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Valley Buzz: Perez Hilton Boycotts Facebook, 300,000 Tech Jobs Gone, and Some Good News for Mobile Customers Everywhere
Posted Feb 17, 2009 06:15pm EST by Sarah Lacy in Investing, Telecom, Venture Capital, M and A, IPOs, Products and Trends, Recession
There’s a new Silicon Valley-Hollywood rivalry: Mark Zuckerberg vs. Perez Hilton. The irascible LA gossip monger—wielding his digital sharpie--called for a boycott of the popular social networking site yesterday. It all started on a not-so-sleepy holiday weekend in the Valley when Facebook decided to switch its terms of service. Under the old language, when someone deleted their Facebook account, all the media he or she uploaded—notes, photos, videos and the like—would no longer be part of Facebook’s content troves. Now, Facebook retains the right to all that data and content in perpetuity. Perez wasn’t alone in his outrage. The move sent many tech bloggers screaming foul, too.
Facebook founder
Zuckerberg penned another in his series of calm-down-everyone blog posts saying that Facebook had no plans
to start selling college photos as clip art, rather it was treating Facebook
communications as permanent one-way exchanges, just like email. The whole thing
appears to have died down faster than past Facebook controversies like Beacon—at
least in the Valley. No word yet on whether Perez is mollified by the
clarification.
The pace of layoffs in tech is accelerating in 2009—which
shouldn’t be huge news for TechTicker viewers used to our steady drumbeat of the
dour pink slip alerts. According to TechCrunch’s Layoff Tracker, it took tech
four months to shed 100,000 jobs, five weeks to get to 200,000 lost jobs, and
just three weeks to hit 300,000 lost jobs. TechCrunch
started tracking layoffs in late August. For all the talk of money-losing
startups, it’s the public companies that drive up those totals, with Pioneer
announcing 10,000 cuts, Cisco announcing 3,000 cuts and NEC announcing 20,000
cuts—just to name a few.
Of course, not all of those losses are
happening in Silicon Valley, but make no mistake, the region is feeling the
economic sting. An annual report from Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the
Silicon Valley Community Foundation said that the local economy held up for most
of 2008, until November.
December saw a 1.3% drop in employment and the Valley’s per capital income fell
.8%-- the first time the region has seen such a drop since 2003. Not everyone is
hurting: The percentage of households earning more than $100,000 per year has
risen to 42%. Still, the percentage of households earning less than $35,0000
also inched up, creating a big economic gulf between the rich and the poor in
the Valley. The fear sweeping high tech and the Valley: Now that we’ve finally
been hit hard, things get far worse before they get better.
So, how about some good news? There’s plenty of it coming out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, at least for mobile consumers. First up, Skype announced a deal with the world’s largest handset maker, Nokia, to put Skype’s free-to-low-cost calling software on its higher-end models. The Skype-enabled devices will start shipping in the third quarter of this year. That’s welcome news for cash-strapped international road warriors out there who are sick of paying pricey international roaming fees. Ericsson also announced a deal with Skype at the conference. Presumably, it’s good news for eBay too, as rumors persist that this is the year Skype finds a new home via a spin-out or a buyer.
Google also had some
news in Barcelona. Vodafone unveiled a new handset based on Google’s Android
operating system, and gadget blog Gizmodo gushed that it was “close to
perfection.”
Wow,
between the Palm Pre and the latest G-phone, even the gadget fan boys aren’t
giving the iPhone much of a honeymoon period. We might have a strong four-phone
horse race if Blackberry can get the storm together, and that’s great for
consumers everywhere, even in a recession.
38 Comments
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 07:10PM EST
The Iphone has nothing to worry about. The storm is going no where. Android as an operating system will fall flat. Apple and Microsoft are still the software companies for mobile technology. Facebook has seen its time. I would worry if I had anything on Facebook after I no longer had an interest in the sight. One never knows about one's privacy and security. It's a great way to invent a new identity.
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 07:12PM EST
Good thing I don't mess with Facebook. The owner is such a scam artist. Whats next, ransoming celeb photos and peoples personal notes?
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 07:30PM EST
i just heard about this... total bs changing the tos like that.
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 07:53PM EST
The face book trend is a precursor to private domain security. Does anyone recall AOL...Gawd what a mindless concept in Freedom and privacy rights!!!
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 09:31PM EST
all these social sites are open gate to the personal information theft. People are willinlgly putting them at risk without realizing what can happen in the very near future, when these sites lose their steam.
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 09:55PM EST
the major web players are crumbling right beore our eyes...sabotage or stupidity?
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 10:39PM EST
What's Facebook? Some new CompuServe or Prodigy chatroom?
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday February 17, 2009 10:56PM EST
Who in their right mind would place their personal info, photo, likes and dislikes on a site with only one intent....spare the ignorant!!!
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 10:59PM EST
Get outside and play! You, green skin cyber slave. Save some money on medication.
- Tuesday February 17, 2009 11:45PM EST
facebook OWNS ALL YOU FOOLS NONE OF YOU CAN LEAVE FACEBOOK NOW
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday February 17, 2009 11:50PM EST
Will Sarah Lacey be my facebook friend????? Maybe she should sign up for yahoo personals . . . XOXO
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 02:59AM EST
I cannot believe anyone would join Facebook in the future. Plus, I think they should have given notice that they planned to change the TOS before they did it. I wouldn't trust a company like that with anything. Dump it. It can only lead to bad things in the future.
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 07:54AM EST
does this new facebook thing just applies to new profiles or the old ones also?? and doesnt facebook need to notify us for such changes in the terms and agrements??
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 07:55AM EST
does this new facebook thing just applies to new profiles or the old ones also?? and doesnt facebook need to notify us for such changes in the terms and agrements??
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 08:38AM EST
They changed the terms of Service back to its original this morning.
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 08:46AM EST
Look, GM, Ford, you name it Chrysler don't make cars that are reliable... what does reliable car means, it means using better steel, not cheap steel, it means, reliable engines, better transmissions, and on top of everything I don't want a funky looking car, i want a at least decent looking well designed car. I don't want a brand new GM or Ford Taurus that breaks down after a few months new or used. A car is the second most expensive product in anyone's lives. There is no need to Bailout GM or Ford or even Chrysler (private co) if they don't learn to put their heads together by creating better more reliable cars.
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 08:47AM EST
Look, GM, Ford, you name it Chrysler don't make cars that are reliable... what does reliable car means, it means using better steel, not cheap steel, it means, reliable engines, better transmissions, and on top of everything I don't want a funky looking car, i want a at least decent looking well designed car. I don't want a brand new GM or Ford Taurus that breaks down after a few months new or used. A car is the second most expensive product in anyone's lives. There is no need to Bailout GM or Ford or even Chrysler (private co) if they don't learn to put their heads together by creating better more reliable cars.
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 08:49AM EST
IT'S A SAD, SAD, SITUATION AT PRESENT- WE CAN ONLY HOPE RIGHT NOW.
- Wednesday February 18, 2009 08:55AM EST
WOW, this is bad news. Something to keep in mind. I recently found out that many employers review facebook for those who apply for employment within their company to get information. This has become a point of whether you might get a job, and posting personal information you don't want your potential employer to read, ask yourself that one question. You know what that is....
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Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday February 17, 2009 06:54PM EST
What's facebook's business model?