All the Wrong Incentives! A complex coronavirus made worse with bad incentives!

Science behind “dangling carrots,” which is always about the money, shows it rarely works as planned!

If you’re having a hard time getting an accurate picture of what’s going on with the coronavirus, you’re not alone. In a world that has become obsessed with the latest news, testing numbers, trends, and death tolls, it doesn’t help having behind-the-scenes incentives that are guaranteed to give you a false read on what’s actually going on.

The science of incentives has been hotly debated for centuries, primarily because we all know incentives work, but often not in the way they were intended to.

One story that illustrates the problem took place years ago when W. Edwards Deming made a visit to a shoe factory, and the plant manager proudly reported that he had sent one of his quality inspectors home for a week without pay. Inspectors were paid weekly according to the number of shoes they inspected.

When an inspector found a defect in a pair of shoes, they personally had to repair it before they could go on to inspect the next pair of shoes. So, the more defects they found, the fewer shoes got inspected, and the lower their weekly paycheck.

The plant manager said he had discovered one particular inspector gaming the system. He quickly figured out which production workers produced the fewest defects and focused his time just on them. For this reason, the inspector needed to be reprimanded, and was sent home for a week without pay.

Dr. Deming told the plant manager that he was the one that should have been sent home since he created the system. It was the incentives that drove the behavior, and the plant manager didn’t realize that he had created the circumstances that led to those results.

Throughout history business managers, politicians, and system designers have focused on architecting the right incentives. However, everything we thought we knew about incentives has been changing, and many of the ones we have today have been created by new kids on the block like tech companies, health insurance rules, retirement plans, investment advisors, and unemployment systems just to name a few.

In general, the best way to understand future trends is to study the incentives. Human behavior is often driven by a particular set of incentives hiding in the background. But you’ll see in a few moments why it’s so difficult to track incentives during the coronavirus era!

Riddled with bad incentives

As we went through the process of closing down businesses, parks, and restaurants, countless millions lost their jobs, and with it, we lost our sense of purpose. The goals that seemed so important last year suddenly became meaningless.

That’s when panic set in and the first visible signs of the pandemic were empty store shelves, empty streets, and a conspicuous sense of desperation.

We quickly dipped into survival mode.

The survivalist mindset is the most rudimentary level of thinking on Maslow’s hierarchy of need. Step one was hoarding – hoarding food, hoarding cash, and hoarding any supplies that made life doable.

Armored cars filled with cash made extremely large bank deliveries to calm the fears of panicked customers. Supply chains were slower to adapt, but were soon revamped to compensate for shortages.

Panic buying was replaced with binging – binge-watching television, binge-cooking, binge-eating, binge-playing video games, and binge-calling to fill our growing social void.

Now, with the reopening of society just a dangling carrot away, our full attention is once again switching to what comes next. And it’s during this time that the black fog of uncertainty starts to lift as we reset our passions, goals, and desires on high beam to decide the next logical move.

As we look around, we begin to realize how messed up our sense of reality is. While we were distracted, trying to survive quarantine, many new incentives were put into place, causing people to respond in a whole new way.

It’s not possible to have this many top-down decisions without a huge number of unintended consequences!

Problem #1: Paying more money to hospitals for COVID-19 deaths

Incentive: Medical systems do get paid more for Medicare patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Even if it’s only presumed they have COVID-19, without having an actual lab test confirming anything, they get paid more.

If it’s a straightforward, garden-variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for, the payment is $5,000. But if it’s COVID-19 pneumonia, then it’s $13,000, and if that COVID-19 pneumonia patient ends up on a ventilator, it goes up to $39,000.

This higher allocation of funds was part of the CARES Act which included a Medicare 20% add-on to its regular payment for COVID-19 patients.

Unintended Results: Skewed data is always a problem. All of the numbers we’re looking at to decide how risky it is to be around others has been artificially inflated by medical groups trying to make extra money.

Problem #2: Pay-per-click ads driving sensationalized headlines and news hysteria

Incentive: Any news site that derives its revenue from pay-per-click ads has a vested interest in posting headlines and topics that garner the most attention. Many even go through a series of A-B testing to see which headline attracts the most attention. Fear is a great motivator and any article that scares readers will invariably generate more money.

Unintended Results: Heightened levels of fear, anxiety, and depression lead to greater levels of drinking, spousal abuse, child abuse, and suicide. While elevated levels of hysteria may earn more money, the psychological toll it takes on the rest of society will be several thousand times more expensive.

Problem #3: Paying people more to stay unemployed

Incentive: Entire new classes of people are being encouraged to file for unemployment, receive an additional $600 per week for 2.5 months, and stay on unemployment for up to a full year.

Unintended Results: Many now make more money on unemployment and have no incentive to return to work. At the same time, many companies are looking at this as an opportunity to clean house. Older workers, minorities, vocal and activist employees are most at risk here. We will be witnessing the greatest job transition in all history.

Problem #4: First-come-first-serve stimulus money

Incentive: Tremendous amounts of money were put into play with the CARES Act, but when everyone found out there wouldn’t be enough to go around, panic set in.

Unintended Results: The mad rush to apply for loans and stimulus money has been overwhelming, using dated systems that were never designed to handle this much volume. Extended response times and too few contact numbers has many people spooked. Small business owners are waiting in limbo to decide if they should close down altogether.

Problem #5: SBA programs creating an unwritten hierarchy of need

Incentive: Fast loans, minimal interest, with super low barrier-to-entry seemed like a dream come true for most small businesses. But now reality has set in.

Unintended Results: Recipients of the SBA loans are overwhelmed by the 19-page document full of onerous restrictions that make the accompanying loans or grants painful to manage. Many will choose to close rather than have the SBA looking over their shoulder. We will witness one of the largest closure of businesses in all history.

Problem #6: Public companies getting publicly outed

Incentive: All small businesses, both public and private, were encouraged to apply for fast and easy low interest loans and stimulus money.

Unintended Results: Since public companies are required to report on what they’re doing, public companies became the media whipping boys for perceived abuses to the programs. At the same time, private companies stayed hidden in the background. Once again, being a public company has lost much of its appeal, so don’t expect new IPOs anytime soon.

Problem #7: The political blame-game turns the whole country into a circus

Incentive: Everything about a pandemic makes it the perfect kind of crisis to blame on other countries, other cultures, and other political parties.

Unintended Results: Spin doctors are working overtime to cast aspersions on political opponents. There is a high likelihood national, cultural, and racial discrimination will manifests itself in increased trade wars and increased tensions globally.

Final Thoughts

As it turns out, McAllen, Texas is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the US. Medicare spends nearly double the national average on people in McAllen and twice what they spent in El Paso County, Texas, even though they have nearly the same demographics.

The cost difference stems from overuse of medicine and procedures. For example, Medicare found that patients in McAllen received 20% more abdominal ultrasounds, 30% more bone-density studies, 60% more stress tests with echocardiography, 200% more nerve-conduction studies to diagnose carpal-tunnel syndrome, and 550% more urine flow studies to diagnose prostate problems.

What incentives are guiding your healthcare provider decisions?

The research went on to show significantly more gallbladder operations, knee replacements, breast biopsies, and bladder scopes, as well as 200%-300% more pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, cardiac-bypass operations, carotid endarterectomies, and coronary-artery stents. They also found five times as many home-nurse visits.

The lesson here is that “more care is generally not better care,” because the outcomes showed no significant difference between McAllen and El Paso.

The researcher in this study identified three types of physicians.

• Those who are oblivious to the financial implications of their decisions.
• Those who think of the money as a means of improving what they do.
• Those who see their practice primarily as a revenue stream. They instruct their secretary to have patients who call with follow-up questions to schedule an appointment, because insurers don’t pay for phone calls, only office visits.

There is a widely held perception today that healthcare companies are just in it for the money. While that may be true in many cases, Mayo is doing just the opposite.

Mayo Clinic, which is among the highest-quality, lowest-cost healthcare systems in the country, figured out how to solve this problem decades ago.

The executive team at Mayo recognized that it needed to eliminate financial barriers, so they pooled all the money doctors and the hospital received and began paying everyone a salary. By doing this, the doctors’ goal in patient care couldn’t be tied to increasing their income.

Mayo promoted leaders who focused first on what was best for patients, and then on how to make this approach financially possible. The core tenet of Mayo Clinic is ‘The needs of the patient come first.’

They didn’t worry whether it was inconvenient for the doctors, or their revenues. To this end, doctors, nurses, and even the janitors, sit together in weekly meetings to work on ideas for making their service and care better, not to get more money out of their patients.

Part of the reasons people are so critical of the U.S. healthcare system is because they have no idea what incentives are being used to guide behavior in the background.

For this reason, it looks like we might be on the verge of a new transparency trend in the healthcare industry where people are given a clear understanding of costs before any charges are incurred.

If you have additional thoughts, ideas, or comments, please feel free to add to the conversation.

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The post All the Wrong Incentives! A complex coronavirus made worse with bad incentives! appeared first on Futurist Speaker.

• Apple has begun reopening some retail stores in the US in certain states like Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, California, South Carolina, and Idaho, among others.
• The move comes after Apple reopened stores in other parts of the world like South Korea and Australia, where cases of coronavirus have fallen.
• Some states have already allowed businesses to reopen even as the coronavirus continues to spread.
• Apple says the initial focus will remain on customer service through the Genius Bar, and is encouraging customers to shop virtually when possible. The company will also enforce precautions like temperature checks, face masks, and social distancing at its stores.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple has begun reopening some retail stores in the United States, marking the first time the tech giant has opened US stores since closing all locations outside of China indefinitely in March.

