TikTok CEO Jumps Ship

• TikTok CEO Quits After 3 Months
• Apple’s New Privacy Policy Will Hammer Facebook’s Ad Business
• Tesla Driver Watching Movie When He Rammed Cop Car
• The Telltale Signs of Inflation

 BUSINESS 

TikTok CEO Quits After 3 Months

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer is handing in his resignation just three months after taking the job. (Oof, that’s not going to look good on his resume. How could I, the manager of a Baskin Robbins, trust you with your own scoopin’ station, Kevin?)

The Kevinator says the political environment surrounding TikTok has shifted rapidly since he took the job in May and he’s super not into that.

In the last month alone, TikTok has been banned by the Trump administration, filed a lawsuit against the US government, and will likely be sold to a random US company.

Mr. Mayer, one of the few Kevins who made it adulthood, is a longtime media exec who left a position at Disney to take the helm at TikTok. Kevvo said he stepped down because he can foresee changes to the corporate structure when whoever buys this stupid app takes over.

In layman’s terms, he won’t be in charge anymore and that makes him a sad Kevin.

“I understand that the role that I signed up for — including running TikTok globally — will look very different as a result of the U.S. administration’s action to push for a selloff of the U.S. business,” Mr. Mayer wrote.

“I’ve always been globally focused in my work, and leading a global team that includes TikTok U.S. was a big draw for me.”

After the departure of Mr. Global Focus, Vanessa Pappas, currently the U.S. general manager of the app, will take over as interim head of the thing that we’ve been talking about this whole article.

A TikTok spokesperson said: we appreciate how messed up everything has gotten in the last few months and don’t blame Kevvo from bouncing on this clown festival one bit.

A TikTok spokesperson said, “We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin’s role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision. We thank him for his time at the company and wish him well.”

Breaking: TikTok will likely announce the sale of U.S. operations in the coming days, according to information leaked to the Financial Times. Walmart is said to be teaming up with Microsoft for a bid on the social media app.

 TECH 

Apple’s New Privacy Policy Will Hammer Facebook’s Ad Business

Facebook says Apple’s upcoming iOS update will lead to a 50% drop in its Audience Network advertising business (which has been targeting me with human teeth and other weird Chinese miscellanea, so I guess I’m fine with that?)

$5 is actually a really good price for human teeth.

In a blog post Wednesday, Facebook outlined how the changes will prevent folks from getting their hyper-specific t-shirts that let everyone know they’re a hairstylist born in July who plays piano, loves corgis, and you shouldn’t mess with them.

Until now, advertisers have been able to use tracking IDs to target their ads at narrow groups of people who will definitely buy their crap.

This system is ticking away invisibly in the background of your Facebook app. But when iOS 14 rolls out, with its updated privacy settings, users will have to opt into being tracked like an endangered animal that buys hoodies with their own name on them.

If there’s one thing that Facebook knows, it’s that people don’t like their behavior being tracked online and they certainly don’t “opt-in” to stuff. They don’t even like opting-out of stuff for that matter. They prefer to just… be. And that’s been the core philosophy driving the last 20 years of online advertising.

In its blog post, Facebook said it would scramble to comply with Apple’s requirements, but it probably doesn’t make sense to offer Audience Network on iOS 14.

“We know this may severely impact publishers’ ability to monetize through Audience Network on iOS 14, and, despite our best efforts, may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS14 in the future,” said the entity known as Facebook.

“While it’s difficult to quantify the impact to publishers and developers at this point with so many unknowns, in testing we’ve seen more than a 50% drop in Audience Network publisher revenue when personalization was removed from mobile ad install campaigns. In reality, the impact to Audience Network on iOS 14 may be much more, so we are working on short-and long-term strategies to support publishers through these changes.”

Despite the grim forecast, Facebook (FB) shares closed up more than 8% that day.

(Source)

ONE LAST THING

The Telltale Signs of Inflation
By Money & Crisis Editor Graham Summers

Over the last two days, I’ve been outlining how policymakers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have finally ignited inflation.

By way of review:

1. Their recent monetary policies have been MUCH more aggressive than they were in response to the 2008 crisis ($15 trillion in six months vs. $12 trillion in eight years).

2. This time around, a large portion of this money is actually making its way into the real economy via stimulus payments and direct lending from central banks.

As a result, inflation is beginning to appear throughout the financial system.

Telltale Signs of Inflation

The biggest sign of this is the $USD, which is breaking down.

The $USD has lost 4% of its value thus far this year. However, that number is somewhat misleading since the $USD spiked during the March COVID-19 crisis. In reality, peak to trough, the $USD is down a whopping 12%.

During weak $USD/higher inflation regimes, real assets outperform. So, it’s no surprise that inflation hedges are breaking out to the upside.

Gold was the first.

Now Copper is joining in.

Energy might be next.

In simple terms, higher inflation will mean real assets soaring. I’m talking about things like gold, copper, oil, real estate and the like.

MARKET MOVEMENTS

Closing Data for Today

• GOP set to propose a more narrow coronavirus relief bill in attempt to break the deadlock between Congress and the Senate.
• Fed chair Jerome Powell announced a major policy shift aimed at keeping inflation at bay.
• Amazon unveils a health and fitness tracking wristband in a challenge to Apple Watch and Fitbit.

Cheers,

Shane Ormond
Editor, One Last Thing

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