domingo and nephew Julio Mario Santo Domingo III, who are both Forbes 400 members, are still under 40.
Here are all of The Forbes 400 members under the age of 40:
Mark Zuckerberg, Age 33
Net worth: $71 billion
Dustin Moskovitz, Age 33
Net worth: $13.6 billion
Lucas Walton, Age 31
Net worth: $13.2 billion
Scott Duncan, Age 35
Net worth: $5.5 billion
Andres Santo Domingo, Age 39
Net worth: $4.8 billion
Nathan Blecharczyk, Age 36
Net worth: $3.8 billion
Brian Chesky, Age 36
Net worth: $3.8 billion
Joe Gebbia, Age 34
Net worth: $3.8 billion
Rishi Shah, Age 31
Net worth: $3.6 billion
Robert Pera, Age 39
Net worth: $3.2 billion
Bobby Murphy, Age 29
Net worth: $3.1 billion
Evan Spiegel, age 27
Net worth: $3.1 billion
Sean Parker, age 37
Net worth: $2.6 billion
Julio Mario Santo Domingo III, age 32
Net worth: $2.4 billion
Net worths for The Forbes 400 were calculated using closing stock prices from September 22, 2017.
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Kate Vinton</a>, FORBES STAFF

Tag: Mark Zuckerberg

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