The company began with 5 stores in Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, and South Carolina, and more recently expanded to select stores in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Florida, Oklahoma, and Washington State. Apple is encouraging customers to purchase items online when possible, and said that the focus of its open stores will be on providing customer service and support through the Genius Bar.

Apple also said each store will implement safety procedures that involve social distancing, conduct temperature checks, and require customers to wear face coverings before entering.

"Our commitment is to only move forward with a reopening once we're confident we can safely return to serving customers from our stores," Deirdre O'Brien, Apple's head of retail and people, said in a letter posted to the company's website on May 17.

When making the decision to reopen a store, Apple examines data such as local cases, near and long-term trends, and guidance from national health officials, O'Brien wrote.

Do you work at an Apple Store that has recently reopened or is planning to reopen? If so, we want to hear from you. Contact this reporter at leadicicco@businessinsider.com or through encrypted mail at lisaeadicicco@protonmail.com, or send a direct message on Twitter to @LisaEadicicco.

The move comes after Apple began reopening stores in South Korea, Australia, and Austria following its unprecedented decision to temporarily close all stores outside of China in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19. New cases in those countries have decreased dramatically, in part because of early response and widespread testing, and retail and public life has started to reopen. 

About 90,000 people have died in the US from the coronavirus, though outbreak rates vary and new reported cases have started to decline in several states, including Colorado and Washington, according to an analysis by The New York Times. That said, much of the country still struggles with limited testing capacity. 

Coronavirus-prevention measures in the US have also had a dramatic effect on the economy, with unemployment surging to 14.7% as the country lost a record 20.5 million jobs. In response, a number of states have eased lockdown measures and begun reopening certain parts of the economy. Such states include Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kansas, and Missouri, among others.

Apple has not yet said when it will reopen stores in other parts of the country. Apple's stores in Georgia, which was among the first states to reopen and where the tech giant has six retail locations, remain temporarily closed.   

The company's stores and the staff that run them are the company's face to the general public, from informing customers about new and existing products to facilitating customer support. Apple has been asking some staff to work remotely from home in support roles as stores have remained closed. 

Apple has also launched several new products during the several weeks that most of its global stores remained closed, including the iPhone SE and new iPad Pro. 

Here's a running list of the Apple retail stores in the US that have opened so far, according to Apple's website. 

SEE ALSO: Here are all of the new products Apple is expected to launch this year

Birmingham, Alabama

The Apple Store at The Summit in Birmingham will reopen on May 13 with special operating hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day except for Sunday. On that day, the store will be open from noon to 6 p.m.

Alabama lifted its stay-at-home orders on April 30, and is allowing retail stores to operate at a maximum capacity of 50%. 

Huntsville, Alabama

Apple's store on Bridge Street in Huntsville also opens on May 13 under the same operating hours as the The Summit location in Birmingham.

Anchorage, Alaska

The Apple Store at the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall will reopen on May 15 with operating hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except for Sunday, when the store opens at 12 p.m.

Some nonessential businesses and restaurants have been allowed to reopen in Alaska with restrictions. As part of Alaska's second reopening phase, retail stores are allowed to operate at 50% capacity with patrons wearing face coverings.

Bakersfield, California

The Apple Valley Plaza location in Bakersfield, California opens on May 20 with operating hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Sundays, the store will be open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Californians are currently under orders to stay home except for permitted work, local shopping, and other errands that are allowed under the current guidelines. Essential businesses and other services that don't require close personal contact are allowed to open. Retailers can open for delivery and curbside pickup.

Fresno, California

The Apple Fashion Fair location in Fresno, California will be open beginning May 20 with hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. 

Modesto, California

The Apple Vintage Faire location in Modesto, California will be open starting May 20 with hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Sundays, the store will be open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Monterey, California

Apple Del Monte in Monterey, California will be reopening on May 20 with hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store will open one hour later at 12 p.m. on Sundays. 

Roseville, California

Apple Roseville is open as of May 18 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Sundays, hours change to 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Sacramento, California

Apple Arden Fair in Sacramento, California is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18. On Sundays, the store is open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

San Luis Obispo, California

The Apple Higuera Street location is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18 ans 12 to 6 p.m. on Sundays. 

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Apple The Promenade Shops at Briargate in Colorado Springs, Colorado is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18. On Sundays, the store is open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Colorado is implementing a "safer-at-home" policy which enables non-essential businesses to operate with restrictions. Colorado residents are still being encouraged to stay at home.

Altamonte Springs, Florida

Apple Altamonte is open as of May 18 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Sundays when the store operates from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Florida began lifting some stay-at-home orders on May 4, allowing restaurants and retail stores to open with 25% indoor capacity, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Jacksonville, Florida

The Apple St. Johns Town Center location in Jacksonville, Florida is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18, and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. 

Orlando, Florida

The Apple Florida Mall location is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18 and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. 

Orlando, Florida

Also in Orlando, the Apple Millenia location is open as of May 18 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Sundays, the store will be open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Honolulu, Hawaii

The Apple Ala Moana location in Honolulu, Hawaii is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18. Sunday hours are 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Oahu, where Honolulu is located, began its first phase of reopening retail stores on May 15, KITV 4 reported.

Honolulu, Hawaii

The Apple Kahala location, also in Honolulu, is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18, and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

Honolulu, Hawaii

The Apple Royal Hawaiian is open as of May 18 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. except for Sundays when operating hours are 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Boise, Idaho

Apple's store in the Boise Towne Square in Idaho has been open since May 12, with operating hours running from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

As of May 1, Idaho entered its first phase of reopening, which allows some businesses and places of worship to reopen while gyms, restaurants, bars, and night clubs remain closed. 

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Apple Penn Square is open as of May 12 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Sundays, the store will be open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Oklahoma began a three-phase plan on April 24, and allowed personal care businesses and entertainment businesses like movie theaters to reopen under social distancing guidelines.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Apple Woodland Hills is open as of May 20 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. 

Charleston, South Carolina

Apple's King Street location in Charleston will open on May 13 with operating hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Sundays, the store will open one hour later at 11 a.m.

Apple's other location in South Carolina, at the Haywood Mall in Greenville, remains temporarily closed.

South Carolina was among the last states to issue stay-at-home orders on April 7. Governor McMaster said on April 20 that some nonessential businesses would be able to reopen if they honor social distancing guidelines. 

We'll update this story accordingly as more US locations re-open.

Bellevue, Washington

Apple Bellevue Square is open starting May 18 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, including Sunday.

Washington is currently under the "Stay at Home, Stay Healthy" order that's effective through May 31, which asks those in Washington to stay home unless they're pursuing an essential activity such as going grocery shopping, going to a medical appointment, or picking up takeout food.

Lynwood, Washington

Apple Alderwood in Lynwood, Washington is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as of May 18. On Sundays, operating hours are from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Seattle, Washington

Apple University Village is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day as of May 18.

Spokane, Washington

The Apple River Park Square location in Spokane, Washington is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day including Sundays starting May 18.

Tacoma, Washington

Apple Tacoma Mall is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day starting May 18.

Tukwila, Washington

Apple Southcenter in Tukwila is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. starting May 18 and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. 

We'll update this story accordingly as more US locations re-open.

Do you work at an Apple Store that has recently reopened or is planning to reopen? If so, we want to hear from you. Contact this reporter at leadicicco@businessinsider.com or through encrypted mail at lisaeadicicco@protonmail.com, or send a direct message on Twitter to @LisaEadicicco.

Google is testing a new feature in its Messages app that lets you react to messages using emoji. First spotted by Reddit users in a thread that was picked up by Android Police, the feature reportedly lets you react to a message by long-pressing on it. Then, you can select from emoji including thumbs up, thumbs down, anger, and crying with laughter. The feature appears to only work over RCS, and is not available in SMS-only conversations.

Messages isn’t the first chat app to get emoji reactions, which are also available in Facebook Messenger, Twitter direct messages, and Apple’s iMessage. Similar to iMessage, if you’re phone doesn’t currently have the feature (because you’re not a part of the test, for example) you’ll receive a standalone...

Continue reading…

After years of drama with the SEC, Telegram is calling it quits on its crypto-focused subsidiary, Telegram Open Network (TON).

“Telegram’s active involvement with TON is over,” wrote Pavel Durov, founder and CEO, in an announcement on his channel. “You may see – or may have already seen – sites using my name or the Telegram brand or the ‘TON’ abbreviation to promote their projects. Don’t trust them with your money or data.”

TON was a blockchain platform designed to offer decentralized cryptocurrency to anyone with a smartphone, in a similar fashion to Facebook’s Libra project (which has also faced significant scrutiny).

Last October, the SEC ordered Telegram to halt sales of its cryptocurrency (called Gram) after it failed to register...

Continue reading…

There’s a new iPad-related case in town from Pad & Quill: a case for Apple’s newly released Magic Keyboard, which is itself a $350 case for your iPad Pro. It’s called the Copertina, and it retails for $99.95. It looks a little bit like the hard cover of a book; it is made, apparently, from archival-quality buckram linen, which is also used in bookbinding. It is undeniably beautiful.

And yet, its existence troubles me. Not all cases are created equally; we hold that particular truth to be self-evident. However, the question must be asked: why would you need a case to go over a case?

Does the first case — which has a very nice keyboard that essentially turns your iPad Pro into a laptop — not adequately protect your thousand-dollar...

