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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11955998" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bytedance" source="Orion">ByteDance</keyword> used content from other platforms to create fake accounts on <keyword id="13548877" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="flipagram" source="Orion">Flipagram</keyword>, BuzzFeed reported.</li><li>They began the practice in 2017 to train its personalization algorithm for US users.</li></ul><p><keyword id="11894125" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tiktok" source="Orion">TikTok</keyword>'s parent ByteDance took large amounts of content from <keyword id="11892996" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="instagram" source="Orion">Instagram</keyword> and <keyword id="11899277" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="snapchat" source="Orion">Snapchat</keyword> without their knowledge or consent and published them via fake accounts to TikTok's predecessor, Flipagram, in 2017, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/bytedance-scraped-fake-accounts-instagram-snapchat">BuzzFeed News</a> reported Monday, citing information from four former employees who spoke to the outlet. </p><p>ByteDance used the scraped content to train its algorithm that recommends content to US users based on their interests, they said. The algorithm would ultimately be used by TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin.</p><p>The approach was part of Beijing-based ByteDance's "growth hack" strategy to expand its struggling Flipagram platform, BuzzFeed said. ByteDance acquired the video app in January 2017 and renamed it Vigo. It ultimately shut down the service in late 2020, according to <a href="https://www.vigovideo.net/press/">TechNode</a> and a cached <a href="https://www.vigovideo.net/press/">version</a> of Vigo's announcement on its official website.</p><p>But before shuttering Flipagram, Bytedance used data from Instagram, Snapchat, and Musical.ly to populate its site in a bid to entice users, according to the former Bytedance employees who spoke to BuzzFeed.</p><p>According to those employees, Bytedance first created fake accounts and populated them with short videos from its Chinese apps that were "not too Chinese." But when that strategy failed to attract new users, ByteDance started taking short-form videos, usernames, profile pictures, and profile descriptions from Instagram, Snapchat, and Musical.ly.</p><p>ByteDance did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.</p><p>According to BuzzFeed, the China-based engineering team that was in charge of "growth hacking" Flipagram scraped more than 10,000 videos a day, BuzzFeed said. Sources told the outlet that ByteDance used the content to finetune its "For You" algorithm to cater to US users' preferences.</p><p>ByteDance's tactics didn't go unnoticed, however. Some <a href="https://twitter.com/mateusasato/status/912785679968485376?s=20&amp;t=Iwow-4YbpxYJ5HckmZ5PyA">Instagram</a> users complained that their content appeared on Flipagram without their knowledge or content. (Ironically, other users complained that they were unable to <a href="https://twitter.com/tiekaknight/status/681670005042339840">upload Instagram</a> photos to their Flipagram accounts.) Some worried they were being impersonated, while others expressed concern that their children's content was published on an app that they were unfamiliar with, they told BuzzFeed.  </p><p>ByteDance previously found itself in legal trouble for infringing intellectual property rights. Last year, Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent <a href="https://www.techinasia.com/tencent-sues-douyin-126m-copyright-issue">launched</a> a series of lawsuits in China against ByteDance's Douyin for copyright infringement.</p>

TikTok's parent ByteDance reportedly took Instagram and Snapchat content without consent to train its personalization algorithm and to pursue growth at any cost: report

Chinese short-video-making app <keyword id="6762469" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="tiktok" source="Orion">TikTok</keyword>'s parent company <keyword id="3749909" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="bytedance" source="Orion">ByteDance</keyword> allegedly made fake accounts with content taken from <keyword id="819905" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="instagram" source="Orion">Instagram</keyword>, <keyword id="6358096" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="snapchat" source="Orion">Snapchat</keyword> and other social media platforms, a new report has claimed.<br /><br />According to BuzzFeed News, the company then posted those fake accounts on popular mobile app <keyword id="13546520" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="flipagram" source="Orion">Flipagram</keyword> to grow further.<br /><br />"The China-based company scraped public accounts and then duplicated them on Flipagram, a predecessor to TikTok, according to four former employees and documents viewed by BuzzFeed News," the report said late on Monday.