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Sales of Logitech’s keyboards, PC webcams, tablets, and video collaboration products are booming as a result of shelter-in-place orders during the pandemic, the company is reporting. Demand for the financial quarter ending in March was driven by people setting up home offices, doctors adopting telemedicine, and teachers using video calls for distance learning, it says. Meanwhile, sales of its gaming peripherals also increased as people tried to keep themselves entertained at home.

Sales of video collaboration products, which Reuters notes includes cameras, microphones, and software that allows for online meetings, increased by 60 percent compared to the same period last year, while keyboards, PC webcams, tablets, and accessories all saw...

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• Since the coronavirus put New York under lockdown, I've completely changed my buying habits.
• I haven't swiped my credit card in at least a month, relying on online payments and Apple Pay with curbside pickup.
• I actually prefer paying this way, and I don't see myself paying with cash or card anytime soon, although I know this isn't an option for everyone. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus has changed just about every part of my daily life. The biggest change is that I now work remotely, and rarely leave my house. But when I do leave my house, it's also changed my relationship to money. Namely, I almost never touch actual cold, hard cash anymore.

In March, when the US only had a few hundred known cases of COVID-19, the World Health Organization said that paper money could be a method of transmission for the virus, so contactless payments like Apple Pay or Google Pay were safer.

Contactless payments are starting to look like the way of the future, and companies are strategically promoting how safe their own versions of this system are. As early as the beginning of March, delivery apps like Postmates, DoorDash, and Instacart were adding options for contactless dropoffs for services where customers already pay and even tip within the apps.

Mastercard and Visa are increasing value limits on contactless payments in several countries, and the coronavirus pandemic might be the push needed to make contactless payments, which are already popular in Europe, the norm in the US, according to a Business Insider Intelligence briefing. 

Grocery chain Publix enabled Apple Pay and Google Pay, while Walmart added a Walmart Pay contactless checkout option. Restaurants are asking customers not to pay with cash, and even Burger King released a commercial encouraging customers to order ahead and pay through its app. The change isn't limited to national chains, either — Bloomberg reported that small businesses have seen a 27% increase in customers using contactless payment options. 

I was an infrequent Apple Pay user pre-pandemic. I got an Apple Card back in the fall for a review, and while I liked it I tended to stick with my physical cards. Often enough, when I did try to use Apple Pay, stores either didn't have the capability, or cashiers sometimes didn't know that they had it, and it was easier to just not deal with it. Once coronavirus came, though, it seemed worth the extra minute of explanation.

Now, when I (infrequently) leave my house to buy things, Apply Pay is my default. While I haven't been in a store for weeks, my siblings and I occasionally go through the McDonald's drive-thru for milkshakes to break up the cabin fever.

In the past using Apple Pay in a drive-thru has been more of a hassle than it was worth. The norm used to be having the cashier take my phone to bring it to the scanner — not a big deal in the pre-coronavirus days, but something that now seems fraught now that I understand how long the virus can live on surfaces. Luckily, restaurants near me now seem fine to bring out Apple Pay scanner and hold it up to my phone out the window. 

Paying with my phone is great, but ordering and paying ahead of time is even better. The less time interacting with strangers, waiting around for my order and potentially sharing germs, the better. On the Dunkin' app, I can order before I leave my house and slide right through the drive-thru.

Best of all, though, is a curbside pickup. At my local liquor store, for example, I put items in my virtual cart, pay with my Apple Card easily through my phone, and call the store when I'm there. Within a minute or two, I have my order with minimal danger. Buying this way is better in more ways than one — I have time to browse and decide what I want without feeling pressured, and I also don't throw in some impulse buys I might in person.

Using Apple Pay and curbside pickup has been convenient for me and I actually prefer it, but it's not workable for everyone. I'm coming from a place of privilege, where I have a home to shelter in and a car to pick up necessities, not to mention the fact that I have a job I can do remotely. Stores and restaurants that have gone drive-thru only, and businesses only accepting contactless payments, have added an extra barrier to people without cars, and the more than 14 million Americans who remain unbanked.

Those are problems that need to be fixed. Because as of now, I'm prepared for a future where I never pay cash again   — and I think it would be safer if everyone else could do the same.

SEE ALSO: Softbank-backed delivery startup Rappi is testing out robots for contactless delivery — take a look

Join the conversation about this story »

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PepsiCo, the insanely big multinational food and beverage giant, wants in on the direct-to-consumer action: they’ve bought the (incredibly good) domain Snacks.com and the (fine) domain PantryShop.com to sell you things faster.

As Fast Company reported, the company saw a 10 percent bump in its earnings last month because people were stocking up during the pandemic. Concurrently, however, the situation has meant a lot of shopping is now moving entirely online — and PepsiCo has realized there’s more money to be made with fewer market disruptions if they’re just selling directly to the public.

Snacks.com will feature more than 100 Frito-Lay products, while PantryShop.com will offer meal kit-esque bundles of snacks — think Gatorade and Sun...

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Enterprise search has always been a tough nut to crack. The Holy Grail has always been to operate like Google, but in-house. You enter a few keywords and you get back that nearly perfect response at the top of the list of the results. The irony of trying to do search locally has been a lack of content.

While Google has the universe of the World Wide Web to work with, enterprises have a much narrower set of responses. It would be easy to think that should make it easier to find the ideal response, but the fact is that it’s the opposite. The more data you have, the more likely you’ll find the correct document.

Amazon is trying to change the enterprise search game by putting it into a more modern machine learning-driven context to use today’s technology to help you find that perfect response just as you typically do on the web.

Today the company announced the general availability of Amazon Kendra, its cloud enterprise search product that the company announced last year at AWS re:Invent. It uses natural language processing to allow the user to simply ask a question, then searches across the repositories connected to the search engine to find a precise answer.

“Amazon Kendra reinvents enterprise search by allowing end-users to search across multiple silos of data using real questions (not just keywords) and leverages machine learning models under the hood to understand the content of documents and the relationships between them to deliver the precise answers they seek (instead of a random list of links),” the company described the new service in a statement.

AWS has tuned the search engine for specific industries including IT, healthcare and insurance. It promises energy, industrial, financial services, legal, media and entertainment, travel and hospitality, human resources, news, telecommunications, mining, food and beverage and automotive will be coming later this year.

This means any company in one of those industries should have a head start when it comes to searching because the system will understand the language specific to those verticals. You can drop your Kendra search box into an application or a website, and it has features like type ahead you would expect in a tool like this.

Enterprise search has been around for a long time, but perhaps by bringing AI and machine learning to bear on it, we can finally solve it once and for all.

Google’s Duo video chat app will soon let you make group video calls on the web, the search company announced today. That could be a handy way to catch up with your friends and family while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, though group call participants will need a Google account to join, Google says. The feature is rolling out as a preview in Chrome in the coming weeks.

There’s also a new “family mode” in Duo, which lets you draw on the screen in real time and apply Snapchat-like masks and effects on yourself. Duo will hide the buttons to mute and hang up while you’re in family mode so that you can doodle and play around without needing to worry about accidentally dropping the call, Google says. Family mode is available...

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• Designers created a concept for nightlife-enabling PPE, inspired by hazmat suits.
• Air is filtered using N95 filters, and the battery-powered suit is controlled by a smart phone.
• For a real party experience, the suit even allows the wearer to drink or vape. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Partying might look different in a post-coronavirus world. Designers at Production Club created Micrashell, a full body suit that "allows you to safely socialize in times of a pandemic."

In introducing the Micrashell, Production Club references the value of social distancing for slowing the spread of COVID-19, but notes the potential economic and mental tolls of prolonged isolation. The studio calls it a "socially responsible solution" to letting people be together without distancing, especially to recreate nightlife and entertainment, like concerts and nightclubs.

Production Club, headquartered in Los Angeles and Spain, said in a statement that the team worked in 12 hour shifts between the two time zones to create the prototype. Others in the industry are mostly focusing on solutions for virtual events, while the Micrashell reimagines a way to gather in person. So far the suit is just a concept and is not for sale, but it might be in the future.

"Our primary thought is that it will be sold to businesses rather than individuals," Production Club told Business Insider. "Our initial idea has been to have promoters, venues, and entertainment groups help subsidize the cost to allow events to operate at a higher capacity and in a safe fashion. That said, we're not closing any doors since we're still in the early stages and I do believe that there will be some kind of purchase route available as well for music enthusiasts."

Here's how it works. 

SEE ALSO: Stores in Italy are using robots to screen customers for mask wearing and high temperatures before they can go inside as the country reopens

The top-only suit design means it can be worn over regular clothes, and wearers can go to the bathroom without having to remove the whole suit.

It's powered by two lithium-ion batteries, which can also be used to charge a cell phone.

Clean air is sucked into a vent on the back of the helmet. Then, the air is supplied to the helmet through distributors in the front, letting people dance next to each other without breathing in the same air.

The shield around the eyes is a clear hybrid material, and the rest of the helmet is see-through and made of a flexible fabric to allow movement.

The helmet area of the suit has everything a person needs for a safe concert experience — filtered air, high-quality speakers, and cushioning to ensure a comfortable fit.

To fully recreate the nightlife experience, the Micrashell even has a way for wearers to vape and drink while staying protected.

Canisters with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks or vape liquid magnetically snap into place on the suit. Wearers can consume them by pressing a button, and can see how much is left using the integrated smartphone app.

The creators also emphasized other benefits of this system, like removing the risk of drinks being tampered with, and reducing long bar lines.

The suit's gloves and the helmet each have magnetic pull-latches to make them easy to put on and prevent contact with other surfaces. Ultra-sensitive finger tips are useful for maintaining tactility.

A smartphone goes into a pouch on the arm, and all aspects of the suit are controlled by the phone.

Wearers can speak to each other using a wireless voice communication system based on physical location. Different privacy modes allow everyone or only certain groups of people, like a contact list, to speak to the wearer. It can even limit communication to only specific people.

Allowing wearers to control audio levels — like decreasing audio levels of the DJ to have a conversation with a friend — could also improve the traditional concert experience.

The suit is designed to be one size fits all, with a strap system that can be adjusted to anyone. The suit can also be personalized with patches and add-ons, like this pouch.

The suit features a camera on the chest area that ensures the wearer's vision isn't obstructed by blind spots on the helmet or other equipment.

The helmet is covered in LED lights that can be controlled through the app, so depending on how the suit is used, people could change the light to signal different emotions.

While many are experimenting with virtual concerts, the Micrashell might be a promising way allow people to gather in person before a vaccine is developed.

• A Seattle-based venture group surveyed the region's largest companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Costco to find out how they are planning to return employees to offices.
• The tips are included in a "toolkit for reopening the office and getting back to work."
• See the full guide below and visit Business Insider's home page for more stories.

A group led by Seattle-based venture firm Madrona Venture Group surveyed local employers including Microsoft, Amazon, Costco, Redfin, Alaska Airlines and more to create a guide to help smaller companies plan to reopen offices amid the coronavirus crisis.

Dubbed the "toolkit for reopening the office and getting back to work," it provides a step-by-step guide to planning for your company's return to the office. 

Here's the full guide:

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's CEO and CFO explained all the ways that the pandemic has affected the $1.3 trillion tech titan's business — and how it could change things going forward

The guide includes both broad mandates and specific resources.

Even when the time comes to reopen workplaces, employers will have to take many precautions until a vaccine is developed and widespread testing is available.

For now, remote work should always be the first choice.

Ultimately, employers should take approach reopening offices as a three-step process.

1. Carefully planning the return
2. Preparing the office to ensure safety and physical distancing
3. Preparing employees through communication and training

First, the planning phase...

Are enough employees willing to return to the workplace? Is the physical office capable of accommodating new social distancing and cleaning policies? These are questions employers should ask themselves.

One of the first steps is establishing a "task force" to plan the return that includes representatives from legal, HR, and facilities, as well as key exec leadership.

Come up with a plan for who should return to work, when. It's best to take a tiered approach.

Building employee trust during the process is key, and the best way to do that is through "early, consistent, and transparent communication."

To prepare the office, consider things like workplace PPE and how to screen employees.

Employers should consider providing personal protective equipment to all on-site employees, which could include re-useable masks, hand sanitizer and antiseptic hand wipes, infrared thermometers, and gloves.

In the office, employers should limit or close communal areas, such as shutting down food service areas and gyms, and start "robust cleaning procedures."

Employers should work closely with building management to ensure cleaning staff are adequately trained and that policies about public areas are aligned.

Help employees with physical distancing through measures such as floor marking, physical barriers such as plexiglass for IT teams, and removing extra seats.

Employers should restrict group sizes to less than five or 10 people and eliminate or limit visitors. Consider restricting travel and ask employees who travel to higher risk areas to self-quarantine for 14 days after they return.

Providing on-site screening is considered a best practice for reopening offices.

Consider tracking meeting times, dates and attendees and storing the information for 28 days. (Check local guidances as this guide contains information specific to Washington state.)

Screen everyone the first time they enter the building each day.

Create a protocol for what to do if an employee has COVID or COVID-like symptoms, including notifying anyone who may have come into contact with them at work.

Importantly, make sure employees feel comfortable self-identifying any symptoms.

Now for the third phase: Preparing employees.

Provide training on topics like how to spot and self-report COVID-19 symptoms, how to take care of personal protective equipment, and physical distancing.

Trainings can happen through live-webinars, video series, or one-on-one meetings. Consider anonymous surveys to allow employees to offer honest feedback on if they are ready to go back to a physical work environment, and continue surveying employees once they've returned.

Provide at least weekly COVID response team updates.

Communicate processes and expectations for returning to work, such as changes to work flexibility or benefit policies and workplace guidelines.

Consult legal counsel to understand privacy regulations.

Information about employee illnesses, for example, should be treated as confidential medical records and stored separately from personnel files.

Importantly, be flexible and stay up-to-date.

• Escape-room company Puzzle Break has created an online version of their traditionally in-person escape room, The Grimm Escape.
• Participants join a Zoom video call for a 90-minute game filled with team-building, problem-solving, and puzzles.
• The games are aimed at both small groups and companies. Online bookings cost $25 a person for groups of 4 to 6, with larger groups and enterprise pricing available upon request.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused people to rely on digital entertainment like never before and companies are  transforming their offerings to reach people staying indoors. That's why US-based Puzzle Break created a virtual escape room that challenges you and your friends or coworkers to solve your way out of it via a Zoom call.

Escape rooms, a booming industry that's increased in popularity over the last decade, centers around a game typically played in-person with a group of people locked in a room with various clues they have to solve in order to "escape" the room within a set time limit.

Puzzle Break modified its approach to keep business going through the pandemic by providing customers with a guided, virtual experience of their escape room, The Grimm Escape.

"It was simultaneously necessary and heartbreaking to close our in-person experiences," Nate Martin, CEO and founder of Puzzle Break, said. "As we've turned to the virtual experience, we've been inspired by how the magic of escape rooms can be translated online for this new normal. In our trial runs, it's clear that the unique mix of creativity, fun, adrenaline, and bonding is just as powerful in the online world."

Participants join in the virtual escape room via video-conference call. They have 90 minutes to solve all of the puzzle's clues in guided games curated by a Puzzle Break employee. You provide the teammates, so there's no unknown players.

After the 90-minute challenge, players are debriefed to discuss the experience.

Groups of four to six players can book a virtual escape room online for $25 dollars each, and then there's the larger enterprise version aimed at larger groups and companies. Groups need at least four players, but those with more than seven people must email Puzzle Break to get a quote on pricing.

Customers need to be able to run Zoom Client for Meetings on their computer but don't need to have a Zoom account.

Those interested in booking a virtual escape room can head over to Puzzle Break's website.

SEE ALSO: See what it's like to visit a newly reopened Apple store in Australia amid the pandemic

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With current world events, large numbers of people around the world are now working from home full time. It has caused a lot of conversation around the best kit and devices for working from home.

One question I’ve been asked more than once is, what should we provide our execs with?

In the Cisco world, for the super high end, there have always been dedicated personal endpoints, screen, camera and speakers. Typically for the exec level employee. Initially the Tandberg EX90 (Cisco bought Tandberg), DX80 and most recently Webex Desk Pro. These were initially video conferencing endpoints but are now positioned as collaboration endpoints.

Why would I want a dedicated collaboration endpoint?

Cisco just put a blog out, Why You Want a Personal Video Device and they naturally position the benefits of a dedicated unit. Some of these are fair, some I would contest.

The blog states “While a PC based solution can get you through a couple of hours of meetings per day without fatigue, a dedicated video device has so many advantages when you spend all day in meetings:”

It’s certainly fair to say that higher-end devices lead to a much better video/collaboration experience, but you don’t need an expensive dedicated unit. They point out the benefits of

• Good speakers/headset and microphone
• High-quality cameras that deal with variable lighting conditions
• Decent screen
• not cluttering your desk

You can achieve all of this with a good windows PC or Mac and the right USB devices. I don’t think you’ll be more fatigued using a good PC setup than a dedicated unit.

Most, if not all, workers will need a decent PC or laptop, so you will need to add a good USB camera, and USB headset or personal speakerphone. You are going to get a pretty similar experience for much less money and less desk space. Three are also benefits to working on the same PC you are collaborating from, for example, remote control or co-editing.

However, if you have the budget, I can see the benefits in experience and IT support from a dedicated device

• Easy end-user experience – the device is a single purpose, hit one button, join the meeting.
• Limited ability for users to somehow break the experience (not knowing which app to run on their PC for example, not having their PC booted and ready for the call, having issues with their laptop dock USB connection)
• Easy remote patching and support
• No risk that other processes on the PC impact performance

In Microsoft world we don’t really have such a device. Potentially you could kind of hack together an all in one PC, good USB speakerphone and camera but it’s not hitting the actual benefits.

Could the new Collaboration bars be good personal collaboration devices?

Microsoft recently announced the first collaboration bar for Microsoft Teams was generally available, the Yealink VC210. The Poly Studio X30 and Poly Studio X50 won’t be far behind. These are designed to be for smaller meeting spaces like focus rooms, huddle spaces and conference rooms designed for one to five people. They are not designed to be dedicated personal devices, but could they potentially be?

Microsoft Teams certified Collab bars are dedicated android based units with a Microsoft Teams app. They are updated directly from the Microsoft Teams service. You plug them in and away you go and they optionally support a touch screen.

The Yealink has a 4k auto framing camera, USB speakerphone and remote control (for non-touch screens), the Poly Studio X30 similarly has a 4k camera and auto framing. Its mic and speakers are built into the bar. Control for non-touch screens s via a touch panel or controls on an optional speakerphone.

Even though they have 4k cameras, they run at 720p. Currently, they are really a meeting join experience, either by clicking join or joining video the Teams mobile app.

Right now there is a limited time very discounted price of $899 for the VC210, through the Microsoft Teams device store (requires discount code “Yealink4Teams” at checkout). Normally it’s $1,299.