<br /><br />Founded in 2013, Flipagram allowed users to create and share short videos as something of a TikTok precursor.<br /><br />ByteDance allegedly took videos, usernames, pictures and more from the social media platforms and uploaded them to the app without users' consent or knowledge.<br /><br />Internal documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News indicate that the scraping was seen as a "growth hack" for the company.<br /><br />According to the former employee, the team's goal was to "scrape more than 10,000 videos a day in the highest priority countries".<br /><br />The scraped content was used to train ByteDance's powerful "For You" personalisation algorithm on the US-based content.<br /><br />"Today, the 'For You' algorithm powers both TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin," the report noted.<br /><br />The report also said that ByteDance was scraping and uploading content from Musical.ly, which would later become TikTok as ByteDance acquired the company in 2017.<br /><br />In a statement, a ByteDance spokesperson said: "ByteDance acquired Flipagram in 2017 and operated it, and subsequently Vigo, for a short time. Flipagram and Vigo ceased operations years ago and aren't connected to any current ByteDance products."<br /><br />Short video-making platform TikTok has crossed one billion monthly active users around the world.<br /><br />It has overtaken Facebook as the most downloaded social media app in the world.<br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/business-insider-india-presents-money-insider-your-guide-to-financial-freedom/articleshow/90643990.cms">Business Insider India presents Money Insider – your guide to financial freedom</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/how-to-set-up-and-use-my-eyes-only-feature-to-hide-your-pictures-on-snapchat/articleshow/90642072.cms">How to set up and use My Eyes Only feature to hide your pictures on Snapchat</a></strong><br />

TikTok's parent ByteDance made fake accounts scraping content from Instagram, Snapchat and other platforms, claims report

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flipagram</span></p></div><p></p></div></div><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flipagram-raises-70-million-2015-7">Flipagram</a>, the mobile storytelling app that has attracted some of the biggest names in venture capital, has laid off more than 20 percent of its staff in a restructuring, Business Insider has learned. </p><p>The axe fell October 1 when 17 employees were told they were being let go, a former employee who attended the meeting said.</p><p>Flipagram is a mobile "storytelling" app that lets users stitch together photos, videos, and music into short 30-second stories. The social network took off with more than 120 million users and more than 300 million videos.</p><p>"<span>It looked to us like a monster," investor and board member John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-16/flipagram-raises-70-million-investors-doerr-moritz-join-board">said in a Bloomberg interview</a>. "On the order of an Instagram." Sequoia Ventures founder Mike Moritz is also on the board.</span></p><p><span>The company had 33 million monthly active users in 2014, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flipagram-raises-70-million-2015-7">its CEO Farhad Mohit</a> told Business Insider in July, but there's no new numbers from the company for 2015.</span></p><p>User growth had stalled, but it didn't sound like it was a make or break situation, a former employee said. A source inside the company called its initial growth "unsustainable" but in a vein similar to Facebook and Twitter's early days as well.  </p><p>Meanwhile, the company had hired too fast (and is still hiring), but it hadn't increased its efficiency alongside its headcount, according to an inside source.</p><p>Part of Flipagram's virality is being able to match hit music to your videos and photos. The startup worked hard to obtain licensing deals from music giants like Universal, Sony, and Warner so its users could legally add the music as a backdrop to their photos. It incurred large legal fees as a result, but sources close to the company said that it was only a fraction of the venture capital raised.</p><p>In July, Flipagram announced a $70 million funding round from prominent investors, including Moritz and Doerr, and the pair joined the board together. The last time they did that, they were on the board of Google. </p><p>However, that round actually took place in February 2014. Flipagram still has money in the bank, according to a person familiar with the company.</p><p>A company spokesperson told us:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Flipagram has grown at a pace very few companies have experienced.  At this pace, we continuously need to evaluate our organizational structure and processes. We recently reorganized to give greater responsibility to leaner engineering, product and design teams, so we could be more nimble and iterate faster. That said, we care for all who were affected and are working to ensure a smooth transition for them.  Meanwhile, Flipagram continues to hire world-class talent to support our growth.</p><p> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/june-intelligent-oven-cooking-hd-video-future-2015-7">The oven of the future can send high-quality photos straight to Instagram</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Fuc21sdjpLXYc8ObPC10jGBY-D5T3qTS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Flipagram, a storytelling app that attracted two of the biggest VCs, has cut 20 percent of its staff

<p>Beyoncé's Instagram followers are aflutter over her latest obsession: glitchy, gif-like selfies, sometimes accompanied by music.</p><p>Here's an example:</p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p class="embed-spacer">A few Beyoncé super fans have cracked the code and learned that Beyoncé is using <a href="http://phhhoto.com/">an app called Phhhoto</a>&#xa0;to make the individual selfies. You can totally copy her and make your own moving selfies within the app, then use their tool to post it to Instagram.</p><p class="embed-spacer">If you don't want a Phhhoto logo to show up, though, here's a workaround: save the Phhhoto file to your camera roll and upload it to Instagram that way, instead of using Phhhoto's Instagram button.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Using Phhhoto is fairly straightforward. Here's what a few Beyoncé copycats have managed to come up with:</p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But still, these posts are a far cry from Bey's half-a-minute-long, musically accompanied Phhhoto montages that feature multiple shots. How is she creating those?</span></p><p class="embed-spacer">The answer is <a href="http://flipagram.com/">Flipagram</a>. A selfie sleuth friend of mine has mined Beyoncé's Instagram comments and gleaned from the queen's fans themselves that the best way to approximate Beyoncé's glitchy selfie montages is by using both Phhhoto and Flipagram.</p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p class="embed-spacer">Just download Flipagram in the App Store and follow the prompts. But first, make sure that all the Phhhotos you want to use are saved as video files on your iPhone's camera roll.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Then, you'll be able to add a bunch of them, edit them for time and order, and add a 30-second preview of your favorite song, if it's available. From there, save the Flipagram file and upload it to Instagram.</p><p class="embed-spacer">After seeing the Brooklyn United Marching Band performing in Madison Square Park this afternoon, I was inspired to make a Phhhoto-Flipagram hybrid of my own. Here's how it looks on Flipagram's platform.</p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p class="embed-spacer">The band was playing "Uptown Funk" when these photos were taken, but that song isn't available on Flipagram. I substituted Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up," which is hardly a downgrade.</p><p class="embed-spacer">If you have enough storage space on your phone, your Flipagram videos will save automatically on your camera roll. From there, you can upload them to Instagram:</p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p class="embed-spacer">The app was buggy for me, though, and it wouldn't let me post directly to Instagram. My friend showed me a workaround: send the video to yourself as a file via text message, then save it to your camera roll from there.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Again, if you don't have a lot of storage on your phone, this workaround might not be for you.&#xa0;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But if it does, you'll be able to post the Flipagram file on Instagram as if it were a regular video.</span></p><p class="embed-spacer">Now, what about getting rid of that pesky Flipagram logo? My source tells me that all you have to do is pay $1.99 for the "Change Watermark Forever" option, within the app's Settings menu.&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div><p class="embed-spacer"><span>&#xa0;</span></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span>If you're willing to part with two bucks in the name of logo-free selfies, click that, and you can either leave the watermark blank or type in your own name or a favorite phrase.&#xa0;</span></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Upload your chic, logo-free video to Instagram, and watch the likes pour in. That's the last step for making video selfies that are just like Beyoncé's.</span></p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span>&#xa0;</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/70-million-mansion-minecraft-jay-z-beyonce-beverly-hills-2014-12">Here's Video Of That Bonkers $70 Million Mansion That The Minecraft Creator Bought, Outbidding Jay Z And Beyoncé</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VvdHNkcjpVBFK8Myfcw19cYkLFn7AJby" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Everyone's obsessed with those moving selfies on Beyonce's Instagram - here's how to make your own