I’m fortunate that Yealink has sent me a test VC210 and touch screen that I’m trying out at home right now. I’ll have a bigger blog on my experience with it soon.

I would say a PC/Mac with quality USB devices would be best for most people, but, if you look at the form factor, I think you could see these in the corner of an exec office or home office. We’ll see how the devices develop and how customers deploy them.

• Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes office space will be in greater demand after the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
• During an appearance on "Face the Nation" Sunday, the 65-year-old said he thinks the desire for social distancing within offices will place a premium on office space.
• Schmidt, who led Google between 2001 and 2011, thinks the "incredibly concentrated" nature of global megacities will change as employees within the same firms work in different locations.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes office space will be in greater demand after the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

Schmidt's remarks appear to contradict an increasingly held belief that offices might be on the decline as office workers learn to work effectively from home.

During an appearance on "Face the Nation" Sunday, the 65-year-old said he thinks the desire for social distancing within offices will place a premium on office space.

"My guess is we'll have more demand for office space, not less, because people will want social distancing," Schmidt said.

"We're going to have to think about hub-and-spoke systems where local people don't travel so far because they don't want to be in public transit for so long. So we're gonna have to really rethink how businesses operate. They need their employees back."

Schmidt, who led Google between 2001 and 2011, thinks the dense, shoulder-to-shoulder nature of global megacities will change as employees within the same firms work in different locations.

"If you think of it as an employer, you have a bunch of employees, some of whom are dying to get back to the office, and some people who are afraid that if they go to the office, they will die," he explained.

"They're very concerned about [whether] they're immunocompromised or what have you. So they're going to have to come up with flexible arrangements. So imagine that there are three or four people. One will go to the office. One will stay home. Some will go to some local or town working environment. It will change the pattern.

"We've had this situation where people move to super cities in these incredibly concentrated ways. That will change in the next few years. You don't need to be in the super city in order to participate in the ex- excitement of these super cities." 

CNET reported Saturday that Schmidt, who continued as an advisor to Google from 2011, has stepped down from that advisory position in February. The former exec remains one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth of $15.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

SEE ALSO: Here's when tech companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon plan to reopen their offices or keep working from home

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• While mergers-and-acquisitions activity has fallen off a cliff, some corners of investment banking are busier than ever. 
• Investment bankers primed to help companies navigate the financial fallout from Covid-19, especially restructuring and debt-raising specialists, have been crushed with demand.
• The shift to remote work, a notion that many bank execs would've scoffed at pre-crisis, has actually facilitated greater productivity.
• When you eliminate time spent at airports and restaurants, and when Zoom calls can be arranged in minutes, firms are finding investment banking moves at a lightning-quick pace.
• Having been forced into an industry-wide remote work pilot program that has unearthed millions in potential savings, some firms are in no rush to get back to business as usual.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

While some corners of the investment banking have cooled amid the chaos from the coronavirus pandemic, certain bankers are flooded with business — and they're finding the confines of social distancing have accommodated a faster pace of work than ever before. 

The first quarter of 2020 saw mergers and acquisitions — especially of the megadeal variety — fall off a cliff as companies reckoned with the turbulence wrought by Covid-19 and scrambled to address more pressing concerns, like preserving liquidity or lining up more of it.

Globally, M&A volume so far in 2020 is down 42% to $750 billion, while in the US it fell by more than 60% to $240 billion, according to data from Dealogic. 

But investment bankers primed to help companies navigate the financial fallout, especially restructuring and debt-raising specialists, have been crushed with demand.

Corporate bonds have minted record revenues for banks. Debt capital markets volumes have eclipsed $1.5 trillion in the US, a 39% uptick over last year's pace, with investment-grade debt up 77% and junk bonds up 23%. 

Top advisory shops have also been mobbed with restructuring and debt advisory work, which some execs expect to easily double in terms of revenue, and they've been coping by redeploying junior bankers and leaning on senior industry coverage bankers.

How the shift to remote work is speeding dealmaking 

Far from gumming up business, the shift to remote work, a notion that many bank execs would've scoffed at pre-crisis, has actually facilitated greater productivity. In the age of the coronavirus, Wall Street bankers — already notorious for long hours spent curating a white-glove experience for clients — are finding they can provide even closer attention and care from afar. 

It turns out, when you take away the time spent at airports and restaurants, and when Zoom calls can be arranged in minutes, investment banking moves at a lightning-quick pace.

"We're able to get calls and work done extremely quickly because, as I said, nobody is at their kid's ballgame or out for dinner or on an airplane or at a board meeting," Ken Moelis, founder and CEO of Moelis & Co., said on the firm's first-quarter earnings call, according to a transcript from financial-data platform Sentieo. "When we've gotten calls to come up with ideas and help people, we had everybody on the phone just 5 or 10 minutes later. It's a stunning efficiency." 

The story is the same at PJT Partners, according to founder and CEO Paul Taubman, who said the absence of distractions like traveling and coordinating meetings has meant they're working harder and spending more time with clients than before. 

"We're not traveling, we're not spending all the time coordinating meetings. We're just getting on phone calls, video conferences, exchanging messages with clients," Taubman said. "And I think we're able to spend a lot more time for every minute of every hour, and every hour of every day, engaging with clients without any wasted time. So I think it's also enabled us to be far more intense and far more efficient."

The dynamic has played out in capital markets practices as well. For bankers tasked with sourcing and advising clients on debt deals, the shift to remote work has been fairly seamless — especially since most of the action thus far has been dominated by sophisticated companies that frequently travel the bond markets. 

"The fact that you can't travel and you're sitting home in front of your screen with video-conference capability, with the ability to get on phone calls, it's incredibly, incredibly efficient with frequent issuers and sophisticated issuers," Richard Zogheb, global head of debt capital markets at Citigroup, told Business Insider.

A cultural shift

The significant gains in efficiency touted by top execs begs the question: Why weren't such practices implemented before now?

To be sure, part of the added efficiency stems from the unprecedented nature of the crisis. The economic impact has bred urgency and desperation across the corporate landscape and thus more opportunities for bankers to add value in some quarters.

And the government imposed stay-at-home orders mean dealmakers, already accustomed to an intense work ethic, and their clients don't have much else to do besides work. Modified house arrest isn't a replicable condition outside of a pandemic. 

But in part, the explanation is rooted in a culture that revolves around optics. It's not enough to provide quality advice and service — you need to be seen expending the hours and effort to provide that service. Hopping on flights to provide in-person face time. Spending hours at restaurants entertaining. Trekking into the office on the weekends.  

Evercore CEO Ralph Schlosstein told Business Insider that prior to the pandemic, the firm's leadership "would have been skeptical" that employees could operate so effectively from 1,800 "offices" around the world. By way of example, Schlosstein shared that one leader of the firm's advisory business used to judge employee effort by how many people were in the office on weekends. 

Here's Schlosstein:

"One of the things that I smile about now is that, one of the leaders of our advisory business always used to say to me that 'people aren't working that hard because when I'm here on Saturday or Sunday when I walk around, there aren't many, if any people here.' And I've said to him a couple of times since this happened that the walking-around test really doesn't in any way measure whether people are active or not. And that's going to be a real learning lesson for all of us who grew up in a world where your work time was measured almost exclusively by the time that you spent in the office."

Some of the remote-work efficiencies enjoyed in restructuring and capital markets circles may not translate as naturally to other types of deals.

For M&A, a bread-and-butter fee gusher for these firms, relationship-building is a central element — you're meeting with clients for years before they might hire you — whereas restructuring he compared to a "fire-department type of business," Moelis explained.

"You don't spend a lot of time with the person who's going to restructure your balance sheet, because you're not thinking that and most places aren't planning on that," Moelis said. "And so the calls are fairly immediate and actually not being there in person is much less of a barrier, not having that personal interaction."

The complex financing that accompanies M&A — which encompasses legal, structural, valuation, social, and tax and accounting issues and the myriad personnel to address them — isn't well-suited to the Zoom era, either, according to Zogheb. 

"It's really hard to break those things down and negotiate those things on video conference or on the phone," Zogheb said. "There's been so many transactions in my career where you're at an impasse, and the only way you can get that across the finish line is you bring all the parties into a room and you sort of lock the door and say, 'We're going to hash this out. Nobody's leaving.'"

Even amid the recent rush of bond deals, an in-office employee presence has been critical to handle the record-setting flow. While origination teams have functioned well from home, syndicate desks — which are in charge of pricing, marketing, and allocating bonds and thus coordinate with an array of parties — are among the essential bank employees still reporting to the office, according to Zogheb.

Moreover, some of the remote-work benefits may wane once the needs of sophisticated companies have been met and bond activity swings toward more intricate deals and first-time issuers that require more handholding.

No rush to get back to the office

Banks are eager to see M&A, which is spurred by economic growth and corporate confidence, rebound.

But having been forced into an industry-wide remote work situation, they're finding less of an incentive to get back to business as usual. Investment banking as a remote service strips out substantial costs associated with travel and entertainment. Operating a brick-and-mortar workspace is far more expensive than employees working from their living rooms.

"We're not going to rush to get back because, actually, we're finding that this work-from-home environment is very effective both in terms of our internal communication and also in terms of our ability to communicate with clients," Lazard CEO Ken Jacobs said on the firm's first-quarter earnings call last week. 

Jacobs anticipates travel will remain limited for the next six to nine months, and his firm will slowly phase employees back into the office — 10% to 20% at first, and then 25% to 40%, and then 50%.