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Flipagram</span></p></div><p></p></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Flipagram is a video app that is perfect for remembering some of the best moments of 2013. The app lets you create short videos comprised of pictures from Facebook, Instagram, and the photos stored on your phone.</span></p>
<p>The length of the videos can vary between 15 seconds and 30 seconds ,but you'll have the added benefit of being able to add music to spruce up the story you want to tell.</p>
<p>The app is available for free on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipagram/id512727332">iPhone</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cheerfulinc.flipagram">Android</a>.</p>

The Newest Number One App On iPhone Is A Great Way To Recap Your 2013 In Facebook Photos

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Mindy Kaling celebrated running a "slow as hell" 9.5-minute mile in the best way possible&#xa0;<span>-</span>&#xa0;with a <a href="https://twitter.com/mindykaling/status/748199738818723842/video/1">Flipagram</a> set to the tune of Aloe Blacc's "I'm The Man."<p>"Today I ran a 9.5 minute mile," she <a href="https://twitter.com/mindykaling/status/748199738818723842/video/1">Tweeted</a>. "Which is slow as hell but I've been trying to do it for 8 years! Hooray for me!"</p><p>The 37-year-old actress&#xa0;celebrated&#xa0;her record-breaking time&#xa0;in true Kaling fashion, with humor.</p><p>She wrote on Instagram:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Big news! Today I ran a 9.5 minute mile, something I've been trying to do for 8 years. I would like to thank my sneakers, my neighbors in little Ethiopia, my alarm clock, my 4 day old blueberry muffin I ate, and my sense of panic at being out of shape. Hooray! If I can do it, so can you! #runnershigh"</p><p><div>    </div></p><p>Kaling previosuly joked on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAPAQPgPz9U">"Conan"</a>&#xa0;that she motivates herself to go running by fantasizing about her fake husband's death.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"I have to be like,&#xa0;Michael Fassbender was my husband and then we were in Central Park one day, and then someone stabbed him because they hated interracial couples and they got away with it. And now I have to go down to Brazil and find this Nazi who killed my husband... In my mind it's a getting stronger montage should I find this guy and kill him."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-crazy-process-behind-handmade-greek-yogurt-2016-6">The crazy process behind handmade Greek yogurt</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="YwaGZjNDE6QRA7oeRTguMPOSXOn0ljy3" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Mindy Kaling celebrates running a 'slow as hell' mile after 8 years of trying

<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Andrew Winning/Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>What do Twitter, Microsoft and Snapchat all have in common?</p><p class="p1">They've all had layoffs in recent months.</p><p class="p1">The reasons for the layoffs are as varied as the companies' products, but the job cuts provide an interesting counterpoint to the parade of mega-funding and billion-dollar startup announcements that have dominated headlines all year.</p><p class="p1">Even as the tech industry appears to be thriving (and some argue, at or nearing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valleys-denial-is-over-everybody-thinks-were-in-a-bubble-2015-10">dangerous, bubble levels</a>), tech companies are cutting costs and handing out pink slips.</p><p class="p1">The question is whether the layoffs are a healthy sign, reflecting disciplined businesses taking measures precisely to avoid over-extending themselves, or whether the layoffs are the first, "early-warning" signals of a changing market.</p><p class="p1">"There is a general sentiment that the tech financing market is getting tougher at every stage," says Chi-Hua Chien, the cofounder of venture capital firm Goodwater Capital. </p><p class="p1">He notes that recent layoffs at Twitter and at startup <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flipagram-cuts-20-percent-of-its-staff-2015-10">Flipagram</a> are likely different. But he says that "smart boards are looking ahead to tighten up fixed costs and trim the fat in the their organizations.  We'll probably see more of this in the next few quarters."</p><h2 class="p1">Old guard vs vanguard</h2><p class="p1">Tech industry giants HP and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-layoffs-target-sales-finland-2015-7">Microsoft</a> have already <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-layoffs-to-exceed-55000-people-2015-8">slashed thousands of jobs</a> this year. Those companies are "old-guard" firms scrambling to retrench and restructure aging businesses.</p><p class="p1">Some of the Internet companies that have recently cut jobs are also in the troubled category, such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/groupon-laying-off-1100-employees-and-shutting-down-operations-in-7-countries-2015-9">Groupon</a> and Living Social.</p><p class="p1">But layoffs are starting to hit the younger mobile and social apps that are the vanguard of today's tech industry.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">Consider just the last week:</p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Flipagram, a photo-storytelling app backed by marquee investors Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers cut 20 percent of its staff, as </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flipagram-cuts-20-percent-of-its-staff-2015-10">Business Insider's Biz Carson reported</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Zomato, the $1 billion India-based restaurant discovery startup that took over Urban Spoon, is </span><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/16/restaurant-search-app-zomato-lays-off-300-10-of-staff-in-shift-away-from-live-data-collection/#.zrfxyj:3MFm">reportedly cutting 300 workers</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> from its staff, many in the US. </span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Snapchat shuttered a group developing original content, and </span><a href="http://deadline.com/2015/10/snapchat-snap-channel-shut-down-layoffs-original-content-strategy-1201577855/">reportedly will lay off the dozen or so members of the group</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> (although the company noted that some may be re-assigned to different roles).</span></li></ul><p class="p1">And then there's Twitter, which announced on Tuesday that it would <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-is-laying-off-8-of-its-global-workforce-2015-10">cut 336 jobs, or 8 percent of its workforce</a>.</p><p class="p1">Twitter's struggles aren't new. But Twitter's biggest problem is its inability to grow its number of users, not its spending. The company has been losing money for years, and that's never bothered investors before. So Twitter's decision to slash its headcount, rather than redeploying staffers on new growth initiatives, is worth paying attention to.</p><p class="p1">Twitter isn't just any company either. It's one of the flagship startups of the post-2008 financial crisis recovery. The company had a banner IPO in 2013 and is the anchor tenant of San Francisco's new stature as the country's tech capital. </p><h2 class="p1">Fasten your seat belts</h2><p class="p1">With Twitter now looking shaky and hundreds of its workers packing their boxes, don't be surprised to see reverberations across a spectrum of sharing-economy start-ups, restaurants, and real estate, all interconnected and dependent upon a growing supply of free-spending techies.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg via Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">Layoffs are only one symptom of a souring market  - rising burn rates, bulging accounts receivables, and bankruptcy filings will all come together when the bubble bursts. And <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pure-storage-ipo-close-below-3-billion-2015-10">IPOs will flop</a>.</p><p class="p1">Which brings us back to Twitter. The paperwork for the tech industry's most highly anticipated IPO was filed last week by Square. The San Francisco-based digital payments company shares the same CEO as Twitter: Jack Dorsey.</p><p class="p1">Square has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the past three years and shows no signs of reversing the trend.</p><p class="p1">As <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/theory-on-why-square-is-ipoing-2015-10">Business Insider's Jay Yarow wrote</a>, one person who tracks the performance of startups closely, Danielle Morrill of Mattermark, thinks that Square is looking to raise money in the public markets because it could not do so at a price it was happy with in the private markets.</p><p class="p1">That sounds a lot like the "greater fool" theory which led to the 2000 dot com crash, and it doesn't bode well for the health of the industry.</p><p class="p1">The Square IPO may end up being another blockbuster, as Twitter's was back in 2013. But if the Square IPO flops, get ready for more layoffs.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/daymond-john-explains-dress-job-shark-tank-video-2015-9">'Shark Tank' investor explains how to make a great first impression</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="w1ZDZ3cjrbPNMZUiFLjA3QGNleZulyUS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Warning sign: Tech companies of all sizes and ages are starting to have layoffs