But potentially, it may never fill up to the levels it was at pre-crisis. Jacobs said Lazard, which has the largest physical-office presence globally among its peers, is already pondering whether implementing some level of remote work let the firm downsize and shed office space.

Over the next year or so, he expects there will be "a real opportunity to rethink what the workplace looks like — how much office space you need, what worked from home, what kind of people can work from home three or four days a week or one or two days a week."

Such a scenario might present the opportunity to strip out "10%, 15% of your footprint from a real estate perspective or maybe even more," he added. 

Investment banking's entrenched, hard-charging cultural attitudes are unlikely to ever be significantly dislodged. But bankers understand profits, and staring at an opportunity to save millions on costs while potentially improving effectiveness, firms may find it hard to ignore some of the benefits and lessons that have emerged from the pandemic.

SEE ALSO: POWER PLAYERS: Meet 20 Wall Street restructuring bankers who will navigate the defaults and bankruptcies of the coronavirus crisis

SEE ALSO: Inside the rush to staff up restructuring pros at top advisory firms like Moelis and Evercore

SEE ALSO: What to expect when you're back in the office: 7 real-estate experts break down what the transition will look like, and why the workplace may never be the same

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• For almost 70 years, the Chevrolet Corvette was a front-engined sports car.
• It was a great performer, but was missing that one last element that'd make it competitive in the global sports-car market.
• The 2020 Corvette is now mid-engined and a worthy international competitor.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories

Despite the generous offering of American muscle cars available to buyers today, there's only one considered to be America's sports car. That car is the Chevrolet Corvette.

The Corvette is currently in its eighth generation - and for the first time in its 67-year history, it finally has the setup that makes it competitive with the likes of the European supercars. 

See, for the first seven generations, the Corvette stuck with a very traditional, front-engine layout, meaning its engine was located in front of the driver. Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with a front-engine setup, but it's also a setup that very pedestrian cars like Toyota Camry also have. 

In racing and with supercars, a mid-engine layout is generally much more preferred. A mid-engine layout is when the engine is located behind the driver and between the car's front and rear axles. Generally, mid-engine cars offer improved balance and handling because the heaviest part of the car - its engine - isn't located on only one end. 

For decades, talk of a mid-engine Corvette flitted about the automotive industry. Years went by and nothing concrete ever came of it. The "mid-engine Corvette" sort of became an automotive tall tale. 

Those rumors were finally laid to rest with the eight-generation Corvette, also known as the "C8" generation: the mid-engine Corvette, actualized. America's sports car had finally grown up and was ready to take on the global performance segment.

How did we get here? Why does the C8 matter? Dear reader, keep scrolling to find out.

On January 17, 1953, the Chevrolet C1 Corvette was displayed as a "dream car" at the General Motors Motorama exposition at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City.

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It was a futuristic-looking sports car, with an engine mounted in the front. That layout would persevere for the next six decades.

The Corvette logo bore two crossed flags: a checkered one and one with the Chevrolet bow-tie and a fleur-de-lis - a French symbol for purity.

On June 30, the first production-ready Corvette was built at an assembly plant in Flint, Michigan.

It was the first mass-produced car to have an all-fiberglass body, making it very light.

In those days, fiberglass was also more flexible than something that could be stamped out in a steel press, so the resulting Corvette's body was curvier than most had ever seen before.

As of 1955, the car was available with a 265 cubic-inch small-block V8 and a three-speed manual transmission.

All first-generation Corvettes were convertibles.

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And the first generation established styling elements that would become staples of Corvettes to come: the iconic dual-round tail lights and cockpit-style interior.

The year the C1 Corvette came out, a Belgian engineer named Zora Arkus-Duntov began trying to shape it into something much more performance oriented.

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Ultimately, Arkus-Dontov was the one who pushed hardest for a mid-engine Corvette. During the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1957, a front-engine Corvette race car recorded a DNF — a "did not finish" in racing speak. What was more, the driver's feet were burning because of the engine's placement.

This race convinced Arkus-Dontov that the engine had to be behind the driver. It sparked years of mid-engine concepts and experiments that never panned out, but always seemed to be tantalizingly close production wise.

But no mid-engine car came.

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Instead, in 1958, Chevrolet introduced a slight design refresh for dual headlights.

The 1959 Sting Ray Racer was a concept that embodied the aesthetics of speed in its day.

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It went on to inspire the looks of the next-gen C2 Corvette.

The 1960 Corvette was the last Corvette to feature the "teeth" looking front grille.

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The C1 Corvette lasted from 1953 through 1962.

Also in 1960, the model made its debut at the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France with three race-prepped Corvettes.

At the race's end, only one Corvette was still running and finished 8th overall.

---

You can see a documentary of the race here. It's pretty neat.

The C2 Corvette lasted from 1963 to 1967.

It was nicknamed “Sting Ray” after the influential concept car.

Whereas the C1 used a modified passenger-sedan platform, the C2 was built on a completely new and dedicated platform.

It also had one of the most beautiful Corvette designs in history: the split rear window.

---

The Corvette Sting Ray "Split Window" Coupe had a sort of  "spine" that ran down the length of its body and manifested in a sectioned rear window.

Ultimately, the split-window design was abandoned after a time because it resulted in poor visibility.

---

Sad.

Because the Corvette was now offered as a coupe, GM was able to nearly double its sales.

The C3 is currently the Corvette's longest-running generation, spanning from 1968 to 1982.

This is also the Corvette that weathered the oil crisis in the 1970s, which devastated the muscle-car industry.

Early C3s came with powerful, ozone-destroying, 435-horsepower big-block engines.

Industry changes and tightening emissions resulted in 165-horsepower small-block engines in 1975.

Regardless, the C3 was still cool, with its aggressive styling, long hood, and retractable headlights.

---

It had industry-first "T-top" removable roof panels!

The name was also slightly changed from “Sting Ray” to “Stingray,” but Corvette fans preferred to call the C3 a “shark.”

Corvette production had moved from Flint, Michigan, to St. Louis, Missouri in the 1950s.

In 1981, GM moved Corvette production to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where it remains today.

Maybe it's because the C3 was around for so long, but it's probably the least-liked generation by fans.

Edmunds said it "overstayed its welcome by at least five years."

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Source: Edmunds

Still, something about the C3 worked.

---

A total of 58,307 Corvettes were sold in 1979, which, in 2013, was still the highest they'd ever been.

The C4 generation ran from 1983 to 1996.

The ‘80s and ‘90s signified the Corvette’s technology era.

The car got an electroluminescent instrument panel with digital readouts.

These, according to GM, really "captured the zeitgeist of the circuit board era."

---

Source: General Motors

Then came the ZR1, a Corvette made to take on the European sports cars.

---

It was wider, had better tires, and, as noted by Road & Track, the LT5 5.7-liter V8 engine was unique to the ZR1. The LT5 was jointly developed with Lotus and boat-motor company Mercury Marine. The car made an impressive 380 horsepower and could hit 60 mph from a standstill in just 4.9 seconds.

The C4 ZR1's run spanned from 1990 to 1995.

The C4 Corvette was also incredibly aerodynamic.

---

It had a 0.34 coefficient of drag, which was almost 25% less than the outgoing C3.

The C5 generation ran from 1997 to 2004.

Despite it being larger than the C4, it was actually 100 pounds lighter than the car it replaced.

This was because the C5 used way more plastic in its construction.

You can decide for yourself if that’s a good or bad thing.

The 2001 C5 Z06 was a performance variant that had a 385-horsepower LS6 V8.

---

It had a top speed of more than 170 mph.

The 2002 Z06 increased power to make a respectable 405 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.

---

Even by today's standards, that's a lot.

The C6 generation spanned from 2005 to 2013.

GM got with the times here and did away with the raised headlights.

---

It wasn't a bad move.

The C6 was powered by a 6.0-liter V8.

It made 400 horsepower.

It was also the first Corvette to offer navigation.

But the 2006 C6 Z06 was truly one of the coolest Corvettes ever made.

---

Powered by a massive, naturally aspirated 7.0-liter LS7 V8, the Z06 produced 505 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque. It made a noise like metal being torn apart.

It also weighed less than 3,200 pounds, so its power-to-weight ratio was excellent.

---

It might have looked similar to regular C6s, but underneath, the Z06 was anything but. It had an aluminum frame, a magnesium engine cradle, and carbon-fiber front fenders, front wheel houses, and rear fenders.

In 2009 came the C6 ZR1 - a fire-breathing, supercharged monster.

The ZR1 had the same aluminum chassis structure found in the Z06 but also used more carbon-fiber body parts, including the roof panel.

The car produced 638 horsepower and had a top speed of 205 mph.

It was so cool.

Here are some Corvettes celebrating the brand's 50th anniversary of running at Le Mans at Laguna Seca Raceway.

---

(Now called WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.)

There was also the Corvette C6.R, built for endurance racing.

---

Here's one in 2009.

The car is particularly striking in yellow.

It's two generations old, but it's aged very well.

Production of the C6 officially stopped on February 28, 2013.

The C7 Corvette spanned from 2014 to 2019.

Its looks noticeably sharpened up.

The rounded aesthetic it carried from the ‘50s was gone.

The C7 also used an aluminum frame.

---

But the base model was 60% stiffer than the performance-focused Z06 and ZR1 from the previous C6 generation.

Also, with the C7, GM brought back the "Stingray" designation for the base model.

The C7 Stingrays had LT1 V8 engines that produced 460 horsepower.

The Z06 also appeared once more as a track weapon.

But this time it had a supercharged LT4 V8 engine.

It produced 650 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque.

---

Unfortunately, the Z06 also apparently had some overheating issues. A class-action lawsuit filed by Z06 owners claimed the car had a cooling system defect that forced it to go into limp mode after 15 minutes of track use.

And then came the C7 ZR1.

I’d think 638 horsepower from the C6 was already enough, but clearly I don’t know anything.

The car made 755 horsepower and 715 pound-feet of torque from its supercharged, 6.2-liter LT5 V8.

It is currently the most powerful Corvette ever built from the factory.

And in 2020, the world saw the first and official mid-engine Corvette.

---

Finally.

More than six decades after the overheating race car and all of Zora Arkus-Duntov's dreaming, the car is real at last.

The 2020 C8 is sleek. Pointy faced. A little ungainly looking in profile, perhaps.

But it’s real, and it has a naturally aspirated V8 between its axles.

A V8 that makes about 500 horsepower in a mid-engine car that can be had for less than $60,000.

Unfortunately, none of the C8 Corvettes will be offered with a manual transmission.

---

This is because, according to Car and Driver, people just didn't buy enough manual C7 for GM to see a business case in offering manual C8s.

That angered many purists.

The Z06 and ZR1 offerings haven't been officially announced yet. But if or when they come out, they'll probably make more than 1,000 horsepower.

Corvette deliveries faced delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, meaning some customers would get the 2021 model instead.

A rumor in January 2021 stated that GM might be working on a Corvette-branded, high-performance crossover to compete with the Lamborghini Urus.

Source: Insider

In October of last year, Google hired Javier Soltero to be the VP and GM of G Suite, its set of office apps and — importantly for today’s news — Google Meet and Google Chat. Now, the company is putting him in charge of yet another set of products: Messages, Duo, and the phone app on Android.

The move puts all of Google’s major communication products under one umbrella: Soltero’s team. Soltero tells me that there are no immediate plans to change or integrate any of Google’s apps, so don’t get your hopes up for that (yet). “We believe people make choices around the products that they use for specific purposes,” Soltero says.

Still, Google’s communications apps are in dire need of a more coherent and opinionated production development,...

Continue reading…

• Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said during Wednesday's earnings call that the retail industry is seeing accelerated growth and increased demand that were expected in 2030.
• That's causing every e-commerce software to appear 10 years behind, he said.
• To keep up with demand, Lutke said he told his team early in the COVID-19 crisis to "delete" all existing plans and "re-derive them from this new reality."
• His quick response appears to be paying off as Shopify's first-quarter sales exceeded Street expectations, driving up the company's stock by almost 7%.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus outbreak is accelerating the growth of e-commerce, bringing changes that were expected in 2030 to today's market, according to Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke.

That's a huge opportunity for a company like Shopify, which sells the software tools needed to open online shopping sites across multiple channels. But it's also causing e-commerce software to appear 10 years behind the current market needs, Lutke said during Wednesday's earnings call.

"Everyone now has a 2020 quality software in a basically 2030 world," Lutke said. "So everyone's software just got 10 years worse, given the requirements and the needs by the customers."

Lutke said he told his team early in the coronavirus pandemic to "delete" all existing plans and "re-derive them from this new reality." He lowered the minimum bar for shipping updates in its software — without sacrificing the quality — so the company could move faster and meet the demand for new features, like curbside pickups.

"Everyone has to make up this gap," Lutke said. "This is why you see Shopify shipping a lot right now."

Shopify's quick response to the pandemic seems to be paying off. In the first quarter, Shopify's revenue jumped 47% to $470 million, far exceeding Wall Street expectations. The total value of goods sold on its platform also increased 46% to $17.4 billion from the year-ago period. While its operating loss more than doubled from last year, investors remained bullish, pushing its stock up roughly 7% in after-hours trading.

Shopify is one of the most popular stocks on Wall Street, growing more than 180% in value over the past year to $85 billion.

Staying current

During the call, Lutke encouraged people to try using software that was released in 2010, without the updates, to make his point about today's software feeling outdated. In fact, Lutke says staying up to date with current trends has been one of the biggest concerns for Shopify, which first launched in 2006. That, he said, is now proving to be a huge competitive advantage because some of the older software makers are now falling behind even more due to COVID-19.

"That gap just got significantly bigger for many companies that have already set on fairly outdated software," Lutke said.

Here is Lutke's full comment provided by financial research firm Sentieo:

"Yes. I think that's exactly what we're seeing. I really believe that when it comes to the retail industry, like maybe it's not 10 years, but it's -- we've just jumped a lot of years in the future. And I think one really important part about this is, I think it's really worth for everyone to try to use software that was released in 2010 without any updating and patches. It's one of those kind of experiences to say, "Hey, I remember using this, and I remember really, really liking this back then." 

But now it seems they're old and somehow not appropriate anymore to what I would expect of this particular category of software. So this is really hard to explain [indiscernible] that exists on the Internet, where people can just sort of intuitively tell that the product is kind of made for the current times or not, and if it fits the current times and uses sort of capabilities that people make assumptions about. 

One of my chief concerns of Shopify has always been to — because Shopify is a software that first launched in 2006 — to never make it not fit into the current times. And that's actually a significantly harder job than it might sound. And again, this, I think, like the massive jump ahead right now, everyone now has a 2020 quality software in a basically 2030 world. So everyone's software just got 10 years worse, given the requirements and the needs by the customers. 

And so everyone has to make up this gap. But we have to -- this is why you see Shopify shipping a lot right now. I have intentionally asked the company very early in this crisis to, like, delete all our existing plans and re-derive them from this new reality. I've asked the company to lower its minimum, except the quality bar, to shipping because something has to become variable because there's only 24 hours in the day, so that we can launch things. And so we are trying to move ahead because there is this massive vacuum that exists and the gap to compare to quality, especially you see this around curbside pickups. 

And like this is speaking from a perspective of, I think, we're one company, which actually had a 2020 quality solution for the retail space in the market. I don't think anyone really had, so that gap just got significantly bigger for many companies that have already set on fairly outdated software. And I think this is driving a lot more adoption, right, because I mean, Shopify is very good, like this could be massively better suddenly. It's been almost every other meeting I have about some way, how we can make it significantly better. But I think all things considered, it works really well. It fits itself really well. I mean some of the things in the press release you might have seen, like that -- like based on our particular view in a lot of retail, while 70% of retail sales might have disappeared, the businesses -- the retails that we're ready with an online channel at the same time managed to replace up -- like up to 94% of their sales through the online channel. 

Now imagine the vacuums that exist with all the businesses that they're only available to retail, like this is now a huge driver of opportunity for the challenger brands, and it's an imperative that people who aren't prepared to jump into the opportunity. So I think there's also lots of effects that are going on right now where that's important to understand. It's in no way easy to kind of understand what exactly are the cause and effect here, like this is like a very complex chaotic system right now that — in which a lot of people from rural farmers all the way to Fortune 50 companies find utility in this thing we built."

SEE ALSO: Leaked emails show Amazon's drone delivery team is manufacturing face shields for COVID-19 and crowdsourcing employee ideas to improve warehouse safety

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When Zoom started having security issues in March, they turned to former Facebook and Yahoo! Security executive Alex Stamos, who signed on as a consultant to work directly with CEO Eric Yuan.

The goal was to build a more cohesive security strategy for the fast-growing company. One of the recommendations that came out of those meetings was building end-to-end encryption into the paid tier of the product. Those discussions led to the company buying Keybase this morning.

Stamos says in the big build versus buy debate that companies tend to go through when they are evaluating options, this fell somewhere in the middle. While they bought a company with a lot of expertise, it will still require Keybase engineers working with counterparts from Zoom and consultants like Stamos to build a final encrypted product.

“The truth is that what Zoom wants to do with end-to-end encryption, nobody’s really done, so there’s no product that you could just slap onto Zoom to turn it into key encryption. That’s going to have to be thought out from the beginning for the specific needs of an enterprise,” Stamos told TechCrunch.

But what they liked about Keybase in particular is that they have already thought through similar problems with file encryption and encrypted chat, and they want to turn the Keybase engineers loose on this problem.

“The design is going to be something that’s totally new. The great thing about Keybase is that they have already been through this process of thinking through and then crafting a design that is usable by normal people and that provides functionality while being somewhat invisible,” he said.

Because it’s a work in progress, it’s not possible to say when that final integration will happen, but Stamos did say that the company intends to publish a paper on May 22nd outlining its cryptographic plan moving forward, and then will have a period of public discussion before finalizing the design and moving into the integration phase.

He says that the first goal is to come up with a more highly secure version of Zoom meetings with end-to-end encryption enabled. At least initially, this will only be available for people using the Zoom client or Zoom-enabled hardware. You won’t be able to encrypt someone calling in, for instance.

As for folks who may be worried about Keybase being owned by Zoom, Stamos says, “The whole point of the Keybase design is that you don’t have to trust who owns their servers.”

• Low-code and no-code tools have been steadily gaining popularity as organizations want to digitize but face a shortage of skilled developers. 
• Salesforce has released new features for its low code tools that make it easier for users to automate processes and workflows.
• Ryan Ellis, senior VP of product management at Salesforce, told Business Insider that he expects the adoption of low code tools to increase "long after this crisis is over."
• Click here to read more stories from BI Prime.

Low-code and no-code tools have steadily gained popularity as organizations that aim to digitize face a shortage of developers able to build digital tools from scratch. The market for low-code and no-code tools is expected to swell to a whopping $52 billion in 2024 — a huge increase from $6 billion in 2018 — according to an RBC report from January. 