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/ Beck Diefenbach</span></p><p class="caption">Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer</p></div><p></p></div></div>Marissa Mayer was not able to turn Yahoo into a thriving independent company, as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-acquires-yahoo-2016-7">Verizon is buying it for $4.8 billion</a>, a fraction of its peak price.</p><p>But she did wonders for employees who worked there, according to a former manager.</p><p>Jelena Woehr, now the community director at Flipagram, <a href="https://hackernoon.com/what-marissa-mayer-brought-to-yahoo-that-cant-be-bought-or-sold-4ee82382e4ee#.sjkyanwmq">writes in a blog post</a> that employees at Yahoo were so cynical before Mayer took over, they didn't trust her when she introduced free food in the cafeteria.</p><p>Thinking it was just a temporary perk, they hoarded everything they could get their hands on:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>"People scrambled to stuff themselves as if the announcement would be taken back in a day or two. </span><strong>The coffee shops were stripped of pastries</strong><span>. Yahoos packed multiple boxes at the salad bar and hoarded them in break room refrigerators. You'd think that the announcement Marissa made was a coming price increase for lunches, not free food. Good news at Yahoo was treated as suspect and likely to change at any minute."</span></p><p>Woehr praises Mayer for turning that low self-esteem around by really listening to rank-and-file employees. For instance, she recounts how Mayer answered her email at 1 a.m. when Mayer was home with a newboard baby, and how she hung out on an internal chat channel where people loved to complain, but never once disciplined anybody who brought up a problem there.</p><p><span>But even if Mayer had been superhuman, she probably couldn't have turned Yahoo around because there were too many apathetic employees there by the time she joined.</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span> "</span>Many people at Yahoo seemed to have only one work-related skill, and that was 'surviving layoffs at Yahoo.'<span>...</span>And unfortunately, bringing talented people into an apathetic organization accustomed to releasing crappy products doesn't uplevel the organization. Instead, it mostly turns new, talented people apathetic, or sends them right back out a revolving door."</p><p>It's a stark but useful tale about what it's like to work at a company whose best days are behind it. <a href="https://hackernoon.com/what-marissa-mayer-brought-to-yahoo-that-cant-be-bought-or-sold-4ee82382e4ee#.sjkyanwmq">Read the whole thing here&gt;&gt;</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pokemon-go-releases-update-fixes-annoying-problems-2016-7">'Pokémon Go' just released an update that fixes its most annoying problems</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NybDNwNDE6mv_K6iFX5pyXBmgtlRhHJD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

When Marissa Mayer added free food at Yahoo, employees 'scrambled to stuff themselves'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>David Ryder/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Good morning! Here's all the tech news you need to know going into the weekend.</p><p><strong>1. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-q2-earnings-2015-7">Google stock was up more than 11% after a strong earnings call.</a></strong> It brought in $17.7 billion in gross revenue. </p><p><strong>2. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-day-sales-beat-black-friday-2015-7">Amazon says its "Prime Day" event was more popular than Black Friday.</a></strong> There were more orders placed for products discounted for Amazon Prime subscribers than total orders for everyone on Black Friday.</p><p><strong>3. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/here-are-all-the-promises-reddits-founders-and-new-ceo-are-making-2015-7">Reddit's new CEO and cofounders are making changes to how the site is run.</a></strong> It's not going to make any money from adult content on the site.</p><p><strong>4. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/flypay-raises-107-million-series-a-round-from-time-out-2015-7">London-based restaurant payment app Flypay has raised a $10.7 million round of funding.</a></strong> The round was led by Time Out, publisher of Time Out Magazine.</p><p><strong>5.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/eric-friedman-leaves-foursquare-2015-7"> Eric Friedman, one of Foursquare's first employees, has left the company.</a></strong> He's joining startup studio Expa.</p><p><strong>6. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/xiaomi-phones-coming-to-the-us-2015-7">Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi says that it's going to start selling phones in the US.</a></strong> However, it's going to take a couple of years.</p><p><strong>7. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-acquires-pebbles-interfaces-virtual-reality-hand-tracking-firm-2015-7">Facebook has acquired Israeli technology company Pebbles Interfaces.</a></strong> It specialises in gesture controls.</p><p><strong>8. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/flipagram-raises-70-million-2015-7">Flipagram has raised $70 million, and is going to let users add music to their photos.