The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shift to remote work has accelerated the rush to digital and Salesforce, which just released new features for its low-code tools to make it easier for users to automate their work, suspects that the demand for low- or no-code tools is higher than ever too. 

"Salesforce has been in the business of low-code for many years and certainly now it feels even more relevant than ever before," senior VP of product management Ryan Ellis told Business Insider. "I think that [the pandemic] is really creating a tipping point in awareness in general and I'm really confident that that adoption that we see in low-code is just going to continue to accelerate long after this crisis is over." 

The features, called Dynamic Forms and Dynamic Actions, are add-ons to its app builder that allows Salesforce users to create custom applications by dragging and dropping features, no code required. Both are meant to make it easier for users to automate tasks and proactively pull required information. 

Ellis said that Salesforce's features were planned before the current pandemic — customers using its app builder had been begging for these tools and had even attempted to write their own code or find shortcuts to achieve the results, in some cases — but that the company expects that releasing them now means that they'll attract more users than they would have otherwise.

"It's something we've been working on for a while," Ellis said, "It just so happens that we're now in this crisis and it's become extremely relevant for people even more so than before."

Ellis gave the example of how the tools could be used in an HR app for hiring built on Salesforce's platform: While job candidates provide many different documents when applying to a job, not every person in the interview process needs to see every piece of information. The Dynamic Forms feature can change what information shows based on which user accesses the app, while the Dynamic Actions feature can automatically assign tasks to each person in the hiring process.

The features are baked into Salesforce's app building tools at no extra charge to customers.

"What organizations were originally planning to accomplish over the course of potentially years now is needing to happen in a few short weeks," Ellis said. "We're seeing a lot of rapid change and you need to be able to build apps that you need fast. [It's] no longer an option for you to go out, hire in an army of developers, and build something with this hard-coded experience."

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pzaveri@businessinsider.com or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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• The cofounder of smart speaker firm Sonos called out Spotify CEO Daniel Ek for his remarks on Apple's closed ecosystem.
• In a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg News, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had said Apple has a long way to go before it's an "open and fair platform." Spotify is currently pursuing an antitrust complaint against Apple.
• Shortly after Ek's remarks, Sonos cofounder John MacFarlane said it was "significantly more difficult to work within Spotify's 'closed' ecosystem than Apple's."
• Sonos, which makes high-end speakers, is reliant on third-party partnerships with services like Spotify, and it's clear those haven't always gone smoothly.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The cofounder of smart speaker firm Sonos has called out Spotify, after its billionaire CEO Daniel Ek spoke negatively about Apple's closed ecosystem.

In a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg News, Spotify's Ek had said Apple has a long way to go before it's an "open and fair platform." Spotify is currently pursuing an antitrust complaint against Apple, and the two operate competing music streaming services.

But Ek's comments attracted the ire of Sonos cofounder John MacFarlane, who claimed it was "significantly more difficult to work within Spotify's 'closed' ecosystem than Apple's."

"Respect and appreciate both companies, but 'open' Spotify is not," MacFarlane added, while noting that he's worked closely with both companies.

Sonos offers high-end smart speakers, and relies on its partnerships with third parties like Spotify to offer music streaming, podcasts, radio, and audiobooks through its dedicated app. MacFarlane's comments suggest that not every aspect of Sonos' partnership with Spotify has gone smoothly. Spotify is the world's biggest music streaming service globally by number of users.

In March 2019, Spotify filed a formal complaint against Apple, with Ek claiming that the tech giant "introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience."

In particular, he complained that Spotify and other digital services were forced to pay a 30% tax on purchases made through Apple's payment system, thereby forcing those services to ramp up their prices "well above" the price of Apple's own Apple Music streaming service.

SEE ALSO: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says Apple has a long way to go before it's an 'open and fair platform' as the two firms war over competition

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• Mark Flatman, global head of core terminal at Bloomberg, told Business Insider the financial technology giant is considering ways to revamp the ubiquitous terminal.
• One particular area of focus for Flatman and his team has been screen space, as many customers aren't working with the typical four-screen display. 
• Another area that has gotten increased attention is mobile, where usage has jumped. 
• Click her for more BI Prime stories.

As remote work becomes a long-term reality, a technology staple of Wall Street is in store for a makeover.

The terminal, the crown jewel of Bloomberg LP's massive financial-technology empire, is arguably one of the most recognizable pieces of tech on Wall Street, with its color-coded keyboard and unique display. Initially called the Market Master terminal and released in December 1982, the ubiquitous computer has been around longer than many of those who use it today. 

But as Wall Street reconsiders traditional offices, and keeps at least some of its work force remote, consideration needs to be given to how the terminal fits into new work environments.

Mark Flatman, global head of core terminal at Bloomberg, told Business Insider that the industry giant is already thinking about just that.

"No question. If we start to see a situation where 30% of our users work from home on a regular basis, where in the past it was 5%, that would cause us to think very carefully about the kind of products that we release across the terminal," Flatman said. 

Some of those conversations have already occured. Flatman said one key discussion in recent months has been around how content is displayed on the terminal in a work-from-home environment.

With not all customers having the benefit of having a four-panel display in their remote setups, Bloomberg has looked to manage users' screen space in a more efficient way. 

One new feature that's already slowing being rolled out is a display that functions a bit more like an internet browser, including the use of tabs. To be sure, Flatman said the upgrade was always part of the future plans for the terminal, but current circumstances accelerated things. 

But as work-from-home setups become the norm for at least the foreseeable future, Flatman acknowledged plans for the terminal might be pushed ahead or adjusted.

"If we see more of that and if we're caused to think much more about the user that's working on a laptop at home rather than the user that's working on two enormous flat panels in the office, for sure it will influence how we build and release products," he added.

Another lesson learned from Wall Street working remotely has been the need to focus on mobile, Flatman said. There has been a 40% uptick in mobile usage in recent weeks, he added, with that figure doubling on the weekend. 

As a result, more effort has been put towards building mobile-friendly versions of products and features, improved search facilities and better displays, Flatman said. 

"I think mobile will start to be seen as an absolute peer of the terminal, rather than something we built after for the terminal," he added.

SEE ALSO: The CRO of $27 billion data giant Refinitiv says the coronavirus could permanently alter how it employs staff and serves clients

SEE ALSO: The CEO of a cloud-based trading tech startup that saw a 30% surge in business last month says the coronavirus is a catalyst for overhauling how Wall Street works

SEE ALSO: Symphony's CEO is planning a big strategy shift as the $1.4 billion startup backed by Wall Street's elite struggles to lure hedge-fund clients

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Zoom has acquired Keybase, an encryption and security service meant to serve as a secure home for your online identities. The acquisition is meant to quickly add a team of security-focused developers to Zoom, which has been widely criticized in recent weeks for lapses in security inside its increasingly popular videoconferencing software. Keybase co-founder Max Krohn will now lead Zoom’s security engineering team.

The Keybase team is supposed to help Zoom build end-to-end encryption for its videoconferences “that can reach current Zoom scalability.” Zoom has been working on building true end-to-end encryption for videoconferences since coming under criticism over the last month for making its calls incorrectly appear to be fully...

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• Tinder plans to release a live video-chatting feature for users before the end of June, according to its parent company Match Group, which released its Q1 2020 earnings Tuesday.
• Tinder is relatively late in the game of giving users options for virtual dating amid the pandemic. While competitors like Bumble and The League already had video-chatting options, other Match platforms — including Plenty of Fish and Hinge — launched features more than a month earlier.
• Since the coronavirus outbreak gained speed in March, Tinder has seen both increases in the amount of user activity and the number of daily active users.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tinder is planning to launch a video-chatting feature for users by the end of June to allow them to go on virtual dates as the coronavirus pandemic forces people indoors.

Tinder, one of the biggest and most popular dating apps, is aiming to release "one-to-one live video" in late Q2 2020, according to its parent company Match Group. The feature comes as Tinder reports all-time highs in usage of the platform amid the pandemic.

The announcement came Tuesday alongside Q1 2020 earnings for Match Group, whose dating platforms include Hinge, Plenty of Fish, and Match.com. Match Group saw growths in usage across all its dating brands in Q1, and the company generated more than $544 million in revenue — a 17% increase year-over-year.

While millions stay inside to limit the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, people have found new ways to connect and communicate with others while isolating. A poll conducted by Hinge — another Match Group-owned dating platform — found that 70% of its users said they were open to going on dates on Zoom, FaceTime, and other video platforms. Others have enacted their own virtual iterations of popular reality dating shows to match single people, such as "Love Is Quarantine" and "Quarantined Bachelor."

Compared with other dating apps, Tinder is relatively late in providing virtual dating options to its users. In early April, Tinder made its premium Passport feature — which allows users to match with people around the world — free to all users.

Meanwhile, other brands within Match Group have debuted new features catered to people dating while adhering to social-distancing guidelines. Hinge launched "Date from Home" in April, where users can indicate to a match they're ready to move their conversation off-app. Plenty of Fish started rolling out a livestreaming feature in March to users in the U.S. to allow matches to go on short virtual dates.

Dating app competitors to Tinder that are popular among people under age 30 — a massive chunk of Tinder's users — already had video-chatting features available before the pandemic hit. The League, an app that touts its exclusivity in allowing users access, launched "League Live" earlier this year to bring users together for two-minute dates. Bumble, one of Tinder's largest competitors, was one of the first major dating platforms to enable users to video chat and voice call with each other back in 2019.

SEE ALSO: Anti-quarantine protesters are being kicked off Facebook and quickly finding refuge on a site loved by conspiracy theorists

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