</a></strong> The company gained 33 million monthly active users in its first year.</p><p><strong>9. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/netflix-share-price-all-time-high-2015-7">Netflix shares hit an all-time high yesterday following its strong earnings call.</a></strong> Shares gained 18%.</p><p><strong>10. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-may-kill-off-ipad-mini-2015-7">A new report claims that Apple may kill off the iPad Mini.</a></strong> It could happen so that Apple could focus on its upcoming larger iPad.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-snapchat-cyber-dust-privacy-2015-5">Mark Cuban explains why downloading Snapchat is a huge mistake</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FuMzJkdTpvQYH_d3c-8LMnnwzGDr7n8x" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr/Michael Goodin</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>There's a nifty new calculator that every tech startup should have, although they might not like the feedback it provides. </p><p>The tool can basically determine whether a startup will live or die. </p><p><span>Y Combinator founder and partner </span><a href="http://growth.tlb.org/#_.eyJyZXYwIjoyNzM0LCJleHAwIjoxMDExOTF9">Trevor Blackwell created the so-called growth calculator</a> and fellow cofounder Paul Graham says it provides scary, but important answers about whether a startup is on the right course or not - or as he puts it, "default dead" or "default alive."</p><p>Will the startup run out of cash based on its revenue growth? Or will it make it to profitability? </p><p>"<span>The reason I want to know first whether a startup is default alive or default dead is that the rest of the conversation depends on the answer. If the company is default alive, we can talk about ambitious new things they could do. If it's default dead, we probably need to talk about how to save it. We know the current trajectory ends badly. How can they get off that trajectory?" <a href="http://paulgraham.com/aord.html">Graham wrote</a>.</span></p><h2>The "fatal pinch"</h2><p>The calculator takes your monthly, weekly, or yearly expenses and assumes they stay constant. A startup founder can set revenue and by how much it is growing to determine how long it will take the startup to reach profitability - and how much money it will need in the interim.</p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://growth.tlb.org/#">Trevor Blackwell/Startup Growth Calculator</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>The calculator assumes expenses remain constant, although many startups grow their headcount and expenses along the way. That's why founders need to be constantly evaluating whether they are still on path to profit, or if they are by default dead and on track to being caught in what <a href="http://paulgraham.com/pinch.html">Graham describes as "the fatal pinch."</a></p><p>The "<a href="http://paulgraham.com/pinch.html">fatal pinch</a>" happens when a company is by default dead, can't raise money, and doesn't have enough time to reach the point of profitability. It can be saved by lowering expenses, which generally means firing people, or increasing revenue.</p><h2>Ring the alarm</h2><p>In the past few months, we've seen some startups implode after hiring too fast and not managing their burn rate. In August, Zirtual laid off its 400 employees in an e-mail over night. Other startups (and big companies) are also taking <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-company-layoffs-are-increasing-2015-10">steps like layoffs to stay on the path to profitability</a>. Flipagram <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flipagram-cuts-20-percent-of-its-staff-2015-10">cut 20 percent of its staff</a> in October and Zomato <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/16/restaurant-search-app-zomato-lays-off-300-10-of-staff-in-shift-away-from-live-data-collection/#.ighfj4:foSd">laid off 300 employees</a>. Bigger companies like Snapchat, Evernote, and Twitter all trimmed staff recently too.</p><p>In early startups, the problem is most often that the product is only moderately appealing and not the hit that it needs to be. While some companies start hiring to "build out" their product, they're only really building up their expenses and possibly setting themselves on the trajectory to be default dead and caught in a fatal pinch.</p><p>"Asking whether you're default alive or default dead may save you from this. Maybe the alarm bells it sets off will counteract the forces that push you to overhire," <a href="http://paulgraham.com/aord.html">Graham wrote</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fanduel-founders-daily-fantasy-sports-craze-2015-10">How FanDuel, the billion-dollar New York City startup, launched the now-controversial daily fantasy sports craze</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="8waWM4eDqD9-ixpIztKtsAYltXR0yPeQ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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